Can Team Member updates flow to Resource Manager before Proj Mgr

[MaryS]

We are using Project 2003 Professional and Server, and would like to
establish the following workflow for tasks:

1. Project Manager creates task and assigns to Resource Manager.
2. Resource Manager delegates task to appropriate and available Team Member.
3. Team Member accepts task, performs the work, and updates task to show %
complete or actual time.
4. Resource Manager is notified, reviews and either approves Team Member's
task update or rejects it.
5. If Resource Manager approves the update, Project Manager is notified for
review and approval.

We're having a problem setting up step 4 - Resource Manager approval. The
updated tasks are routing directly to the Project Manager for approval,
skipping the Resource Manager, and we want the RM to approve the work before
the PM confirms the update. We have the RBS set up to show the reporting
relationship between Resource Manager and Team Member. We do not want the
Resource Manager owning the tasks, so the 2 PM approach won't work. I can't
find any reference to this multiple approval process in any of the Project
documentation (2002 or 2003), or in the newsgroups (if it's somewhere, please
point me to it).

Is there some setting or some other process we can use to incorporate step 4
into our workflow? Or is this not an option right now?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

MaryS --

Given the methodology you folks have described, you are going about this
process incorrectly. Here's how you should handle the process:

1. The project manager builds the team for the project to include the
resource manager
2. The project manager assigns the resource manager to any tasks that the
RM needs to delegate
3. The project manager publishes the project and the assignments
4. The RM goes to the View My Tasks Page in PWA to view the task
assignments
5. The RM clicks the Delegation tab to expose the delegation options
6. The RM selects a task and clicks the Delegate Task button
7. On the Delegate Tasks page, the RM selects the resource to whom to
delegate the task
8. The RM selects Yes to question #2 to become the lead role for the task
9. The RM clicks the Next button and then clicks the Send button
10. The project manager receives and approves the task delegation request
on the Updates page in PWA
11. The resource to whom the task is delegated submits a % Work Complete
for the task and updates it to the RM
12. The RM can see the % Work Complete value on his/her View My Tasks page
13. If the update is acceptable, the RM should select the task and click
the Update Selected Tasks button
14. If the update is not acceptable, the RM should contact the resource by
e-mail, by phone, or in person to discuss the problem with the update and
ask to have it corrected (there is no automatic way for the RM to reject the
task update from the resource)
15. Once the task update has been updated by the RM, the project manager
will see the update on his/her Updates page
16. The RM can approve or reject the update at this time

In the task delegation process, please note that this requires a "one to
one" delegation. The RM can only delegate each task to one other resource,
as it is not possible to delegate a single task from the RM to multiple
resources. Also, if the resource to whom the task is delegated is not
already part of the project team, Project Server will add the resource first
as a local resource, and then covert the resource to an enterprise resource,
thus adding the resource as a team member. Hope this description helps.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

MaryS --

You are very welcome, my friend! Thanks for sharing your insights.

Dale,

Thanks for your reply. It solved our problem. We had 2 incorrect
assumptions:

1. That the RM would see the tasks on the Updates page (they do see them
on
the My Tasks page, as you said), and

2. RM could reject the task back to the resource (any discussion with the
resource is 'manual').

Helps to understand how it should work.

I appreciate your thorough, prompt answer to my question, and have learned
a
lot from your answers to other posts.

Mary Stillman

 

[TomL]

We are in the process of installing SP1 to 2003 Pro. We already have it
installed in Development and Training environments for testing purposes.

In our pre-SP1 Production environment, our process varies from yours at Step
12. At step 12, the delegator goes into the Update page instead of the My
Tasks page to accept or reject the delegatee,s time. With SP1, your process
matches ours.

Did SP1 change this functionality? Is there some permissions setting which
will allow the delegator to use the Updates page instead of the My Tasks
page, even with SP1 installed?

Thanks.

MaryS --

Given the methodology you folks have described, you are going about this
process incorrectly. Here's how you should handle the process:

1. The project manager builds the team for the project to include the
resource manager
2. The project manager assigns the resource manager to any tasks that the
RM needs to delegate
3. The project manager publishes the project and the assignments
4. The RM goes to the View My Tasks Page in PWA to view the task
assignments
5. The RM clicks the Delegation tab to expose the delegation options
6. The RM selects a task and clicks the Delegate Task button
7. On the Delegate Tasks page, the RM selects the resource to whom to
delegate the task
8. The RM selects Yes to question #2 to become the lead role for the task
9. The RM clicks the Next button and then clicks the Send button
10. The project manager receives and approves the task delegation request
on the Updates page in PWA
11. The resource to whom the task is delegated submits a % Work Complete
for the task and updates it to the RM
12. The RM can see the % Work Complete value on his/her View My Tasks page
13. If the update is acceptable, the RM should select the task and click
the Update Selected Tasks button
14. If the update is not acceptable, the RM should contact the resource by
e-mail, by phone, or in person to discuss the problem with the update and
ask to have it corrected (there is no automatic way for the RM to reject the
task update from the resource)
15. Once the task update has been updated by the RM, the project manager
will see the update on his/her Updates page
16. The RM can approve or reject the update at this time

In the task delegation process, please note that this requires a "one to
one" delegation. The RM can only delegate each task to one other resource,
as it is not possible to delegate a single task from the RM to multiple
resources. Also, if the resource to whom the task is delegated is not
already part of the project team, Project Server will add the resource first
as a local resource, and then covert the resource to an enterprise resource,
thus adding the resource as a team member. Hope this description helps.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

TomL --

I have never heard of your situation before, either with SP1 or without it.
Is the delegator a member of the Project Managers group by chance?

We are in the process of installing SP1 to 2003 Pro. We already have it
installed in Development and Training environments for testing purposes.

In our pre-SP1 Production environment, our process varies from yours at
Step
12. At step 12, the delegator goes into the Update page instead of the My
Tasks page to accept or reject the delegatee,s time. With SP1, your
process
matches ours.

Did SP1 change this functionality? Is there some permissions setting
which
will allow the delegator to use the Updates page instead of the My Tasks
page, even with SP1 installed?

Thanks.

 

[TomL]

I will try that. I know it worked as Administrator. I will also check with
some of my current users.

 

[TomL]

Essentially yes, they are members of a group that has the same permissions as
the Project Managers Group. We just copied that group into a custom group in
case we wanted to make any changes.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

TomL --

This is probably the source of your mysterious behavior in PWA. By default,
team members do not have permissions to view the Updates page in PWA or to
access Microsoft Project Professional. Hope this helps.

 

[César Costa]

Hello Mr. Howard,

I saw your contribution for Mary´s question. This contribution was very good
to improve my project process with EPM. However I have only one doubt about
the delegation process in EPM and I would like to request your help.

In step 12, it has some way to allow that the RM informs or modifies the
number of hours (or %) of tasks delegated for its resources?

Thanks,
César Costa

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Cesar --

No. In step #12, the RM can only view the % Work Complete, but cannot
change it. Hope this helps.