Best Approach to Structure MS Project in a Functional Organization

[Jack L. Calkins, PMP]

Environment:
Functional organization (i.e. not a matrix or projectized organization).
Specifically, one team, let's call them the production team, manages their
own resources but provide services to multiple design teams using a shared
resource pool who receives work assignments from the Production Team manager.
MS Project 2007 clients with file shares. [We are waiting on Project Server
2007 implementation].

Goals:
1. Allow overall organization PM, that's me, to rollup status of all
in-flight projects.
2. Allow design team PMs to schedule and level their resources but not
impact the scheduling of the Production team resources even though they are
in their projects activity network.
3. Similarly allow the production team manager to schedule and level his
resources without automatically impacting all design teams schedules.
4. Have the overall organization, PMO (that's me), consolidate all the
projects and resources and do modelling and impact analysis without altering
the "production" project files.

Question: What's the "best technical and process approach" to do this
without Project Server?

My Assumptions:
1. The "best" approach for structuring MS Project to meet the above
objectives is to split the tasks among multiple files such that the design
team tasks and resources are in one file (which could consist of multiple
concurrent "joint" projects) and the production teams task and resources are
in another file (which will ultimately consist of multiple production tasks
for the various Design teams).
2. Is there a technical solution to "fencing" off the impact of the design
teams schedule changes from the production team resources?
3. If #2 above is no. Then what process approach is appropriate?
4. From an overall approach any issues with linking all 23 concurrent
sub-projects and 180 resources into a master project file for status
reporting purposes?
5. Any way to save a copy of the master organization portfolio (~3000 tasks
and 180 projects) if it's a link of the multiple subprojects to have just the
PMO (that's me) be able to play with resource levelling and modelling the
impact of changes to the portfolios across the design and production teams
without impacting their team assignments?

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

Jack

 

[Jack Dahlgren MVP]

Goals 2 and 3 are not possible. Sorry, you can not change a scheduled task
without changing the schedule.

1 and 4 can be achieved by a master project with all the sub-projects
inserted. Inserting without linking (aka consolidating) can be used to
create a version you can use for "what-if analysis"

The "best" way to do this depends on a number of things. I don't think a
best way can be developed without looking deeper into your requirements.

-Jack Dahlgren
http://zo-d.com/blog

Environment:
Functional organization (i.e. not a matrix or projectized organization).
Specifically, one team, let's call them the production team, manages their
own resources but provide services to multiple design teams using a shared
resource pool who receives work assignments from the Production Team
manager.
MS Project 2007 clients with file shares. [We are waiting on Project
Server
2007 implementation].

Goals:
1. Allow overall organization PM, that's me, to rollup status of all
in-flight projects.
2. Allow design team PMs to schedule and level their resources but not
impact the scheduling of the Production team resources even though they
are
in their projects activity network.
3. Similarly allow the production team manager to schedule and level his
resources without automatically impacting all design teams schedules.
4. Have the overall organization, PMO (that's me), consolidate all the
projects and resources and do modelling and impact analysis without
altering
the "production" project files.

Question: What's the "best technical and process approach" to do this
without Project Server?

My Assumptions:
1. The "best" approach for structuring MS Project to meet the above
objectives is to split the tasks among multiple files such that the design
team tasks and resources are in one file (which could consist of multiple
concurrent "joint" projects) and the production teams task and resources
are
in another file (which will ultimately consist of multiple production
tasks
for the various Design teams).
2. Is there a technical solution to "fencing" off the impact of the
design
teams schedule changes from the production team resources?
3. If #2 above is no. Then what process approach is appropriate?
4. From an overall approach any issues with linking all 23 concurrent
sub-projects and 180 resources into a master project file for status
reporting purposes?
5. Any way to save a copy of the master organization portfolio (~3000
tasks
and 180 projects) if it's a link of the multiple subprojects to have just
the
PMO (that's me) be able to play with resource levelling and modelling the
impact of changes to the portfolios across the design and production teams
without impacting their team assignments?

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

Jack

 

[Jack L. Calkins, PMP]

Jack:

Thank you so much for your response. Well 2 Jacks are enough to open in
poker so let's peel this onion a bit further.

OK...so I'm looking at an architecture where all the projects roll up into a
single master plan for reporting purposes by inserting sub-projects. I have
started developing template plans for one type of product (A.1 in the example
below) and will continue for the other products we deliver. But doing the
resource leveling at my level (above the team level) may be too much
micromanagement at this point. What other options should I consider?

Further requirements:
1. I would like to have the various subordinate teams be responsible for
maintaining (i.e. add/change) their tasks/durations and manage who they
assign their staff.
2. I could maintain the add/changes to the resource pool at my org level.
3. I would like the teams to maintain the individual resource's calendars
(vacation's primarily).
4. There are some assignments which I would like to maintain at my level for
individuals in the teams.
5. I would like to minimize my staffing requirements for maintaining the
plan to .25 FTE given ~50 project plans and ~180 resources.

Let me lay out more detail on the Organization (i.e. OBS).

OBS
1.0 = Top Org
1.1 = Me PMO function for Top Org plus budget/HR/taskings/IT/Communications
1.2 = Design Team A
1.3 = Design Team B
1.4 = Design Team C
1.5 = Production Team D
1.6 = Production Team E
1.7 = Production Team F

And describe the Typical Workflow for product type A:
Product A.1 - Design Team A -> Production Team D then
Product A.2 - Design Team A -> Production Team E then
Product A.3 - Design Team B -> Production Team F

Also situations where Product B.1 is a collaboration of Team A, B and C
going to Production Team D
then product B.2 collaboration to Production Team E
then product B.3 collaboration to Production Team F

What additional questions should I ask myself?
At what number of linked project plans does this become unmanageable without
Project Server?
On another note, we are part of a larger Enterprise Software customer, and
if it makes sense, I'd like to get plugged into our Microsoft Account Team
who could have resources to further advise me. How should I best do that?

Thanks again for your help!

Jack L. Calkins, PMP

Goals 2 and 3 are not possible. Sorry, you can not change a scheduled task
without changing the schedule.

1 and 4 can be achieved by a master project with all the sub-projects
inserted. Inserting without linking (aka consolidating) can be used to
create a version you can use for "what-if analysis"

The "best" way to do this depends on a number of things. I don't think a
best way can be developed without looking deeper into your requirements.

-Jack Dahlgren
http://zo-d.com/blog

Environment:
Functional organization (i.e. not a matrix or projectized organization).
Specifically, one team, let's call them the production team, manages their
own resources but provide services to multiple design teams using a shared
resource pool who receives work assignments from the Production Team
manager.
MS Project 2007 clients with file shares. [We are waiting on Project
Server
2007 implementation].

Goals:
1. Allow overall organization PM, that's me, to rollup status of all
in-flight projects.
2. Allow design team PMs to schedule and level their resources but not
impact the scheduling of the Production team resources even though they
are
in their projects activity network.
3. Similarly allow the production team manager to schedule and level his
resources without automatically impacting all design teams schedules.
4. Have the overall organization, PMO (that's me), consolidate all the
projects and resources and do modelling and impact analysis without
altering
the "production" project files.

Question: What's the "best technical and process approach" to do this
without Project Server?

My Assumptions:
1. The "best" approach for structuring MS Project to meet the above
objectives is to split the tasks among multiple files such that the design
team tasks and resources are in one file (which could consist of multiple
concurrent "joint" projects) and the production teams task and resources
are
in another file (which will ultimately consist of multiple production
tasks
for the various Design teams).
2. Is there a technical solution to "fencing" off the impact of the
design
teams schedule changes from the production team resources?
3. If #2 above is no. Then what process approach is appropriate?
4. From an overall approach any issues with linking all 23 concurrent
sub-projects and 180 resources into a master project file for status
reporting purposes?
5. Any way to save a copy of the master organization portfolio (~3000
tasks
and 180 projects) if it's a link of the multiple subprojects to have just
the
PMO (that's me) be able to play with resource levelling and modelling the
impact of changes to the portfolios across the design and production teams
without impacting their team assignments?

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

Jack

 

[Jack Dahlgren MVP]

Jack C.

Good questions. It is really nice that you are laying out your requirements.
That is the first step to getting a good solution.
Unfortunately the questions you are asking are a bit much for this sort of
forum.

If you have short questions or need help with something small, this place is
a great resource. For what you are proposing I suggest you get a consultant
to help out.

-Jack Dahlgren
http://zo-d.com

Jack:

Thank you so much for your response. Well 2 Jacks are enough to open in
poker so let's peel this onion a bit further.

OK...so I'm looking at an architecture where all the projects roll up into
a
single master plan for reporting purposes by inserting sub-projects. I
have
started developing template plans for one type of product (A.1 in the
example
below) and will continue for the other products we deliver. But doing the
resource leveling at my level (above the team level) may be too much
micromanagement at this point. What other options should I consider?

Further requirements:
1. I would like to have the various subordinate teams be responsible for
maintaining (i.e. add/change) their tasks/durations and manage who they
assign their staff.
2. I could maintain the add/changes to the resource pool at my org level.
3. I would like the teams to maintain the individual resource's calendars
(vacation's primarily).
4. There are some assignments which I would like to maintain at my level
for
individuals in the teams.
5. I would like to minimize my staffing requirements for maintaining the
plan to .25 FTE given ~50 project plans and ~180 resources.

Let me lay out more detail on the Organization (i.e. OBS).

OBS
1.0 = Top Org
1.1 = Me PMO function for Top Org plus
budget/HR/taskings/IT/Communications
1.2 = Design Team A
1.3 = Design Team B
1.4 = Design Team C
1.5 = Production Team D
1.6 = Production Team E
1.7 = Production Team F

And describe the Typical Workflow for product type A:
Product A.1 - Design Team A -> Production Team D then
Product A.2 - Design Team A -> Production Team E then
Product A.3 - Design Team B -> Production Team F

Also situations where Product B.1 is a collaboration of Team A, B and C
going to Production Team D
then product B.2 collaboration to Production Team E
then product B.3 collaboration to Production Team F

What additional questions should I ask myself?
At what number of linked project plans does this become unmanageable
without
Project Server?
On another note, we are part of a larger Enterprise Software customer, and
if it makes sense, I'd like to get plugged into our Microsoft Account Team
who could have resources to further advise me. How should I best do that?

Thanks again for your help!

Jack L. Calkins, PMP

Goals 2 and 3 are not possible. Sorry, you can not change a scheduled
task
without changing the schedule.

1 and 4 can be achieved by a master project with all the sub-projects
inserted. Inserting without linking (aka consolidating) can be used to
create a version you can use for "what-if analysis"

The "best" way to do this depends on a number of things. I don't think a
best way can be developed without looking deeper into your requirements.

-Jack Dahlgren
http://zo-d.com/blog



"Jack L. Calkins, PMP" <Jack L. Calkins, (e-mail address removed)>
wrote in message

Environment:
Functional organization (i.e. not a matrix or projectized
organization).
Specifically, one team, let's call them the production team, manages
their
own resources but provide services to multiple design teams using a
shared
resource pool who receives work assignments from the Production Team
manager.
MS Project 2007 clients with file shares. [We are waiting on Project
Server
2007 implementation].

Goals:
1. Allow overall organization PM, that's me, to rollup status of all
in-flight projects.
2. Allow design team PMs to schedule and level their resources but not
impact the scheduling of the Production team resources even though they
are
in their projects activity network.
3. Similarly allow the production team manager to schedule and level
his
resources without automatically impacting all design teams schedules.
4. Have the overall organization, PMO (that's me), consolidate all the
projects and resources and do modelling and impact analysis without
altering
the "production" project files.

Question: What's the "best technical and process approach" to do this
without Project Server?

My Assumptions:
1. The "best" approach for structuring MS Project to meet the above
objectives is to split the tasks among multiple files such that the
design
team tasks and resources are in one file (which could consist of
multiple
concurrent "joint" projects) and the production teams task and
resources
are
in another file (which will ultimately consist of multiple production
tasks
for the various Design teams).
2. Is there a technical solution to "fencing" off the impact of the
design
teams schedule changes from the production team resources?
3. If #2 above is no. Then what process approach is appropriate?
4. From an overall approach any issues with linking all 23 concurrent
sub-projects and 180 resources into a master project file for status
reporting purposes?
5. Any way to save a copy of the master organization portfolio (~3000
tasks
and 180 projects) if it's a link of the multiple subprojects to have
just
the
PMO (that's me) be able to play with resource levelling and modelling
the
impact of changes to the portfolios across the design and production
teams
without impacting their team assignments?

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

Jack