Text Reference or tutorial for MS Project

[Tom]

MS project is a pretty popular tool with lots of features. My company wants
everyone in my department to use project as a standard tool. However, how
much of project (or which features of project) should we standardize on?
Excel is a good example of that issue. That program is very powerful, but we
can't possibly utilize all that it has to offer. I want to investigate using
MS Project, but I'm not proficient with that software. So, here's the
question:

Is there a good book that teaches how to use MS project and can be used as a
reference? Ultimate goal is to realize which features can be made a standard
requirement for my department.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Tom,

You may wish to start with Mike Glen's (Project MVP) series of articles
about MS Project at:

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23

His articles are a terrific (and free!) way of getting your feet wet with
project.

I also encourage you (as I am sure other posters will) to invest in a good
2-3 day Project class for all users.

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[JackD]

MS project is a pretty popular tool with lots of features. My company wants
everyone in my department to use project as a standard tool. However, how
much of project (or which features of project) should we standardize on?
Excel is a good example of that issue. That program is very powerful, but we
can't possibly utilize all that it has to offer. I want to investigate using
MS Project, but I'm not proficient with that software. So, here's the
question:

Is there a good book that teaches how to use MS project and can be used as a
reference? Ultimate goal is to realize which features can be made a standard
requirement for my department.

I think you are working backwards. First I'd ask what sort of scheduling and
project management you want to standardize on, then pick the features of
project which support that approach. An example is word. If your goal is to
write a great novel, then you want to use the features which will help you
get there. You don't approach writing a document by saying "I will use the
spell check feature in Word". How you use project is HIGHLY dependent on
your project management processes, not the other way around.

-Jack

 

[davegb]

I agree with Jack about your approach. I also encourge your users to
learn the basics of Critical Path Scheduling before they start trying
to create schedules. When I teach 2 day classed in Intro to Project,
the first half day is CPM, nothing on the computer. I get lot's of
experienced users coming forward at the lunch break saying, "You've
answered half my questions just by explaining how CPM works".