Admin Projects-How Does Nonworking Time Link to Resource Availabil

[Terry Peters]

I have an IT Department as a Client and they are starting use of Project
Server 2003. We are considering using an Admin Project for tracking
Non-Project "Maintenance" tasks such as server repairs and upgrades and
another Admin Project for tracking Non-Working (Vacation, etc.) Time.

I know Admin Project time does not automatically post to the Enterprise
Resource Calendar, but I understand that it does impact resource
availability--that is, it counts as resource work & would cause
overallocations if it overlaps assigned project tasks.

Questions:

(1) Where and how does the Admin Project Time get added to and meshed with
the Project Assignment hours so they are totalled for the resource?

(2) Is it the Proposed/Requested Nonworking Time that counts against
resource availability, the Actual/Reported Nonworking Time, or both?

(3) Where can a server user see and pull report data from in order to
analyze the different kinds of time--project, nonworking and nonproject?

Thanks in advance for your considerate and patient kindness,

 

[Mark Everett | PMP]

I have an IT Department as a Client and they are starting use of Project
Server 2003. We are considering using an Admin Project for tracking
Non-Project "Maintenance" tasks such as server repairs and upgrades and
another Admin Project for tracking Non-Working (Vacation, etc.) Time.

I know Admin Project time does not automatically post to the Enterprise
Resource Calendar, but I understand that it does impact resource
availability--that is, it counts as resource work & would cause
overallocations if it overlaps assigned project tasks.

Questions:

(1) Where and how does the Admin Project Time get added to and meshed with
the Project Assignment hours so they are totalled for the resource?

(2) Is it the Proposed/Requested Nonworking Time that counts against
resource availability, the Actual/Reported Nonworking Time, or both?

(3) Where can a server user see and pull report data from in order to
analyze the different kinds of time--project, nonworking and nonproject?

Thanks in advance for your considerate and patient kindness,

Hello Terry,

I will see if I can help. This is a fairly common issue with
PS2003.

1. If you use the Admin template, then you create a plan called
whatever you want listing the tasks you include. In the Project
Center and in OLAP, that plan is visable for reporting. When a
resource uses the "Notify your manager of time you will not be
available for project work..." (hereafter "Notify") they are
redirected to another view, which is of the admin plan only. The
select the correct date and category and put in the number of hours
they want to take off. As a best practice, I suggest to my clients
that the resource include a note, especially for vacation time. That
time, when approved, by the resource's manager, shows up as planned
work for the dates. So if I put in for a day in six weeks, and
someone wants to assign me to a task on that day, I will show up as
overallocated for that day and upon investigation, I will show up as
being assinged to vacation task in the Admin Plan project.

2. After I take that vacation day, I fill out my timesheet in the
normal task center timesheet view (not the Notify view) and the actual
hours are recorded. The planned time I entered in the Notify view
shows that I am not available. The actual hours book time against the
vacation task in the Admin plan.

3. As I mentioned, you can create a view in the Project Center (filter
for the admin plan) or you can see it in the Portfolio and Resource
Analysis (OLAP) views. You could also report on it using SQL Reporting
Services (or other reporting tool).

As for using the Admin plan to record maintenance tasks, I personally
don't care for that since the default Admin template does not provide
start or end dates and the amount of time people are assigned to work
on "server upgrades" or other operational tasks should be quantifiable
over a span of time (a month, a quarter, a year). There is another
solution for that that I think works better.

Feel free to contact me if you would like more info on that.

Mark S Everett | PMP
www.quantumpm.com
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Terry Peters]

Mark:
Thanks for the update. Just one clarifying question concerning Item 3 on
Where Can You See and Print Out the Amalgamated Totals for Project &
Nonworking Time: My client doesn't have Analysis Services & OLAP installed
now (& would have to pay to have it reinstalled). Would the Project Center
or Resource Center (e.g., View Availability) Views allow them to see details
of both types of work as well as give totals for project and nonworking time?
(I am onsite this week and don't have access to P/S 2003 to test this out.)
I assume that to print the data they would have to use the Print Grid or
Export Grid to Excel features, yes?