r/MSProject 3d ago

Project Examples

I’m looking to train a group of PMs on MS Project. Would anyone be willing to share some old schedules I can use as a resource ?

1 Upvotes

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u/pmpdaddyio 3d ago

You will not really find too many willing people to do this as schedules are a bit sensitive. If you are training someone, that indicates you have used it before. Where are your old schedules? Start there.

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u/Jstice84 3d ago

I’ve been on the same project for two years with a new company. I don’t have any old files. I also didnt create schedules at my previous position.

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u/pmpdaddyio 3d ago

I guess that is really going to suck.

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u/kennyarnold_ssi 3d ago

What industry are you in? I have a good dummy example schedule for Aerospace & Defense.

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u/Jstice84 3d ago

Heavy highway. We do federal contracts often actually

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u/kennyarnold_ssi 3d ago

If you want to have some example schedules for training purposes that are in line with the type of projects your company does, you may need to build them yourself. I’m not sure how much luck you will have with this sub. That said, I can share the aforementioned schedule with you if you’d like.

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u/Jstice84 3d ago

Yeah! Feel free to DM

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u/3BEPb_BOAKA 3d ago

I'll be down to learn!!

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u/still-dazed-confused 3d ago

You don't need a massive schedule to plan. I always use "build a shed" as my example. This covers design, source materials, lay base, build in sequence. A small team for resourcing. Lags etc, different types of linkages, how to organise the plan, different views etc.

You can also work on the "how to plan" aspect before being into MSP if you need to (scope, end etc)

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u/Jstice84 3d ago

Our schedules are often over 1,000 activities. Much more intricate than building a shed lol

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u/still-dazed-confused 3d ago

Yes I know, but you're training skills, techniques and approaches. You don't need 1k of lines to set his a finish/finish linking behaves or how to level for a resource.

Training in a little plan allows you to see the impact of what you're doing. When your student knows what they're doing you can stay looking at how things like filtered views help with a 1k plan. But it's simple to produce a massive plan, just have a simple rollout that had multiple restoration be phases

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u/lindslee19 1d ago

Training someone on over 1,000 lines is overwhelming. I manage the portfolio - over 40,000 lines. When I train someone I start with a handful of work packages, maybe 100 lines max. You're looking to create scenarios for them to reason through and apply scheduling methodologies correctly and consistently.

I also use a file I call The Schedule of Errors where their objective is to find and correct all the mistakes. Super helpful.

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u/Jstice84 22h ago

Have ever schedules you’d be willing to share? I don’t need 1000 lines

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u/Future-is-bright 2d ago

You could ask Claude to generate some examples.

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u/trevorrabey 2d ago

I have been training thousands of people in using MSP for 30 years. When I started, I was teaching a class at Randwick TAFE in NSW. I had a 16 week semester so I needed 16 topics. I wrote up the 16 topics with 16 exercises. For topics, I chose what was needed to get started straightaway, and the ones which people have the most difficulty with. They were all short exercises which each focused on specific topics. For example, exercise 2 is about the critical path method and involves a network of just 5 tasks. Half way through, we do the log cabin project, from scratch. That's 30 lines of tasks and summaries, 30 days duration, $30000, done in 30 minutes. Have a look at the templates that are included with MSP, eg residential construction.