Project management guide, Microsoft Project 2016

Setting the scene
Drawing on nearly twenty-five years' experience of teaching project management at college level, and of private consulting using MS-Project, the author has developed this guide with the aim of ensuring effective learning of an indispensable tool for managing project schedules. Based on a rigorous, systematic approach, it presents a schematic overview of the process of planning and monitoring project schedules with MS-Project. The financial aspect has deliberately been omitted from this guide, which is devoted exclusively to planning and monitoring work. Although this book is designed primarily for college and university students, it could certainly prove useful to anyone wishing to use MS-Project effectively. The examples it contains can easily be transposed to many fields of activity.

The approach
This guide is based on the principle that the use of software represents, like any other process, a series of successive steps to be followed in order to obtain a result that is essential to the user. In project management, the inputs provided by the manager are processed by the software to produce information that will enable him to make informed decisions in the planning and monitoring of his project. It is imperative to understand that the quality of what comes out of the software is a direct function of the data entered by the user. Since "code 18" is, more often than not, the primary cause of many errors, it must be given the utmost attention.In this guide, at each stage of project planning and follow-up, a flow chart presents what needs to be done, the WHAT. This provides an overview of the entire process to be followed. By way of analogy, it's like the "Map" on Google Maps, which shows you the way to your destination. It shows the route between two places. The HOW explains step by step how to get from the starting point to the destination. These are the "Directions" of Google Maps. Each step is explained and supported by numerous screenshots. Videos are also available for those with access to the digital version.