Software Project Management using MS Projects professional

Initiate software projects by assembling stakeholders, defining scope and deliverables, and documenting risks and commercial terms across internal and external contracts for clear sign-off.

Break down a software project using a work breakdown structure to create activities and subtasks. Map activity relationships and build a network diagram to plan sequence, dependencies, and resources.

Learn how to map project plans with forward and backward passes, identify the critical path and float, manage parallel tasks, and estimate durations using PERT techniques.

Explore how to identify the critical path in a project using network diagrams and dependencies, learn to track critical tasks, and focus on preventing delays in key activities.

Explore resource leveling in Microsoft Project to balance resource use when allocations exceed capacity. See how sequencing tasks and adjusting allocations can extend durations to keep a project on track.

Learn to build a simple project in Microsoft Project by creating a top-level task with subtasks, indenting, assigning milestones, and linking planning, sign-off, and testing activities.

Identify the critical path and slack in Microsoft Project, and distinguish non-critical tasks that can be delayed. Show how delays affect the overall project schedule.

Explore software project estimation overview, addressing evolving software challenges, risks of unrealistic estimates, and methods like expert judgment, bottom-up estimation, and function point analysis, with organizational maturity considerations.

Learn how to apply function point analysis using a calculator to estimate software size and effort, considering external inputs, outputs, queries, and logical files, with adjustment factors and organization maturity.

Unrealistic estimates in software projects trigger scope misalignment, overtime, and lower quality, risking customer disappointment and damaged reputation; estimation based on proper scope guides successful delivery.

A project manager contemplates a 10-day software project with a $100,000 total cost and $10,000 planning expenses; by day six, 50% of work is complete, prompting decisions on next steps.

Analyze a software project execution scenario: evaluate schedule progress, recognize behind-schedule risk, and decide corrective actions while comparing value analysis and cost against budget.

Master earned value analysis to unite schedule, budget, and work. Use PV, EV, AC, SV, CV, SPI, CPI, and tcpi to forecast completion and guide recovery.

This lecture applies earned value analysis to a 10-day project, calculating planned value 50k, earned value 40k, and actual cost 60k, analyzes CV and CPI/ASBI/CPA to assess schedule and budget.

Learn earned value analysis in Microsoft Project by baselining tasks, assigning resources and costs, updating status, and using tracking Gantt and cost reports to spot schedule and cost variances.

Master configuration management and release management in software projects, including baselining and version control. Track alpha, major, minor, and patch releases and revisions to ensure smooth development and releases.

Identify and prioritize project risks from initiation to closure, then apply mitigation, transfer, or acceptance strategies while informing stakeholders to protect scope, schedule, cost, and quality.

Explore a software project case study to analyze a business scenario, build a plan with dependencies, duration, cost, and resources, baseline progress, monitor variances, and apply lessons learned to stakeholders.

Explore a case study on managing a mini company website project using MS Projects, outlining tasks, roles, costs, milestones, and a waterfall, fixed-price approach.

This case study on software project management with MS Projects professional highlights baselines, execution under constraints, and stakeholder status updates amid technical design and development challenges.

Analyze a project case study in MS Projects to assess baselines, tracking, critical path, task completion, delays, variances, and their cost and schedule consequences.

Review project information and status in MS Projects, create a separate project management task, and align baseline, costs, and schedule to monitor progress toward completion.

Explore lessons learned from a case study by analyzing baseline, variance, and actuals, and review key project reports to assess progress and cost variance.

Examine how scope creep and inadequate contingency planning impacted schedule and cost, and learn to document scope and involve stakeholders to prevent uncontrolled growth.

Execute formal project closure by obtaining customer sponsor acceptance and sign-off on deliverables, while acknowledging how inaccurate scoping and estimation affect profitability, and documenting lessons learned for future engagements.

Explore agile vs. waterfall development, detailing when to choose each by funding, product needs, contracts, and customer involvement, and discuss hybrid approaches and use cases in ERP projects.

Learn the agile scrum framework, defining roles as facilitator and coach, and managing product and project backlogs through sprint planning, daily stand-up, reviews, and retrospectives.

Map features to user stories, place them in the product backlog, and move items into sprint backlogs for each sprint, using Microsoft Project's agile tools.

Explore how a banking app example maps features like deposits and withdrawals into a product backlog and sprint backlog, then moves through sprints using Microsoft Project to manage software delivery.

Learn to navigate the Microsoft Project Professional agile workflow, create a work breakdown structure, plan sprints, assign resources, and manage timelines using the project ribbon.

Explore agile sprint execution in Microsoft Projects, using stories, sprint planning boards, and backlogs to move work from in progress to done through daily reviews and retrospectives.

Explore agile reporting in Microsoft Project, covering sprint planning, backlog refinement, and tracking completed work with reports and planning boards in Project Professional 2016.

Compare agile scrum and kanban in software and production contexts, highlighting just-in-time flow, continuous delivery, incremental delivery, bottlenecks, and role of the project manager.

Demonstrates using kanban in Microsoft Project Professional to visualize workflow, limit work in progress, and manage production tickets from backlog through development and testing with two resources John and Adam.

Explore the limitations of the desktop project and portfolio tools for large, distributed projects, and how cloud-based MS Project supports risk and issues management with universal, role-based access.

Learn to manage projects in a cloud based MS Projects environment, importing projects, assigning users, updating status, and tracking performance index for distributed teams.

Explore PMBOK and PMI knowledge areas, focusing on integration management, procurement management, contracting and fixed-price contracts, risk management, and human resources management to plan, execute, and communicate project outcomes.

Compare traditional development with AI-assisted coding to show how AI can speed implementation while elevating requirements and verification as the key estimation factors.