Pls: Any "words of wisdom" for new Project Server shop?

[Matt Kennedy]

OK, I convinced the company to project server (somewhat reluctantly) so I am
personally invested here. We just moved about 25 - 30 plans to the server and
project managers are working away.

I have this sick feeling that any moment my phone will be ringing off the
hook and some horrible event will have occured such as database or file
corruption and when I research, post a question for a resolution, etc., I'll
here about all these warnings, precautionary measures, and personal
experience that in hind sight would have helped me/us.

Given that I thought I would just go ahead and ask. For those of you with
experience running and/or supporting Project Server in production do you have
any experience, insight, warnings, precautionary measures, advice, what have
you, that could save my butt (pardon the expression) down the road?

 

[Brent99Admin]

I have helped multiple companies implement an EPM solution and the best short
advise I can give you is this:
1 - Focus on the EPM needs of the organization and not specifically the
features of the Project Server 2003 tool.
2 - Plan accordingly [which includes defining the org structure,
processes/work instructions to be followed, reporting needs, RBS, etc...]
3 - Educate your users with the necessary training to ensure procedures are
followed and bad habits are not engrained. An example here would be ensuring
that all 'Local Resources' have workgroup set to 'None' instead of default so
PMs don't continually get Spooler errors when publishing because the system
cannot create a local resource account on PS2003].
4 - Treat your Project Server 2003 environment as a critical production
environment like any other system [Proper backups, fail-over procedures,
contingency plans, etc]. This includes dedicating Admin time to the system.
5 - Set your expectations accordingly for the new system. Don't expect that
the system is bulletproof and errors are not going to occur...because they
will occur.
6 - Finally I would highly recommend that you partner with a consulting firm
that has a 'Project Server 2003 Deployment Specialist' or 'EPM Expertise' to
ensure that you have configured the environment correctly and you are
executing in a manner that will ensure the results you want and the integrity
of the system. There are many good companies out there that can help you.

Good luck and happy EPMing

 

[Matt Kennedy]

Brent, thanks for the reply. I think we are in pretty good shape with #1-3.
Its number 4 & 5 that I am most concerned about. So many products have
"gotchas" out there. With experience you learn to take preventive
countermeasures. Those gotchas are often bugs in the product that can cause
intermittent problems such as data corruption, etc.. The kind of thing you
check and take care of right away when you arrive at a new company as a
consultant or a new hire. Those are the types of things I am most interested
in learning about. Maybe they don't exist in Project Server 2003. Thanks
again for the reply!

-Matt

I have helped multiple companies implement an EPM solution and the best short
advise I can give you is this:
1 - Focus on the EPM needs of the organization and not specifically the
features of the Project Server 2003 tool.
2 - Plan accordingly [which includes defining the org structure,
processes/work instructions to be followed, reporting needs, RBS, etc...]
3 - Educate your users with the necessary training to ensure procedures are
followed and bad habits are not engrained. An example here would be ensuring
that all 'Local Resources' have workgroup set to 'None' instead of default so
PMs don't continually get Spooler errors when publishing because the system
cannot create a local resource account on PS2003].
4 - Treat your Project Server 2003 environment as a critical production
environment like any other system [Proper backups, fail-over procedures,
contingency plans, etc]. This includes dedicating Admin time to the system.
5 - Set your expectations accordingly for the new system. Don't expect that
the system is bulletproof and errors are not going to occur...because they
will occur.
6 - Finally I would highly recommend that you partner with a consulting firm
that has a 'Project Server 2003 Deployment Specialist' or 'EPM Expertise' to
ensure that you have configured the environment correctly and you are
executing in a manner that will ensure the results you want and the integrity
of the system. There are many good companies out there that can help you.

Good luck and happy EPMing

OK, I convinced the company to project server (somewhat reluctantly) so I am
personally invested here. We just moved about 25 - 30 plans to the server and
project managers are working away.

I have this sick feeling that any moment my phone will be ringing off the
hook and some horrible event will have occured such as database or file
corruption and when I research, post a question for a resolution, etc., I'll
here about all these warnings, precautionary measures, and personal
experience that in hind sight would have helped me/us.

Given that I thought I would just go ahead and ask. For those of you with
experience running and/or supporting Project Server in production do you have
any experience, insight, warnings, precautionary measures, advice, what have
you, that could save my butt (pardon the expression) down the road?