Consolidated projects -- grouping like activities by wbs or idea

[LindaB]

I have three projects, each managed by a separate project manager that are
part of a program. The projects share similar high level activities
(analysis, design, development, testing, etc) and I would like to be able to
consolidate the projects and have their related activities grouped together.
Like:

Analysis
Analysis - Front Office Trading
Task 1
Task 2
Deliverable
Analysis - Compliance
Task 1
Task 2
Deliverable
Analysis - Trading Ops & Data Admin
Task 1
Task 2
Deliverable

I tried creating a custom WBS scheme,opened a master project and inserted
each of the projects. Then I tried sorting by WBS, but the inserted projects
remain "standalone" -- the activities and task don't sort together.

My WBS naming conventions were:

Master Project Analysis Phase: A-1
Front office Analysis Phase: A-1.1
Compliance Analysis Phase: A-1.2
Trading Ops Analysis Phase: A-1.3

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Jim Aksel]

Instead of inserting sub-project to a master file, try copy/paste into a
single file (that is there is no master file with subordinates).

Jim

 

[LindaB]

Jim --
Can I still link the projects? I'd like the individual PMs to maintain the
plans on a regular basis.

 

[Jim Aksel]

A custom grouping will honor what you want for a Master Project and will
combine the subprojects as well.
Project/Group By/Customize Group By...

For instance, if I use the same WBS Structure for each project (like what
you showed before), you could group by WBS and all the projects will group
together. I am assuming each project has the same structure you identified.

We have projects here where Control Account Managers (CAMs) have work
packages that spread among as many as 9 files in a master project. We used a
spare Text column to indicate the CAMs Name. Using the customized grouping,
we can group all of a CAMs activities together and then push that to them for
status each week.

You can use the Text Fields for anything you want, then group on them.
Maybe you could put "Analysis" in there. You may want to consider a
customized drop down list as well .... this will keep people from typos like
Analysis and analsys which would sort separately.

If this helps, please consider rating this post.

 

[LindaB]

Thanks Jim. While Group By doesn't appear to work with WBS as a field, I was
able to get the desired results by using Custom Outline Codes.

I used one custom code for each project:
FO - front office
CO - Compliance
SMF- Security Master

and another custom code for the activity level/phase (key deliverable desc)
Project Iniation
Analysis
Design
Dev
etc.

I created the outline code and associated tables in a master project and
copied it into the global.mpt

Then I had each project get a copy of the global.mpt and copy the outline
tables into their own project.

I inserted & linked each project into my master project and used Project
Group By/(Custom) Outline Code1 then Outline Code 2.

Works like a charm when all or on a file server. Now to get it to work from
within Sharepoint!!!!

Thanks again!
Linda B