Project 2007 in easy steps

Microsoft Project 2007 is an excellent project planning, scheduling and control tool. Project 2007 in easy steps will quickly get you started and making use of the powerful features of the product. It also includes project management concepts, which will help you ensure that your project is successful.

Beginning with first principles, the book sets out the right way to start a project and develop the project plan. It shows you how to break a project down into tasks, which can then be scheduled, allocated to resources to be carried out, tracked and controlled to completion. It explains the different types of task dependencies and how to use them to make sure things happen when they are needed. For medium to larger projects it shows you the best way to structure your project for success.

Projects are carried out by people and other resources; and this book shows you how to allocate and control the resources on your project, track holidays and vacations and even deal with people working on different shift patterns. It covers people and other revenue costs, together with capital and fixed costs so you can stay in control of your project costs.

Finally viewing and communicating information about your project in a timely way to the other stakeholders is also critical to project success; and this book shows you not only how to do it but the most effective ways to communicate the information.

John Carroll is a project management consultant with many years experience of managing projects both large and small. Based in the UK and Ireland he has also run projects throughout Europe and the United States. His experience covers most types of organisations including government, higher education, manufacturing industries, pharmaceuticals, software development and the emergency services. He has worked on most types of projects and trained project managers in many different organisations.

1. The Basics
   • Introduction
   • Project Management
   • What's New?
   • Installing Project
   • Activating Project
   • Backward Compatibility
   • The Gantt Chart
   • View Bar
   • Toolbars
   • Getting Help
   • Getting Started
   • Summary
2. Project Guide
   • Project Guide
   • Tasks
   • Listing the Tasks
   • Resources
   • Assign Resources
   • Linking Tasks
   • Track
   • Report
   • Summary
3. Managing your Project
   • A 4-Step Approach
   • Step 1: Define the Objectives
   • Starting a Project
   • Step 2: Develop the Plan
   • Tasks and Deliverables
   • Milestones
   • Resources
   • Step 3: Carry it Out
   • Saving Your Project
   • Step 4: Hand it Over
   • Summary
4. Tasks and Milestones
   • Creating a Task
   • Task Duration
   • Adding Tasks
   • Task Dependencies
   • Linking Tasks
   • Unlinking Tasks
   • Changing Dependencies
   • Moving a Task
   • Deleting a Task
   • Task Form
   • Project Milestones
   • Recurring Tasks
   • Work Effort v Duration
   • Summary
5. Adding Structure
   • Project Structure
   • Summary Tasks
   • Project Stages
   • Changing the Timescale
   • Contingency
   • Visual Change Highlights
   • Breaking Tasks Down
   • Outline Numbering
   • Subtasks
   • Summary
6. More About Tasks
   • Lag Time and Lead Time
   • Task Drivers
   • Task Notes
   • Deadline Dates
   • Moving Around
   • Critical Path
   • Gantt Chart Wizard
   • Splitting Tasks
   • Moving Linked Tasks
   • Summary
7. Resources
   • Organizing a Project
   • Project Stakeholders
   • Allocating Resources
   • Resource Sheet
   • Resource Information
   • Material & Cost Resources
   • Resource Notes
   • Assigning Resources
   • Multiple Resources
   • Multiple Tasks
   • Summary
8. Project Costs
   • Project Costs
   • Costs in Project
   • Resource Costs
   • Fixed Costs
   • Variable Resource Costs
   • Cost Rate Tables
   • Applying Resource Rates
   • The Business Case
   • Risk Management
   • Summary
9. Project Calendars
   • Calendars
   • Project Defaults
   • Standard Calendar
   • New Base Calendar
   • Assigning a Calendar
   • Task Calendar
   • Resource Calendar
   • Communication Plan
   • Summary
10. Project Scheduling
    • Scheduling
    • Fixed Unit Tasks
    • Fixed Duration Tasks
    • Fixed Work Tasks
    • Contouring
    • Resource Contouring
    • Backward-Scheduling
    • Summary
11. Conflicts and Constraints
    • Resource Conflicts
    • Resource Leveling
    • Manual Adjustments
    • Task Constraints
    • Applying Constraints
    • Constraint Conflicts
    • Viewing Constraints
    • Setting a Baseline
    • Interim Plans
    • Clearing a Baseline
    • Stage Reviews
    • Summary
12. Viewing Data
    • Views
    • Tables
    • Grouping
    • Customized Groups
    • Fiscal Year
    • Filters
    • AutoFilter
    • Filter Criteria
    • Filter by Resource
    • Custom Filters
    • Sorting
    • Highlight Filters
    • Background Highlighting
    • Summary
13. Printing Reports
    • Printing a View
    • Headers and Footers
    • Previewing Reports
    • Page Setup and Scaling
    • Printing Reports
    • Visual Reports
    • Copy Picture
    • Progress Reports
    • Summary
14. Tracking Progress
    • Progress Tracking
    • Progress Information
    • Completed Work
    • Part Completed Work
    • Percentage Completed
    • Duration Completed
    • Entering Costs
    • Updating as Scheduled
    • Actual v Baseline
    • Tracking Gantt Chart
    • Budget Tracking
    • Project Statistics
    • Progress Lines
    • Closing a Project
    • Summary