Saving copy of Project to local machine

[Hari]

We are using MS Project server 2007. Some of our Project Managers habit is to
save all the projects on to their local desktop, so just in case if something
happens to the server, they have a copy of the files.
My concern is, will this double book the resources, as the resources are
pulled from AD initially and saved off to the desktop?

Is it wise to save the copy of projects to a local machine?

 

[Jonathan Sofer]

You will not get any double bookings by having copies saved as mpp files
onto the user's local machines as these plans are not in the database itself
and won't be referenced anywhere on the server. However, I would be
concerned about the PM accidentally opening up an mpp version of their
schedule and overwriting the server version. In PS2003, this was not
allowed but in PS2007 it is allowed. My fear is that overwriting a schedule
could reek havoc on task and assignment unique IDs in the database and would
cause you a lot of issues if you are attempting to use task and/or timesheet
updates.

To avoid this overwriting of schedules I would recommend turning off the
ability for PMs to create new projects by not allowing the "New Project"
permission for the PMs security group. For that matter, I would not allow
the "New Project" global permission for any group other than a select few
super users/administrators/PMO type roles. That way only the PMO or
administrator roles can create new schedules for PMs and you won't have to
worry about PMs creating new schedules or overwriting old schedules without
knowing the ramifications of such changes. You can also guarantee that the
right process is followed with the appropriate checks and balances.

Jonathan Sofer