PS 2007 Exception Planning

J

Jonathan H

Hello,

Not a technical query here, but a question on how people do this currently.
Imagine the scenario:
1 Project exceeds the tolerances for it as laid down by the project
executives
2 Project Manager flags this up and escalates to the project executives
3 Project executives want to see the options to bring the project back on
track
4 Projct Manger goes away and creates a few versions of the plan that maybe
accept the overspend but deliver on time, or deliver on cost but with reduced
functionality etc.
5 Project executives review the plans, pick one, and the Project Manager
replaces the existing project plan with the new exception plan.

My questions are: How do I implement this? I'm not sure how to do the
'what-if' scenarios that allow me to see the impacts of various different
strategies on the resource pool.
Finally, when I replace the original project with the new project I want to
preserve actuals, etc. Is this all achieved simply by saving the exception
plan out as a file, and then back into Project Server with the same name as
the plan you want to replace?

I'm interested to hear your points of view on this. Seems like this type of
activity is pretty standard, but I'll be honest, I have no idea how to do it!

Thanks,

Jonathan
 
M

Mark Everett | PMP

Hello,

Not a technical query here, but a question on how people do this currently..
Imagine the scenario:
1  Project exceeds the tolerances for it as laid down by the project
executives
2  Project Manager flags this up and escalates to the project executives
3  Project executives want to see the options to bring the project back on
track
4  Projct Manger goes away and creates a few versions of the plan that maybe
accept the overspend but deliver on time, or deliver on cost but with reduced
functionality etc.
5  Project executives review the plans, pick one, and the Project Manager
replaces the existing project plan with the new exception plan.

My questions are:  How do I implement this?  I'm not sure how to do the
'what-if' scenarios that allow me to see the impacts of various different
strategies on the resource pool.  
Finally, when I replace the original project with the new project I want to
preserve actuals, etc.  Is this all achieved simply by saving the exception
plan out as a file, and then back into Project Server with the same name as
the plan you want to replace?

I'm interested to hear your points of view on this.  Seems like this type of
activity is pretty standard, but I'll be honest, I have no idea how to do it!

Thanks,

Jonathan
Click to expand...

Jonathan,

I think the simple approach works best. You didn't specify which
version of Project Server you are using, but both support, to a
certain extent, versioning.

However, using your scenario, my approach would be:

1. Conduct a fairly detailed analysis of what went right and wrong
with the the original plan to gain a sense for the best path (Crash
the schedule, add resources, remove functionality, etc).
2. Modify and save (not publish) my current plans as V1, V2, V3 while
you explore the various paths.
3. Present your alternatives and recommendations. If Project Server
2007, you can use Visual Reports to help you. You can also use the
Compare Project Versions toolbar to compare the alternates agains the
original and the alternates against themselves.
4. When the new version is selected, you can, depending on which
version of Project Server you are using, archive the original and
publish the alternate and then save off or archive the other
alternates (just in case :)

I used this technique with Project Server 2003 and it worked fine.

Hope this helped.

Mark Everett, PMP
www.catapultsystems.com
 
J

Jonathan H

Hi Mark,

Yes, that really helps, thank you. I've learnt some more stuff today!

What would happen to Workspaces? Could you link the new plan to the
existing workspace?
(I'm guessing you could do something in the database if nothing else...?)

Jonathan
 
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