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Ciel Consulting is a leading training academy for certification courses. An Authorized Training Partner of Exampler Global and PECB. We are committed to bringing you the highest quality and world-class courses. Ciel Consulting is your one-stop-shop for certification courses. 

Ciel Consulting is PSI Exams Authorized test center. We are also a Beingcert authorized test center. We provide you with both training and exams.  Whatever your goal may be, we help you to achieve it. Whether it is to pass your certification exams, improve your business or enhance your career, training with us is a sure way to have your dreams accomplished. 



Obalim Esedebe

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Project Planning School

Take control of your projects with confidence. This session introduces you to the powerful features of Microsoft Project, a leading tool for planning, scheduling, tracking, and managing projects of any size. You’ll learn how to create detailed project plans, allocate resources, manage timelines, and monitor progress from start to finish.

📘 You’ll learn:

How to set up and structure a project in Microsoft Project

Creating and linking tasks, milestones, and dependencies

Allocating resources and managing workloads

Tracking project performance and updating schedules

Generating insightful reports for effective decision-making

Before diving into Microsoft Project, it’s important to understand the fundamentals of project management. This section introduces key concepts and prepares you to plan and manage projects effectively.  📘 You’ll learn:  What Project Management is and why it’s essential  Overview of the Project Life Cycle and key phases  Understanding scope, schedule, cost, and quality  The role of a Project Manager in delivering successful projects  How these principles connect to using MS Project for planning and control

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Section 1. Project Management Introduction

Before you start building your own schedules, it’s important to get familiar with the Microsoft Project environment. This session takes you on a guided tour of the Project interface, showing you how to navigate, locate key tools, and understand the layout that supports efficient project planning and tracking.  📘 You’ll learn:  The structure and layout of the Microsoft Project workspace  Understanding the Ribbon, Task Pane, and Timeline views  How to use different tabs and menus effectively  Navigating Gantt Charts, Task Sheets, and Resource views  Customizing views and toolbars for a smoother workflow  Tips for organizing your workspace for better productivity

Section 2. Project Guided Tour

Building on the first guided tour, this session dives deeper into Microsoft Project’s advanced interface features and tools. You’ll explore additional views, menus, and settings that help you navigate complex projects with ease and efficiency.  📘 You’ll learn:  Advanced navigation of Gantt Charts, Network Diagrams, and Calendar views  Exploring Task, Resource, and Team Planner views for better project oversight  Customizing toolbars, tables, and filters to suit your workflow  Using zoom, split screens, and grouping features for clearer visualization  Accessing and interpreting indicators, flags, and status markers  Tips for efficiently switching between views to analyze different aspects of your project

Section 3. Project Guided Tour Part 2

The first step in successful project management is setting up your project correctly. In this session, you’ll learn how to initiate a new project in Microsoft Project, establish key settings, and prepare a solid foundation for planning, scheduling, and tracking.  📘 You’ll learn:  How to create a new project file and define project start or finish dates  Setting project properties, calendars, and working times  Understanding automatic vs. manual scheduling modes  Establishing key milestones and project objectives  Organizing initial tasks and summary tasks to create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Section 4. Starting A Project

Once the basics of creating a project are in place, this session focuses on refining project setup and preparing your schedule for effective planning and execution. You’ll learn advanced setup techniques that make managing tasks, resources, and timelines much easier.  📘 You’ll learn:  Customizing project calendars for standard, non-working, and shift schedules  Defining and assigning project properties and custom fields for tracking  Setting up baselines to measure project progress from the start  Establishing initial task dependencies and logical sequences  Preparing the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for detailed planning  Tips for ensuring accuracy and consistency in project setup

Section 5. Starting A Project Part 2

In this final part, you’ll learn how to prepare your project schedule for effective planning and tracking. This session focuses on linking tasks, adding milestones, and setting up the schedule to ensure your project runs smoothly from day one.  📘 You’ll learn:  Creating task dependencies to establish a logical workflow  Adding key milestones to track major project achievements  Adjusting initial task durations and constraints for accuracy  Reviewing the project structure for completeness and clarity  Setting up indicators and flags to monitor progress  Tips for organizing your schedule to simplify updates and reporting

Section 6. Starting A Project Part 3

Now that you’re familiar with the Microsoft Project environment, it’s time to start building your own project from scratch. In this session, you’ll learn how to set up a new project, define its structure, and establish the key details that form the foundation of effective project management.  📘 You’ll learn:  How to create a new project file and set basic project information  Defining start and finish dates, calendars, and working times  Setting project properties and saving your work correctly  Understanding the difference between automatic and manual scheduling  Creating and organizing tasks to establish your project structure  Tips for maintaining accuracy and consistency from the start

Section 7. Creating A Project

This session walks you through setting up a new project file, configuring essential details, and preparing your schedule for effective planning and tracking. You’ll discover how proper setup at the beginning can save you time, improve accuracy, and ensure smoother execution later on.

Section 8. Creating A Project Part 2

Entering Activities and Milestones in Microsoft Project  Activities and milestones form the backbone of every project schedule. In this session, you’ll learn how to enter, organize, and manage tasks and milestones to build a clear and logical project timeline in Microsoft Project.  📘 You’ll learn:  How to create and name activities (tasks) effectively  Setting task durations, start and finish dates  Understanding the difference between tasks, summary tasks, and milestones  How to insert milestones to mark key project achievements and deadlines  Using task IDs, notes, and indicators for better tracking  Best practices for maintaining a clean and well-structured activity list

Section 9. Entering Activities And Milestones

Once your project activities are in place, the next step is to define how long each task will take and how they connect. In this session, you’ll learn how to assign realistic durations and establish task dependencies to create a logical and accurate project schedule in Microsoft Project.  📘 You’ll learn:  How to enter and edit task durations in different time units  Understanding fixed-duration, fixed-work, and fixed-unit task types  Setting up task relationships using predecessors and successors  Understanding dependency types: Finish-to-Start, Start-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, and Start-to-Finish  Applying leads and lags to adjust schedule flexibility  Identifying and resolving dependency conflicts or circular relationships  Best practices for maintaining schedule accuracy and logic

Section 10. Adding Durations And Predecessors

To create a comprehensive and actionable project schedule, it’s important to capture extra details, track task importance, and understand flexibility within your plan. In this session, you’ll learn how to add notes and hyperlinks for context, identify the critical path, and calculate task slacks to manage your project more effectively.  📘 You’ll learn:  How to attach notes to tasks to provide additional context and instructions  Adding hyperlinks to documents, websites, or project resources for quick access  Understanding the Critical Path and its role in determining project duration  Identifying tasks that directly impact project completion  Calculating and interpreting Total Slack and Free Slack for better schedule flexibility  Using critical path and slack information to optimize timelines and make informed decisions  Best practices for documenting and tracking key project details

Section 11. Adding Notes, Hyperlinks And Critical Path And Slacks

Effective project management depends on knowing who and what is available to complete tasks. In this session, you’ll learn how to define and manage resources in Microsoft Project, including people, equipment, and materials, to ensure your project is properly staffed and equipped.  📘 You’ll learn:  How to create and categorize resources (work, material, cost)  Assigning resource availability and calendars  Setting resource rates, costs, and units  Understanding resource types and their impact on scheduling  Tips for maintaining a clean and organized resource sheet  Best practices for preparing resources for assignment to tasks

Section 12. Setting Up Resources

Once your resources are set up, the next step is to allocate them effectively to project tasks. This session teaches you how to assign people, equipment, and materials to tasks, ensuring that your project schedule reflects real-world workloads and capacities.  📘 You’ll learn:  How to assign work, material, and cost resources to tasks  Understanding resource units, allocation percentages, and effort-driven scheduling  Managing over-allocated resources and resolving conflicts  Using resource assignment tables and views for clear tracking  Best practices for balancing workloads and optimizing resource utilization  Tips for linking resource assignments to project timelines for accurate tracking

Section 13. Assigning Resources

Understanding how tasks behave and how to visualize your project effectively is key to successful scheduling. In this session, you’ll learn about effort-driven tasks and how to leverage different Microsoft Project views to monitor, analyze, and communicate your project schedule.  📘 You’ll learn:  What effort-driven tasks are and how they affect resource allocation  How Microsoft Project calculates work, duration, and resource assignments for effort-driven tasks  Using multiple views such as Gantt Chart, Task Sheet, Resource Sheet, Calendar, and Network Diagram  Switching between views to analyze tasks, resources, and timelines  Customizing views to focus on specific project details  Best practices for using views to improve project tracking and reporting

Section 14. Effort Driven Tasks And Other Views

Balancing workloads and managing time effectively are critical for project success. In this session, you’ll learn how to level resources to avoid overallocation and use project calendars to control schedules, working times, and deadlines in Microsoft Project.  📘 You’ll learn:  How to identify and resolve over-allocated resources  Using Microsoft Project’s resource leveling feature to balance workloads automatically  Understanding leveling options and their impact on task schedules  Setting up and customizing project calendars for standard, 24-hour, and non-working times  Assigning calendars to tasks, resources, and the overall project  Best practices for maintaining a realistic schedule while meeting deadlines

Section 15. Resource Leveling And Calendar

A baseline is a snapshot of your project plan that allows you to measure progress and performance over time. In this session, you’ll learn how to set, manage, and analyze baselines in Microsoft Project to track deviations from your original plan.  📘 You’ll learn:  What a baseline is and why it is important in project management  How to create a project baseline in Microsoft Project  Setting baselines for tasks, resources, and costs  Comparing actual progress against the baseline to identify variances  Updating baselines when project scope or schedules change  Best practices for using baselines to monitor and control project performance

Section 16. Baselines

Monitoring project progress is critical to ensure your project stays on track. In this session, you’ll learn how to update actuals and track task, resource, and overall project performance in Microsoft Project, helping you make informed decisions and maintain control over your schedule.  📘 You’ll learn:  How to enter actual start and finish dates, actual durations, and percent complete  Updating work and cost for tasks and resources  Using Microsoft Project tracking tools to compare planned vs. actual progress  Identifying schedule variances and understanding their impact on the project  Tracking milestones, deadlines, and critical path changes  Best practices for keeping your project schedule accurate and up-to-date

Section 17. Updating Actuals And Tracking

To effectively measure project performance and make informed decisions, it’s essential to understand how your project is progressing in terms of cost, schedule, and scope. In this session, you’ll learn how to use Earned Value Management (EVM) and apply Monitoring & Controlling techniques in Microsoft Project to keep projects on track.  📘 You’ll learn:  The fundamentals of Earned Value Management (EVM) and key metrics: PV, EV, AC, CPI, SPI  How to calculate and interpret schedule and cost variances  Setting up Microsoft Project to track earned value for tasks and resources  Applying Monitoring & Controlling techniques to detect and address deviations  Using EVM data to forecast project performance and completion  Best practices for integrating earned value with project tracking for informed decision-making

Section 18. Earned Value Management And M & C

Communicating your project plan clearly is key to stakeholder engagement and decision-making. In this session, you’ll learn how to generate reports, create timelines, and print project plans directly from Microsoft Project, ensuring your project data is presented accurately and professionally.  📘 You’ll learn:  How to generate built-in and custom project reports for tasks, resources, and costs  Creating visual timelines to highlight key milestones and project phases  Formatting charts, tables, and views for clear presentation  Printing project plans, reports, and timelines in a professional layout  Exporting project data to other formats for sharing with stakeholders   Best practices for presenting project information effectively

Section 19. Reporting, Timeline And Printing Our Plan

Creating a schedule is just the first step—optimizing it ensures your project runs efficiently and realistically. In this session, you’ll learn how to refine your project schedule by adjusting tasks, resources, and dependencies to improve accuracy, reduce conflicts, and meet project objectives.  📘 You’ll learn:  Reviewing task sequences and dependencies for logical flow  Adjusting durations, leads, and lags to optimize timelines  Resolving resource over-allocations and conflicts  Balancing workloads and leveling resources for efficiency  Updating calendars, constraints, and task priorities to improve schedule realism  Using schedule analysis tools to identify critical tasks and potential bottlenecks  Best practices for maintaining a clear, manageable, and accurate project schedule

Mastering Microsoft Project

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