Master Plan and Resource Pool or Project Server

[FiguringItOut]

Greetings,
I am working with a client that has 4 project managers who utilize a
pool of 15 techs and 8 engineers. As an organization they can have up
to 100 projects going at a time (having from 50-100 tasks). Can they
use Master Project Plans and a Resource Pool to give them an
organizational overview of task timing and resource allocation. Or
are their access limitations, file link limits, corruptability
concerns with this? Would they be better off using Project Server?
Can a Master Project Plan have up to a 100 sub-projects without any
problems?

Would it make sense for them to start with installing MS Project
Professional on their machines and getting their staff used to using
the application, start with each PM creating their own plans and
resource pools (maybe all of them using the same file? what kind of
access limits are their on this?) and comfortable with the basic
concepts. And meanwhile be working and developing an Enterprise
Solution? Do organizations often take this approach? Or is it more
often that they jump right into the Enterprise solution and learn the
ins and outs in that environment?

I very much appreciate any insight or comments you have regarding this
question.

Sincerely,
Lizandra

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

It's a bit to the limit.
Generally I recommend the use of a resource pool to avoid the ordeal of
having to start up and customize Server but with these volumes there may be
problems.
Not that it doesn't work, I've seen bigger volumes work perfectly.
But the time to open the resoruce pool with all the sharing files will go
into minutes.
And the more files the bigger the probability for a corruption.

But still I like your suggestion to start with the desktop product only, try
out the pools and master system, and migrate to server only if necessary.

Hope this helps,

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[FiguringItOut]

Great Jan, thanks so much for your input on this. I had a feeling
they were in a gray area - I am glad to hear you agree it would not be
bad advice to start with the Professional installation, seeing how
that goes and then moving to Project server if it becomes necessary.

Thanks again so much. And thanks for all of your input into the group
discussions- its great to know there are people like you out there who
really know the application inside and out!

Sincerely,
Lizandra