Administrative Projects

[JodyJ]

In reading "Administering an Enterprise PMO" by Dale and Gary, there are a
couple of statements re: administrative projects.

One indicates that assignments for administrative projects aren't shown in
the Adjust Actuals View. I added an administrative project and I do see
these tasks in the Adjust Actuals View. Is this a fluke or simply an
incorrect statement in the reference book.

I'm trying to make a decision re: the use of Admin Projects and this will
make a difference to us.

 

[raycoker]

Jody, I am able to adjust actuals on administrative projects. I do not have
SP1 or 2 applied to Project Server and do not if that makes a difference.

Ray Coker

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

JodyJ --

What you see is not a fluke. At the time we wrote the book, we described
the behaviors of the preSP1 version of Project Server. Since then, I have
seen some differences in post-SP1 Project Server, although I have not
formally logged the differences. This certainly could be one of those
differences. Or, maybe we just made a mistake when we wrote the book!

Either way, if you are intending to use administrative projects, I hope you
will heed our warnings about using them. They have been a major source of
disappointment and frustration among the community of Project Server users.
Please remember that if you use administrative projects to track nonworking
time, such as vacation and sick leave, Project Server will NOT automatically
reschedule project work around the nonworking time periods.

Thanks for the correction to our book. Hope this helps.

 

[JodyJ]

Thanks Dale!

I am not sure we are going to use them just yet. We are aware that we have
to use calendars to reschedule work. We are considering them since these
items will stay on a resources timesheet even if the 'remaining work' goes to
0. We have a large number of maintenance type tasks in our organization.
Currently, they are always "disappearing" from resource timesheets and the
PM's field many unnecessary questions as to why.

Yes...this is absolutely a 'training' type issue but we have a large number
of fairly, shall we say "stubborn" users.

Thanks for the heads up....we will consider carefully.........

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

JodyJ --

Unfortunately, the way to deal with "stubborn" users is to make this not
only a training issue, but a performance issue as well. As you have found,
one of the greatest challenges in implementing Project Server is the people.
Hope this helps.