Learning Objectives

• Define how a critical path is computed by Microsoft Office Project
• Differentiate between deadlines, constraints and task calendars
• Discuss the impact of task type during Microsoft Office Project calculations.

Some professionals that understand the concept of scheduling and are computer savvy may attempt to teach themselves Microsoft Office Project. Unfortunately, the behavior of this scheduling tool in some ways conflicts with skills learned in other Microsoft software such as Excel. This in turn creates frustration among users and generates schedules that are difficult to set up, challenging to maintain and very often discarded as not useful for managing a project. Typically the issues users face are often due to specific features that they don't understand. In some cases the assumed behavior of the feature goes against the programming design by Microsoft. By giving users a better understanding of the purpose of commonly confused features, they will be better able to work with the software, using it to supplement the management of their project and help keep track of the collection of activities needed to accomplish the project goals.

This presentation will discuss dependencies, milestones, deadlines, constraints, task calendars and fixed duration/fixed work/fixed units task types. This presentation will also touch on how “where to click” type training may not have provided the business application for a specific feature. The speaker will fill in that gap with the best application of that feature for most types of industries.