Microsoft Project 2010 Training: Is self-teaching enough to use Microsoft Project 2010 or is training necessary?

“Microsoft Project Training is something I’ve never needed”  This is a common statement by project managers, but just how true is it? “I’ve been managing projects using Microsoft Project for years and I’ve never needed training in the software.” The question is how effectively is Microsoft Project being used by self-taught project managers, or project managers who received basic training in earlier versions of Microsoft Project than the “ribboned” Microsoft Project 2010, for which retraining is almost always useful.

The common experience of Microsoft Project trainers is the number of times on a course the most experienced of project managers come out with such remarks as “Oh, that’s what that’s for!”, “I had no idea where to find that” or even such grievous oversights as “Oh – I always wondered what baselines were for!” This is even more obvious in a Microsoft Project 2010 training course as almost every delegate comes out with some such remark at least once – even among students who have previously received Microsoft Project training.

Common Errors Identified by Microsoft Project Training

When delivering Microsoft Project 2010 training, instructors find several repeated errors that reoccur over and again, such as:

• Using project simply as a scheduling tool without using resources.
• Misunderstanding how to correctly use effort driven tasks.
• Improperly assigning resources to tasks out of worry about changing the duration of the task.·        
• Inefficient compilation of individual projects and resources into programmes and portfolios.·        
• Inability to track projects effectively.
• Inability to budget effectively.
• Inability to report all relevant data in different views for different stakeholders.

These problems become even more compounded when training Microsoft Project Server 2010 (now known as Microsoft Enterprise Project Management or EPM).

Applying Microsoft Project Training to the “Real World”

The main obstacle confronting self-taught project managers seems to be a lack of understanding of how Microsoft Project Training can support Microsoft Project best practise procedures. This inevitably leads to less effective project management for businesses and frustration with Microsoft Project for the individual project managers. In reality, while Microsoft Project 2010 training enables powerful project management, most professional project managers use it as a glorified version of Excel.

Fortunately this can be remedied.

Before Microsoft Project training, a short, concise but comprehensive Microsoft Project Best Practices documentation will maximise the benefits of the training while reflecting the organisation’s specific needs and matching the staff culture. The Microsoft Project Best Practices documentation will allow efficiency to be achieved through rigorously targeting the formal training provided by a professional instructor. Also when reviewing the skill set of Project Management teams, a Microsoft Project Health Check – for instance, a half-day’s consultancy package to review current usage of Project – can make improvement suggestions that will rapidly return productivity gains from this investment.

The Benefits of Microsoft Project Training

Effectively choosing the best Microsoft Project training approach for your organisation is paramount to ensuring a first rate skillset for your project managers. This, in turn, will result in increased efficiency in delivering projects on time and budget, more effective resourcing, and ultimately to delivering the business benefits required from the projects.

Acumen EPM is a London based Microsoft Project specialist offering training, consultancy and additional resourcing in all versions of Microsoft Project including the most recent Microsoft Project 2010 certification MCTS: 70 178 Microsoft Project 2010 Managing Projects.

Contact a Microsoft Project Consultant to see how Acumen EPM can assist with Microsoft Project training.