Introduction:
Project managers today are asked to take on increasingly challenging responsibilities. In an era of limited budgets and risk averse organizations, project managers (PMs) must be able to cut costs while managing many complex projects and multiple staff members while adapting on the fly to challenging business conditions. If you can relate, Xcel Project Manager (XPM) is for you.
There are software systems that attempt to do what XPM can do. Unfortunately they are often expensive and have too many varied tools to be practical for the average PM. XPM is is perfect because it is simple in its construction and is highly adaptable to new staff, changes in salary and cost, and changing resource assignments. Through this course you will make a complex yet simple tool that you can refine to your needs over time.
If you don't have time to take the course right now, you may download the finished product in the last section and use the videos as a tutorial for how to use it!
What XPM can do:
- XPM tracks projects on a weekly basis
- Measures task and project costs weekly based upon staff resources assigned to them
- Tabulates costs for multiple projects into resource summary rows in each project sheet. This allows for the PM to make changes while keeping track of overall allocation.
- Can be used to project far into the future
- Allows for justification for new hiring (or force reduction) based upon projected resource needs
- Presents an easy mechanism to add new projects and write new proposals with immediate recognition of impacts to staff resources
- Allows for immediate response to changes in allocation on a weekly basis or for changes in salary or cost
- It is completely adaptable to your needs once you learn the simple mechanisms of connecting separate spreadsheets through formulas
The following is a course outline:
Section 1: Welcome!
Section 2: Create a weekly project tracking spreadsheet
Section 3: Create a staff resources accounting spreadsheet
Section 4: Tie weekly project tracking spreadsheet to accounting (staff cost sheet)
Section 5: Establish summary project and staff resources spreadsheets
Section 6: Add new projects
Section 7: Improve readability (and attractiveness of sheets). Also manage staff resources and project budgets. Learn to manage a project proposal.
To take this course you only need a willingness to learn and access to Microsoft Excel (I use 2016 but 2013 is very similar).
Thank you for taking the course! I will be responding to questions and keeping track of any issues that students may have. This course should establish skills that will be immediately usable for all project managers in any field.
Ian Dowdy, MBA
