Project Advantage FAQ

Does Project Advantage offer project management short courses focusing on project management methodology?

Yes, Project Advantage offers a range of courses covering all learning needs in the field of Melbourne project management fundamentals — from basic to advanced. Our Melbourne project management short courses include:

• Project management training – introduction – 1 day
• Project management training – fundamentals – 2 days
• Project management training – essentials – 4 days
• Integrated project management training – 5 days

Does Project Advantage offer Microsoft Project training courses?

Yes, we offer a Melbourne Microsoft Project fundamentals training course.

This two-day hands-on course is designed to train you on the principles of Microsoft Project. At the conclusion of the Melbourne MS Project training you’ll be able to use Microsoft Project as a powerful task and resource management tool, rather than simply a retrospective reporting tool. At the course’s conclusion you will be able to develop workable and modifiable models of your real-world projects.

Do the courses rely on standard pre-set examples, where participants spend the majority of their time re-creating projects from steps within the training manual?

No. Unlike Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, a “one size fits all” approach won’t work with Melbourne MS Project training. While our manuals clearly show a “step-by-step” process from an instructional point of view, we make sure that during the course they’re applied to examples relevant to course participants.

Can we have a more low-level “general overview” course?

We work with many organisations where Microsoft Project is used generically and where staff need MS Project training in Melbourne or elsewhere either to understand client’s projects, those of their colleagues within the organisation or to prepare themselves for future use of the software.  We’re able to run general courses to equip you with the knowledge you’ll need.

How capable do we have to be with Microsoft Project before attending training?

We always suggest that it’s to your advantage to have sat down and played around with Microsoft Project before the Microsoft Project course to get an idea about its look and feel. We know, however, that’s not always possible.

If you haven’t had a chance to use the software, we recommend approaching a colleague and asking for a five or 10 minute demonstration of the basics.  You might find it helpful to have a look at a project that one of your colleagues has created using the software.

It is important that you are comfortable with the mouse and basic Windows functions.

We suggest that anyone who uses any Windows-based software regularly (such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel) will have ample skills. During the course there is not much emphasis placed on large amounts of typing.

If we wish to have training courses run at our premises, what sort of hardware and software setup do we need? How many participants can be involved?

Depending on the MS Project course, training is limited to a maximum of 10 participants per course. We request that each participant has access to one PC (or notebook computer) for the duration of the course, loaded with Microsoft Project. No internet connection is required.

When is the best time for me to undertake Microsoft Project training?

The best time to undertake Microsoft project training in Melbourne or elsewhere across Australia, is the period before you need to create your own projects. Immediate practice using your own project is the best way to retain what you have learnt.

Is on site training, conducted for a single organisation, more effective as a learning experience than public courses?

We do tend to find that running our MS Project training on site is more effective than public courses.

This is because a dedicated course for a single client will tend to be more focused on real-life project scenarios and less generic. So, instead of talking about purely theoretical models, we can develop relevant task models that will help the participant see what they’ll need to be building when they return to work.

Will we be able to create projects in the classroom based on our actual projects?

If we conduct our MS Project training in Melbourne or elsewhere for a group consisting of staff from one organisation, we’ll insist on it. If you can’t get direct relevance from the training, your application of Microsoft Project in your real world will be off the mark.

During our initial assessment of your needs we will get you to provide samples based around your real life projects and work breakdown structures that we will use during training.

Does Project Advantage offer a course that combines both project management methodology and Microsoft Project?

Yes. A five-day Melbourne Microsoft Project integration course is offered. This program integrates contemporary project management methodology training with MS Project software applications training. The methodology, theory and business planning components support and complement the computer-based software application component.

This combination of learning techniques offers a complete learning and hands-on experience in both principles. For many people it is all the training they will need to enable them to operate more effectively in a project environment and to make more effective use of their planning software.

Does Project Advantage offer project management consulting services?

Yes, we do offer project management consulting Melbourne-wide and across Australia. Our capability covers both consultancy and training. Project Advantage clients come from a wide range of public and commercial industry sectors, as do our consultants.

We use a combination of employed and associate consultants and trainers. Considerable effort is put into ensuring that any consultant or trainer undertaking any Project Advantage assignment is fully qualified to do so and has been briefed on the culture of the client organisation.

What about project management framework and system design, which includes document, and template design?

Project Advantage offers a Melbourne project management consulting and analysis services to organisations to identify key flaws in their project methodology, documentation and systems and establish or modify a more suitable project planning and delivery process across their project life cycle.

The main aim of this service is to provide management and staff with an understanding of project management fundamentals and systems and how those systems are used across the project life cycle, an understanding of project management tools and templates and how they relate to the functions of project management, an understanding of the importance of monitoring and control tools throughout the project life cycle and to identify gaps in their own system that need addressing.

Will Project Advantage assist organisations in the planning and delivery of projects and support and mentor internal staff?

Project Advantage offers a project management consultancy service Melbourne-wide and across Australia on a fee-for-service or contract basis concentrating on managing companies start-up or existing projects.

This service is a project whole of life consulting service which includes leading projects through the project planning and development stage, team selection, project approvals, project implementation, monitoring and control and project audit and completion.