Has anyone else backed out of a 2007 upgrade and reverted to 2003?

[JokerK123]

Our Project Server 2007 upgrade is turning into a disaster, with poorly
migrated data, new issues and problems (such as time entries not showing up
in the cube), and a step backward in functioanlity (particularly time entry
and approval). BTW, we hired a MS Partner, and did not try the upgrade on
our own. We are now thinking of reverting back to 2003 which at least worked.
Has anyone else gone backwards and have lessons learned.

 

[Stephan Steiner]

Did you do a direct upgrade or re-engineer your solution to work
better with the facilities of the 2007 server? We're currently making
timid first steps towards a migration and have set up a test system to
see how things work and then discuss what we're going to re-engineer.
We're also writing the large majority of our tasks and assignments in
an automated fashion so I figure we'd migrate as few projects as
possible and create whatever timesheet entries we need using our
automated solution which I figure is a cleaner solution that migrating
years worth of projects. And we get our integration partner on board
early and have them work on projects that are problematic during
migration (I haven't manage to get everything published again.. then
again this may be a blessing because I don't need much of the old
stuff that's just laying around anyway).

One of the things we definitely are going to take a close look at is
time entry.. the default is suboptimal for people that are used to the
2003 timesheet.. but I figure between all the PSI methods (we've
extensively customized our 2003 solution so we're ready to invest what
is needed to make the 2007 solution as convenient as possible) and
asking our MS Project Partner we'll come up with something that works
for everyone - even if it means writing our own timesheet (I'd
probably get free beer for years from the folks entering time if I did
that.. the 2003 timesheet is so inflexible that we had to add a bunch
of tools just to allow people to enter all the additional data that
needs entering). And approval wise, 2007 seems like a huge step in the
right direction to me.. we have a bunch of projects where it takes at
least 20 minutes to open and save again in order to approve time.. so
basically we have one person spending the better part of a day every
week to approve timesheets (and thus that person really loathes the
project client).. doing it all via web seems to much more convenient
(plus, some timesheets have to be approved from remote location and
you know how slow the 2003 client is in such an environment.. )

Regards
Stephan

 

[MMM]

Although we have not backed out YET, but we are seriously considering it.
PS2007 has been the worst Microsoft experience that I have had. Excellent
features on paper but poorly implemented. It has been a nightmare from day-1.

We did a pilot run for almost two months before upgrading. We did not do an
in-place upgrade (as per our understanding, it had its own problems). We did
a clean, fresh installation on a separate server, configured the resources
and then moved the projects one-by-one. The transition went smooth, but
gradually problems started popping up. And now it is at a point that our
Project Managers have started to refuse to work with it.

Our main two issues are the infamous "Check-in Pending" and Queue problems.
The "Check-in Pending" issue is difficult to handle on its own. However, when
we do manage to do the workarounds, the Queue starts acting up. And we keep
going back & forth between the two. We have tried all the fixes and patches
and IUs and CUs, but things keep getting worse and worse.

There are many nice features in PS2007. We have even managed to define and
implement a decent time-entry process. But if the PMs cannot properly plan
and publish the project, then what use are all these nice features.

I don't know about the specific problems you are facing, but my advice is to
have a backup plan (of reverting back to 2003). If Microsoft has not been
able to fix these serious bugs in almost a year, then who knows when (or if)
these will get fixed.

 

[Robert]

MMM

Those issues in regards to Checkin and queue issues I have had with
different clients, but they disappeared after the SP1 and Infrasture Updates.
Now once in a blue moon I see a checkin issue and or queue is that is easly
resolved by restrarting the queue service or simply checking in the
Enterprise Object via Server Settings.

Hope things turn around for you.............
--
Project Consultant

REJ Company

(e-mail address removed)

 

[hanni]

I already installed SP1 and all other patches that where published by
Microsoft. Unfortunately we are facing the same above described
problems. I have project with check in problem for days. I have
projects that open as read only with no reason... and many on.
Although we didn’t have the 2003 since we began directly from 2007 -
we where offered to go back to 2007 and to wait to the 2009 edition.
Unfortunately, it is hard to manage projects like this :-(

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Joker:

I'm not very fond of the migration tools that Microsoft provides, and like
Stephan, prefer to do a more manual migration with some re-engineering in
the process. With the IU and CU updates, you can make the My Tasks page look
and feel mostly like the 2003 solution and with the Tied Mode solution from
Codeplex, you can use the timesheets as a single point of entry and
submission.

There are a lot of vendors out there that claim to have Project Server
expertise yet do not have the EPM specialization. Make sure that when you
select a vendor, that they are Information Worker Solutions certified with
the EPM specialty.


----------
Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
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