A pretty nifty feature in Microsoft Project is the ability to define a project through the use of the project guide. 

The project guide is a cool little wizard that walks you through setting up a project, assigning resources to the project, tracking progress, and reporting on progress.  What I like about this wizard is not only the help it gives newbie project managers, but also is a great reminder of the cool MS Project capabilities for more seasoned MS Project project managers. 

To get started with this cool project management software tool do the following:

1. Turn on the Project Guide:

• On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Interface tab
• In the Project Guide Settings, select the Display Project Guide check box
• You can also turn on and off in the View menu

2. Define your project and tasks:

• Define the project
• Define general working times
• List the tasks in the project
• Organize tasks into phases
• Schedule tasks
• Link to or attach more task information
• Add columns of custom information
• Set deadlines and constrain tasks
• Identify risks to the project
• Add documents to the project
• Publish project information to the Web (if using project server)

3. Define your resources:

• Specify people and equipment for the project
• Specify the booking types for resources
• Define working times for resources
• Assign people and equipment to tasks
• Link to or attach more resource information
• Add columns of custom information
• Publish project information to the web (if using project server)

4. Track and manage your project:

• Save a baseline plan to compare with later versions
• Prepare to track the progress of your project
• Incorporate progress information into your project
• Check the progress of the project
• Make changes to the project
• See what is driving the start date of the project
• Track risks and issues associated with the project (if using project server)
• Request text-based status reports (if using project server)
• Publish project information to the web (if using project server)

5. Report status of your project:

• Select a view or report
• Change the content or order of information in a view
• Change the look or content of the Gantt chart
• Print current view as a report
• See the status of multiple projects in project center (If using project server)
• Compare progress against baseline work
• See the project's critical tasks
• See project risks and issues (if using project server)
• See how resources time is allocated
• See project costs
• Publish project information to the web (if using project server)

Lonnie Pacelli - The Project Management Advisor™

Lonnie Pacelli is an internationally recognized author and president of Leading on the Edge International. Lonnie has over 25 years of leadership experience as an executive, project manager, developer, tester, analyst, trainer, consultant, and business owner. During his 11 years at Accenture he gained leadership expertise consulting with many Fortune 500 companies including Motorola, Hughes Electronics, and Northrop-Grumman. Throughout his nine years at Microsoft he built his leadership expertise through development of some of Microsoft's internal systems and led their Corporate Procurement group, managed their Corporate Planning group, and led company-wide initiatives on Continuous Fiscal Improvement and Training Process Optimization.  At Leading on the Edge International Lonnie consults with companies such as Microsoft, AT&T, Corning, and Key Bank on leadership, project management, executive coaching, and business strategy development and implementation.  He is an engaging and entertaining keynote speaker and consistently receives rave reviews from his audiences.  His practical, no-nonsense, experience-based approach to solving tough problems has helped leaders, project managers and teams consistently deliver results.

www.projectmanagementadvisor.com