Microsoft
Contents
Introduction 1
Microsoft Office Project 2003 Products and Offerings 1
Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution Overview 2
Portfolio Management 2
Work Management 3
Resource Management 3
Project Management 3
Collaboration and Communication 3
Extensible Platform 3
Administration 4
Summary of New and Improved Features in the Microsoft Office EPM Solution 4
The Microsoft Office EPM Solution in Action 9
Portfolio Management 9
Portfolio Analyzer View Enhancements 9
Improved Portfolio Modeler 10
SharePoint Web Parts 10
Default Web Parts 10
Creating Custom Web Parts 11
Work Management 12
Resource Management 12
Build Team 12
Enterprise Resource Multi-Valued Fields 14
Pick-Lists and Lookup Tables in Enterprise Custom Fields 16
Protect Actual Work/Adjust Actual Work 17
Timesheet Lock Downs 17
Lock Down Actual Work in Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 19
Adjusting Locked Down Actual Work 20
Administrative Projects 21
Report Non-Working Time 21
Multiple Timesheet Approvers 22
Proposed-Booking of Resources 23
Resource Substitution Wizard 24
Build Team from Enterprise 25
Project Management 26
Enterprise File Open Dialog 26
Project Center Open Project Improvements 27
Project Manager Self Check-in Stranded Projects 28
Protect Saved Baselines 28
Value Lists in Filters 29
Office 2003 Task Panes 30
Getting Started Pane 30
Search Results Pane 31
Help Pane 32
Templates on Microsoft Office Online 33
Watson 34
Project Guide for Printing Wizard 35
Copy Picture to Office Wizard 35
Collaboration 39
Home Page Improvements 39
Project Web Access Grid Printing 39
Export Grid to Excel 41
Outlook Integration 42
Calendar integration 42
Using the Timesheet in Microsoft Outlook 42
Document Check-in/Check-out 46
Document Versions 48
Risk Management 48
Extensible Platform 49
Project Data Service (PDS) Enhancements 49
PDS – Timesheet API 50
PDS – Enterprise Custom Fields 50
PDS – Enterprise Resource Creation 50
PDS – Improved Enterprise Custom Field Editing 50
PDS – Enterprise Project Creation 50
PDS – Project Server User Maintenance 51
PDS – Project Outline Values 51
PDS – Multi-Valued Custom Resource Outline Codes 51
VBA/Object Model Changes 51
Trusted Sources 51
Outline Codes 51
Project Guide 51
Administration/Deployment 51
Project Server Setup User Interface Improvements 51
Proxy Server Settings 53
Database Partitioning 53
Other Project Server Setup Changes 54
Sample Database 55
Active Directory Synchronization 56
Synchronizing Resources from an Active Directory Group 56
Security Synchronization 57
Delete Resources 58
Resource Center Improvements 59
Renamed Custom Fields Appear on Views page 59
Define Timesheet Views 59
Delegate Task Security Enhancement 60
Backward Compatibility and Interoperability 60
System Requirements Changes 62
Introduction
Welcome to the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution Guide. The purpose of this document is to assist you in your evaluation of the Microsoft Office EPM Solution and give you a sense of the enhanced features and functionality that the solution offers in the Microsoft Office Project 2003 release.
Please note that this guide focuses on the Microsoft Office EPM Solution, which consists of the following Microsoft Office Project 2003 products and technologies: Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003, Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 and Microsoft Office Project Web Access. These products and technologies are described in more detail below. For detailed system requirements for the EPM Solution, please visit .
Microsoft Office Project Standard 2003 is not specifically covered in detail in this guide. A separate product guide has been prepared for Microsoft Office Project Standard 2003.
Microsoft Office Project 2003 Products and Offerings
Microsoft Office Project 2003 has offerings to help you meet your specific business requirements. Depending on your particular situation, Microsoft Office Project Standard 2003 or the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management Solution can help you with your project and resource management needs.
• Microsoft Office Project Standard 2003. Project Standard is the world's leading project management program. With Project Standard, you can manage schedules and resources, communicate project status, and report project information. Project Standard is for users who do not require Web-based coordination or collaboration with other project participants and who do not need to manage resources from a central repository across multiple projects.
• Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution. The Microsoft Office EPM Solution brings together client, server, and Web-based technology to enable organizations to manage their project portfolio effectively, establish standards and best practices, centrally manage resources based on skills and availability, and enable effective communication and collaboration within project teams. The extensible, enterprise-scale architecture of the EPM Solution enables effective integration with other line-of-business (LOB) systems. The Microsoft Office EPM Solution consists of the following Microsoft Office Project 2003 products and technologies:
o Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 is the enterprise project management program in the EPM Solution. Project Professional is used by project managers for effectively planning projects, optimizing resources, and implementing repeatable processes across an organization. Project Professional connects to Microsoft Office Project Server for enterprise project management functionality.
o Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 is the extensible platform that supports the EPM Solution. Project Server 2003 enables organizations to centralize and standardize project and resource information for greater visibility and consistent reporting across an entire work portfolio. Project Professional and Project Web Access are used to connect to and interact with data stored in Project Server. Project Server 2003 integrates with Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint™ Services (formerly called SharePoint Team Services from Microsoft) for collaboration functionality, including document management. Windows SharePoint Services is a component technology of Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 and therefore requires Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003.
o Microsoft Office Project Web Access is the Web portal in the EPM Solution. Project Web Access provides project teams with real-time access to information stored in Project Server. Project Web Access is enabled through Project Server.
Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution Overview
The Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution is ideal for organizations that need strong coordination and standardization between projects and project managers, centralized resource management, or higher-level reporting about projects and resources. The Microsoft Office EPM Solution is unique among project management systems because it promotes widespread participation through familiar, closely integrated tools and programs. The EPM Solution empowers organizations in five key areas:
Portfolio Management
The Microsoft Office EPM Solution provides visibility and insight into your organization’s work portfolio for better analysis and decision making.
• Monitor the performance of your project portfolio through a scorecard view of consistent business metrics and drill into the details as needed.
• Evaluate schedule, resource, and cost data over time and across projects to identify trends, and model “what-if” scenarios.
• Integrate key Project data as Web Parts into your own portal alongside other critical business information.
Work Management
The Microsoft Office EPM Solution helps you better manage your work, establish consistent and repeatable processes, and optimize resource utilization across your organization.
Resource Management
• Efficiently assign people to projects with skill-based resource assignment tools, and track and manage resources from a central resource pool.
• Establish processes for reporting and approving time worked on projects to ensure accuracy of data.
• Ensure that your organization has the right people and capacity to take on future projects.
Project Management
• Efficiently manage projects and track progress.
• Effectively communicate and share project information to project stakeholders.
• Improve project management processes by establishing standards and best practices across your organization.
Collaboration and Communication
The Microsoft Office EPM Solution enhances information-sharing and coordination among project teams for better participation, progress reporting, and collaboration on projects.
• Improve coordination across teams through automated notifications and portal access, so users can easily view, update, and analyze project information through the Web.
• Reduce administrative work while maintaining up-to-date status on project schedules and budgets through Web-based time reporting and Microsoft Outlook® Calendar integration.
• Manage team documents centrally with check-in/check-out and versioning capabilities through the integration of Project Server 2003 with Microsoft Windows SharePoint™ Services (requires Microsoft Windows Server 2003).
• Centrally store, link, and share project-related issues and risks for collaborative tracking and resolution.
Extensible Platform
The Microsoft Office EPM Solution provides the flexibility to meet your needs as your business requirements evolve.
• Compile up-to-date project-related information via better integration with existing systems using industry-standard XML
• Customize and integrate Project Server data through enhancements to the Project Data Service (PDS), VBA/object model changes, and an improved Project Guide.
Administration
The Microsoft Office EPM Solution reduces the burden of administration with setup improvements, database partitioning, and more. Improvements have been made to facilitate setting up and deploying Project Server and Windows SharePoint Services, distributing database load across separate database servers, and maintaining up-to-date information.
Summary of New and Improved Features in the Microsoft Office EPM Solution
The features listed in this section are either new or improved in Project Professional 2003, Project Server 2003, or Project Web Access. More information about each feature follows in subsequent sections of this document. You can hyperlink to the content for any topic by holding down the CTRL key and clicking on a Feature name in the table below.
| |Feature |Interface |Description |
| |Portfolio Management |
| |Evaluate schedule, resource, and cost data over time and across projects to identify trends, and model “what-if” |
| |scenarios. |
|Improved |Portfolio Analyzer View |Project Web Access |The Project Server administrator can connect existing Portfolio |
| |Enhancements | |Analyzer views to different OLAP cubes, and copy existing |
| | | |Portfolio Analyzer views. |
|Improved |Improved Portfolio Modeler |Project Web Access |Users of Portfolio Modeler can refresh the project and resource |
| | | |definitions of a model from the Portfolio Modeler page without |
| | | |having to reconstruct the model. |
| |Integrate key Project data as Web Parts into your own portal alongside other critical business information. |
|New |SharePoint Web Parts |Windows SharePoint |Web Parts are customizable, reusable components used to display |
| | |Services site |specific information on a Web page. Web Parts are used directly in|
| | | |Project Professional, and some are now included with Project |
| | | |Server 2003 for use in your Windows SharePoint Services site. For |
| | | |example, you can use a Web Part to insert views of the Project |
| | | |Center into a personal dashboard. |
| |Work Management |
| |Resource Management |
| |Efficiently assign people to projects with skill-based resource assignment tools, and track and manage resources from a |
| |central resource pool. |
|New |Build Team |Project Web Access |Resource managers can now staff projects with enterprise resources|
| | | |using the Build Team tool in Project Web Access – without |
| | | |requiring Project Professional. |
|New |Enterprise Resource |Project Professional |You can use Project Professional 2003 to create Enterprise |
| |Multi-Valued Fields | |Resource Outline Codes that allow selection of multiple values |
| | | |within the same field. For example, you could have a code named |
| | | |“Skills” and for an individual, you could apply both |
| | | |“Programming.VB” and “Language.Spanish” as attributes — all from |
| | | |one code. |
| |Establish processes for reporting and approving time worked on projects and non-project time to ensure accuracy of data. |
|New |Pick-Lists and Lookup Tables in|Project Web Access |Project Web Access timesheet users can now use pick-lists to |
| |Enterprise Custom Fields | |select values from custom enterprise task and outline codes. |
|New |Protect Actual Work/Adjust |Project Web Access |The Project Server administrator can create actual work lock-down |
| |Actual Work | |periods. This means that actual work that has already been |
| | | |reported cannot be changed without going through a formal change |
| | | |process. (See the next three line items in this table for |
| | | |specifics on protecting and adjusting actual work.) |
|New |Timesheet Lock Downs |Project Web Access |The Project Server administrator can lock specific time periods in|
| | | |the Project Web Access timesheet to prevent resources from |
| | | |reporting hours for time periods other than open time periods. |
|New |Lock Down Actual Work in |Project Professional |With Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003, administrators |
| |Microsoft Office Project | |can specify locked down periods in order to prevent any editing to|
| |Professional 2003 | |actual work within those locked down periods. |
|New |Adjusting Locked Down Actual |Project Web Access |From time to time, there are legitimate reasons to make |
| |Work | |adjustments to actual work that is protected in a locked down |
| | | |period, for example when a member is traveling and is ready to |
| | | |report actual work when he returns. Authorized users who have the |
| | | |“Adjust Actuals” permission can make these changes. Changes are |
| | | |recorded in an audit log. |
|New |Administrative Projects |Project Web Access |Administrative projects are a new type of project that replace |
| | | |Project 2002 non-project time categories as a means of collecting |
| | | |and storing resource commitments to tasks that are not related to |
| | | |a specific project. Administrative project data is included in |
| | | |resource availability calculations, which improves the accuracy |
| | | |and visibility of resource availability information. |
|Improved |Report Non-Working Time |Project Web Access |Non-working or non-project time now is reported against |
| | | |administrative projects. This means that a resource’s non-project |
| | | |time is taken into the resource’s availability. |
|New |Multiple Timesheet Approvers |Project Web Access |In the past, only the project manager had the ability to approve |
| | | |timesheets. Now with the Project 2003 release, other Project Web |
| | | |Access users can be given the right to approve timesheets. |
| |Ensure that your organization has the right people and capacity to take on future projects. |
|New |Proposed-Booking of Resources |Project Professional |Proposed booking allows you to assign resources to tasks in a |
| | | |“proposed” or “reserved” assignment state. It marks a resource as |
| | | |not truly committed to the project. With this capability, you can |
| | | |distinguish between committed and proposed resources when using |
| | | |the Resource Substitution Wizard and Build Team from Enterprise in|
| | | |Project Professional. |
| |Project Management |
| |Efficiently manage projects and track progress. |
|Improved |Enterprise File Open Dialog |Project Web Access |When opening a project from a project server, the Open dialog box |
| | | |allows you to group projects so you can more easily find the |
| | | |projects you seek. |
|Improved |Project Center Open Project |Project Web Access |The Project Center includes an enhancement that allows you to |
| |Improvements | |select multiple projects and then open them in Project |
| | | |Professional. |
|New |Project Manager Self Check-in |Project Web Access |If project managers have opened an enterprise project, and for |
| |Stranded Projects | |some reason have not been able to properly close the project, they|
| | | |can now check-in projects that they have been working with. |
|New |Protect Saved Baselines |Project Web Access |Administrators now have the ability to lock-down a user’s ability |
| | | |to save baseline data. Therefore, once an agreed upon baseline has|
| | | |been reached, a projects manager’s ability to change the baseline |
| | | |can be removed. |
|New |Value Lists in Filters |Project Professional |When creating filters in Project Professional 2003, in the |
| | | |“Values” field, you can choose values from a pick list. (This |
| | | |capability is also available in Project Standard 2003.) |
|New |Office 2003 Task Panes |Project Professional |This set of task panes incorporates various features from |
| | | |Microsoft Office 2003 Editions, including: |
| | | |Getting Started Pane |
| | | |Search Results Pane |
| | | |Search results are highlighted in a task pane in Project 2003. |
| | | |Users can specify if they want to search Microsoft Office Online, |
| | | |offline help files, clip art and media, or the Office Marketplace.|
| | | |The type of content that is returned is clearly marked so that you|
| | | |can distinguish between items such as Help and templates, and |
| | | |whether the information is available from the Web or from within |
| | | |Project. Users can also still get Help even if they are not |
| | | |connected to the Internet. Offline or online, the query and |
| | | |results user interface are the same, allowing users to |
| | | |transparently take advantage of the network. |
| | | |[pic] |
| | | |Figure 27: Search Results Pane |
| | | |Help Pane |
| | | |Templates on Microsoft Office Online |
| | | |These capabilities are also available in Project Standard 2003. |
|Improved |Watson |Project Professional |Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 includes the Watson |
| | | |crash reporting technology, shared among Microsoft Office programs|
| | | |and operating systems such as Microsoft Windows® XP. (This |
| | | |capability is also available in Project Standard 2003.) |
| |Effectively communicate and share project information to project stakeholders. |
|New |Project Guide for Printing |Project Professional |The Project Guide now has a “Print Current View as a Report” |
| |Wizard | |wizard to help users print what they see. (This capability is also|
| | | |available in Project Standard 2003.) |
|New |Copy Picture to Office Wizard |Project Professional |The new Copy Picture to Office wizard helps you create new |
| | | |presentations of Project data in Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft |
| | | |Office PowerPoint® and Microsoft Office Visio®. (This capability |
| | | |is also available in Project Standard 2003.) |
| |Collaboration |
| |Improve coordination across teams through automated notifications and Web portal access, so users can easily view, update,|
| |and analyze project information through the Web and other Microsoft Office System programs. |
|Improved |Home Page Improvements |Project Web Access |The Project Web Access Home Page has a new look and contains links|
| | | |to Timesheets and Risks. |
|New |Project Web Access Grid |Project Web Access |Users now have the ability to better format and print out grids |
| |Printing | |from Project Web Access, including their timesheets; no longer do |
| | | |they have to accept less-than-optimal results when printing from |
| | | |their browser. |
|New |Export Grid to Excel |Project Web Access |Microsoft Office Project 2003 gives Project Web Access users the |
| | | |ability to export much of the data you see to Excel where it can |
| | | |be further analyzed or sent to non-project users in a familiar and|
| | | |useful format. |
| |Reduce administrative work while maintaining up-to-date status on project schedules and budgets through Web-based time |
| |reporting and Microsoft® Outlook® Calendar integration. |
|New |Outlook Integration |Outlook |Users can see their Project tasks in Outlook and can also report |
| | | |progress on them. |
| |Manage team documents centrally with check-in/check-out and versioning capabilities through the integration of Project |
| |Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services (requires Microsoft Windows Server 2003). |
|New |Document Check-in/Check-out |Project Web Access |Users have check-in/check-out functionality for documents in |
| | |(requires Windows |Project Web Access through the integration of Project Server and |
| | |SharePoint Services) |Windows SharePoint Services. Check-in/check-out functionality has |
| | | |been added to allow locking of documents. |
|New |Document Versions |Project Web Access |Users can now store multiple versions of a document in Project Web|
| | |(requires Windows |Access for comparison and archiving purposes. When checked-out |
| | |SharePoint Services) |documents are checked in, a copy of the previous document is |
| | | |created and saved as a version of the document. |
| |Centrally store, link, and share project-related issues and risks for collaborative tracking and resolution. |
|New |Risk Management |Project Web Access |Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint |
| | |(requires Windows |Services enable the ability to record risks and escalate the risks|
| | |SharePoint Services) |for mitigation. Risks are events or conditions that can have a |
| | | |positive or negative impact on the outcome of a project. They can |
| | | |be integrated in the overall project life cycle and refer to |
| | | |future potential for adverse outcome or loss risks. |
| |Extensible Platform |
|Improved |Project Data Service (PDS) |Project Server |The Project Data Service (PDS) has been improved to support more |
| |Enhancements | |functions. These functions include: |
| | | |API for enterprise custom fields |
| | | |API for enterprise resource creation |
| | | |API for improved custom field editing |
| | | |API for enterprise project creation |
| | | |API for Project Server user maintenance |
| | | |API for project outline values |
| | | |Support for multi-valued custom resource outline codes |
|Improved |VBA/Object Model Changes |Project Professional |Microsoft Office Project 2003 VBA, Microsoft Office, and Internet |
| | | |Explorer now share their “trusted sources” lists. This means, for|
| | | |example, that if you have downloaded a COM Add-in and have trusted|
| | | |it via Internet Explorer, it will be trusted as well by Microsoft |
| | | |Office Project. Additionally, new object model support has been |
| | | |added to make working with outline codes easier. |
|Improved |Project Guide |Project Professional |Improvements have been made to the Project Guide to make it easier|
| | | |for developers to customize it. The major change is that |
| | | |hard-coded paths for files are no longer required. |
| |Administration/Deployment |
|Improved |Project Server Setup User |Project Server |Many improvements have been made to Project Server setup in terms |
| |Interface Improvements | |of the user interface and setup wizard. |
|Improved |Proxy Server Settings |Project Server |Now, proxy settings are integrated into setup to make the |
| | | |integration with Windows SharePoint Services better than ever. |
|Improved |Database Partitioning |Project Server |Project Server 2003 is more scalable because the database can be |
| | | |divided between two servers (and hence more than one network |
| | | |interface card). |
|Improved |Other Project Server Setup |Project Server |There are a few other Project Server 2003 setup changes, including|
| |Changes | |easier setup of the communication between Project Server and |
| | | |Windows SharePoint Services. |
|New |Sample Database |Project Server |Project Server 2003 includes a sample database to allow you to |
| | | |familiarize yourself with the basic functionality, capabilities, |
| | | |and overall operation of Project Professional and Project Web |
| | | |Access. This feature is available in certain languages of Project |
| | | |Server 2003. |
|New |Active Directory |Project Server |Project Server 2003 has the ability to synchronize with an |
| |Synchronization | |organization’s Active Directory so that enterprise resources can |
| | | |be regularly updated. |
|New |Delete Resources |Project Web Access |A long time request has been the ability to permanently delete |
| | | |resources and not just inactivate them. Now with Project Server |
| | | |2003, you can permanently delete resources. |
|Improved |Resource Center Improvements |Project Web Access |A number of enhancements have been made to Resource Center, |
| | | |including new options when creating a new Resource Center view. |
| | | |For example, you can pre-set the grouping criteria and filter |
| | | |based on Resource Breakdown Structure. |
|New |Renamed Custom Fields Appear on|Project Web Access |When creating a custom view, renamed fields appear. This makes it |
| |Views page | |easier for administrators to know which fields to add to a view. |
|New |Define Timesheet Views |Project Web Access |The administrator can set the default fields and control the order|
| | | |of the fields in timesheet views. |
|Improved |Delegate Task Security |Project Web Access |The Delegate Task wizard in Project Web Access includes a new |
| |Enhancement | |security enhancement. In Project 2002, the list of users to whom a|
| | | |task can be delegated (displayed in a drop-down list box) contains|
| | | |all Project Server users. With this release, the list contains |
| | | |only those users for whom the authenticated user has “See Resource|
| | | |Assignments” permissions. |
The Microsoft Office EPM Solution in Action
Portfolio Management
Portfolio Analyzer View Enhancements
In the previous version of Project Web Access (with Microsoft Project 2002), when you create a Portfolio Analyzer view, the view “binds” to the active or current OLAP cube as specified on the Administrator Update resource tables and OLAP cube administration page. In the previous version of Project Web Access, it also was not feasible to connect an existing Portfolio Analyzer view to a different OLAP cube, nor could you base a new Portfolio Analyzer view on an existing view. In Microsoft Office Project 2003, these limitations are lifted.
To bind a Portfolio Analyzer view to a specific OLAP cube, as an administrator, do the following:
1. From the Admin tab, click the Manage Views link.
2. On the Specify Views page, click the Add View button.
3. Once the page refreshes, click the Portfolio Analyzer view radio button.
4. Once the page refreshes, you’ll see a section where you can apply the Analysis Server and Cube Name information.
[pic]
Figure 1: Analysis Server and Cube Information
To bind an existing Portfolio Analyzer view to a different cube, first select the Portfolio Analyzer view you want to modify and then click the Modify View button. Edit the name of the Analysis Server specified in the Analysis Server text box if the cube you wish to point to is on a different instance of Analysis Services, and edit the cube name specified in the Cube Name text box.
On the Specify Views page, there is a Copy View button. Select a view that you wish to use as a starting point for a new view, click the copy button on the toolbar and enter the name of the new view.
Improved Portfolio Modeler
An update has been made to Portfolio Modeler, the portfolio modeling feature in Project Server. In the previous version (Microsoft Project 2002) in Project Web Access, once a model has been created, the data is static until the model is modified. You have to go back through all of the Portfolio Modeler wizard pages to reconstruct the model. With Project 2003, there is a Refresh button on the page to allow you to refresh the model with the latest resource information.
[pic]
Figure 2: Refresh Models in Portfolio Modeler
SharePoint Web Parts
Project Server 2003 includes six custom Web Parts that allow users in your organization to access task, project, views, and timesheet data that is stored in the Project Server database while using Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server.
Default Web Parts
Project Server 2003 Web Parts are based on the Content Editor Web Part in Windows SharePoint Services. These Web Parts have a dependency on the customized Windows SharePoint Services template used by Project Web Access. They will not work in SharePoint Portal Server unless the custom properties are modified to recognize the Project Server database.
The following Web Parts are included with Project Server 2003:
• Project Timesheet. Provides users a way to view and edit their Project Web Access timesheet.
• Project Center. Allows users to view the Project Center.
• Project Report. Displays the project drill-down view for a project for which an active Windows SharePoint Services site has been created.
• Project Manager Updates. Enables project managers to view updates sent to them by their project team members.
• Project Resource Assignments. Allows project managers, resource managers, and team leads to view the tasks to which their resources have been assigned.
• Project Portfolio Analyzer. Allows executives, project managers, and resource managers to analyze project data using the PivotChart and PivotTable available in Portfolio Analyzer.
Creating Custom Web Parts
The six Web Parts are customizable through the SimpleUI parameter that allows for control over the display of the Web Parts.
These Web Parts are added to the Web Part catalog during configuration of Windows SharePoint Services and Project Server 2003.
|Web Part Title |Source URL |
|1 |Project Timesheet | |
| | |?GanttView=0&AllTasks=0&SimpleUI=109 |
|2 |Project Center | |
|3 |Project Report | |
| | |?_projectID=&SimpleUI=125 |
|4 |Project Manager Updates | |
| | |?GanttView=0&SimpleUI=109 |
|5 |Project Resource |? |
| |Assignments |GanttView=0&AllTasks=0&SimpleUI=117 |
|6 |Project Portfolio | |
| |Analyzer |?SimpleUI=77&NoSaveLinkBtn=1 |
Table 1: SharePoint Web Parts
To display the Project Center Web Part in Internet Explorer simply:
1. Copy and paste the source URL string from the table into the address bar of your Internet Explorer browser. Note: You may need to copy and paste the URL in two parts if it occupies two lines in the above table. You will need to replace the tag with the address of your Project Server.
2. Hit the Enter key.
An example is shown below in Figure 3, displaying a Project Center view highlighted in the red box.
You can experiment with the SimpleUI parameter to include or omit portions of the UI. The SimpleUI parameter can take values from 0 to 127.
[pic]
Figure 3: The Project Center Web Part
Work Management
Resource Management
Build Team
Microsoft Project 2002 users expressed the need to allow functional resource managers to staff projects with resources from their respective teams. Build Team was added to Project Web Access in the Project 2003 release to meet the staffing needs of medium- to large-sized organizations that use functional resource managers for assigning resources. The Build Team feature in Project Web Access provides resource managers with an easy-to-use tool for finding and assigning enterprise resources to selected projects.
Build Team makes it possible for resource managers to staff projects from any computer, and possibly even outside a firewall, without needing to have Project Professional 2003 on their own computers. This makes resource managers’ jobs easier and decreases the turnaround time for projects to be staffed, benefiting both the project manager and the project.
Security requirements are met with a new enterprise global permission that allows users to assign the resources they manage. If a Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) has been defined, users can assign the resources in their RBS. Build Team still allows Project Web Access users to see all enterprise resources they have permission to see (as defined in administrative settings) but the user can only assign resources in their RBS.
To access Build Team from within Project Web Access, click the Projects tab, then select a project, and then click the Build Team toolbar button as shown in Figure 4.
[pic]
Figure 4: Accessing Build Team from Within Project Web Access
On the Build Team page (as shown in Figure 5), you have many of the same capabilities that you have with Build Team from Enterprise in Project Professional.
Using Build Team, users can:
• Filter enterprise resources by enterprise outline codes
• View availability graphs of enterprise resources
• Add enterprise resources in their RBS to a project
• Match selected project team resources with enterprise resources
• Replace project team resources that do not have actual work
• Remove project team resources that do not have actual work
[pic]
Figure 5: Build Team
Enterprise Resource Multi-Valued Fields
Build Team from Enterprise and the Resource Substitution Wizard in Microsoft Project Professional 2002 could use 30 Enterprise Resource Outline Codes (EROC), one of which was reserved for the Resource Breakdown Structure, leaving 29 available outline codes to be shared for resource skills and other resource attributes. Because large organizations may need to define more than 30 skills for their resources, Project Professional 2003 provides Enterprise Resource Multi-Value (ERMV) fields to include additional resource skill sets. For Project Professional 2002 to consider multiple skills in resource matching, skill data had to be entered in multiple codes while in Project Professional 2003 multiple skills can be entered in a single code.
Enterprise Resource Multi-Value fields correspond with Enterprise Resource Outline Codes and can hold multiple values of their corresponding Enterprise Resource Outline Code. For example, while EROC20 is defined for one skill, the corresponding ERMV20 can store and display multiple skills.
Enterprise Multi-Value fields can be used in:
• Resource views, to maintain the skills inventory of enterprise resources
• Build Team from Enterprise in Project Professional and Build Team in Project Web Access, when searching for resources with several skills
• Resource Substitution Wizard and Portfolio Modeler in Project Web Access, when considering a resource’s multiple skills
Enterprise Multi-Value fields are only available for resources and assignments; they cannot be used for projects and tasks.
Using Enterprise Multi-Value fields is straightforward. The key thing to remember in creating them is that when you create Enterprise Resource Outline Codes 20 – 29, you are automatically creating the related Enterprise Resource Multi-Value fields. To see this process, within Project Professional 2003 while logged on as an administrator, do the following:
1. From the Tools menu, click Enterprise Options and then select Open Enterprise Global.
2. From the Tools menu, click Customize - Enterprise Fields.
3. Click the Custom Outline Codes tab and then the Resource radio button.
4. Select one of Enterprise Outline Codes 20 – 29.
5. Rename the field, then add a Code Mask and then add the Lookup Table information.
6. Close the Customize Enterprise Fields dialog boxes, then close and save the Enterprise Global template, and then restart Project Professional.
Now an Enterprise Multi-Value field exists for the outline code field you created. In a view such as the Resource Sheet, you can insert the new Enterprise Resource Outline code and/or its associated Enterprise Resource Multi-Value code similar to that shown below in Figure 6.
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Figure 6: Inserting an Enterprise Resource Multi-Value Column
Once the field is inserted, from the drop down list, you can select multiple values for the same outline code.
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Figure 7: Multiple Values for the Same Outline Code
Pick-Lists and Lookup Tables in Enterprise Custom Fields
The process of filling out custom fields is unmanageable for resources, the project manager and the organization. Resources often have to guess or use other sources to determine what the defined values are for a custom field and enter these values manually into the timesheet. When they update timesheets, project managers often have to deal with incorrect values for custom fields/outline codes, reject timesheets, and send these back to resources with appropriate instructions. An organization may incur a lot of overhead to get resources to fill in custom fields/outline codes in their timesheets correctly and so generally have avoided using custom fields in timesheets.
To make gathering information from resources easier and more accurate in Project 2003, the Project Web Access timesheet provides users with pick-lists (drop-down lists) and lookup tables in enterprise custom fields and outline codes of tasks. (Note that pick-lists are not available for project, resource, or assignment custom fields or outline codes.)
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Figure 8: Pick Lists
Protect Actual Work/Adjust Actual Work
In organizations where accurate project status is essential and project performance is measured using metrics (such as variance of actual work from plan), it is important to prevent project managers from modifying the actual work that has been submitted by resources or in any way circumventing the reporting of actual work.
Actual work that has been submitted by enterprise resources can be protected to prevent project managers from modifying it in Microsoft Office Project 2003. Preventing project managers from editing actual work is available in Project Professional and only applies to actual work for enterprise resource assignments. Project managers can still edit actual work for tasks that have local or no resources assigned.
There are several aspects to protecting actual work that has already been entered:
• Preventing changes in Project Web Access (Timesheet Lock Downs).
• Preventing changes in Project Professional (Lock Down Actual work in Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003)
• Providing a mechanism to adjust actual work (Adjusting Locked Down Actual Work)
Timesheet Lock Downs
With Microsoft Office Project 2003, administrators can lock specific time periods in the Project Web Access timesheet to prevent resources from reporting hours for time periods other than the current time period.
This feature requires additional settings in the Project Web Access Admin Module. Settings for locking time periods affect the Project Web Access timesheet.
Timesheet periods can only be locked for projects that are tracked by Hours of work done per time period. Entering “actuals” (actual work) cannot be disabled in specific time periods for projects that are tracked in any other way, such as by % Work complete or total hours of actual work done. Actuals entered using these tracking methods are distributed over a time-phased period according to the usual scheduling rules.
To lock down actual work, as an administrator, perform the following steps:
1. From the Admin tab in the Project Web Access, click Customize Project Web Access.
2. Select the Tracking settings option.
3. In the Time Period Settings section, specify whether or not actual work is locked down and then choose the option that says resources report the hours worked every day.
4. Create the reporting periods setting each period as open or closed.
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Figure 9: Timesheet Lock Down
Once you have set the lock down periods, then resources in Project Web Access will not be able to make changes to actual work for the period specified as show in Figure 10 below. Notice how certain cells are shaded where team members cannot make changes to entries. The locked down period prevents any edits to the actual work.
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Figure 10: Locked Down Timesheet
Lock Down Actual Work in Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003
When the Project Server administrator chooses the “Managed Periods - Allow only Project Web Access users to update actuals during open periods” time period setting, project managers using Project Professional have the ability to modify actual work for enterprise resources. However, when the project is saved or opened or the manager attempts to remove protected actual work, they see warning messages. When an attempt is made to modify actual work, a pop up menu appears (see Figure 11 below).
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Figure 11: Project Professional User Attempting to Modify Actual Work for Enterprise Resources
When you save the project where protected actual work has been modified, you see this message:
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Figure 12: Modifying Actual Work for Enterprise Resources Warning Message
If you select Yes (the default), the actual work value(s) you changed revert back to the values stored in the Project Server. If you click No, the changes are “temporarily” saved. However, when you reopen the project, you see the warning shown in Figure 13.
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Figure 13: Modifying Actual Work for Enterprise Resources Warning Message
Adjusting Locked Down Actual Work
From time to time, there are legitimate reasons to make adjustments to actual work that is in a locked down period. For example, suppose a team member fails to report actual work before taking a long deserved vacation, and now he/she wants to report the actual work for a time period that is currently locked down. In Project Web Access, a facility has been added to allow you to do this. Users who have the “Adjust Actuals” permission can make these changes.
When adjustments to actual work in locked down periods are made, an audit log is maintained of all actual work adjustments. Therefore, by querying the Project Server MSP_WEB_TRANSACTIONS table, you can determine who has made changes and on what dates.
To adjust actual work in locked down periods, do the following:
1. Log on using Project Web Access with an account that has the “Adjust Actuals” permission (administrators have this permission by default).
2. From the Resources tab, click the Adjust Actuals link.
3. On the Add/Remove Resources tab, select the resource(s) you want to adjust, then click Add, and then click the Apply button.
4. In the time-scaled grid for the given resource, make the adjustments.
5. Finally, click the Update Actuals button.
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Figure 14: Adjusting Locked Down Actual Work
Administrative Projects
In Project Web Access in Project 2002, “non-working” or “non-project” time was collected and stored in the Project Server database, but the burden was on integrators and others to make use of this data and keep track of non-project reported time and its impact on project schedules.
Project Web Access in Project 2003 allows you to apply non-working time to a number of pre-set categories such as vacation, sick leave, bereavement, family leave, training and more. Behind the scenes, Project Server creates an “Administrative Project” — a new project type — and applies the work against these projects. Because this work is applied against a real project, resource availability is appropriately affected.
In many ways, administrative projects behave like normal projects; you can open them using Project Professional, for example. In other ways, they are different; for example, subwebs created in Windows SharePoint Services are not created nor can you attach documents, issues or risks to them.
In the Project Center in Project Web Access, you can add new categories or modify existing ones if you have privileges to see administrative projects.
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Figure 15: Manage Administrative Projects
Report Non-Working Time
The Report Non-Working Time feature in Project Web Access in the Project 2003 changes how resources report non-working time. Project Web Access in Project 2002 handled non-working time in the Tasks center with “Transfer nonworking time from your Outlook Calendar” and “Notify your manager of a change in your working days” features.
The “Transfer nonworking time…” feature in Project Web Access has been removed in Project 2003. The feature allowed you to transfer your Outlook Calendar entries to either your manager or to your timesheet as non-project time. Since the non-project/non-working time feature has been revamped, there is no longer a need to transfer these entries to your timesheet. On the other hand, sending the calendar entries to your manager had many issues that were not easily resolved. For that reason, the feature was removed.
The “Notify your manager of a change in your working days” feature has been renamed to “Notify your manager of time you will not be available for project work”, and improvements have been made. Resources are now able to send “planned” administrative time to their managers such as vacation time.
It is important to note that with this release the Report Non-Working Time feature in Project Web Access does not make any changes to resource calendars as did the Project 2002 release of Project Web Access. Instead it leverages the new Administrative Projects feature to allow a resource to report planned non-project time. In order for a resource to use the improved feature, an Administrative project must exist with non-project tasks. The resource can then specify hours by task as shown below in Figure 16. One big benefit of this new approach is that resource managers and project managers no longer require rights to update enterprise resource calendars to accept changes to working time for a resource like they did in Project 2002. This eases the burden on the project administrator and reduces frustration for the project managers and resource managers. Note, however, that because resource calendar exceptions are not made, tasks do not automatically reschedule around non-working time. Therefore, project managers must make sure that the non-working time is accounted for in the schedule.
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Figure 16: Notify Your Manager of Time You Will Not be Available for Project Work
Multiple Timesheet Approvers
Many organizations require more than one person to approve actual work reported by resources that is to be applied to projects. In other cases, the approver may not even be the project manager, but a resource manager, for example.
Microsoft Office Project 2003 permissions to approve timesheets are based on the RBS code of a user, or based on whether or not the user has been added to the “Timesheet Approvers” category. Each reviewer is notified that a timesheet needs approval, either as an e-mail notification or by looking at the Project Web Access home page. Each approver can accept or reject a timesheet. If one reviewer rejects it, the timesheet as a whole is rejected. The project manager still maintains the ability to update the project at any time, but all other approvers will know that the project manager has updated the project. Therefore, even though the “multiple approvers” feature does not implement a formal workflow process or prevent actions such as updates from happening before all approvers have consented, the actions are recorded in Project Server for all approvers to see.
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Figure 17: Timesheet Approval View
Proposed-Booking of Resources
Proposed booking is a new feature in Microsoft Office Project 2003 that can help organizations plan ahead by allowing them to track potential resource assignments for projects that are still in the proposal phase. Service organizations, for example, are looking for this kind of functionality, as they are constantly weighing various opportunities and the need to manage both proposed and approved assignments. Proposed booking is aimed both at the resource managers in these organizations that control a pool of resources and must respond to staffing requests, as well as the project managers who do their own staffing.
Proposed booking is not to be confused with generic resource assignments. Generic resources are effective for specifying what type and number of resources are needed for a project and when they are needed (what and when), while proposed booking is effective for planning how to staff the project with real people based on the needed skills and availability (who and how).
Because proposed booking implies a “reserved” assignment state, it marks a resource as not truly committed to the project. Therefore, a project manager may want to use proposed booking to plan and track multiple competing or overlapping scenarios simultaneously.
Some organizations may see proposed booking as a way of locking in the availability of a resource. They can use it to separate real assignments from the proposed assignments. Also, with proposed bookings resources do not become over-allocated and stay available for other assignments.
While proposed booking is used to flag resource assignments, the common usage is to apply it at the project level for each resource, not at the task level for each assignment. Proposed booking adds a new resource field in Project Professional 2003 in the Resource Table view, which contains the booking type (proposed or committed) that is applied to all of the resource’s assignments in the project. The same booking type can be set in resource views by inserting the Booking Type field or, for example, in the Resource Information dialog box.
For assembling project teams, availability evaluation, and report creation purposes, there is a clear distinction between committed-booked and proposed-booked resources and their assignments. The proposed booking information is available in Project Professional in the Resource Substitution Wizard and Resource Graph view. It is also accessible in Project Web Access, where it can be used by a resource manager to staff projects in the new Build Team feature or to assess capacity versus demand in the Resource Availability Graph.
Resource Substitution Wizard
The Resource Substitution Wizard has been enhanced to include consideration of proposed resources in two steps of the wizard.
In Step 2 of the wizard you are asked to choose the work resources to consider in the substitution. You can opt to consider resources from the project(s) selected for substitution, select from resources based on the Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS), or create a list of resources by individually adding them. You now have the option to include proposed resources in addition to committed resources by checking the check box shown below. The proposed resources option is off by default.
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Figure 18: Resource Substitution Wizard Step 2 with Proposed Resources
In step 4 you are asked to choose scheduling options. You can choose a prioritization scheme for the project(s) that will participate in the substitution process. You now have the option to include proposed resources along with committed resources by checking the check box shown below. Proposed resourced would be leveled along with committed resources should you choose to level the project(s) after the Resource Substitution Wizard completes. This check box is cleared by default.
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Figure 19: Resource Substitution Wizard Step 4 with Proposed Resources
Build Team from Enterprise
The Build Team from Enterprise feature has been enhanced to include consideration for proposed resources. The new check box is shown in Figure 20 below. Users should check the box if they wish to have the Build Team from Enterprise feature include proposed resources when filtering for availability and work. The check box is cleared by default, meaning that only committed resource assignments will be included in availability and work calculations.
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Figure 20: Build Team from Enterprise with Proposed Resources
Project Management
Enterprise File Open Dialog
Microsoft Project Professional 2002 users who have many projects have asked for a quick and easy way to find a project from the Open from Microsoft Project Server dialog box (from the Open option on the File menu). They have also asked for a way to delete projects from within Project Professional. Microsoft Office Project 2003 makes opening and deleting projects from within Project Professional easier by allowing you to group projects (in addition to sorting that’s available in Project 2002) and to delete projects you own. The new dialog is shown below.
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Figure 21: Enterprise File Open Dialog
Projects will appear sorted in ascending alphabetical order initially. To quickly scroll to a project when you know the name you can type the name and the list will scroll as you type letters. In the case of the example above, typing the letter M would scroll the list to the Malaysian Admin Project. Typing the letter M and then the letter R would scroll you to the next project that begins with M in alphabetical order.
You can change the sort order by clicking on any of the column headings. To see the project that was modified the most recently you would do the following:
1. Click on the Last Modified column, which will sort the projects in ascending order of Last Modified date.
2. Click on the Last Modified column a second time which will change the sort order to descending, showing the most recently modified project at the top of the list.
The Group By functionality requires you to have an Enterprise Project Outline code created. To delete a project, first select it and then either click the “X” button or press your delete key.
Project Center Open Project Improvements
In Project 2003, the Project Center includes an enhancement that allows you to select multiple projects and open them in Project Professional 2003. Enhancements include the abilities to:
• Multi-select two or more projects in the Project Center and then open these projects in Project Professional as inserted projects in a single, consolidated master project.
• Select a group heading and open all child projects visible in the Project Center under the group heading as inserted projects in a single, consolidated master project.
• Prevent the user from opening a mixture of enterprise and non-enterprise projects.
• Display a message box when you select 10 or more projects and request to confirm that you want to open the projects, and the option to open the projects as read-only or read-write.
Project Manager Self Check-in Stranded Projects
One problem encountered by project managers in Microsoft Project Professional 2002 was that if a project became “stranded” in a checked-out state, then the project manager had to find a Project Server administrator to force the check-in of the project using Project Web Access. Project Web Access in Project 2003 improves this by allowing project managers to check in projects that they have stranded. A project manager can go to the Project Center, and force a check-in for projects he/she has checked out, as shown in Figure 22.
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Figure 22: Check-in Stranded Projects
Protect Saved Baselines
With Microsoft Project 2002, any user who had read and write access to an enterprise project could save a baseline — even if one had already been set. In Microsoft Office Project 2003, administrators now have the ability to lock-down a user’s ability to save baseline data. The Save Baseline global permission controls whether or not a Project user can save a baseline. The permission can be applied to users individually or can be applied to groups of users. For example, an organization may choose to grant the Save Baseline permission only to users of a Senior Project Manager group.
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Figure 23: Save Baseline Permission in the Global Permissions List
Value Lists in Filters
When you created a filter in Microsoft Project 2002 and earlier, the Values field did not allow you to choose valid values from a pick list. For example, if you had defined the Text1 field to include a pick list with the values of A, B and C and wanted to create a filter that finds all tasks with the letter A in the Text 1 field, you would have had to remember what value you wanted to filter on and the filter would have looked similar to Figure 24.
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Figure 24: Filter Definitions
This is not too hard to manage if your value lists/pick lists are simple. However, with the addition of the Multi-Valued outline codes, remembering exactly what value to enter into your filter can be cumbersome. Therefore, in Project 2003, you can use a pick list to select the value(s) for your filters as shown in Figure 25.
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Figure 25: Pick Lists
Office 2003 Task Panes
Microsoft Office Project 2003 implements a number of the Office 2003 services and task panes that are keenly focused around user assistance.
Additionally, when users have access to Microsoft Office Project 2003, they automatically receive Help content improvements made over time, without having to subscribe to any Microsoft Office 2003 services to enjoy this benefit.
Getting Started Pane
Microsoft Office Project 2003 users can get additional information when they are connected to the Internet from within Microsoft Office Project 2003 in the Getting Started pane. The Getting Started pane helps users link to Microsoft Office Online Web page, and improved search accuracy provides up-to-date Help topics. A list of most recently used files is also provided in the Getting Started pane.
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Figure 26: Getting Started Pane
Search Results Pane
Search results are highlighted in a task pane in Project 2003. Users can specify if they want to search Microsoft Office Online, offline help files, clip art and media, or the Office Marketplace. The type of content that is returned is clearly marked so that you can distinguish between items such as Help and templates, and whether the information is available from the Web or from within Project. Users can also still get Help even if they are not connected to the Internet. Offline or online, the query and results user interface are the same, allowing users to transparently take advantage of the network.
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Figure 27: Search Results Pane
Help Pane
The Help Pane displays the expanded set of Help alternatives. When you click Project Help on the Help menu, the Help Pane appears, allowing you to either use Search or browse the Web to find the information you need. The Help Pane also provides a separate link to training, discussion groups, and downloads.
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Figure 28: Help Pane
Templates on Microsoft Office Online
Rather than start from scratch, you can download a template to start your projects. In the New Projects pane, you can opt to open a template from Microsoft Office Online. When you select a Microsoft Office Project 2003 template from the template gallery on the Web, it downloads and runs seamlessly just like any other template in a Microsoft Office System program.
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Figure 29: Templates on Office Online
Watson
Watson is a crash reporting technology shared among Microsoft Office applications and operating systems such as Microsoft Windows® XP. Watson crash reporting can more accurately track and reproduce internal asserts, internal crashes, and customer crashes.
Some alerts that may have been confusing to users in Microsoft Project 2002 are integrated with appropriate Help content in Microsoft Office Project 2003.
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Figure 30: Service Options Dialog
All of these new Office 2003 features that connect to the Web or send data to the Web can be controlled by you with the service options. In Microsoft Office Project 2003, from the Tools menu click Options, then select the General tab and then click on the Service Options button to see the Service Options dialog.
Project Guide for Printing Wizard
New with Microsoft Office Project 2003, you can more easily discover the printing options available in Project by printing directly from the Project Guide. Simply follow the Project Guide instructions for optimal printing of views in Project. Note that printing Project reports is not supported within this wizard.
The Project Guide for printing is accessed from the Project Guide via the Report goal area.
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Figure 31: Project Guide for Printing Wizard
By clicking the Print current view as a report Project Guide link, you can use a wizard to print one or multiple pages and select sizing options for fonts you want, the desired timescale date range, and which columns and tasks should be printed. Next, you can set the header and footer details, print margins, and specify how notes are printed, page breaks and more. During all wizard steps, you can choose to print preview or to print.
Copy Picture to Office Wizard
Previous versions of Project allowed you to create a picture to copy into another application such as PowerPoint® by using the Copy Picture command. Through a bit of trial and error, you could select the right options to give you what you wanted. Today, the process is greatly streamlined with the new Copy Picture to Office Wizard.
To start the wizard, click on the Copy Picture to Office Wizard button on the Analysis Toolbar.
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If the Analysis Toolbar is not present, click on the View menu, point to Toolbars, and click on Analysis. The wizard guides you through the steps of creating a picture for a targeted application.
To start the wizard, from the View menu, click Toolbars and then select Copy Picture to Office. Next, on the toolbar, click the Copy Picture to Office Wizard button. The wizard guides you through the steps of creating a picture for a targeted program.
The first step is to select an outline level for the project and click the Next button.
The next step is to specify what application the picture is destined for (see Figure 32).
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Figure 32: Copy Picture to Office Wizard - Step 1
The second step is to specify what part of the file should be copied, the timescale for the data, and what size image you want (see Figure 33).
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Figure 33: Copy Picture to Office Wizard - Step 2
The third step is to select the application that the picture is destined for (see Figure 34).
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Figure 34: Copy Picture to Office Wizard - Step 3
The wizard also provides other benefits such as adding common project-level fields to the output in Step 4 similar to those shown in Figure 35.
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Figure 35: Copy Picture to Office Wizard - Step 4
Finally, the picture and related information are placed into a document in the target application. Figure 36 below shows how the copied picture looks inside a document created with Microsoft Office Word.
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Figure 36: Copy Picture to Office Wizard Results
Collaboration
Home Page Improvements
The Project Web Access home page now has a new look and a couple of new features. The specific content on the home page is determined by the features that are implemented on the server, the role of the user, the permissions that are assigned to the user, and any customizations that may have been done to the home page. Timesheet approvers now have a Timesheet link on their home page that will alert them to any timesheets that need approval, as shown below in Figure 37. There is also a Risks link that will take the user to a “Risks” page to view and manage project-related risks.
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Figure 37: Project Web Access Home Page
Project Web Access Grid Printing
Users have asked us to improve the ability to print their timesheets and the Project Center and Resource Center views in Project Web Access. Until now, the results could be unpredictable since the printing relies on the browser to print “a picture.” Project Web Access in Project 2003 allows you to create printable reports in selected views that have a grid (a timesheet view, for example). Each report page, hosted in a new browser window, has two main UI sections:
• Main: Renders the grid data (stored in a data island on the page) in an HTML table.
• Header: Contains options to customize the data rendered in the HTML table in the main section. Options include:
• Show/hide columns
• Reorder columns
• Modify column width
• Allow/disallow column text wrapping
The reports support the following views:
• Timesheet (task page)
• Project Center drill down projects
• Resource Center
The reports will NOT print the following:
• Documents
• Issues/risks
• Updates
Here is what the print grid page looks like:
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Figure 38: Project Web Access Grid Printing
Export Grid to Excel
Much of the data delivered to you in Project Web Access is presented using the Project Grid Control. Task lists, timesheets, to-do lists, Project Center Views, and Resource Center Views all present most of their data through the Project Grid Control. Project Web Access in the Project 2003 release now supports the exporting of grid data to Excel with a single click. To export data to Excel from a Project Grid Control perform the following steps:
1. Retrieve the data that you wish to export. For example to export a view of enterprise projects to Excel you would click on the Projects menu item, click on the View projects in Project Center link on the left navigation pane, and then select the Project Center view that you wish to export
2. Click on the Export Grid to Excel link below the grid, as shown below in Figure 39.
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Figure 39: Project Web Access Export Grid to Excel
3. Click Save As on the File menu from Excel if you wish to save the Excel spreadsheet. You can choose to save the Excel data as an XML Spreadsheet, an XML data file, a standard Excel Workbook file, or even an HTML file. An example of an exported spreadsheet is shown below in Figure 40.
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Figure 40: Exported grid data in Excel
Outlook Integration
To address a popular request, Microsoft Office Project 2003 now integrates with Microsoft Outlook. This capability is available with Microsoft Outlook 2000, Microsoft Outlook 2002, and Microsoft Office Outlook 2003.
Calendar integration
Project 2003 integrates with Outlook to allow project tasks to appear in Outlook calendars alongside appointments. Users can update progress on calendar entries and report status back to Project Server from Microsoft Outlook. Tasks on the Outlook Calendar can be displayed as free or busy times.
Project 2003 integration with Microsoft Outlook allows users to import Project Server assignments into Microsoft Outlook as calendar entries. Importing Project Server assignments into Microsoft Outlook as tasks is not supported in this version.
Microsoft Outlook integration functionality is built as an Outlook Component Object Model (COM) add-in that is included with Project Web Access. It allows team members who use Project Web Access to keep track of tasks in their Microsoft Outlook Calendar.
Using the Timesheet in Microsoft Outlook
New with Microsoft Office Project 2003, data in a user’s Project Web Access timesheet can be exchanged between Project Server and Microsoft Outlook. An external timesheet utility is provided that allows users to receive assignments from Project Server in Outlook, where they can update them and send updated assignment information back to the project manager. After reviewing updates, the project manager can then use Project Web Access to approve transactions and incorporate updates into the project plan.
To use the Outlook integration, from Project Web Access, go to the Tasks bar and select the View and report on your tasks from your Outlook Calendar link. Or, you can click on the Work with Outlook link on the Home Page. On the page, you can read about the add-in and download it.
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Figure 41: View and report tasks from Outlook Calendar
Downloading allows you to start the installation of the add-in for Outlook.
To use the Microsoft Outlook integration, in Microsoft Outlook, go to the Tools menu and then select Options. You will notice that there is a new tab in the Options dialog called “Project Web Access”, as shown in Figure 42.
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Figure 42: Options Dialog
On the Project Web Access tab of the Options dialog, you can specify the range for which you would like to import your Project Server tasks. You can also specify whether or not the import and update occurs manually or automatically. To establish the connection information to Project Server, click the Enter login information button. You will see the Enter Login Information dialog, as shown below in Figure 43.
In the Enter Login Information dialog, enter the URL to your Project Server. If you are using a Microsoft Windows user account to log into Project Server, then set the “When connecting” radio button to “Use Windows user account.” Otherwise, set the “Use a Project Server account” option and then enter the user name.
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Figure 43: Enter Login Information
Note: If you use Project Server accounts, automatic Imports and Updates will not occur. You must do manual updates. To start a manual update, in Microsoft Outlook, do the following:
From the View menu, click Toolbars and then select the Project Web Access toolbar.
Click either the Import New Assignments or Update Project Web Access button from the toolbar as shown in Figure 44.
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Figure 44: Import New Assignments or Update Project Web Access
You may also click on the Tools menu, click on the Project Web Access menu, and click on Import New Assignments, or Update Project Web Access.
Once you invoke this process, you may see a dialog similar to the one shown in Figure 45.
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Figure 45: Update Assignments from Project Server
Once tasks have been imported you can open the appointment in your Microsoft Outlook Calendar to see task details as shown below in Figure 46.
You can also see a new tab labeled Project Web Access. This tab, depending on your tracking mode, shows the Project Server timesheet view or displays controls to allow you to change Actual Work, Remaining Work and Percent Complete.
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Figure 46: View My Tasks in Microsoft Outlook
Depending on the options you have set using the Advanced Options button on the Project Web Access tab (from the Options selection on the Tools menu) updates will either go directly to the project manager or will update your Tasks view where you will need to update the project manager.
Document Check-in/Check-out
Project Web Access supports check-in/check-out functionality for documents through the integration of Project Server with Windows SharePoint Services. Windows SharePoint Services is a component technology of Windows Server 2003 and requires Windows Server 2003. This check-in/check-out capability allows you to lock documents from other users when you are using a document. Administrative override of a check-out is also supported. Check-in/check-out of documents directly affects the document and its properties.
Similar to how Project Server 2002 integrated with SharePoint Team Services in the Project 2002 release, you can upload new documents or create new documents in a Web browser directly from a site created with Windows SharePoint Services if you use Microsoft Word 2002. Windows SharePoint Services also allows you to see your documents in a “grid” (Edit in Datasheet) where you are able to quickly change properties about the documents such as status, owner and more. The Datasheet can also be exported to Excel where the data can be modified and kept in synchronization with Windows SharePoint Services.
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Figure 47: View and Upload Documents
The basics of check-in/check-out functionality are quite simple. If a document is checked-out, then only the user who has checked it out can save to it. When browsing to a checked-out document, the viewer will see the most up-to-date version. Anyone else browsing to the checked-out document sees the last updated version.
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Figure 48: Checking Out a Document
Users can also add check-in/check-out comments. When a document is checked in, these comments are sent to the server and are saved with the document metadata. You also have the option to save the document with changes but keep the document in a checked out state, or to discard all changes since the last version and undo the check out.
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Figure 49: Checking In a Document
Document Versions
For comparison and archiving purposes, Windows SharePoint Services now provides the ability for users to store multiple versions of a document. When checked-out documents are checked in, a copy of the previous document is created and saved as a version of the document.
When a document is linked to projects and tasks in Project Server, it is always linked to the most current version of the document.
Users can view all versions of a given document. They can also can restore the current document to a specific version or delete a version.
Risk Management
Risks are events or conditions that can have a positive or negative impact on the outcome of a project. They can be integrated in the overall project life cycle and refer to future potential for adverse outcome or loss. Risk tracking functionality is highly requested by project managers. In fact, many project managers argue that project management is about risk management. The integration of Project Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services provides the ability to record risks and escalate the risks for mitigation.
Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 provides a risk tracking feature[1] that helps project managers in their risk management process — the process of identifying, analyzing, and addressing project risks proactively. Risk tracking enables project managers to record, share, update, and analyze project risks. They can also customize risk tracking for a specific project or the entire organization.
Risk tracking is implemented in Project Web Access, where risks can be submitted, updated, and associated to elements such as projects, tasks, documents, issues, and other risks.
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Figure 50: View and Submit Risks
Extensible Platform
Project Data Service (PDS) Enhancements
Project management is a compilation of information and calculations that together provide a picture of a project’s possible and actual progress. Some of the information is likely already stored in other systems within the organization. To facilitate interfaces to this information, and to better support independent software vendors (ISVs) and partners, Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 includes new Project Data Service (PDS) API’s for creating projects, creating and editing enterprise resource pools and custom fields and outline codes, and for loading and synchronizing resource information from Active Directory.
The following section provides a high level overview of the updates and additions to the PDS. For a more complete description see the document entitled “Microsoft Office Project Server 2003: Project Data Service (PDS) Usage and Methods Reference” on the Microsoft Download Center website.
PDS – Timesheet API
This API provides the ability to get assignments from Project Server, as well as edit those assignments (and programmatically update the project manager of existing edits) through an external timesheet tool. This API also provides a programmatic interface to Project Server assignment data, without a dependency on the Project Professional client or Project Web Access timesheet tool; this can all be accomplished by native calls to the PDS. This API does NOT provide the programmatic ability for the Project Manager to approve timesheet transactions once they’ve been submitted by team members. The Project Manager still needs to log in to Project Web Access to approve transactions for the updates to travel back to the project plan.
The new Outlook Add-in uses this API to communicate with Project Server.
PDS – Enterprise Custom Fields
This new API provides a programmatic interface to editing the value lists for non-outline code Enterprise custom fields (such as an Enterprise Project Text Field with an associated value list).
PDS – Enterprise Resource Creation
This new API allows you to programmatically create and edit enterprise resources in order to facilitate integration between other line of business systems and Project Server. For example, you can create a process that creates a new Enterprise Resource Pool resource in a programmatic fashion all without the use of the Project Professional client.
PDS – Improved Enterprise Custom Field Editing
In the Microsoft Project 2002 release, editing custom fields was difficult – even through the PDS. With the release of Project 2003, improvements have been made to make this chore easier. This new API also makes it easier for you to integrate the value lists for Enterprise Outline Codes with another business system, like Human Resources or Financial.
PDS – Enterprise Project Creation
With Microsoft Project 2002, there is no foolproof way to create enterprise projects directly without using Project Professional. This new API facilitates creating the elements of a project, ranging from a blank project to a project with tasks, resources and assignments -- all through a programmatic interface without utilizing Project Professional. This API does NOT provide a server side scheduling engine.
PDS – Project Server User Maintenance
The PDS now has the ability to add and remove users and maintain Project Server group memberships. The new Active Directory Enterprise Resource Pool Synchronization feature relies on five new methods provided in the Project Server 2003 PDS.
PDS – Project Outline Values
These new methods provide the ability to filter projects in the File Open dialog box. Its primary purpose is for use within Project Professional.
PDS – Multi-Valued Custom Resource Outline Codes
Project Professional 2003 now gives users the ability to define and use multi-valued resource outline codes. Four existing PDS methods have been enhanced to offer the ability to create, modify and delete these codes -- all through a programmatic interface without utilizing Project Professional.
VBA/Object Model Changes
Trusted Sources
With Microsoft Office Project 2003 (and Office 2003), trusted sources lists for Office and Project have been combined into one. This means, for example, if you’ve downloaded a COM Add-in and have trusted it via Internet Explorer, it will be trusted as well by the Office
Outline Codes
Support for outline codes has been improved. This includes:
A new OutlineCode object/OutlineCodes collection
A new LookupTableEntry object/LookupTable collection
A new CodeMaskLevel object/CodeMask collection
Project Guide
Improvements have been made to the Project Guide to make it easier for developers. The major change is that hard-coded paths for files are no longer required.
Administration/Deployment
Project Server Setup User Interface Improvements
There are a number of changes in Project Server 2003 setup that make it easier to deploy, especially in a distributed environment. For example, consider the case where you want to set up your server to run in an IIS cluster, with the views processing and the session manager each running on a separate server. During the Project Server 2003 setup, you get to a page of the setup wizard that asks you what part of the Project Server you are installing, as shown in Figure 51.
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Figure 51: Project Server Setup
Depending on what options you choose, you are prompted to enter the server name, login credentials and more. In Figure 52, setup is shown asking for information to determine how to configure the views processing service.
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Figure 52: Project Server Setup View Processing Server Information
The strategy for running setup for a distributed deployment is to install all of the ancillary components first (such as Views Processing and Session Manager) and then install the Project Server front-end.
Proxy Server Settings
One of the major areas for improvement in the integration of Microsoft Project Server 2002 and SharePoint Team Services is facilitating the process where user set up their proxy settings. In Project Server 2003, proxy settings are integrated into setup. Therefore, setup determines what your current proxy settings are and uses this information to make the correct settings.
Database Partitioning
Database partitioning in Project Server 2003 is a cost-effective approach to improve system scalability by allowing the database to be divided between two servers (and hence use more than one network interface card) using the linked server capabilities in Microsoft SQL Server. This is intended to offer users a non-hardware way of increasing Project Server scalability.
For example, a large corporation may have several thousand Project Web Access users as well as a large number of projects that require frequent updates from Project. During system installation, the system administrator can use a Project Server setup option to use a different SQL Server for the Views tables than for the rest of the database. The linked server capability in SQL Server combined with views of the tables on each server allows the load to be divided between the two servers with minimal application code changes.
During the setup of Project Server 2003, you are given the option to partition the database so that the views tables are either included in one database as they are with Microsoft Project Server 2002, or separated off onto a separate database server. Figure 53 shows the setup wizard page where you can choose.
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Figure 53: Project Server Setup Database Partitioning
Other Project Server Setup Changes
There are a few other Project Server setup changes you should be aware of. They are:
• There no longer is an “Install Now” option. In Microsoft Project Server 2002, the “Install Now” option basically gave you a way to have setup install the MSDE but with no other integration to pieces such as Windows SharePoint Services, Analysis Services and more. For users who do not have Microsoft SQL Server, MSDE will be available on the Project Server CD, but the user will need to install MSDE first.
• The SharePoint Team Services Installation Wizard (STSWiz.exe) no longer installs SharePoint Team Services (STS). Windows SharePoint Services is now a component of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and should be installed before you install Project Server (as are Microsoft SQL Server and IIS).
• Connecting to Windows SharePoint Services is much easier than connecting to STS was in Microsoft Project Server 2002 due to a few factors:
o Windows SharePoint Services has made considerable improvements in how communication is done. Figure 54 shows the “Connect to SharePoint server” administration page in Project Web Access.
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Figure 54: Windows SharePoint Services Connect to SharePoint Server
o Project Server 2003 and Project Server 2002 require you to create accounts so that the COM+ packages can be made, but the rest of the process is made much easier with Project Server 2003. Basically, at the end of WSSWiz, you are given the URL to the Windows SharePoint Services site and then you simply enter that URL on this page and then click Save Changes. No longer do you need to enter database server names, database names, SSL ports, Windows SharePoint Services server names, and so forth.
o When you click the Save Changes button, more error checking is performed to determine what the problem is should this step fail. Consequently, an error message will have one or perhaps two causes to help you better diagnose the issue.
Sample Database
Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 includes a sample database to allow you to conduct demonstrations without using your live Project Server database. The sample database also gives you a way to familiarize yourself with the basic functionality, capabilities, and overall operation of Project Professional. The sample database contains sufficient data (including projects, tasks, resources, assignments, views, enterprise global settings, issues, and document libraries) to enable a comprehensive demonstration of key functionality of the system. In addition to formal training, it allows you to explore the product capabilities at your own pace, without impacting production projects.
Please note that the sample database is not a tutorial that allows you to easily rollback your actions to get back to a fresh starting point. During setup, you can choose to create the installation links for the sample database. Post setup, you can then run the Sample Database Configuration wizard.
Active Directory Synchronization
Organizations that have made the investment in Active Directory technology from Microsoft want to make optimum use of it. Often, resource data and security data are stored in the Active Directory, and Microsoft Project Server 2002 did not make significant use of this data.
Active Directory improvements in Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 allow administrators to implement a service that maps resources from the Active Directory to the Enterprise Resource Pool, and that maps Active Directory security groups to Project Server security groups. This service runs automatically on a regular basis, as determined by the Project Server administrator.
Using this feature, Project Server administrators can take advantage of the Active Directory infrastructure in their organization to provide one-stop administration of security and resources.
This feature does not support two-way synchronization between Project Server and Active Directory; it is designed to support automated one-way synchronization from Active Directory to Project Server.
Synchronizing Resources from an Active Directory Group
The new Active Directory functionality in Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 synchronizes the team members in a particular group in Active Directory to the Enterprise Resource Pool. For example, new team members in the Active Directory Group (or in an included Active Directory Group) are automatically created as resources in the Enterprise Resource Pool and in Project Server, and resources that no longer exist in the mapped Active Directory Group are automatically inactivated in the Enterprise Resource Pool and Project Server.
To enable Active Directory synchronization, do the following:
1. Log onto Project Web Access using an administrative account.
2. From the Admin tab, click the Server configuration link.
3. In the Active Directory section, make the appropriate settings and then click the Save Changes button.
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Figure 55: Active Directory Enterprise Resource Pool Synchronization Options
Security Synchronization
The Active Directory functionality in Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 also synchronizes the team members in Active Directory Groups to Project Server security groups. Because organizations may organize their Active Directory Groups in a way that does not directly map to security groups in Project Server, an administrator needs to map Project Server groups to the appropriate Active Directory groups, and may need to create specific Active Directory groups for this purpose. If these specific groups contain other groups (such as organizational groups), the administrator can simply place resources in the core Active Directory Group and have the new Active Directory functionality automatically map them to the correct Project Server groups.
To synchronize an Active Directory group to a Project Server security group, as an administrator, do the following:
1. Click the Admin tab.
2. From the Action pane, select Manage Users and Groups.
3. Select Groups.
4. At the bottom of the page, expand the “Active Directory” section.
5. Click the Synchronize Project Server groups with Active Directory checkbox.
6. For the security group you want to synchronize, select it in the groups grid.
7. Click the Modify Group button.
8. In the Active Directory Group field, enter the appropriate group name.
9. Click the Save Changes button.
When you’re finished, the Groups page looks similar to this:
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Figure 56: Groups
For more information please see the “PDS – Project Server User Maintenance” specification found in this document.
Delete Resources
A long time request has been the ability to permanently delete resources and not just inactivate them. A new PDS enhancement provides this capability. To delete a resource:
1. Log into Project Web Access as an administrator.
2. Click on the Admin tab
3. Click on the Clean up the Project Server database link
4. Click on the Resource radio button
5. Select the resource from the drop down list
6. Modify the default deletion comment (optional)
7. Click on the Delete button at the bottom of the page
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Figure 57: Clean up Project Server Database
Resource Center Improvements
A number of enhancements have been made to the Resource Center view, including new options when creating a new Resource Center view. For example, you can pre-set the grouping criteria and filter based on the Resource Breakdown Structure.
Renamed Custom Fields Appear on Views page
When creating a custom view, renamed fields appear. This makes it easier for administrators to know which fields to add to a view.
Define Timesheet Views
Administrators using Project Web Access have a lot of control over how views appear to their users. One “view” that cannot be customized, however, is the resource’s timesheet. In Project Web Access in Project 2002, the administrator had no control over what default fields appeared, and the order of these fields. In Microsoft Office Project 2003, the administrator can set the default fields and control the order of the fields. Project managers still retain the ability to publish custom fields to timesheets. If the same fields have been specified by the administrator, they will appear in a resource’s timesheet.
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Figure 58: Modify Timesheet View
Administrators can not create new timesheet views but can only modify the existing default timesheet view.
Delegate Task Security Enhancement
The Delegate Task wizard in Project Web Access includes a new security enhancement. In Project 2002, the list of users to whom a task could be delegated (displayed in a drop-down list box) contained all Project Server users. In Project 2003, the list contains only those users for whom the authenticated user has “See Resource Assignments” permissions.
Backward Compatibility and Interoperability
Microsoft Office Project 2003 maintains a backward compatibility with previous versions of Project, as described here. Project 2000, Project 2002, and Project 2003 share a common file format. You can freely open a project file (mpp file) created in any of those three versions of Project in any other version. Features that are present in newer versions will not display when opened in older versions. You can save project plans in Microsoft Project 98 mpp file format from Project 2000, Project 2002, or Project 2003. Any features that do not map to Project 98 will be discarded when the project is saved to Microsoft Project 98 format.
Project 2003 saves to the same set of file formats as Project 2002 including XML, XLS, MPD (Microsoft Project Database), and CSV (Comma separated Values). Project 2000 and later versions no longer save project plans to the MPX format.
Project Server and Project Professional in the Project 2003 and Project 2002 releases maintain a high degree of interoperability. Project Professional 2002 and Project Professional 2003 can both interoperate in some ways with a Project Server running the other version. An example of this is selecting multiple projects from the Project Center view while using Project Web Access 2003 and opening them in Project Professional 2002 -- despite the fact that Project Web Access in Project 2002 does not permit you to open multiple projects with Project Professional 2002.
System Requirements Changes
For a list of system requirements for Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003, Microsoft Office Project Server 2003, and Microsoft Office Project Web Access, you can refer to
.
© 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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[1] The new functionality does not provide cross-project risk tracking and reporting, or sophisticated risk management such as Monte Carlo analysis.
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Figure 0: Copy Picture to Office Wizard Step 1
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