MSPS 2002 for Non-project Time Tracking

[Johanna from Canada]

Hi there,

Curious to know if anyone out there is using 2002 for non-project time
tracking?

The problem is that my organization does not want to impose duplicate
effort (entering time in PWA and another time tracking tool). I
believe it's not ideal; however, it's either the employee enters their
time in the time tracking tool, which the PMs do not have access to,
and report time to the PMs directly, or they can enter it themselves in
PWA.

A project to look at the whole problem was cancelled. Essentially,
upper management doesn't want to spend any money and are relying on my
limited MSPS knowledge to solve the problem.

I believe the problem is complication due to reporting requirements and
the hierarchy of the non-project time categories.

The existing non-project time categories are:
Categories -> Sub-Categories -> Activities -> Sub-activities (not all
activities have sub-activities)

Examples:
Service and Delivery -> Application Maintenance -> Application XYZ ->
Application Module XYZ

I need to be able to report to the sub-activity level. I could create
a project for every Sub-activity, and perhaps create enterprise fields
to classify the projects; however, there will be hundreds of projects
and I don't see how you could establish a hierarchy that would display
to the PWA users. Also, although, only applicable staff would be
assigned to the project, this would not be user friendly and a
maintenance nightmare.

I'm hoping someone, an MSPS guru, will put me out of my misery and tell
me it cannot be done...in MSPS 2002 atleast. then again, if I am
missing a simple solution, it would be appreciated too.

Whatever you do, no need to point out the obvious...MSPS is a project
management tool.

Thanks!
Johanna

BTW: Gary Chefetz -- if you are out there, I have purchased two of your
books (Implementing Enterprise Portfolio Management with MSPS 2002 and
Administering an Enterprise PMO using MSPS 2003) and loved them both!

 

[Rick Roszko]

Quick answer: no.

If you want accurate reporting you will need people to enter time in both
your time reporting software and in PWA.

Why? Unlike MSPS2003, there is no time-locking feature in MSPS2002 which
means anyone can go back in time and modify time entries (by mistake or on
purpose). This is especailly bad if you are basing financial data (i.e.
paying contractors for work done) through MS Project Server 2002.
Additionally, the PM can go in and accidentally or on purpose modify the
contents of MS Project 2002, so it is not a secure solution.

In MSPS2003, you can use "managed time periods" to protect prior data by
closing a prior period.

Disclaimer: since the following is a legal issue in the US (including
companies doing business in the US), so please consult your corporate lawyer
or financial officer to confirm or deny this information. Neither MSPS2002
nor MSPS 2003 is Sarbanes-Oxley or "SOX" compliant (without extensive
programmatical changes) so Project Server can only "recieve" finanical data
from other systems, but it can neither "originate" nor be "the source" of any
financial data (such as hours worked on projects). This information needs to
originate from SOX compliant software solution other than MSPS 2002 or 2003.

Thanks.

 

[Johanna from Canada]

Agh! Excellent point Rick! In the Microsoft demos they did mention
that feature.

Thanks so much!!
Johanna