Land-mines using Versions in Project Server 2003 ???

C

Carl Paul

Are there any unexpected problems or road blocks, using versions, such as
target, Archive, or published, in Project Server 2003?

Is there some issue about the non-published versions of projects referencing
the same resources in the enterprise resource pool that the published
versions????

Carl
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Carl --

There are no problems of which I am aware with the use of Versions in
Project Server 2003. The only version that a PM can publish is the
Published version, so you will not have problems with resources seeing
duplicate assignments and the like.

All of the versions other than the Published version are meant to be a
snapshot of the project at a point in time. For example, the Target version
that Microsoft includes in the Project Server 2003 sample database is used
to take a snapshot of the final planned and baselined project before actuals
are entered. If you save every project as a Target version before you begin
entering actuals in the Published project, you can later use the Compare
Project Versions tool in Microsoft Project 2003 to compare the original
version of the project (Target) with the completed version of the project
(Published). By doing this, you can see how the original version of the
project changed over the life of the project. Hope this helps.
 
C

Carl Paul

Hi Dale,

Thanks for the response ... I have some follow up questions. We were
actually thinking on attempting to implement the following project schedule
process flow using versioning:

1.) Version "Under Construction"
Project schedules in this state would be in the development process,
traditionally associated with the initiation / planning stages of a project.
Once the project plans were fully developed, and the project was ready to
start the execution phase, the PMO would require that a project schedule
pass a graduation exam, perhaps based on the QuantumPM Schedule Auditor, or
perhaps based on a set of home grown macros, and then the PMO would "move"
it to the Published version. Does this sound like good practice to you?

2) Version "Published"
Project Schedules that had passed the graduation test, and were part of an
ongoing project's execution phase would be in version Published. Of course,
when the version is "Published", staff can log time against the tasks.
Actually we we planning to use Baselines rather than versions for baselines.
All the Project Pro reports / earned value logic seems to drive off of the
baseline(0) fields. What are the advantages of using Versions like Target
for baselining?

3) Version "Archive"
Closed projects would be put into the archive.

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There are some problems with the Version "Under Construction" part of this
model:
1) It looks like it will be difficult to get the initial project plans into
an "Under Construction" version --- this was not the architects intended
paradigm. We are forced to save them in "Published" and then copy them to
the "Under Constructlkion" version and then delete the "Published" version.
Is anybody else doing this? Is this a distortion of intended design that
will result in unexpected consequences?
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Carl --

1. No, this is not how Versions work in Project Server. You cannot save an
alternate version as the Published version. By that, I mean you cannot open
the alternate version, click File - Save As, select the Published version,
and then save it. The system will prevent you from doing so. Instead, I
would recommend that you use a custom enterprise Project outline code for
this purpose. The outline code could describe the current state of the
project, such as: In Planning, In Production, On Hold, Cancelled,
Completed. The PM or PMO would be responsible for setting the appropriate
value for each project as the project progresses. You can then add this
custom enterprise Project outline code to your Project Center views and then
do grouping and filtering on it. You can also build a Portfolio Analyzer
view that shows data for one or more Versions of each project.

2. I do not recommend you use the Target version for baselining. Instead,
here's the process I would follow:

A. I plan the project and save it as the Published version
B. When the project is approved I baseline the project, save it, and then
save it again as the Target version
C. During the life of the project, I track project variance in the
Published version against the project baseline
D. When I finish the project, I use the Compare Project Versions utility to
note the changes between the original project (Target) and the completed
project (Published)

Just some thoughts. Hope this helps.
 
S

Sam L.

Hi,

We are trying to use a "Target" version to compare with the "Published"
version like you said. But we don't want to open every project and save it
manually under the Target version.

I can't find a way to open and save the projects automatically. With VBA
there is no way to automatically open Project Server projects (if there is
one I can't find it). Is there any solution to this problem?

Thanks,
Sam
 
G

Gary Chefetz

Sam:

This question gets asked and answered all the time in the
micrsoft.public.project.developer group, where it's appropriate to ask such
questions. You might also want to pickup a copy of Rod Gill's new VBA
Programming for Project book. I believe it contains the sample code to do
this.
 
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