This book starts by focusing on the process you use when creating a project plan and then examines reviewing that plan while still in the planning phase. The book then examines ways to manage the project while it’s in progress and looks at options available to you when things don’t go as planned.

1, reviews the process of creating a project plan in Project and the impact associated with the choices you make.

1, examines how to structure a project.

2, explores the dependencies you can establish between tasks and the effects dependencies and constraints have on a project schedule.

3, addresses the types of resources you can assign to tasks and how the cost of resources affects the cost of your project.

2, helps you find the best way to look at the project plan you’ve developed, resolve resource conflicts, deal with the project’s budget implications, and tackle scheduling issues.

4, examines tools—such as views, tables, sorting, and grouping—that you can use to find information.

5, focuses on tasks and the factors that affect the timing of tasks and your schedule.

6, explores ways you can resolve the conflicts that inevitably arise when you assign resources to tasks.

7, looks at ways to examine and potentially reduce costs on your project.

8, walks you through reviewing your project, examining the critical path, and setting a baseline.

3, helps you focus on how you’re going to manage the project once it starts.

9, explores ways that you and your team can share information, including reporting.

10, discusses how often to track progress and describes methods you can use to track progress.

11, provides ideas and approaches you can use to determine whether your project is on time and within budget and to present the information to management.

4, looks at available options when things don’t work out the way you planned.

12, reviews actions you can take to try to put your project back on schedule.

13, explores the effects of using shared resources and consolidating projects to examine cross-project dependencies and critical paths across projects.

Now let’s get started.