Master Projects in 2003 Professional Server

T

TomL

The help text on the admin page and other MS areas state that the use of
mater projects in server is not recommended. Does anyone know why? Are
there dangers/risks that we run if we use it?
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

TomL --

In Project Server 2002, publishing a master project created duplicate task
assignments for every resource assigned to tasks in the subprojects of the
master project. Many of us believed that Microsoft fixed this issue in
Project Server 2003, but in this newsgroup at least one user has reported
seeing duplicate task assignments in a 2003 master project. Therefore,
because of this, we recommend that if you need to use master projects, you
either save them as .mpp files or you save them in the Project Server
database but do not publish them. Hope this helps.
 
T

TomL

Thanks, Dale.

The help text states "Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 and Project
Server 2003 have built-in reporting and analysis features that replace the
need to create master projects and subprojects."

Which features are they talking about? Or for that matter, what errors they
have identified?

I have a hard time understanding why they would give the ability to do
something if it could be fatal.

Thanks again.
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

TomL --

You are taking the help text way too literally. Frankly, I believe
Microsoft erred in part in making the statement in the first place. If you
need to set cross-project dependencies, for example, using a master project
is the ONLY way to set these dependencies. So, from practical experience,
there is still at least some need for using master projects.

What Microsoft is describing is the built-in functionality of the Project
Center page for reporting across a portfolio or program of projects.
However, before this can really be effective, an organization would need to
create one or more custom enterprise Project field to which grouping could
be applied in the Project Center page.

I have already described to you the issue of duplicate task assignments that
arise from publishing a master project in Project Server 2002. Hope this
helps.
 
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