Help with Creating an Ms Project Enterprise Master Plan

[MSProjectUser]

I am a Business Analyst for a small Pharmaceutical Consulting Company. I was
given a major task of developing and implementing an Enterprise Master
Project Plan, something that the company has never had to help in Enterprise
Resource and Project Management for all company's production work. I was
honest to my boss by telling her that I do not have Experience with MS
Project/ Project Server, have never done this and have no idea of how to it.

She recommended that I become resourceful by buying books or look for online
training so I can accomplish task and make a huge and difference in company.
This has been a big challenge for me. I have been working on this project on
and off for 3 months and I feel like I am not going anywhere with it. I have
not been able to find anyone who has experience with Ms Project Server to
assist.

The ultimate goal is to have a plan for each and every project, and a master
plan that will collaborate the individual projects, with the tasks and
resources assigned. The assigned individual must be capable of updating tasks
in the project plan on Project Web Access. By doing this, Enterprise would
gain a truer understanding of resource availably, required resources, lost
opportunity due to lack of resources, as well as more finite task tracking.

Can someone please help or advise on how to go about this task. We are using
MS
Project Server 2003. Email: (e-mail address removed)

 

[mark.everett]

Welcome to the group! First of all, most of us have been there and
done that and some of us still have the t-shirts and our jobs, so don't
get too stressed.

Ultimate Goal:

Yes, you would want to have all projects in Project Server, with
resources assigned to the tasks. You will probably want to consider an
Admin Plan also, to account for non-project time. I don't like Master
Projects and Microsoft Recommends against using them since they can
mess up your resource allocation, but there is a method that would
allow you to aggregate all of your projects in a single project.
However, I am not sure you need to do that. Project Web Access and
Portfolio Analyzer views can do this for you.

Becoming Resourceful:

You have come to the right place. I would also see if you have a local
chapter of MPA, which may also add value. As far as training materials
- there are three sets that I recommend:

1. QuantumPM (truth in advertising, they are my employer) produces a
good book called Project Server 2003 Unleashed. It comes with an eBook
version so you can keep it on your laptop. It's a good reference.

2. MSProjectExperts (Dale Howard and Gary Chefetz) produces a series
of books. The ones you really should get are Administering an
Enterprise PMO using Microsoft Project Server 2003 and Managing
Projects using Microsoft Project Server 2003. Both are good
references.

3. Microsoft gives you, free of charge, a series of books and training
guides on Project Server. These are free. They are not, in my humble
opinion, as good as the Quantum PM materails or the MSProjectExpert
materials. However, you should get them anyway. They provide a good
starting point.

The other books can be ordered from Amazon.com

Online training - MSProjectExperts offers some, I think. It would be
best to get hands on training if time and budget allow. Quantum PM and
MSProjectExperts offers that also.

As far as getting started, since you are a BA, you will need to
research the product to learn the capabilities and then start to gather
requirements. Your basic requirements are part of the basic
functionality of the product, but I am sure there are other things
people want to do.

Hopefully, this will give you a start.

Mark Everett | PMP
www.quantumpm.com

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Mark --

Thanks for the kind compliments about us!