As a project manager, you need to create and manage many documents (artifacts) to communicate the project's purpose and status. A key component of this responsibility is the project plan, which incorporates the tasks, resources, and scheduling of a project. Not only should the project plan be used in the initial phases of a project, but also updating a plan as the project progresses enables you to effectively manage the project and communicate status to all involved parties.

Defining a new project encompasses all the steps that a project manager needs to take in Microsoft® Project® to ensure that the new project plan has the necessary information before the task planning process begins. By taking the time to enter the appropriate information correctly, you will lay the foundation for a sustainable project plan that is easier to build, maintain, and share over the course of your project. In this lesson, you will create the project plan that you will continue to work with throughout the remainder of the course.

Now that you've created and defined your project plan, you need to modify the project plan so that it reflects the work that needs to be done for a particular project. You understand that Microsoft® Project® is a very powerful tool for defining and scheduling the details of a project plan, but you may not know just how to do this.

You now have a project plan that contains a complete list of project tasks and their durations. Managing all the tasks in a project plan can be overwhelming, especially for large projects that involve many tasks. Microsoft® Project® helps you manage these tasks by organizing them into a structure that shows how some tasks fit within broader groupings and how the tasks relate to one another. Properly managing the tasks in your plan allows you to make a well-organized project structure that can be edited and updated quickly.

Now that you have created a work breakdown structure, you must define who and what is needed to complete the project tasks. As a project manager, one of the main areas you need to focus on during the planning phase of a project is resources. You have to determine the people, tools, equipment, and materials that will be required for the project. Defining resource requirements early will solidify your project plan and help you adjust as resource availability changes over the life of the project.

You have created a project plan by creating a work breakdown structure and adding the resources needed to complete the project. Now that you have a plan, you need to review it to see if it meets your needs. Often, a first attempt at the project plan stretches beyond a key deadline or has areas that can be optimized to decrease work and cost. Finally, you will need to prepare for executing the project and share your final plan with stakeholders and team members.

You'll wrap things up and then validate what you've learned in this course by taking an assessment.