Why Online Classes Just Don't Stack Up To Microsoft Project Course Training

No one understands training like training coordinators, and yet they are often frustrated when department managers try to save money by finding ways to eliminate training. This often involves having their staff go and find examples on the internet which they can use to create their own applications.

Downloading software examples without the training to understand them is like buying a car without knowing how to drive. You don't know what to look for, what features are important, or what things to avoid. This is especially true with Microsoft Project and Project courses absolutely cannot be replaced by taking examples written by someone else.

Your Project Isn't Like Anyone Else's

The basic flaw with trying to replace Project courses with internet examples is that every project has unique features. This isn't like trying to find an Excel macro to flip the order of a range of data or calculate what day Christmas falls on this year.

A large part of project management is making assumptions about resources, timelines and other aspects of the job. Every manager has to make these assumptions and each person is going to come up with different results. These results aren't right or wrong. Predicting the future is an inexact effort and all managers can do is to make their best guess.

If you download a project on manufacturing blue widgets, the original author might have assumed that every widget takes one hour to make. However your widgets take two hours to make because they are carefully handmade by experience widget craftsmen rather than stamped out by machines. Using the example plan will grossly underestimate the manufacturing time needed, leading to planning disaster.

A Project course teaches managers how to make these assumptions and how to incorporate them to create a realistic project plan.

Inspiration Not Imitation

This isn't to say that referring to Project examples is a bad thing. A manager who has completed Project courses and gained experience in planning will have the know-how to look at a plan, analyze its contents and assumptions, and adopt it for his own use.

It is most useful to look at Project documents from your own company first. Assumptions about cost and manpower are likely to be closer to your own estimates than some random file picked off the internet. The closer the project is to the one you have in mind, the more of the original plan than can be salvaged as a basis for your own plan.

However, while examples certainly can help - there is no reason to reinvent the wheel - they do not take the place of authoring your own plan. Make sure you understand the example you are looking at and all of its components. If you don't then you are better off starting from scratch and created a plan that will contain the proper assumptions for your particular need.