Team question

[Rickard]

Using Project Server 2007 + SP1 + (July) Infrastructure Update. We're looking
at the Team functionality in Project Server 2007 and have one simple
question; Can a resource be included in more than one team? In our
environment it seems like it's not possible, when we try to edit the Team
Name custom field the option "Allow multiple values to be selected from
lookup table" is disabled.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Rickard --

No, each resource can only be part of one team represented by a Team
resource. Since you are studying the Team functionality, let me warn you in
advance that this probably won't meet all of your expectations. The use of
the Team resource is basically limited to assigning a "team" of people who
can/will work on a task. Consider the following scenario:

1. I have a Team resource called Software Developers, and that Team
resource represents three people: Henry, Pancho, and Mickey.
2. I assign the Software Developers team resource to a task called Develop
Code and publish the project.
3. Henry, Pancho, and Mickey will all see the Develop Code task on their My
Tasks pages.

At this point, the three resources have two options: (1) Each of them can
do some of the work on the Develop Code task and report progress on it, OR
(2) One of them can use the Self-Assign Team Task functionality and take
over individual ownership of the task. Beyond this core functionality, I
doubt you will find Team resources very useful. Hope this helps.

 

[Rickard]

Thank you Dale!
About the scenario you described; can Hanry, Pancho and Mickey add the team
task to their timesheets and report progress on it? Or is that only possible
in the My Tasks page?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Rickard --

Good question. I have not tried that, but don't have the time to do an
experiment. I will gladly invite others who have done this to share their
experiences with you. Hope this helps.

 

[Rickard]

Okay, I guess I'll have to do some experimenting. Thank you Dale!

 

[Gil]

Rickard --

No, each resource can only be part of oneteamrepresented by aTeam
resource.  Since you are studying theTeamfunctionality, let me warn youin
advance that this probably won't meet all of your expectations.  The use of
theTeamresource is basically limited to assigning a "team" of people who
can/will work on a task.  Consider the following scenario:

1.  I have aTeamresource called Software Developers, and thatTeam
resource represents three people:  Henry, Pancho, and Mickey.
2.  I assign the Software Developersteamresource to a task called Develop
Code and publish the project.
3.  Henry, Pancho, and Mickey will all see the Develop Code task on their MyTaskspages.

At this point, the three resources have two options:  (1)  Each of them can
do some of the work on the Develop Code task and report progress on it, OR
(2) One of them can use the Self-AssignTeamTask functionality and take
over individual ownership of the task.  Beyond this core functionality,I
doubt you will findTeamresources very useful.  Hope this helps.

Hi Dale,
I read the scenario you described, and wanted to ask this:
In our environment, after the PM publish an assignment to a team
resource, the individual resources DO NOT see the assignment in their
My Tasks page, as you mentioned. They have to click the Self-assign
Team Tasks button in order to see the tasks. Even then, they CAN NOT
report progress on it as you mentioned. The Save and Submit buttons
are not even there.. The resources have to check the assignment and
then click the Assign task to me, and only then they are able to
report progress from My tasks page.

Can these differences between what I see and what you described be
because we have installed the Infrastructure update, but no other
cumulative updates since then?
If so, the ability for all the team resources to report progress
individually on the team task without taking over individual ownership
of the task (by selecting Self-assign task) is a major improvement!
Can you confirm?
Thanks for all your help so far,
Gil

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Gil --

One other user in this newsgroup reported the same problem as you. He
eventually solved his own problem as well. If memory serves me correctly,
he was using an enterprise project template created BEFORE he applied the
Infrastructure Update. I believe he solved the problem by delelting the
template and re-creating it, but I could be wrong. You might want to search
the newsgroup for his series of posts. The default behavior of the software
displays Team tasks on the My Tasks page of each member of the Team
resource, so there is something definitely wrong in your system. Hope this
helps.

Rickard --

No, each resource can only be part of oneteamrepresented by aTeam
resource. Since you are studying theTeamfunctionality, let me warn you in
advance that this probably won't meet all of your expectations. The use of
theTeamresource is basically limited to assigning a "team" of people who
can/will work on a task. Consider the following scenario:

1. I have aTeamresource called Software Developers, and thatTeam
resource represents three people: Henry, Pancho, and Mickey.
2. I assign the Software Developersteamresource to a task called Develop
Code and publish the project.
3. Henry, Pancho, and Mickey will all see the Develop Code task on their
MyTaskspages.

At this point, the three resources have two options: (1) Each of them can
do some of the work on the Develop Code task and report progress on it, OR
(2) One of them can use the Self-AssignTeamTask functionality and take
over individual ownership of the task. Beyond this core functionality, I
doubt you will findTeamresources very useful. Hope this helps.

Hi Dale,
I read the scenario you described, and wanted to ask this:
In our environment, after the PM publish an assignment to a team
resource, the individual resources DO NOT see the assignment in their
My Tasks page, as you mentioned. They have to click the Self-assign
Team Tasks button in order to see the tasks. Even then, they CAN NOT
report progress on it as you mentioned. The Save and Submit buttons
are not even there.. The resources have to check the assignment and
then click the Assign task to me, and only then they are able to
report progress from My tasks page.

Can these differences between what I see and what you described be
because we have installed the Infrastructure update, but no other
cumulative updates since then?
If so, the ability for all the team resources to report progress
individually on the team task without taking over individual ownership
of the task (by selecting Self-assign task) is a major improvement!
Can you confirm?
Thanks for all your help so far,
Gil

 

[Gil]

Gil --

One other user in this newsgroup reported the same problem as you.  He
eventually solved his own problem as well.  If memory serves me correctly,
he was using an enterprise project template created BEFORE he applied the
Infrastructure Update.  I believe he solved the problem by delelting the
template and re-creating it, but I could be wrong. You might want to search
the newsgroup for his series of posts.  The default behavior of the software
displays Team tasks on the My Tasks page of each member of the Team
resource, so there is something definitely wrong in your system.  Hope this
helps.

Hi Dale,
I could not find anyone that mentioned solving this issue. Also, I am
not using any template for my projects.

Since ANY other documentation I could find (books or groups, including
ProjectExperts http://www.projectserverexperts.com/ProjectServerFAQKnowledgeBase/UseTeamResources.aspx
) specifically mentions that team members will not see their team
assignments until they click on "Self-assign…" and then "Assign task
to me", I can see only two possible explanations to this issue:

1) The functionality have changed in some cumulative update since the
Infrastructure update to allow team members see team task on their
individual My tasks page, and even report progress together. It seems
less likely to me.

2) YOU see the team tasks on YOUR My tasks page, not because you are a
MEMBER of the assigned team resource, but because you are the
assignment owner of this team task (because you have published the
project).
I did some experiments and when I log in as the project manager I DO
see the team task on My task page, although the project manager is not
a member of this team resource at all. This is because Project
managers are the default assignment owners of any task assigned to
generic resources in their project, and Team resources ARE generic. I
will be happy if you can confirm my assumptions…

Thanks,
Gil

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Gil --

The FAQ was written while Project Server 2007 was in beta. I failed to
correct it, so the FAQ is wrong on that one issue. The way the software is
supposed to work is the Team tasks are supposed to show on the My Tasks
page. Team members have the option to enter progress against the Team task
if all members of the team will do work on the task, or any one of them can
take over sole ownership of the task using the Self-Assign Team Tasks
functionality. I don't know why the tasks are not showing up on your team
member's My Tasks page. That is certainly not the correct behavior. I'm
not sure I can add much more than that. I searched the Google groups as
they keep a longer history, but didn't find the original user's posts on
this subject. Sorry.

Gil --

One other user in this newsgroup reported the same problem as you. He
eventually solved his own problem as well. If memory serves me correctly,
he was using an enterprise project template created BEFORE he applied the
Infrastructure Update. I believe he solved the problem by delelting the
template and re-creating it, but I could be wrong. You might want to
search
the newsgroup for his series of posts. The default behavior of the
software
displays Team tasks on the My Tasks page of each member of the Team
resource, so there is something definitely wrong in your system. Hope this
helps.

Hi Dale,
I could not find anyone that mentioned solving this issue. Also, I am
not using any template for my projects.

Since ANY other documentation I could find (books or groups, including
ProjectExperts
http://www.projectserverexperts.com/ProjectServerFAQKnowledgeBase/UseTeamResources.aspx
) specifically mentions that team members will not see their team
assignments until they click on "Self-assign…" and then "Assign task
to me", I can see only two possible explanations to this issue:

1) The functionality have changed in some cumulative update since the
Infrastructure update to allow team members see team task on their
individual My tasks page, and even report progress together. It seems
less likely to me.

2) YOU see the team tasks on YOUR My tasks page, not because you are a
MEMBER of the assigned team resource, but because you are the
assignment owner of this team task (because you have published the
project).
I did some experiments and when I log in as the project manager I DO
see the team task on My task page, although the project manager is not
a member of this team resource at all. This is because Project
managers are the default assignment owners of any task assigned to
generic resources in their project, and Team resources ARE generic. I
will be happy if you can confirm my assumptions…

Thanks,
Gil

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Gil --

I wanted to thank you for finding the mistake in the FAQ about Team
resources. I have corrected the FAQ, but I know this does little to solve
your problem with Team resources. Hope this helps.

Gil --

One other user in this newsgroup reported the same problem as you. He
eventually solved his own problem as well. If memory serves me correctly,
he was using an enterprise project template created BEFORE he applied the
Infrastructure Update. I believe he solved the problem by delelting the
template and re-creating it, but I could be wrong. You might want to
search
the newsgroup for his series of posts. The default behavior of the
software
displays Team tasks on the My Tasks page of each member of the Team
resource, so there is something definitely wrong in your system. Hope this
helps.

Hi Dale,
I could not find anyone that mentioned solving this issue. Also, I am
not using any template for my projects.

Since ANY other documentation I could find (books or groups, including
ProjectExperts
http://www.projectserverexperts.com/ProjectServerFAQKnowledgeBase/UseTeamResources.aspx
) specifically mentions that team members will not see their team
assignments until they click on "Self-assign…" and then "Assign task
to me", I can see only two possible explanations to this issue:

1) The functionality have changed in some cumulative update since the
Infrastructure update to allow team members see team task on their
individual My tasks page, and even report progress together. It seems
less likely to me.

2) YOU see the team tasks on YOUR My tasks page, not because you are a
MEMBER of the assigned team resource, but because you are the
assignment owner of this team task (because you have published the
project).
I did some experiments and when I log in as the project manager I DO
see the team task on My task page, although the project manager is not
a member of this team resource at all. This is because Project
managers are the default assignment owners of any task assigned to
generic resources in their project, and Team resources ARE generic. I
will be happy if you can confirm my assumptions…

Thanks,
Gil

 

[Jan]

I am experiencing the same issue as previously identified (team member
doesn't see task in my task or self assign list) , we have sp1 with CUs
through DEc 2008 applied. The Template i used was imported to 2007 after the
fixes were applied but was imported from a 2003 template.

Is there something i need to do to the resource for team assignments (it is
my understanding that that the team assingment pool check box is suppose to
unchecked) other than assigning the team resource and subsequenlty assigning
the team resource to the task?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Jan --

After thorough research on Team resources, I can state with confidence that
resources who are members of the Team Members group do not see Team tasks on
their My Tasks page. They can only see the Team Tasks on the Task Tasks
page where they can self-assign the Team tasks to themselves. If a member
of the Project Managers group is part of a team represented by a Team
resource, then the project manager will see the Team tasks on both the My
Tasks page and the Team Tasks page. This is how the software works, and I
don't know any way around the issue that Team tasks do not show up on the My
Tasks page for users in the Team Members group. Hope this helps.

 

[milrock]

From the Microsoft Project Server site on microsoft.com which was
updated last week to reflect the correct functionality of team tasks:

"Assign work to the team
Once you have set up the teams, assign all tasks initially to the team
lead.

Team members who are not leads can now go their My Work page, select
Self-assign Team Tasks on the Actions menu, and then select those
tasks that they want assigned to them.

<b Note The team lead can see on the My Work page all team tasks
that have been assigned to him or her. Other team members can only see
those tasks that they assigned to themselves. "/b>

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

milrock --

I'm not sure that solves the problem. What does Microsoft mean by "team
lead?"