Project Planning and Management with MS Project

Forhom by Egis was entrusted with preparing and facilitating two training sessions, one week each, in Abidjan, to build the capacities of 24 agents from the Vocational Training Development Fund in project planning and management using MS Project. The target public was comprised of ten department heads, twelve training advisers and two communication advisers.

The objective of the training course was to enable these agents to control the main features of a project management software that makes it possible to plan tasks, assign resources, and budget and monitor the project’s activities. The training course was organised on the basis of real cases that implement the various features of the software in order to optimise operational planning and develop achievement-monitoring tools.

The training course dealt with the three programmed topics, i.e.:

Topic 1 - Strategic planning

• The project cycle and result-oriented management.
• The logical framework as a strategic planning tool.
• Introduction to project management.

Topic 2 - Operational planning of a project using MS Project

• Getting started with the software, initial setup and creation of calendars.
• Organisation and structure of the project, and breakdown of activities into tasks (WBS).
• Input of tasks, links, durations and milestones.
• Definition of responsibilities and lead times.
• Display and optimisation of schedules: PERT, GANTT, critical path.
• Definition and assignment of the human and material resources necessary for each task.
• Development of the budget based on the resources.
• Planning optimisation.
• Integration of the constraints and production of the final schedule.
• Record of initial planning.

Topic 3 - Execution and supervision of the activities

• Monitoring and supervision of the project’s activities: measurement and analysis of gaps in terms of quality, lead times and costs.
• Management of contingencies and unexpected circumstances, anticipation and adoption of corrective measures.
• Reports: creation of reports and data export to a spreadsheet.
• A trial version of the MS Project software was made available to the 24 agents.

The services provided by Forhom by Egis for this training course were as follows:

• Preparation of the training course.
• Mobilisation of an expert trainer for the two sessions.
• Facilitation and evaluation of the training course.
• Preparation and delivery of the certificates, training report and training documents in electronic format.
• Trial version of the MS Project software (24 licenses).