Microsoft Project Forensics

Service Description

Microsoft Project Forensics is a hands-on workshop that challenges experienced Microsoft Project users to investigate an unfamiliar project schedule, identify potential problems, and determine whether the schedule is healthy, realistic, and maintainable. Instead of starting with a blank project, participants are given an existing Microsoft Project file—just like the files project managers often inherit in the real world. The challenge: What is really going on inside this schedule? Participants will systematically examine the project from multiple angles, looking for scheduling problems, questionable assumptions, configuration issues, resource concerns, and other warning signs that can affect the accuracy and reliability of the project plan. Along the way, participants will learn a repeatable process for conducting a Microsoft Project schedule health check and diagnosing unfamiliar project files. During the investigation, participants will examine areas such as: Project information and scheduling settings Project calendars and working time Task structure and work breakdown Task durations and scheduling modes Milestones and summary tasks Dependencies and missing relationships Leads and lags Constraints and deadlines Manually scheduled tasks Suspicious or hard-coded dates Critical path and schedule drivers Resources and assignments Resource calendars and availability Overallocations and workload concerns Baselines and baseline integrity Actuals and progress information Variances and schedule performance Custom fields, indicators, filters, and views Common warning signs in inherited schedules Identifying issues that can produce misleading project information Participants will not simply be shown where these features are located. They'll use them as investigative tools to determine what the project file is actually telling them. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a practical checklist and repeatable methodology they can use when reviewing, inheriting, troubleshooting, or auditing Microsoft Project schedules. Who should attend: Project managers, project schedulers, project coordinators, PMO staff, consultants, and experienced Microsoft Project users who need to evaluate or troubleshoot existing project schedules. Level: Intermediate Duration: 4 hours Format: Live, instructor-led, hands-on workshop Prerequisite: Participants should already understand Microsoft Project fundamentals, including tasks, durations, dependencies, and more.