Microsoft Project training for construction teams

Who it's for

• Project managers, site managers and contract administrators who have to read, update and report on a construction programme.
• Junior planners, cadets and graduates building their first programmes in Microsoft Project.
• Builders who want everyone on the project team setting up and statusing programmes the same way, so programmes can be compared across jobs.
• People who already use Microsoft Project but taught themselves, and want to fix habits that cause problems at statusing time.

Session 1 (2.5 hours) covers setting up a programme properly.

1. Initial project setup. The project start date, project information and the settings that control how Microsoft Project calculates the programme, set before the first task goes in.
2. Calendar setup and configuration. Working days and hours, public holidays, the construction industry RDO calendar and the Christmas shutdown, and when a task or trade needs its own calendar.
3. Creating and organising the activity list. Structuring the programme by area, level, stage or trade so it can be read and filtered, with clear activity names, realistic durations and milestones.
4. Initial QA check. Finding open ends, missing logic and unnecessary constraints before the programme goes to the client.
5. Programme formatting. Setting up the Gantt chart, grouping and filtering, the timescale, and producing a PDF that a client or superintendent can follow.

Later sessions cover programme statusing and progress updating: setting the status date, recording actual progress, dealing with work that has slipped behind the status date, and comparing progress against the baseline.

You keep three documents after the course: the training manual (Microsoft Project module), a cheat sheet for programme statusing, and a formula guide.

Each session is 2.5 hours and is taught live. There is no pre-recorded content.

You can run the course live online over Microsoft Teams or on site at your office or site office across Australia. Teams works for groups spread across more than one office or state.

The course runs over several sessions, never more than one a day. The gap gives people time to apply each session to a real programme before the next one.

Session times are arranged to suit your team and working day.

From A$2,300 per group. Dates on request.

Training is delivered by experienced planning managers with more than 15 years of hands-on project planning experience. Nomad SPS planning and project controls work includes more than 700 MW of data centre capacity and over $2.1B in projects.

That work shapes what the course spends time on. A calendar that doesn't match the site's working days moves every date in the programme. Missing logic means the critical path is wrong, and loose statusing drags the completion date around from one month to the next. Those problems get sorted out in the training, using construction examples, before they show up in a monthly report.

The material is practical and directly applicable to live projects. If your programme also needs independent review or ongoing support, see our project controls services.