| Microsoft Project is a tool that helps you plan, control and communicate your project. This software can help you create Gantt Charts, network diagrams, resource histograms, and budgets. It will provide reports tailored to your needs and allow you to depict the progress of your project. The strengths of the software are:
- The ease of use and flexibility in scheduling and rescheduling
- The user-friendly reporting features. With Project 2002 you can extract almost any information from the project database and present it in a concise report.
- Team collaboration features, as embodied in Project Server, help the project manager to communicate with dispersed team members using web browsers
Project 2002 is a powerful tool and, like other tools, requires knowledge and skill to use correctly. The software is not a magic bean that will grow a successful project by itself. Experience has taught me that a successful project results from the combination of sound project management knowledge and a skilled and committed project team that is equipped with the right tools.
The following are the learning objectives we aim to accomplish with this book. After reading this book you will:
- understand project management terminology
- be able to create a valid and dynamic model of your own project:
- choosing the options and creating the project calendar
- entering tasks, estimates, dependencies, constraints, resources and assignments
- know how to optimize the schedule to meet deadlines and budget restrictions while keeping the workloads of the resources within their availability
- be able to create reports and custom views for the project that meet the need of stakeholders
- know how to efficiently update the schedule when the project is running to continue to forecast the project finish date and cost
In general, you should feel very comfortable with Project 2002 after you finish reading this book. We will now outline the topics that will address these objectives. |
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