Assigning a task approval manager who isn't a project manager

[Christina]

MS Project 2003, PS 2003

We have created individual project schedules to track non-project work for
enterprise resources that tend to be constraints on Corporate projects. That
person's manager is the Project Owner (i.e. Project Manager) and Task
Approval Manager.

Q- Is there a way to designate another person (i.e. Team Lead) to
temporarily be the Task Approval Manager, as well as be able to modify task
assignments as needed? (Without assigning the Lead the Project Manager
permission)

My thought was to assign specific PM permissions to the Team Lead group that
would allow them to create new tasks, re-allocate work, publish, and process
task updates. I'm hesitant to assign them to the PM group since it may
contain permissions that are not appropriate for them to have. However, I
don't know how the RBS comes into play and if the Project Manager field will
"recognize" a person in the Team Lead group as someone who can process task
updates. Or if the Project Owner field will recognize the Team Lead group as
allowed to modify the schedule.

I hope that made sense. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Christina

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Christina --

If it were me in your situation, I would opt for the KISS (Keep It Simple,
Silly) method for solving this problem. That method would mean adding your
team leader to the Project Managers group. This would grant the team leader
full Project Manager permissions, but I can't imagine what you wouldn't want
this person to be able to do in Project Server.

An alternate solution that is a little more complex would be to create a
custom Group, add the My Projects category to the Group, and set the
category Permissions and Global Permissions to specifically grant the team
leader what you want him/her to be able to do. Either way, you will still
need to install Project Professional 2003 on the team leader's desktop and
set him/her as the project Owner (so he/she can see, open, and edit the
project). Then the team leader will need to set him/herself as the Manager
for each task. Refer to the following FAQ for the steps needed to do these
last two actions:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com/ProjectServerFAQKnowledgeBase/changeprojmgr.aspx

Hope this helps.

 

[Christina]

Hi Dale-

I am all for simple It would definitely make things easier to grant
the PM group permission in this case.

thank you for your help!

Christina

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Christina --

You are more than welcome for the help, my friend!

 

[Christina]

Dale-

I have one last question about this. The way the PM permission is set up in
our server, PMs can only open and edit projects that they manage (are
designated the Owner). They can see all projects but to open ones they don't
manage, they can only do so as Read Only. My question is, in our
configuration, how can we allow multiple people to become the task approval
manager if they are not the Owner (since they can't republish the project).
Does our configuration prevent this?

Thanks!
Christina

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Christina --

Yup, your configuration will prevent that. If your PMs need to be able to
become the Status Manager for any project, they also need to be able to open
that project with Read/Write access. I think this situation should cause
you to rethink your security model, as currently set. Hope this helps.

 

[Christina]

Dale-

I was afraid of that :-(

What if I were to create a 3rd category that listed specific projects that
could be opened.

So, right now we have a Project Manager Group that is assigned to 2
categories (one that allows PMs to open and edit projects they own and one
that allows them to see the others but in Read Only). No permissions are
denied in either category; only specific ones granted.

If I created a 3rd category that gave read/write access to specific projects
and assigned that category to the individuals impacted, would that work? Or
assign that category to the Team Leads group and assign the individuals to
that group. There would be overlap for some since some are already PMs. But
some aren't PMs and are only designated as Leads.

Could you follow that?

Christina

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Christina --

When you start adding Categories to specific user accounts, you are creating
a security nightmare to manage. Remember to follow the KISS (Keep It
Simple, Silly) approach to security in Project Server 2007.

A cleaner way would be to create the Category that gives access to the
projects in question, and then create a Group containing that Category, with
permissions that allow a project manager to open those specific projects
Read/Write. Then add the users in question to that Group and voila! Your
problem is solved. To your credit, you were moving in the right direction
on how to solve this little security challenge! Hope this helps.

 

[Christina]

It does. Once again, thank you so much for your help!

Have a great day!
Christina

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Christina --

You are more than welcome for the help, my friend!