S
Suthosharko
Am beginning to implement Project Server 2007 for first time into an
environment where only standalone Project 2003 has ever used in the past. Was
wondering whether anyone is willing to share any handy hints, operational or
procedural manuals for their Server 2003 or 2007 environments to get us on
our way more quickly and effectively.
We have installed Project 2007 and have been testing this over last two
months and have decided on an approach that we want to follow which involves:
1. PMs retaining power to enter actuals for enterprise resources as they see
fit (with the option at an individual PM level of the PM allowing users to
use PWA to enter actuals for the PMs approval). At this stage we do not
intend implementing the timesheet approach in Project server as we already
require staff to enter timesheets through another system (called SharpOWL
UK-based product) for billing purposes and we do not want to burden them with
double entry of timesheets into Project Server. The staff can use the data
they enter into SharpOWL to inform PMs and the PMs will update actual work in
their projects as they want...this won't exactly match what's in SharpOWL but
it will be good enough).
2. PMs creating a portfolio of projects for their needs with separate
projects being created and maintained by line managers to record the leave
and other administrative responsibilities outside projects that the staff
have. These will be created as tasks in their own right (not exceptions in
their calendar...the calendar will only be used to record a person's
availability based on their part time/fulltime working week).
3. We have coded two SQL scripts which extract information from the
Reporting DB which are then loaded into an existing Excel pivot table-based
application to report forecast effort, revenue, utilisation, by person, team,
product, client, etc. The first script extracts task/assignment information
and the second determines (and extracts) whether the person is under or
overallocated once all work is compared to their availability on a day-by-day
basis.
4. We have create a number of customer fields that we have repeated at both
project level and task level. Task custom field values will inherit from
project level custom field with the 'same' name if they are not specified at
the task level (inheritence is done by the SQL scripts we have coded). We
have had to create several custom SQL tables to support our two SQL scripts
with information like time period definitions, custom field definitions (e.g.
we have a custom field called Activity which allows the PM to define just
what type of work is being performed, e.g. consulting, analysis, design,
testing etc and the custom SQL table defines further attributes about
Activity) and extensive information about the resources that are Effective
Date driven (i.e. allows us to carry a history of information about resources
which can then be matched with every day they do work).
5. Some PMs use leveling well (but am worried about the need to open
multiple projects to get this right). Any gotchas/hint?
6. We have PMs and staff spread all over the Asia/Pacific area so
performance fro remote sites is also a concern. Any gitchas/hints?
Any experiences and/or documentation would be most welcome.
environment where only standalone Project 2003 has ever used in the past. Was
wondering whether anyone is willing to share any handy hints, operational or
procedural manuals for their Server 2003 or 2007 environments to get us on
our way more quickly and effectively.
We have installed Project 2007 and have been testing this over last two
months and have decided on an approach that we want to follow which involves:
1. PMs retaining power to enter actuals for enterprise resources as they see
fit (with the option at an individual PM level of the PM allowing users to
use PWA to enter actuals for the PMs approval). At this stage we do not
intend implementing the timesheet approach in Project server as we already
require staff to enter timesheets through another system (called SharpOWL
UK-based product) for billing purposes and we do not want to burden them with
double entry of timesheets into Project Server. The staff can use the data
they enter into SharpOWL to inform PMs and the PMs will update actual work in
their projects as they want...this won't exactly match what's in SharpOWL but
it will be good enough).
2. PMs creating a portfolio of projects for their needs with separate
projects being created and maintained by line managers to record the leave
and other administrative responsibilities outside projects that the staff
have. These will be created as tasks in their own right (not exceptions in
their calendar...the calendar will only be used to record a person's
availability based on their part time/fulltime working week).
3. We have coded two SQL scripts which extract information from the
Reporting DB which are then loaded into an existing Excel pivot table-based
application to report forecast effort, revenue, utilisation, by person, team,
product, client, etc. The first script extracts task/assignment information
and the second determines (and extracts) whether the person is under or
overallocated once all work is compared to their availability on a day-by-day
basis.
4. We have create a number of customer fields that we have repeated at both
project level and task level. Task custom field values will inherit from
project level custom field with the 'same' name if they are not specified at
the task level (inheritence is done by the SQL scripts we have coded). We
have had to create several custom SQL tables to support our two SQL scripts
with information like time period definitions, custom field definitions (e.g.
we have a custom field called Activity which allows the PM to define just
what type of work is being performed, e.g. consulting, analysis, design,
testing etc and the custom SQL table defines further attributes about
Activity) and extensive information about the resources that are Effective
Date driven (i.e. allows us to carry a history of information about resources
which can then be matched with every day they do work).
5. Some PMs use leveling well (but am worried about the need to open
multiple projects to get this right). Any gotchas/hint?
6. We have PMs and staff spread all over the Asia/Pacific area so
performance fro remote sites is also a concern. Any gitchas/hints?
Any experiences and/or documentation would be most welcome.