Master and Sup Porject Links Dialog Box????

B

Brad Harris

lMSP2K7
When a PM pulls up his master project, a dialog box pulls up with all the
links to the sub projects....why? When he clicks on accept, nothing happens.
 
G

Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]

Brad:

The dialog that appears shows you schedule changes that are occurring in
your plan because of changes made in the linked plans. This gives the PM the
opportunity to accept these changes or keep the current scheduled dates.
When you choose to accept, the changes occur, but you don't see this until
the schedule opens. If the dialog is appearing all the time, even when no
changes have been made to the linked plans, then the PM made a mess of the
cross-linking by creating one or more circular relationships between the
various plans. You must build very well-structured plans to use
cross-project dependencies effectively. When I encounter this type of
situation in the field, I typically find what I call "spaghetti links"
within and between the plans. The best cure for this is to teach the PM both
how to use the tool and how to build well-structured schedules.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
For Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com
 
B

Brad Harris

Thank you Gary,

Few questions?
Where do the PM's learn about best practices when developing well structured
schedules and linking schedules? I am telling them not to place a predessor
or successor on any bold summary tasks and they are asking me why. WHat is
the best reason? Is it strictly a logic issue? Is sthere some white paper or
training document somewhere that teaches this?

Also, Regarding the link dialog box that comes up when you open a project,
could it be that my security IS setup so that all the PM's can save other
PM's projects if they are a team member of the project, this may be the
reason why the owner is not getting scheule change approval notices? I am
thinking when a sub project owner opens up a project and makes a change and
saves all.......he just saved the master or other sub projects that have
links to his project so when the owner goes into his project, the changes
are not being announced. Just thinking out loud....I realy need to test
out.....
 
G

Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]

Brad:

Your first question is very broad. In fact, we have a 900 page book that
covers it rather completely. It's called the Ultimate Learning Guide to
Microsoft Office Project 2007. The main reason why you do not want to link
from summary tasks is that these are not real tasks. They can change from
Summary to regular and back again. If you rely upon these for your schedule
structure, you'll be fighting to make things right every time you make a
structural change that affects these. Summary tasks are for information
only. You build a schedule using the tasks that represent the real work.

Your assumption in the second question is correct. If the changes are saved
by someone, the next person is not asked to accept them again. How you
control this should be modeled to your process. Should everyone have the
ability to create cross project links? Should this be the job of someone in
the PMO? I don't know your organization or requirements so I can't give you
specific advice. There is no single correct answer.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
For Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com
 
B

Brad Harris

Thanks Gary,
What permissions should I remove from the PM s Group so they can open and
save their projects and only read others that they are a member of? I now
have the following permissions for the PM group:
Under the My Org Cat, Project - I allow Save Proj to server
Under the My Personal Proj Cat, Project - Alloew is Not checked for Save
Proj to server
Under the My Projects Cat, Proj - I allow Save Proj to server
 
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