Proposals and Activities

[BJB]

We are using Project Server 2007 and our default reporting status is %
complete instead of actual hours. Our IT organization wants the entire PMO to
switch to reporting actual hours (and allowing the PMs to change this on a
per project basis). The reason for the change is because they are telling us
that in order to use proposals and activities we have to make this change. I
haven't used these capabilities (I prefer setting up projects instead for a
wide variety of reasons) so I don't know if this "restriction" is true. We
have not enabled timesheets.

Thanks for any help

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

BJB --

Tasks in a published Proposal or Activity plan show up on the My Tasks page
for the assigned resource using the default method of tracking. They can be
tracked using any of the three available methods of tracking progress.
After the PM updates progress into the Proposal or Activity plan, the
progress shows up in the % Work Complete column. So, not to say your PMO is
wrong, but they are definitely not right about this. But perhaps I am
misreading their intent. Please feel free to follow up with additiona
comments or questions from your PMO. Hope this helps.

 

[Ben Howard]

BJB,
Okay, firstly, why is the IT organisation telling the PMO how to run it's
project server implemenation?
Secondly, the IT organisation is wrong.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

I want to add another perspective here. Proposals are intended to capture
demand. Activities were designed to more for the organization that wants to
track other work streams usually in the context of time tracking. One
doesn't need to implement time tracking to use proposals although one would
very likely be implementing time sheets when implementing activity plans.
Implanting time tracking is a very significant business decision with loads
of ramifications and risks and ultimately must be a fairly high-level
management decision.

--
----------
Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com
Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com
Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com

 

[BJB]

Thanks. This was a very helpful summation. Since my post, I've been able to
educate the IT group on the limitations and convinced them that we don't need
to change our defaults or implement timesheets.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Glad to hear it.

--
----------
Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com
Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com
Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com