Using Project as productivity model

[Production Reporting Help]

Is Project a good tool to use for measuring productivity levels for project
specific tasks. In other words, if I am managing a project and want to
monitor FTE (full time employee) being used based on time is this what I'm
looking for.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

PRH:

Project Server provides a good basis for this as it can collect actual work
from people if you set it up that way. From the data collected, you can
calculate FTE usage but I caution you that a simple availability divided by
actual work formula may not give you accurate results if you have people
reporting overtime during any calculation period. In other words, four
people can put 60 hours work on a task in one week. Using a simple formula,
without considering a leveling algorithm, would result in an FTE calculation
of 6 rather than 4.




"Production Reporting Help"

 

[ABG]

Where can we find templates that show different examples for using Project in
keeping track of the worked time from salaried employees?

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

I'm not certain what you're asking. There aren't any templates for this per
se. There are only configuration options. Can you elaborate a little?

 

[ABG]

Sorry, I should have been more specific.

Well, I just wanted to have some ideas of how other people are designing
their projects or templates that are used for employees time entries in
Project.

Here is what we are testing: We have different teams in the Company. We
are going to give each team a Project file to be used by their team members
for the input of their time entries. All of the tasks listed on each file
are going to be coded (by using Enterprise Task Outline Codes), and then, we
will analyze the tasks accross the Company by using Portfolio Analyzer.
The issue we are having is that when we were creating the view for Portfolio
Analyzer, we found out that only the Project and Resource Outline Codes were
available on the Chart Field list. We could not add the Enterprise Tasks
Outline Codes to the graphics. We are now wondering if we are not going the
right direction with this.

Thanks!

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

ABG:

Task data is not populated to the Analyzer by default. You can extend the
function of the Analyzer by following the examples in the documentation on
MSDN. Microsoft provides a starter solution for this. You can also go with a
third party add-on. Search this newsgroup for Vadim and follow his link to
his Bogdanov and Associates site.

 

[ABG]

Wow! that is exactly what we need!
For the ones interested, here is the link to their page:
http://www.bogdanov-associates.com/eng.asp?rubr_id=484

Thank you so much!

 

[ABG]

We tried to install this utility on the Project Server and it asked for the
MSProjectServerUser password. We could not find that password anywhere, so we
went ahead and reset it. The server was then rebooted. Now Project
Professional is giving us an error and nothing has fixed it:

Connection failed:
SQL State: '28000'
SQL Server Error: 18456
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server][Login failed for user
'MSProjectUser'

help ASAP please...

 

[ABG]

This is how we stopped this error (in case someone runs into the same issue).

Ran CONNINFO.EXE on the Project Server and entered the new password for the
Project Server 2003 Connection information. That fixed the problem!

We tried to install this utility on the Project Server and it asked for the
MSProjectServerUser password. We could not find that password anywhere, so we
went ahead and reset it. The server was then rebooted. Now Project
Professional is giving us an error and nothing has fixed it:

Connection failed:
SQL State: '28000'
SQL Server Error: 18456
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server][Login failed for user
'MSProjectUser'

help ASAP please...

Wow! that is exactly what we need!
For the ones interested, here is the link to their page:
http://www.bogdanov-associates.com/eng.asp?rubr_id=484

Thank you so much!