Project 2007 & questions in 2008

[Bilal]

Hello masters and happy new year for you all, as you see, I am very new
guest to this group and I liked the high level of experience I found it here
I am in the middle of getting hands on experience in MS Project and came up
with couple of questions
1. After I installed, deployed and customize the Project Server 2007 in my
organization I have been asked to re-do the whole thing again in different
server and the old one is going to get formatted, Is there a way to export
all the customized data (global custom fields, enterprise resources, lookup
tables, standard and customs calendars, timesheets, etc ) from one server to
another?? And how if possible
2. If the project manager approved a task, is it possible to re-open it
again and send it back to the team members to re-do the work again (if the
project manger decide that the work is not done properly)?? Is it a good
project management practice??
3. Regarding baselines, who is authorized to set it or change it, can I make
it only a job of the executive?? Our senior management doesn’t want the
project manger to overwrite the old one and they need him to refer to them if
the baseline needs to be changed
4. Can you guide me on how to start developing new reports that summarize
the content of all the timesheets submitted by all the team members (for
example total hours per project, total hours per timesheet category, total
hours per team, etc) , just give me the start point and I will dig through
the details
5. Can I develop one view for the executive to show the status of all the
projects (CPI, SPI, Actual cost, EV, etc)
I don’t want to be so annoying by putting more questions but I hope the
answers will help the others also


--

Best Regards

Bilal Okour
blog : http://ebilal.spaces.live.com

 

[Marc Soester [MVP]]

Hi Bilal,

a happy 2008 for you too

Here are some answers to some of your questions:
1. unfortunalty there is not out of the box functionality which allows you
to move the settings from one server to another. We have developed a little
tool which backups the settings and restores them to a new server. I also
know of a third party vendor that has a comercial tool, which allows you
this. Check out this site here:
http://www.bogdanov-associates.com/eng.asp?rubr_id=501

2. Absolutatly, if a PM has approved task updates and feels that more work
is required, he/she can increase the work and republishes the new work to a
resource which would then be able to update it again.

3. You have something in Project Server which is called protected baseline.
Within the protected baseline you can determine ( under security settings )
who is allowed to save protected baselines. I can imagine that this would do
the job for you.

4. you have several options here. Firstly you can use the Data Analyser.
Project Server consists of 14 OLAP Cubes ( including a couple of timesheet
cubes) which allow you to analyse your data. The second option is the Project
Server Reporting DB. You probably know that Prjoect Server has 4 Databases,
one of them is a reporting db where you can get all of the information you
require to generate reports. This should give you a good starting point.

5. Yes you can. Every view you create needs to have a category assignt to.
This category decides who is allowed to see this view. So you can create a
view only for executives by assigned a category to a view. This category then
needs to be mapped with the exectuives user group and then only the executive
is able to see this view.

All in all good questions May I suggest a Project Server book which can
help you deploying project server. Check out the projectserverexperts web
site on:
https://projectserverbooks.com/

Hope this all makes sense and helps

 

[Bilal]

Dear Mark
All of all are excellent answers
Here are the questions again for the others who did not read my question; I
put my questions and Marks answers next to each one
I have only one question about question 3 in the list below

My Question 1
After I installed, deployed and customize the Project Server 2007 in my
organization I have been asked to re-do the whole thing again in different
server and the old one is going to get formatted, Is there a way to export
all the
customized data (global custom fields, enterprise resources, lookup
tables, standard and customs calendars, timesheets, etc ) from one server to
another?? And how if possible

Mark's Answer:
unfortunalty there is not out of the box functionality which allows you
to move the settings from one server to another. We have developed a little
tool which backups the settings and restores them to a new server. I also
know of a third party vendor that has a comercial tool, which allows you
this. Check out this site here:
http://www.bogdanov-associates.com/eng.asp?rubr_id=501

My comment: This is exactly what I was looking for, thanx Mark

My Question 2
If the project manager approved a task, is it possible to re-open it again
and send it back to the team members to re-do the work again (if the project
manger decide that the work is not done properly)?? Is it a good project
management practice??


Mark's Answer:
Absolutatly, if a PM has approved task updates and feels that more work is
required, he/she can increase the work and republishes the new work to a
resource which would then be able to update it again.

My Comments: This makes sence

My Question 3
Regarding baselines, who is authorized to set it or change it, can I make it
only a job of the executive?? Our senior management doesn’t want the
project manger to overwrite the old one and they need him to refer to them
if the baseline needs to be changed

Mark's Answer:
You have something in Project Server which is called protected baseline.
Within the protected baseline you can determine ( under security settings )
who is allowed to save protected baselines. I can imagine that this would do
the job for you.

My Comment:
But what is the different between baseline and protected baseline? May be I
did not understand this

My Question: 4
Can you guide me on how to start developing new reports that summarize the
content of all the timesheets submitted by all the team members (for example
total hours per project, total hours per timesheet category, total hours per
team, etc) , just give me the start point and I will dig through the details
you have several options here. Firstly you can use the Data Analyser.

Mar's Answer
Project Server consists of 14 OLAP Cubes ( including a couple of timesheet
cubes) which allow you to analyse your data. The second option is the Project
Server Reporting DB. You probably know that Prjoect Server has 4 Databases,
one of them is a reporting db where you can get all of the information you
require to generate reports. This should give you a good starting point.
I will give it a try, it seems that it is what I am looking for, thanx Mark

My Questions 5
Can I develop one view for the executive to show the status of all the
projects (CPI, SPI, Actual cost, EV, etc)

Mark's Answer:
Yes you can. Every view you create needs to have a category assignt to.
This category decides who is allowed to see this view. So you can create a
view only for executives by assigned a category to a view. This category then
needs to be mapped with the exectuives user group and then only the executive
is able to see this view.
My Comment: Thanx a lot mark again


--

Best Regards

Bilal Okour
blog : http://ebilal.spaces.live.com

 

[Marc Soester [MVP]]

Hi Bilal,

I hope the answers will put you into the right direction. Just to clarify
answer 3.

You can lock your baseline within the security of Project Server. when you
look through the Groups and Categories you will find 2 options which you can
select.

Option 1: Save Protected Baseline. this will allow users to work with
baselines 1-5. As you know you can have up to 11 baselines. Protected
Baselines are Baseline 1 - 5.

Option 2: Save Unprotected Baselines. This will allow users to work with
baseline 6 - 10.

If you dont like PM's to save baselines, simply deny them "save protected
baseline and savee unprotected Baseline"

I hope this makes sense.
Best Regards

 

[Bilal]

Dear Marck

This is exactlly what I was looking for, thanx alot for your valuable help

--

Best Regards

Bilal Okour
blog : http://ebilal.spaces.live.com