Subprojects and Project Server

[Colorado Zephyr]

I would like to take a project from our Project Server and insert it into a
master project as a subproject. Microsoft recommends keeping the master
project off project server, which is fine. The problem comes when they don't
include any instructions on how to successfully grab the file on Project
Server in order to insert it into the master. They only indicate that to view
project databases, you change to the Files of Type setting to MPD. There is
no hint of how to access it.

I don't think we'd use an ODBC connection. Do you need MS SQL client just to
set up a subproject?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Colorado Zephyr --

To insert a subproject from Project Server into a master project, open the
master project, select a cell in any task view (such as the Gantt Chart
view), and then click Insert - Project. It's that simple. If you have not
created the master project yet, you can begin with a blank project and then
click Insert - Project. Alternatively, you can quickly create a master
project by completing the following steps:

1. Navigate to the Project Center page in PWA
2. Select the row headers of the projects you wish to include as
subprojects (do not click the blue hyperlinks for these projects)
3. Click the Open button

The system will automatically create a master project for you from the
selected projects. Hope this helps.

Also, are you from Colorado, by chance? I live and work out of Denver, but
travel nationally and sometimes internationally, with my work.

 

[Colorado Zephyr]

Hi Dale,

Your second idea was helpful, and I think I can use that to work around my
issue. The problem with the first idea was that I would come to the dialog
box after Insert - Project and could not locate the Project Server. I use PWA
to administrate the Project Server and there is no way I know of to access it
except by a SQL connection.

What if I create a master using your 2nd method and then want to add another
project at a later date. How would I do that?

And yes, I'm down here in the springs.

Colorado Zephyr

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Colorado Zephyr --

I do not believe you are accessing Project Server correctly through
Microsoft Project Professional. To do so, you must first create a login
account in Microsoft Project Professional. Refer to the following link for
the steps:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com/Shared Documents/CreateAdministratorLoginAccount.htm

Hope this helps.

 

[TGG]

I had a chance to ask the Pgm Mgr responsible for this feature set at
Microsoft how to go about using Master projects with Project Server 2003.
His response was that it was okay to store master projects on Project Server,
just don't publish them as bad things then happen.

This might work for you also.

Thanks!
TGG

 

[Colorado Zephyr]

Dale,

Thanks for your response. Your advice to log in to Project Professional as
an administrator was one of the first things we did after we installed
Project Server. The only variance is that I am using my Windows user profile,
which is a member of the administrator group. Everything else is the same.

When I am in Project Professional's Insert Project dialog box, where do I
look to find the projects listed on project server?

Zephyr

 

[Colorado Zephyr]

Thanks, TGG. That sounds like it would work. However, I think I'll set up a
folder on our team's SharePoint site to give a master project collection
point to let those who want the overview to be able to access it. I want the
PM's to manage the project tasks, risks, issues and announcements from a
single location, in this case, via the sub project schedules and associated
sites.

It only takes one person's accidental publishing of a project to ruin the
master.

Zephyr

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Zephyr --

When you click Insert - Project, or you click File - Open, you are pointed
at the Project Server database automatically. What are you seeing when you
click either of these options?

 

[Colorado Zephyr]

It's often the simple assumptions that make good science worthless, or in
this case, good instructions. I made the mistake of assuming that I should
*not* connect to Project Server when I'm creating the master project because
I wouldn't be putting the master project on the Project Server. This very
statement incriminates me. I was not connected to Project Server when I
started the project and thus the Insert Project dialog was what you would get
from Project Standard.

Thanks for your help, and your patience, Dale. I'm going to go breathe some
bottled oxygen now and re-consider my field of "expertise."

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Colorado Zephyr --

You are more than welcome, my friend!