Using Project Central to Roll Out Microsoft Project



Supporting Executive Information Needs with Project Central

By Carol Hartz, Ph.D., Carol Hartz & Associates, Inc. (officer, Atlanta Chapter)

Corporate executives and project team members may have different information needs. Executives frequently request summary or “top down” views of projects across the organization, while team members may adopt a task-oriented, or “bottom up” perspective of a single project.

Railcar Management, Inc. (RMI), an Atlanta-based vendor of software and services to the rail transportation industry, has initiated a pilot effort using Project Central to support the information needs of both its executives and project team members.

RMI faces a special challenge using Project Central as an Executive Information System. Although the company has used Microsoft Project 98 for selected projects in the past, the majority of the its projects are not described to MS Project.

In early 2000, RMI implemented Microsoft Project 2000 and Project Central for a large software development project. Although the implementation of Project Central provided benefit to the project team, RMI soon recognized that it offered benefit to the executives as well. Project Central acts as a consolidator of project information, and presents project summary information in both graph and spreadsheet formats. This presentation of summary information from across the organization is of key interest to RMI’s executives.

The steps that RMI is taking to immediately strengthen support of executive project information needs while gradually implementing Project 2000 are described below.

First: Prioritize goals for Executive Information System use

Before implementing Project Central as an Executive Information System, RMI prioritized its goals for executive system use. RMI’s first priority is to improve project tracking. The company may have dozens of development projects underway at any one time, and projects may range in size from weeks to person years of effort. Tracking these projects is a primary goal in executive use of Project Central.

Project Central’s Tracking View

RMI’s second priority is to utilize its software developers, a key corporate resource, as effectively as possible. As in many industries, some team members have specialized skills that are required for short periods on a number of projects. Making the best use of these resources and tracking the multiple demands made on them is a secondary goal of executive use of Project Central.

Second: Develop an implementation plan that makes sense for the organization

RMI recognized that a phased approach to implementing Project 2000 best fit its corporate culture. However, RMI also recognized that estimates of project summary information are readily available from project managers regardless of their use of Project 2000.

Because project information is available in mixed levels of detail, RMI opted to implement Project Central using a mixed “bottom up” and “top down” approach. With this approach, Project Central combines detailed information for some projects with summary information for projects not yet tracked with Project 2000. Executives who use Project Central can then see a consolidated view of all projects across the company.

Project Central’s Assignment View

Third: Collect selected “bottom up” information for key projects

RMI will initially use Project 2000 and Project Central for two large development efforts. Project 2000 will be used to publish project plans for both projects to Project Central. Project Central will then summarize the information in its portfolio views.

Fourth: Collect “top down” information for other projects

RMI will collect summary information for projects not currently tracked with Project 2000. Summary information will initially be entered in Project 2000 as a single task per project. Project 2000 will then publish the information to Project Central, where it will be combined and displayed with other projects in its portfolio view.

Fifth: Roll out the system to the executive staff

RMI’s greatest interest is project tracking, so executives will likely use Project Central’s Tracking View most frequently. RMI’s second priority is to monitor the effective utilization of its developers, so executives will likely use Project Central’s Assignment View as well. In meeting both objectives, Project Central will give RMI executives a consistent view of project status regardless of whether project information is collected “bottom up” or “top down”.

Carol Hartz can be reached at dsccfhx@

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