Project Server features for dynamic task assignment

[Charles L.]

Hello,

I'm interested in Microsoft Project Server for dynamic task assignment.


Imagine you are in a meeting and, as a result of that meeting, several
tasks were assigned to different people.

Each one of those people is going to work on that task, or in more
complex scenarios, that person will generate sub-tasks and assign those
sub-tasks to members of his/her team.


Example:

The General Manager (GM), will assign tasks for the Logistics Manager (LM)
and the Sales Manager (SM).

The LM has a team of 5 persons, and he is going to assign sub-tasks to his
people in order to accomplish the task he was given by GM.

Same thing happens with SM.


Imagine also, that the Sales Manager cannot perform a certain action because
she needs to make an investment and, for that to happen, she must ask for
permission to the GM.

Following the company's rules, the GM has to ask the Financial Manager to
evaluate if the investment required by de SM can be done. The GM does this by
assigning a new task to the FM, which is required to complete in order for
the SM to finish her first task.



My question is, can Microsoft Project Server be used for this?

Let me also ask if Microsoft Outlook integration works also with
calendar, for task assignment?


Regards,

Charles L.

 

[Gary Chefetz]

Charles:

I'll take a stab at this. It sounds as though you're describing workflow
management, perhaps the type of workflow that occurs prior to an actual
project being born. If that is the case, then the way to support this is
using SharePoint workflows. Keep in mind that Project Server is primarily a
project management system and can be used as more of a general work
management system within certain limitations. Once you're into project
execution, Project Server supports the type of work flows you describe to
some degree or another, but in my experience, your expectations may not map
to a simple statement like "yes it can do that." To determine whether the
software can be configured to your exact expectations will take a much
deeper exercise than a casual newsgroup conversation based on simple
hypothetical examples. If you're really serious about exploring this,
contact a Microsoft Partner with the EPM specialty. I'm sure your local
partner will be delighted to hear from you.

 

[Jack Dahlgren]

To amplify on Gary's excellent comments:

Project is primarily a schedule modeling tool. It does not enforce any
adherence to that model. You need some sort of workflow if you want to assure
that one thing does not happen before the other person signs off / approves /
processes something else.

In my experience what you are asking for requires a good amount of business
process analysis as part of developing the solution. Project by itself can
support some of the aspects of the solution, but it won't be the solution by
itself.

-Jack Dahlgren

 

[Charles L.]

Thank you Gary and Jack.

Reading your answers I think I will need a combination of SharePoint and
Project server.

You are right. It's difficult to explain and understand this type of
questions here on the forum, so it's better if I try a personal contact with
a nearby Microsoft representative.



Thank you once again for your advice.