Schedule · Course
MS Project and Planning Fundamentals
A practical two-session course for project managers, engineers and commercial leads who need to build, maintain or credibly challenge a schedule in Microsoft Project — without spending three months in planning school. Not a full-fat planner qualification; enough fluency to run the work yourself or to sharpen your questions to the people who do.
Who it is for
Built for these people.
- Project managers running small-to-medium projects who own the schedule themselves
- Engineers and technical leads who have been asked to produce their own project plan
- Commercial and package managers who review contractor schedules and want to ask sharper questions
- PMO and controls graduates starting their career on MS Project rather than P6
- Anyone who prefers MS Project to P6 and wants a proper grounding in the fundamentals
Outcomes
What you will walk away with.
- Build a properly logic-linked schedule in MS Project from a scope outline
- Set a sensible calendar, working week and project start configuration — and understand why the defaults cause problems later
- Use WBS, summary tasks, milestones and deliverables to give the schedule a readable structure
- Apply relationships (FS, SS, FF, SF) and know when each is appropriate — and when lag is hiding a missing activity
- Set a baseline, update progress through a cycle, and produce a variance view
- Produce a readable Gantt chart and a clean look-ahead for the site team
- Spot the most common MS Project mistakes — resource over-allocation, accidental constraints, logic-free Gantts
- Know when to push back on a schedule produced by someone else and the questions to ask
Syllabus
Session by session.
Session 1 — Building a Schedule in MS Project
3 hours- The MS Project environment: views, tables, Gantt Chart, Network Diagram — what each is for
- Project calendars, working week and start date — common errors and how to avoid them
- WBS in MS Project: summary tasks, tasks, milestones, deliverables
- Relationships and logic: FS, SS, FF, SF; lag and lead; when lag is legitimate and when it is hiding a missing activity
- Duration estimating basics and documenting a defensible basis
- Resourcing simply: assigning people to tasks, spotting and fixing over-allocation
Session 2 — Running a Schedule Through Delivery
3 hours- Setting a baseline: what it captures, when to rebaseline, and how to track against it
- The update cycle: status date, % complete, actuals, remaining duration
- Critical path in MS Project: how it is calculated and what it actually means
- Producing a readable Gantt chart: formatting, filtering, and the one-page plan the sponsor will actually look at
- Look-ahead planning: producing a 2–4 week look-ahead from the master schedule
- Reading someone else’s schedule: the five warning signs of a schedule built for appearance rather than delivery
Prerequisites
Before you join.
- Basic familiarity with project management concepts (activities, dependencies, milestones)
- No prior MS Project experience required
- A copy of MS Project (desktop or Project for the Web) accessible during sessions — we cover trial licence options before Session 1
What you get
Included with every seat.
- Access to both live sessions with a practitioner instructor
- Recordings of every session, available for 12 months
- A course workbook with the practice schedule file used during the sessions
- An MS Project quick-reference card covering the most-used keyboard shortcuts and menu paths
- A SOMA certificate of completion for your CPD record
- Access to a post-course Q&A thread for follow-up questions from your own projects
FAQs
The honest answers.
Is this the same as your Primavera P6 course?
No. The underlying scheduling concepts — WBS, logic, baselining, updating — are the same, but this course runs entirely in Microsoft Project. Smaller UK programmes and most in-house delivery teams use MS Project rather than P6, and many of the people running those schedules have never had proper training. This course closes that gap.
Can I move to P6 afterwards?
Yes, and much of what you learn here transfers. Our Primavera P6 for Real Projects course is the natural next step if you end up working on a programme running on P6 — the underlying discipline is the same; the tool is different.
Do I need to buy MS Project to attend?
No — a trial licence is fine. We send instructions before Session 1 covering the desktop trial and Project for the Web options. If your employer already has MS Project, just use that.
What if I miss a session?
Recordings are available within 24 hours. Session 2 builds on Session 1, so watching any missed session before the next one is recommended. You can also roll your place to a later cohort.
Can I expense this?
Almost certainly. At £495 it sits well within standard professional development budgets. We provide a VAT invoice.
Do you run this in-house?
Yes, and it works well when a project team attends together. We can tailor the worked example to a schedule from your organisation. Contact us for a quote.
Want to talk about training your team?
Tell us the shape of your programme and your team's level. We will come back with a recommendation that fits — open course, in-house, or a mix.