Project 2002 Pro

[Erik]

I have been asked to install this on my PC as I will be in
charge of tinkering with the program, setting up a few
projects and then training folks in my department. I have
been searching around the newsgroup and Internet for some
newbie training courses, faqs, manuals, etc... but am not
coming up with anything. Does anyone have suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Steve House]

See below for the MVP site URL which has some FAQs you might find
interesting. The tutorial in Project itself is quite good and with the
Office 2003 release MS has greatly enhanced the lessons available in online
help on their site. For more extensive training I've used the MS Press
publication "MS Project 2002 Step-by-Step" and find it very thorough, albeit
lacking in practice exercise at the end of each chapter. Be advised that MS
Project is a different bird than most desktop applications as it does
virtually no hand-holding and to use it properly requires a foundation in
formal Project Management discipline and methodology, especially the PERT
and CPM methodologies and concepts as published by the Project Management
Institute (PMI) in their publication "Guide to the Project Management Body
of Knowledge," often referred to as the PMBOK. As I put it to my classes,
you don't need to be a professional writer to know all there is to know
about using MS Word and to use it correctly but to use MS Project properly
you do need to thoroughly understand professional Project Management
practices. It's decidely NOT a product you can learn to use effectively by
just noodling around with it no matter how computer expert you may be! To
use it properly you simply must understand not only WHAT it does but even
more importantly WHY it behaves the way it does. As for training, I
consider a two full day introductory session to be the absolute rock bottom
minimum necessary to take a fully computer literate person to the basic
level of understanding to begin to be productive.

 

[Erik]

Thanks for the reply and web site. Hopefully, the
learning process will be smooth.

From what I can gather from my management, it sounds like
their project would be well suited in an Outlook calendar
with tasks assigned. Nothing more. That seems like all
they want to do is track due dates, who is assigned to
specific duties and when they are completed. Project
sounds like it may not be the right fit as it may take
more time to set up and use the software than it would to
actually work on the project itself.

Thanks again for the info! I'm sure I'll be back.