publishing master plans in PWA - a no-no or not? in Project Server 2003?

[anovak]

I was under the impression that publishing master plans in Project
Server would result in duplication of assignments; however, in
msProjectExperts book "Administering the Enterprise PMO" on page 146 it
states:

"In Project 2002, the publishing of master projects was problematic
because it led to the doubling of resource assignments in the Project
Server database. Microsoft has rectified this problem in Project
Server 2003 so that project managers can now safely publish master
projects".

So, then this is not an issue in 2003?

Thanks,
Andy

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Andy --

At the time we wrote the book, we thought Microsoft had rectified the
problem. Alas, they did not. Thus, it was a mistake we made, albeit with
the best of intentions.

 

[anovak]

OK. We had a Live Meeting Demo with Microsoft the other and they said
they had solved the problem with 2007 (since then I saw this in the
book and I thought I should ask).

I hope they corrected situation where deleted tasks keep showing up in
PWA with an "X".

Dale, is msprojectexperts up to speed with the 2007 products -
portfolio as well as project?

Thanks,
Andy

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Andy --

It depends what you mean by "up to speed." We are currently writing our
Project Server 2007 books and curricula, and we have done several Project
Server 2007 implementations. Does that mean "up to speed" in your lingo?

 

[John Sitka]

Tasks with an informational 'X' appear to have no other use than an
explaination that a task has been deleted.
The Deletion could be for many reasons, but it is always presented in
PWA because it is the only way to communicate on something that no longer exists.

The usefulness of Deleted tasks are best understood if you consider a 3 month
long task that you were required to submit updates for at the end of each month.

Three weeks in you may have recorded a daily pattern like
8hrs+8hrs+7hrs+6.5hrs+8hrs+8hrs......

Then all of a sudden the task is no longer there, that may be cause for some concern.
Did the scheduler make a mistake? Is the work no longer required? If I'm on contract, will I get paid?
Point is something may not be quite right or has changed and a deleted task with a note is a better
communicator than nothing

But many deleted tasks are just result of a bit of reorganizing of the schedule software itself
using Cut and Paste operations is an example.

Getting Deleted tasks out of your Tasks list is called Hiding them.

Bad news is you can only Hide a single row at a time,

Good news is with experience and structure Deleted Tasks are often rare.

Toggling of "Show deleted tasks in PWA" is probably a more correct solution for the software.