PWA 2003 Questions

[Brian Tkatch]

I was asked eight questions about PWA 2003 by a Project Pro user here,
and i have been searching for the answers. I would like to post the
questions here, in an effort to learn this myself.

1) Tasks View: Can tasks be ordered like they are in Project?
2) Tasks View: Sometimes the same tasks is displayed multiple times.
3) Tasks/Updates Views: Can remaining work use days instead of hours?
4) Updates View: Can summary tasks be displayed?
5) Updates View: Can net effect of update on other tasks be displayed?
6) Updates Requests: How many ways can updates be requested?
7) Updates Requests: Can recurring requests be sent automatically?
8) Help: Is there a PWA manual?

I have come up with the following answers. Do they sound right?

1) Add ID to Task List View. Click to order by it.
2) Does one has an "X"? It means it is to be ignored (and deleted).
3) No. Work is always displayed in hours and duration in days.
4) No.
5) ?
6) Two. Through Collaborate, or right-clicking on highlighted tasks.
7) Home=>Alert me about my resources on tasks and status reports
8) Just the help file.

Any comments?

B.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Brian --

I'll take a stab at the 8 questions:

1. Adding the ID number isn't as simple as you think. Your Project Server
administrator would need to add the ID field to the Timesheet view AND every
one of your PM's would need to add the ID field to the list of Published
fields in every project using Tools - Customize - Published fields. A
better approach, I believe, is to make sure that the tasks are sorted by
Start date. Ask your TM's to click the Start column header until they see
the up-pointing gray triangle to sort the tasks in Ascending order by Start
date. This is the default sort order, by the way.

2. Is is the same task or a same-named task that appears in multiple Phase
or Deliverable sections of the project? If they are same-named tasks, the
TM's need to make sure they are displaying summary tasks on the View My
Tasks page. Ask your TM's to click the View Options tab on the View My
Tasks page and make sure they have the Show Summary Tasks option selected.

3. Although Remaining Work is measured by default in hours, the TM can
enter the number of days by appending the number of the letter "d" to
indicate days. After pressing the Enter key, PWA will convert the days
entered into hours.

4. No, you cannot display summary tasks on the Updates page in PWA. Sorry.

5. No, not until the PM updates the task progress into the Microsoft
Project 2003 plan. After processing the updates, the PM should immediately
apply the Tracking Gantt view to compare the current schedule against the
original Baseline schedule. This is assuming, of course, that the PM
remembered to save a Baseline before updating progress into the plan.

6. By phone, by e-mail, or by visiting the TM personally. All of those
methods are superior to Collaborate - Request Progress Information tool.
The problem with the tool is that it does not REQUIRE the TM to send a
progress update. He/she can simply ignore the request, but he/she cannot
ignore a personal phone call from the PM.

7. Yes, by calling, e-mailing, or visiting the TM personally. Truthfully,
if the PM needs to keep requesting updates from his/her team members, he/she
has problems beyond which the tool can handle. Sending task updates in a
timely manner is a training and performance issue. TM's need to be taught
how and when to send updates, and then they must be held accountable for
their performance in this area. If they do not comply, this should become
an issue that their next performance review.

8. Yes. You should immediately purchase our Managing Enterprise Projects
using Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 book, which is specifically
written for PM's on how to use every feature of Project Server 2003. The
book is available at:

http://www.projectserverbooks.com

Hope this helps.

 

[Brian Tkatch]

tOn Tue, 5 Jun 2007 18:17:25 -0600, "Dale Howard [MVP]"

Brian --

I'll take a stab at the 8 questions:

1. Adding the ID number isn't as simple as you think. Your Project Server
administrator would need to add the ID field to the Timesheet view AND every
one of your PM's would need to add the ID field to the list of Published
fields in every project using Tools - Customize - Published fields. A
better approach, I believe, is to make sure that the tasks are sorted by
Start date. Ask your TM's to click the Start column header until they see
the up-pointing gray triangle to sort the tasks in Ascending order by Start
date. This is the default sort order, by the way.

2. Is is the same task or a same-named task that appears in multiple Phase
or Deliverable sections of the project? If they are same-named tasks, the
TM's need to make sure they are displaying summary tasks on the View My
Tasks page. Ask your TM's to click the View Options tab on the View My
Tasks page and make sure they have the Show Summary Tasks option selected.

3. Although Remaining Work is measured by default in hours, the TM can
enter the number of days by appending the number of the letter "d" to
indicate days. After pressing the Enter key, PWA will convert the days
entered into hours.

4. No, you cannot display summary tasks on the Updates page in PWA. Sorry.

5. No, not until the PM updates the task progress into the Microsoft
Project 2003 plan. After processing the updates, the PM should immediately
apply the Tracking Gantt view to compare the current schedule against the
original Baseline schedule. This is assuming, of course, that the PM
remembered to save a Baseline before updating progress into the plan.

6. By phone, by e-mail, or by visiting the TM personally. All of those
methods are superior to Collaborate - Request Progress Information tool.
The problem with the tool is that it does not REQUIRE the TM to send a
progress update. He/she can simply ignore the request, but he/she cannot
ignore a personal phone call from the PM.

7. Yes, by calling, e-mailing, or visiting the TM personally. Truthfully,
if the PM needs to keep requesting updates from his/her team members, he/she
has problems beyond which the tool can handle. Sending task updates in a
timely manner is a training and performance issue. TM's need to be taught
how and when to send updates, and then they must be held accountable for
their performance in this area. If they do not comply, this should become
an issue that their next performance review.

8. Yes. You should immediately purchase our Managing Enterprise Projects
using Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 book, which is specifically
written for PM's on how to use every feature of Project Server 2003. The
book is available at:

<SNIP>questions and my answers</SNIP>

Thanx Dale. I have forwarded your replies to the person who asked
them, and i am certain he will be very happy about your responses.
Your view of the entire process and not just Project is appreciated.

If he has any further questions, i will post them here. He does not
seem too familiar with the newsgroups himself.

I have a couple comments as well.

1. I am the Project server administrator. I fell into the job as the
last guy left, and i am still learning more about it. It is certainly
more complex than i originally expected.

After adding ID in PWA Admin, i did not know it had to *also* be in
the project file. I was wondering what the difference in between those
two options were. My guess is that in PWA admin it makes it a
possibility, and the actual project decides what is shown.

Regardless, i did not know ID was hideable column. It's not even a
normal column, it's just that grey one on the left side, which is part
of the global template.

2. It is the same exact task. I have found it by assigning a resource
to a task, publishing it, removing the resource from the task,
publishing it, and then reassigning it and publishing it. The same
task will show as a deletion and task.

4. The confusing part here is the large amount of tasks and similarity
in between them, especially when the name of the task has been
standardized. It becomes very hard to tell which part of the project
the particular update belongs to when there are hundreds of items
where without the summary tasks, and many look exactly the same.

Do you have any ideas on differentiating in between them?

7. On larger projects, weekly or monthly updates from external (to the
company) resources may be desired. Automating the requests would
likely make this process easier, especially if staggered to put
different resources on different days.

B.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Brian --

To answer your followup questions:

1. When the Project Server administrator adds the ID column to the
Timesheet view, this acts as a placeholder for the data. When the PM's add
the ID field to the list of Published Fields in each enterprise project and
then republish the assignments using Collaborate - Publish - Republish
Assignments, the system fills in the ID placeholder with ID numbers on each
user's View My Tasks page. You cannot do the former without doing the
latter, or it won't work.

2. If it is the same task, then one of the tasks is a cancelled task, as
indicated by the big black X indicator to the left of the task name. Team
members should routinely hide cancelled tasks by selecting the task and then
clicking the Hide button.

3. Yes, the lack of summary tasks on the Updates page is very limiting.
There is no way around this limitation, I am afraid.

4. I can understand the need for requesting regular updates, but I stand by
my original answer. The tool does not replace good human communication
techniques.

Hope this helps.

 

[Brian Tkatch]

Brian --

To answer your followup questions:

1. When the Project Server administrator adds the ID column to the
Timesheet view, this acts as a placeholder for the data. When the PM's add
the ID field to the list of Published Fields in each enterprise project and
then republish the assignments using Collaborate - Publish - Republish
Assignments, the system fills in the ID placeholder with ID numbers on each
user's View My Tasks page. You cannot do the former without doing the
latter, or it won't work.

2. If it is the same task, then one of the tasks is a cancelled task, as
indicated by the big black X indicator to the left of the task name. Team
members should routinely hide cancelled tasks by selecting the task and then
clicking the Hide button.

3. Yes, the lack of summary tasks on the Updates page is very limiting.
There is no way around this limitation, I am afraid.

4. I can understand the need for requesting regular updates, but I stand by
my original answer. The tool does not replace good human communication
techniques.

Hope this helps.

Thanx again Dale.

B.