Project 98 - Watsonia Publishing
Mood:  sharp
Topic: MSProject

One of the companies that I subcontract through gave me a manual on Project 98. It's dated and no longer on the Watsonia site, but it does reinforce the process of corporate training and how it's delivered.

The manual is in the style that I intuitively used when asked to develop software training as a consultant with Xerox and Blockbuster: step-by-step explanations, using screenshots to illustrate what the user would see on the screen.
It uses frequent Exercises to reinforce the concepts and usage.

I'd estimate that the training would take 3-4 days in a small class to deliver. The time would be less for experienced, motivated users -- like myself -- to review the interface and prepare for specifics. I covered the 341 pages in about 3 hours, comparing it with Project 2003 along the way.

The Project 98 manual outline matches up well with the Introductory level manual for Project 2003, shown on the left here.
The estimated time for delivery is 16 hours, which is close to my estimate of 3 days, 6 hours a day, leaving most of the exercises for the learner to do later.

If I were delivering this training as a subcontractor or in house, I'd urge the company to get the coversheets styled to their logo and company environment. Watsonia does that for no extra charge.
A few customized lessons can be added to the manual that can be quickly developed in PDF format for a small additional fee.

I called a couple of the companies I'm listed with as a corporate trainer and was surprised to find that most of their clients are only interested in training in Project 98. Only 1 in 10 has upgraded to 2002(XP) or 2003.