Checklist to close a project

C

crizco

Does anyone know if there's a good checklist or reference sheet out there
that shows the appropriate steps in closing an active project (I'm not
refering to archiving) in server? I want to know all the necessary things I
need to do in respect to what needs to be done task-wise for ones in-progress
and not started.

So the project will then be 100% complete at the end with everyone's
timesheets revised to not show those tasks anymore (whether in-progress or
not started).

We are running Project Server 2003.
 
M

Marc Soester [MVP]

hi crizco,

Appart from all the closing processes you will need to consider ( e.g. Post
Implmenetation review, benefit realisation analysis ) within project server
there are a couple of items you will need to think of.

1. I am sure that you have an outline code or custom field that defines the
Project status. Make sure that this is set to closed.

2. each task that is not completed yet, you will need to make sure that you
set the remaining work to 0. This will ensure that the resources assigned to
these tasks do not show any utalisation.

3. I also encourage to set the Project status date to the actual finish date
of an project ( for reporting purpose).

4. Make sure that any open Risks and Issues are closed, or at least dealt
with once the project is closed.

These are at least the main items you will need to consider when closing a
project in Project Server. You may also need to set some other Project custom
fields that I dont know about yet. ( E.g. Project Phase )

I hope this helps
 
T

tomrs3

We are developing one for our office. We use an external timesheet process.
Briefly:
1. All hours need to be approved thru PWA.
2. We match Work hours equal Actual Work Protected (Project custom view).
3. We turn off timesheet flag (enterprise flag), set task complete
(enterprise flag), set 100% physically complete,
4. set task 100% complete. If we don't get blue checkmark, examine duration,
start and finish. Republish changed assignments if necessary. re-check if
Work still equal to Actual Work Protected. We use Fixed Work type tasks.
5. Under Project Information, Project Statistics, check Duration and Work
are 100% complete.
6. Re-publish all information.
7. If still 100% complete on duration and work, change Project Status to
Closed.
8. Save Project.

We think this works but would like to hear more from others....
 
C

crizco

Thanks for all the info.

I've been experimenting and have set all remaining work to zero for tasks
in-progress - by making sure all resource assignments were set to zero
remaining work. This will create the check mark of completed on all their
assignments (and remove from timesheets when on "Current Tasks" view.

Where I'm not sure is for tasks that never started. They were in the
planning stages but not used later. People were assigned and the tasks were
baselined. Do I remove the resources first? Do I delete the tasks after
resources are removed? Will this kill the orignal baseline for these early on
planned tasks?

I'm aware that removing resources from a tasks will give an X in their
timesheets. I'm trying to figure out the best way to clean this all up and
have their timesheets clean as well (not showing any X tasks). I've read you
should make all the resources "proposed" to hide it from timesheets, but I'm
assuming that's the last step when all tasks are cleaned up first?

Any advice much appreciated.
 
G

GirlGeek

Thanks for all the info.

I've been experimenting and have set all remaining work to zero for tasks
in-progress - by making sure all resource assignments were set to zero
remaining work. This will create the check mark of completed on all their
assignments (and remove from timesheets when on "Current Tasks" view.

Where I'm not sure is for tasks that never started. They were in the
planning stages but not used later. People were assigned and the tasks were
baselined. Do I remove the resources first? Do I delete the tasks after
resources are removed? Will this kill the orignal baseline for these early on
planned tasks?

I'm aware that removing resources from a tasks will give an X in their
timesheets. I'm trying to figure out the best way to clean this all up and
have their timesheets clean as well (not showing any X tasks). I've read you
should make all the resources "proposed" to hide it from timesheets, but I'm
assuming that's the last step when all tasks are cleaned up first?

Any advice much appreciated.







- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

Hi -

Here's my 2 cents:

For each task that was not started (not needed), put the word
CANCELLED in caps at the end of the task name ( - CANCELLED). Leave
the baselines for those tasks as is. Set the work, duration and cost
for those tasks to 0. The reason you might not want to delete them, is
for historical purposes - when analyzing why you budgeted what you
did, etc., and original dependencies, it explains things to still see
the tasks there.

You can remove the resources and re-publish. When tasks get an 'X' in
people's timesheet, they'll just highlight each of those rows and
click 'Hide' and that'll be that. Microsoft's game of hide-and-seek in
PWA 'My tasks' is very sad. Once a child hides, he/she is never to be
found again.

So here's the next question: What do people do with the project itself
so it doesn't clutter up the File / Open list? Maybe rename to start
with Z_, so it's at the end? Maybe move to another instance of Project
Server, created for archives?

-Girlgeek
 
C

crizco

Thanks GirlGeek

We originally wanted to remove the permission "Hide Tasks" from team members
but if this type of clean up has to have these members participate often in
using the hide feature, I may have to relook at that permission. IF, I do all
the clean up, republish, and make all the resources on that project proposed,
I believe that hides all the tasks from timesheets. But that's not good
either if you want to look at your timesheet history from a project for some
reason. Hence the reason why I want to get the best practices of this
recorded so I can form a good checklist. I find the archiving part not as
hard, it's the best/proper way to clean up a project/timesheets that's the
greater discussion.

As for the "hiding" of a closed project, I found this article from Microsoft
a bit interesting. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920327/en-us It deals
with hiding projects and moving them to certain categories so you don't see
it in Project Centre, but you'll still have it available for the OLAP cube.
It looks fairly easy to set up too.
 
T

tomrs3

1. I’ve heard from experts in our enterprise you should use the “Assign
Resources†tool (Alt+F10) to remove or replace resources. Before I knew
better, I used to just delete them. Now I try to use the correct tool. I
like you don’t like the “X†on timesheets – I wonder, does using the Assign
Resources tool prevent the “X’s�
2. We use custom enterprise project outline code 4 to give a status to a
project (active, closed, opportunity, template, no value). This is easily
edited by using “edit†in PWA Project Center, or by changing it in Project
under Project Information. I think this is part of Project Server “out of the
box†– just like Location, Sponsor, and Performer. You can then use this
status to limit the number of project files to sort thru on opening. Did you
know you can just start typing the project name? Someone taught me that trick
– they say it isn’t documented.
3. As we have so many projects, I’m using PWA more and more. I find making
custom views which use fields like Owner, Project Status, easy to do, and
then I use the Project Center to find my active projects and then launch them
from there.
4. Do you have the correct KB article number in your comment? I couldn’t
find it on the MS site.
 
R

rt

1. I've heard from experts in our enterprise you should use the "Assign
Resources" tool (Alt+F10) to remove or replace resources. Before I knew
better, I used to just delete them. Now I try to use the correct tool. I
like you don't like the "X" on timesheets - I wonder, does using the Assign
Resources tool prevent the "X's"?
2. We use custom enterprise project outline code 4 to give a status to a
project (active, closed, opportunity, template, no value). This is easily
edited by using "edit" in PWA Project Center, or by changing it in Project
under Project Information. I think this is part of Project Server "out of the
box" - just like Location, Sponsor, and Performer. You can then use this
status to limit the number of project files to sort thru on opening. Did you
know you can just start typing the project name? Someone taught me that trick
- they say it isn't documented.
3. As we have so many projects, I'm using PWA more and more. I find making
custom views which use fields like Owner, Project Status, easy to do, and
then I use the Project Center to find my active projects and then launch them
from there.
4. Do you have the correct KB article number in your comment? I couldn't
find it on the MS site.








- Tekst uit oorspronkelijk bericht weergeven -
Click to expand...

Technically, there are plenty of good suggestions here. What you
should also ask yourself, however, is what your organization will want
to do with closed projects. You might want to keep a project history
but is anyone ever going to look at it again? If not (which is
probably true for 75% of the companies), just save the project offline
as an mpp file and delete it from the server.
 
C

crizco

The only thing with deleting a project is that you lose the history for the
OLAP Cube in case you want to see trends or lessons learned. My company wants
to trend out projects so we have to keep ours.

The Remove feature is the correct way of doing it as it's cleaner with the
database tables. However, the Remove or Replace button will add an X to the
resource's timesheets (sigh...). You can make resources proposed and that
will clear out all their assignments from timesheets, but if any Xs were
previously there, they will remain and the team member has to hide them.

So far I have this for task clean up:
1) Have PM update all remaining/outstanding timesheets first.
2) Close all in-progress tasks but making each resource assignment zero in
the Remaining Work field.
3) Remove all resources from tasks they didn't do (had no actuals). This
will give the ugly X in their timesheets. (unless someone has an cleaner way
of this....)
4) If all resources are removed from a task, leave the task to keep history
of what you originally planned. Make sure the remaining work and remaining
duration are zero.
5) Check to make sure all tasks are 100% complete from the % Complete column
(including the project summary task)
6) Republish and cross fingers....kidding....actually hold breath! LOL

Anyone to add or correct here? (I realize some have custom fields for
closure, but I wanted a list for the clean up process that's typical for
everyone).

PS The Microsoft link I had does work but you have to copy and paste it in a
seperate browser. It won't work through here for some reason.
 
C

Crook

Hello All,

The MS Project Experts have posted a SQL script that will delete cancelled
tasks (with the big X). We run this script every night. Have had no
trouble since we started using it 18+ months ago. Please see URL
immediately below.

http://www.projectserverexperts.com/Shared Documents/deletecancelledtasks.htm

Script copied below for convenience:

To completely remove cancelled tasks from the Project Server database, the
Project Server administrator can run the following SQL Server script:
delete from MSP_WEB_ASSIGNMENTS
where WASSN_ID IN (
select ma.WASSN_ID from MSP_WEB_ASSIGNMENTS ma
join MSP_WEB_PROJECTS mp
ON ma.WPROJ_ID = mp.WPROJ_ID
join MSP_WEB_RESOURCES mr
ON ma.WRES_ID = mr.WRES_ID
where
ma.WASSN_DELETED_IN_PROJ <>0
--AND mp.PROJ_NAME like '25713%' --uncomment it for specific project
)


HTH,
Crook
 
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