deliverable s

[×רז]

Is it possible to enter to the project 2007 a deliverable with a specific and
permanent date?
I do not care if the deliverable will be ready before the specific date.
I am only interested to see if it is late, Moreover, I do not want the date
to change via sync
Is it possible and how can I do it?

 

[Ben Howard]

This is exactly what deliverables do, I suggest you check out my blog as I
wrote about deliverables a while back.

 

[yeliab]

This is fine so long as everyone understands they're looking at a date that
may be significantly different from the one in the project plan. This makes
the dependency feature between projects for deliverables useless since the
dates (unless manually updated) are not accurate. Or am I missing something?

 

[Ben Howard]

You miss the point. The deliverable is the externally committed date. If
your PMs are not going to hit that date, and they don't then manage that (ie
update the externally committed date or manage the plan (extra resource,
reduced scope)) then they lack a degree of professionalism and shouldn't be
in the job. Its a process issue, not a technical issue. If you want
something that is always scheduled, use a milestone instead and a PWA view.

 

[yeliab]

I understand and agree with what you wrote. Essentially it is a deadline
date (just like the field in pro but you can attach files to it).

The issue is that if I was to use the deliverable dependency feature to
manage across projects (as the function is marketed), the portfolio dates
would not be usable as they do not reflect reality. Agree?

 

[Ben Howard]

I agree they work as an externalised list of deadlines, with the added
feature of being able to associate dependant tasks on them. As a Programme
Manager, I would use them to highlight which deliverables are not going to be
met, and then manage which tasks have a dependency on them. This way I can
manage the interdependencies between projects. For this you'll need a couple
of things, probably an SRS report listing dependencies for each project and
"consuming projects", and whether the dependency is likely to be late. A
similiar thing can be done using filters in projects, to see which tasks will
not finish before the deliverable start date. So, agreed they can get "out
of sync", but it's a management process to make sure they reflect reality.
In a programme sense, this might occur once a week or once a month, but that
process needs to be built and managed.

As a Project manager, I would want to know 2 things, and I can get them both
out of project.

1. Which deliverables do I depend on, and show me a view of the ones which
have moved, and are scheduled to be delivered after my start date. If these
occur, I need to flag the issue higher up the chain as an issue.
2. Which deliverables and I responsible for, and show me if I'm going to
finish the tasks in time to deliver those. Again, if not, I need to manage
those tasks to get the project back on time.

There is no silver bullet here, its about visibility and process.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Yeliab:

You always have the option of creating external predecessors, which are
"hard links" and drive schedule changes. The "soft linking" of deliverables
is by design and meets a significant pent-up demand for such linking.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
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