Trick ? - Is ANYONE successfully using Project Server 2007 in PRODUCTION?

[anovak]

Given the availability of some hotfixes - and I figure not all KB's
out there actually have hotfixes available for them, is anyone out
there using this beyond proof-of-concept, prototype, or test mode??

Is there any chance that the available hotfixes available today would
prop this thing up well enough to be somewhat stable and able to
deploy moving forward?

We are seriously thinking about Falling back on Project Server 2003
until Project Server 2007 is stable, especially considering SP3 for
Project Server 2003 was released last month.

Comments please??

Thanks,
Andy Novak
UNT

 

[Mike Mahoney]

Given the availability of some hotfixes - and I figure not all KB's
out there actually have hotfixes available for them, is anyone out
there using this beyond proof-of-concept, prototype, or test mode??

Is there any chance that the available hotfixes available today would
prop this thing up well enough to be somewhat stable and able to
deploy moving forward?

We are seriously thinking about Falling back on Project Server 2003
until Project Server 2007 is stable, especially considering SP3 for
Project Server 2003 was released last month.

Comments please??

Thanks,
Andy Novak
UNT

Andy

Clearly simply from reading this news group many of us make a living
out of implementing 2007, so yes there are production systems out
there. The challenge for each of us is to understand the pitfalls and
the opportunities to make it work. In my view PS2007 has a lot of
issues and requires a high level of "baby-sitting" to deal with these
issues. Failure to do this will create credibility problems with the
user community, but it is doable. If you have a working PS 2003
system I would not change at this point, but if you are introducing
EPM for the first time and are a small to medium sized organisation I
would choose PS 2007 as long as you have appropriate guidance and
support in the implementation and initial operation. I have some
concerns around performance and support in a large organisation which
may make me wait for sp1.

regards

Mike

 

[James Fraser]

Given the availability of some hotfixes - and I figure not all KB's
out there actually have hotfixes available for them, is anyone out
there using this beyond proof-of-concept, prototype, or test mode??

Is there any chance that the available hotfixes available today would
prop this thing up well enough to be somewhat stable and able to
deploy moving forward?

We are seriously thinking about Falling back on Project Server 2003
until Project Server 2007 is stable, especially considering SP3 for
Project Server 2003 was released last month.

Comments please??

There have been several similar conversations to this in this
newsgroup, and I don't want to rehash those. Even without hotfixes,
Project Server 2007 can work well enough to support a production
environment. I know of at least 1000 people using Project Server 2007
for production project planning and updating, in several different
organizations. Yes, occasionally projects get stuck while they are
being saved and we have to clean up the queue. (Once a week maybe for
~100 PM's?) Yes, occasionally, task or assignments become corrupt and
we have to eliminate a bad resource assignment.
But, the OLAP cubes turn every night, the servers work without
restarts, projects check in and out fine the vast majority of the
time.
Yes, make sure you have good support plans if you are going PS2007,
but that is true for any new platform.

A side note:
User habits contribute to PS 2007 problems: If your PM's assign
resources to summary tasks, then you are much more likely to run into
problems on the My Tasks and Timesheet page, in my experience.

Many similar issues exist in 2003, but most of us have gotten used to
them.


my thoughts...
James Fraser

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

James:

You are absolutely correct that usage patterns determine whether 2007 can be
practical in production given the issues. For instance, in an environment
where resources are frequently added to started tasks, the rate of
assignment corruption could easily render the system functionally useless.
On the other hand, in environments where this is a rare requirement, it
would hardly cause a hiccup.

It is difficult enough for people to understand the subtleties of a Project
Server implementation without this layer of worry. The downside of not
analyzing this risk is that you only get one chance to make a first
impression. Anyone deploying to production must exercise an extra measure of
care and diligence, and proceed slowly and deliberately.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
For Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com