SYNOPSIS

Schedules or Gantt charts are an essential tool in managing projects especially when the numbers of activities that need to be monitored are significantly high. This coupled with a complex network of relationships between the activities necessitates the use of proper digital applications. One such is the Microsoft Project software which is well equipped to perform industry level scheduling.

This talk will briefly touch on scheduling concepts and demonstrate the practical use of this software via a simple project case.

It is the objective of this talk for the participants to have an exposure and appreciation of how a scheduling software can aid in project management in a practical context.

Some topics covered under this talk:
- Key Scheduling concepts & terminologies
  (Critical Path, Float, Relationship Link types, Activity Types)
- Setting Baselines, updating and forecasting
- Presentation embellishments – customising your final product for easier readability and appeal

The contents of this talk is a brief adaptation of a one day training course which is planned to be conducted when physical classes are allowed.


BIODATA OF SPEAKER

Ir. Faizal A. Sanusi has served the Project Management Technical Division in IEM since 2005, including as its Chairman in 2012.

He has a BSc in Civil Engineering from the George Washington University, USA in 1988 and an MBA from Open University, Malaysia in 2005.

His engineering and project management experience spans across the oil & gas and building industry since he began his career 30 years ago. In his career, he has performed various roles ranging from design engineer, resident engineer, project engineer, project manager and project advisor for a myriad of engineering projects – civil Infrastructure works, commercial buildings including an intelligent office institutional building, gas processing plants, offshore gas pipeline installations and offshore gas producing platforms. He also challenged himself as an entrepreneur in the business of facilities management for oil and gas on‐shore installations and has provided trainings in various project management topics to the Royal Malaysian Navy and private commercial property developers.

Some of his notable career highlights as follows:
1. Project Advisor and Project Services Manager for Oil & Gas Exploration & Production MNCs
2. Project Services Division Head for a local Offshore Oil & Gas Service Provider
3. Project Manager for the Malaysian Securities Commission 4 star intelligent building project
4. Director of a local Facilities Management company overseeing Oil & Gas O&M projects

Ir. Faizal has used the MS Project software since it was launched in the DOS version in the early 1990s when he was a young project engineer in PETRONAS and has been using its many iterations since then. His keen interest in the use of this software resulted in him being an internal trainer in the use of this software to PETRONAS at that time.

Ir. Faizal is currently the Principal Consultant of Centaur Project Controls Sdn. (a Project Management consulting firm), and he mainly indulges his time in creating project management microapps to aid him in his profession.