Few Questions

[Shafeeq]

Hi,
I have some questions ad would appreciate the assistance:

1. Support tasks:
a. How to commit some resources to support (e.g. 40% of their time).
b. how to properly create projects to handle running support tasks, lets
assume a resource is allocated (40% for support).

2. Resources Overallocation:
lets assume a resource is assigned to multiple projects and at the time of
assigning resource to some tasks, we need to identify resource allocation,
a. Does project professional show some sort of status at the time of
allocating the resource to the task or we have to view resource usage sheet
to identify overallocation?

b. The resource allocation sheet shows only resource allocation in the
current project and not in the organization, so does a project manager have
to manually go to pwa and check resource availibility?

3. Task Updates:
at the time a resource submits task update, is there a way to update
percentage complete and number of hours worked at the same time so the system
would adjusted the required working hours on the task?

4. Issues & Risks:
a. is there a way to create simple tabular reports showing list of issues
and risks? or we have to use data analysis views and/or sql reporting
services.
b. For any issue can we have list of actions to be done & history of updates?


5. Timesheets:
a. Whats the use of the "Approval Status" Column in timesheets? it shows
green indicator for administrative lines but nothing appears next to project
tasks evern if the timesheet is approved.

6. Special Roles:
a. we have the concept of sponsors where they are responsible of monitoring
the porject and might need to review and approve some of the document? is
there a way to have the approval process configured without customizations?
b. is there a way to have two project managers on the same project?

7. Migrating Project server 2007:
a. whats the process of migrating PS 2007 from WSS to MOSS 2007? including
movement of databases.

Thanks,

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Shafeeq --

These are all excellent questions! Here are some answers for you:

1. Create an Administrative project that includes the support tasks. When
you assigned resources to the tasks, make sure that the TOTAL % allocation
on all tasks equals 40%. Refer to the following for the steps to create an
Administrative project:

2. Microsoft Project does not tell you that you have created a resource
overallocation at the moment you assign a resource to create the
overallocation. You must look at any resource View, such as the Resource
Usage view, to see the overallocation. If you want to view resource
overallocations across multiple projects, you must either open each of the
projects in Project Professional 2007, or you can go to the Resource
Availability page in PWA as you suggest.

3. No, there is no way to update both the % Work Complete AND Actual Work
fields, I personally think you will find the Percent of Work Complete
method of tracking progress pretty useless. Therefore, I would strongly
recommend you track your projects using the Actual Work Done and Work
Remaining method of tracking, and include the Remaining Work field in the My
Assignments view.

4. Use a Data Analysis view or SQL Reporting Services to generate a report
on Risks and Issues across multiple projects. To see a running history of
updates on an Issue, you would need to enable the Versioning feature for
Issues in the Project Workspace. I'm not sure that this functionality would
be robust enough to meet your reporting requirements, however.

5. I have not seen any benefit from the Approval Status column, except when
a team member attempts to submit Administrative time that must be approved
in advance, such as Vacation time, for example.

6. There is no default way in Project Server 2007 to allow project sponsors
to approve portions of a project document. This would require
customization, as you noted. And yes, you can have multiple managers for a
project, but only one manager can receive and approve task updates for each
task in the project. For example, PM-A could approve task updates on the
Design task, while PM-B could approve task updates on the Build task. To
accomplish this, each PM would need to open the project, insert the Status
Manager column in any task View, and set him/herself as the status manager
for the tasks he/she will manage. Then he/she will need to republish the
project.

7. I'm not even close to being an expert in MOSS. I would recommend you
repost this question only and let our technical experts guide you.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mike F]

Dale,

We didn't get to see the steps for creating an Admin Project. Also, what is
the best way to measure Total % allocation of a resource on all tasks?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Mike F --

Oops! I forgot to give you the URL for our FAQ site. My bad! Here's how
to create an Administrative project in Project Server:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com...ledgeBase/RegularProjectLikeAdminProject.aspx

Please note that the FAQ tells you how to create an Administrative project
in Project Server 2007 that behaves like the formal type of project known as
an Administrative project in Project Server 2003.

Regarding your second question, do the following:

1. Open an enterprise project in which you have resources assigned to
tasks.
2. Click View - Resource Usage.
3. Right-click in the timephased grid (yellow/white timesheet on the right)
and click Details Styles.
4. In the Detail Styles dialog, select the Percent Allocation field on the
left and click the Show button.
5. Click the OK button.
6. Click the Zoom In or Zoom Out button to see the percentage of allocation
for each resource in each time period.

Hope this helps.