Administrative Project Time Management

[JBJC]

What is the approval process for Admininstrative Projects?

- Resource A uses the Notify Your Manager of Time You Will Not Be
Available...function to request time away.
- PM gets the update notification and goes into Updates/View task changes
submitted by resources
-The administrative category names appear
- No time appears in the righthand screen because this time is not yet
"actual time" (actual work); it is "requested time" (work).
- No total time appears in the lefthand screen under Work either.

As a project manager, how do I know what I'm trying to approve (accept) or
disapprove (reject)?

If I'm not following the right process, what is the right process?

Thanks for any assistance.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

JBJC --

First of all, you realize that by using an Administrative project to track
nonworking time such as vacation, Microsoft Project will NOT automatically
reschedule project work around each nonworking time period, right? As long
as you know this, then I believe you are using the correct process.
Consider the following example:

1. Ruth Andrews' functional manager approves 5 days of vacation from
October 2-6.
2. Ruth Andrews navigates to the "Notify your manager of time..." page and
enters those 5 days of planned vacation.
3. Ruth Andrews adds a NOTE to the nonworking time update, including the
date she will be on vacation.
4. Ruth Andrews submits the planned nonworking time update to you.
5. You navigate to the Updates page to view Ruth Andrews's nonworking time.
6. You click the View Options tab and select the "Show scheduled work"
option (to see her planned nonworking time).
7. You read her Note and then scroll to the time period she indicated in
the Note.

NOTE: If you don't ask your team members to add a Note to their nonworking
time updates, then you must look at the Time Period selector above the data
grid. The Date Selector will show you the ending date of the nonworking
time period.

8. You approve the update into the Microsoft Project plan.

9. The software warns you that "the resource is assigned outside the
original dates..." Click the OK button.
10. Click the OK button to save the project.

When Ruth Andrews actually takes the vacation, when she returns she will
enter the vacation nonworking time period on her PWA timesheet in the Actual
Work field and then update this to you. So, yes, you are using the
Administrative project correctly. If you really want to use Adminstrative
projects for tracking nonworking time, then I strongly recommend that you
require team members to add a Note to each update and ask them to include
the time frame of the vacation in the Note. Hope this helps.

 

[JBJC]

Dale,

Thanks for the info. It all makes sense given how PWA works. (I didn't
enable Show Scheduled Work which is why I wasn't seeing the requested time
off.) I have another question, though. Is there a view in the Resources
function that would allow the resource manager to see requested time-off?
Can scheduled work be added to the Approved Timesheet function? (I'm not
seeing where that's a possibility.)

Thanks.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

JBJC --

Yes, there is such a place. Ask your RM's to do the following:

1. Navigate to the Resource Center page
2. Click the "View Resource Assignments" link in the sidepane on the left
3. Select the resources in question and copy them to the list on the right
4. Click the Apply button
5. In the sidepane on the left, select the "Timesheet Format" link
6. Click the View Options tab
7. Select the "Show scheduled work" option
8. Click the Add/Remove Resources tab to collapse these options
9. Click the "All Assignments" link in the sidepane on the left
10. Click the Save Link button and save this custom view arrangement (for
ease of accessing it again in the future)

Your RM's should examine Administrative projects from this view. Hope this
helps.

 

[JBJC]

Thanks. This is exactly what we needed to know. However, I do have one more
question. I can't seem to figure out when scheduled time shows and when it
doesn't:

Example a: Resource requests future-dated vacation time-off. Scheduled
work for those hours shows under Updates, View Task Changes Submitted by
Resource. The task item does not show at all under Resources, View Resource
Assignments. (The resource and his other line items do show in this view.)
After I update the project plan, the task item with the scheduled work hours
now appears under Resources, View Resource Assignments.

Example b: Resource (who has requested time-off previously) requests
future-dated vacation time-off. Scheduled work shows under both Resources,
View Resource Assignments and Updates, View Task Changes Submitted by
Resource. I did not have to update the work plan to have these hours appear
as soon as they were entered.

Again, thanks for any insights into this issue.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

JBJC --

Without being able to physically inspect the setup of your Project Server
instance, this sounds like a permissions issue, but I could be totally
wrong. Beyond this, I cannot even begin to speculate. Sorry.