Microsoft Project Scheduling and Tracking Training Course

Course overview

Projects frequently fall behind not because teams lack effort, but because the schedule does not show the real sequence of work, resource constraints, dependencies, or current progress. Project professionals need more than a task list: they need a maintained Microsoft Project plan that can identify the critical path, test the effect of change, and provide managers with defensible completion forecasts. This course addresses the practical challenge of building schedules that can be used to coordinate work, control delivery, and report accurately.

Participants learn to create and structure a project plan in Microsoft Project, define calendars, build task hierarchies, estimate durations, link dependencies, apply constraints appropriately, assign resources, and resolve overallocations. The course develops practical scheduling control skills, including baseline creation, progress updates, variance analysis, critical path review, what-if modelling, and production of reports for sponsors and delivery teams. Participants also learn when to use manual versus auto-scheduled tasks, how to avoid common scheduling errors, and how to maintain a schedule after scope or date changes.

Delivery combines instructor demonstrations with guided Microsoft Project build exercises based on a realistic project case. Each participant develops a complete, logic-linked schedule, records a baseline, enters status information, investigates variances, and prepares management-ready reporting outputs. They leave with a reusable Microsoft Project schedule template, a schedule health-check checklist, and an action plan for applying the methods to a live project.

The course is suited to professionals who create, maintain, review, or rely on project schedules and need reliable working capability with Microsoft Project rather than a purely theoretical introduction to project management.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Build a work breakdown structure and task hierarchy in Microsoft Project using summary tasks, milestones, and WBS codes
• Configure project, resource, and task calendars to reflect working time, holidays, shifts, and exceptions
• Create logic-driven schedules using finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, and lag or lead dependencies
• Apply durations, deadlines, constraints, and task modes without obscuring the critical path
• Assign work, material, and cost resources and identify resource overallocations using Resource Sheet and Resource Usage views
• Set and maintain a baseline to measure planned dates, work, cost, and progress against current performance
• Analyse schedule variance, critical tasks, slack, and forecast completion dates using Microsoft Project tracking views
• Produce a management-ready schedule dashboard, milestone report, and recovery action plan from a live project scenario

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Project Managers — who must build credible schedules, monitor progress, and explain delivery forecasts
• Project Coordinators — who maintain task plans, chase updates, and prepare schedule reports for project teams
• Project Planners and Schedulers — who need structured Microsoft Project methods for logic, resources, and baselines
• PMO Analysts — who review project plans and need consistent controls for schedule quality and variance reporting
• Operations Managers — who coordinate interdependent work and need visibility of capacity, milestones, and delivery risk
• Team Leaders — who contribute task estimates and progress updates that affect the master project schedule

Requirements and prerequisites

This is a foundation-to-intermediate course. Participants should be comfortable using Windows applications, managing files, and working with tables and basic spreadsheet data. Familiarity with core project concepts such as tasks, milestones, durations, dependencies, resources, and status updates is helpful, but prior Microsoft Project experience is not required. Complete beginners should expect to spend time learning the Microsoft Project interface and core scheduling vocabulary before progressing to tracking and reporting. Participants do not need advanced Excel skills, programming knowledge, formal project management certification, or previous experience with earned value management.

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor-led demonstrations followed by hands-on Microsoft Project exercises in a realistic delivery scenario. Participants build the same schedule progressively: defining calendars and tasks, linking activities, assigning resources, baselining the plan, then entering late progress and analysing its impact. Facilitated discussions examine scheduling choices such as constraints, deadlines, and recovery options. Group reviews compare alternative solutions to resource conflicts and delays. The final session includes application planning, enabling participants to map the course methods, reports, and schedule controls to an active workplace project.

Course outline

Day 1: Building a sound project schedule

• Microsoft Project interface, views, tables, and ribbon navigation
• Creating project files and setting project start or finish dates
• Configuring project calendars, working time, holidays, and exceptions
• Creating tasks, summary tasks, milestones, and recurring tasks
• Developing a work breakdown structure with outline levels and WBS codes
• Using manual and auto-scheduled task modes appropriately
• Entering duration estimates and establishing schedule assumptions

Workshop: Participants create the initial work breakdown structure and calendar for a case-study project, producing a structured first-draft project plan.

Day 2: Sequencing work and controlling dates

• Finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, and start-to-finish dependencies
• Applying lead time and lag time to dependency links
• Using Network Diagram and Gantt Chart views to test schedule logic
• Understanding task constraints, constraint types, and their scheduling consequences
• Using deadlines instead of inflexible date constraints
• Identifying critical tasks, total slack, and free slack
• Reviewing schedule health for open ends, hard constraints, and missing logic

Workshop: Participants logic-link their case-study schedule, diagnose flawed constraints, and produce a critical-path review of the resulting plan.

Day 3: Resource planning and schedule optimisation

• Creating work, material, and cost resources in the Resource Sheet
• Defining resource calendars, availability, standard rates, and cost rates
• Assigning resources and work to tasks
• Using effort-driven scheduling and assignment units
• Reviewing capacity in Resource Usage and Resource Graph views
• Identifying and resolving resource overallocations
• Applying resource levelling and evaluating its impact on finish dates

Workshop: Participants resource-load the case-study plan, resolve selected overallocations, and produce a documented resource levelling decision.

Day 4: Baselining, updating, and forecasting

• Preparing a schedule for baseline approval
• Saving baseline dates, work, cost, and duration data
• Selecting progress measures: percent complete, actual work, and remaining duration
• Updating actual starts, actual finishes, remaining work, and status dates
• Using Tracking Gantt and variance tables to compare plan against actuals
• Rescheduling incomplete work after the status date
• Assessing forecast finish dates and recovery scenarios with what-if copies

Workshop: Participants baseline their plan, enter a simulated reporting-period update, and produce a variance analysis with forecast completion dates.

Day 5: Reporting and applying schedule controls

• Customising Gantt Chart views, tables, filters, groups, and highlight filters
• Creating milestone, critical task, late task, and upcoming work reports
• Using built-in Microsoft Project reports and visual reports
• Formatting timelines and Gantt charts for sponsor communication
• Exporting schedule data and reports to Microsoft Excel
• Establishing schedule update cycles, data quality checks, and change control rules
• Using a schedule health-check checklist for ongoing governance

Workshop: Participants create a management reporting pack from their case-study schedule and complete an application plan for an active workplace project.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Project Desktop, Microsoft Project Online, Microsoft Excel, PMI Practice Standard for Scheduling

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions