A
Andreas Lechner
Hello NG,
we are currently implementing EPM for our department, with the primary goal
of being able to better manage cross-project dependencies on the departmental
level.
(Project Professional 2003 and Project Server 2003, both SP1). Since
managing cross-project dependencies is the key issue for us, this is very
important for us:
Say we have 2 projects A and B, both stored in the Project Server DB.
Between these two projects, quite a number of interdependencies between tasks
accross project boundaries exist. So far, so good.
Now the manager of project A postpones a scheduled task in his project,
which will affect a dependent task in project B. Upon next opening his/her
project B in Professional Client, the manager of project B, will receive a
notification about the schedule change in the Cross-project dependencies
popup window, along with an oppurtunity to accept the change(s).
However, as far as I can see it, there is no way of first seeing the
implications of accepting the change(s) for the manager of project B before
accepting them. They can either decide to just ignore the external schedule
change(s) and close the window (which is not really an option), or - more or
less blindly - accept the external change(s), possibly implying a number of
changes to the schedule of their project B.
Isn't there an efficient way of kind of "forecasting" the changes that will
be made to the schedule of their own project B, before accepting the external
changes?!?
We have tried out saving another (unpublished, alternative) version of
project B, in which all the changes are accepted, to the server, then
reopening the initial public version of project B, and than comparing the two
versions using the "Compare projects" feature. This way, one can at least
foresee the changes made to project B implied by accepting the external
changes before accepting the to the standard public version of project B.
However, this is quite a complicated approach and even annoying with all the
"external dependencies" popup windows, generated again when using the project
comparator feature.
Does anyone know a more efficient approach to this??
Also:
Is there a way of generating (email) notifications or notifications via PWA
to the managers of dependent projects when changes to a project A are made?
Because otherwise, each project manager must open each of their projects all
the time to possibly receive the updates to external tasks.
I would greatly appreciate any tips!
Thanks,
Andreas
we are currently implementing EPM for our department, with the primary goal
of being able to better manage cross-project dependencies on the departmental
level.
(Project Professional 2003 and Project Server 2003, both SP1). Since
managing cross-project dependencies is the key issue for us, this is very
important for us:
Say we have 2 projects A and B, both stored in the Project Server DB.
Between these two projects, quite a number of interdependencies between tasks
accross project boundaries exist. So far, so good.
Now the manager of project A postpones a scheduled task in his project,
which will affect a dependent task in project B. Upon next opening his/her
project B in Professional Client, the manager of project B, will receive a
notification about the schedule change in the Cross-project dependencies
popup window, along with an oppurtunity to accept the change(s).
However, as far as I can see it, there is no way of first seeing the
implications of accepting the change(s) for the manager of project B before
accepting them. They can either decide to just ignore the external schedule
change(s) and close the window (which is not really an option), or - more or
less blindly - accept the external change(s), possibly implying a number of
changes to the schedule of their project B.
Isn't there an efficient way of kind of "forecasting" the changes that will
be made to the schedule of their own project B, before accepting the external
changes?!?
We have tried out saving another (unpublished, alternative) version of
project B, in which all the changes are accepted, to the server, then
reopening the initial public version of project B, and than comparing the two
versions using the "Compare projects" feature. This way, one can at least
foresee the changes made to project B implied by accepting the external
changes before accepting the to the standard public version of project B.
However, this is quite a complicated approach and even annoying with all the
"external dependencies" popup windows, generated again when using the project
comparator feature.
Does anyone know a more efficient approach to this??
Also:
Is there a way of generating (email) notifications or notifications via PWA
to the managers of dependent projects when changes to a project A are made?
Because otherwise, each project manager must open each of their projects all
the time to possibly receive the updates to external tasks.
I would greatly appreciate any tips!
Thanks,
Andreas