Too Many Project Managers

F

Frank J.

Project Server 2007/SP1

About a month ago I let a posting here indicating my management here wanted
to open up Project Server to 2-4 staff member per department. That would
mean approx 30 out of 90 employees would by default have Project Manager
rights to our server (with over 150 active projects). The theory was that
learning Project should be no more difficult than leaning Excel. I was to
give all a 3 hour crash course and open up the gates. I thought this was a
very bad idea… but in order to keep my job, I need to do what I was told.

Now to my question… since this change was implement, we have had a number of
strange things happening to various projects (no to mention a lack of
standard being followed). As the true PM, it’s my job to fix all this issues
(I’m very rapidly losing all my hair). Is there any tracking device within
project so I can determine who are making these error and give them
additional training???

Frankj
 
M

Marc Soester [MVP]

hi Frank,

Beeing an EPM implementer myself, I know of the general issue that you are
facing. Many organisations dont realise how important "schedule competency"
is in order to run Project Server ( and all of its good bits ).

Since MS Project is intuitive looking, many organisations think that it is
like using Excel ( having said this, Excel can also be a very complex tool).
This is not the case.

In regards to training, well how long is a peace of string :) and of courses
how experienced are your PM's. At a bare minimun I would train PM's on MS
Project Professional 2 days, which is a good starting point. But a training
doesnt make you an expert, it makes you a novice. Your organisation will need
to have the right support and shadowing ( or governance ) in place to ensure
that all PM's apply your process or methodology to the software.

I am not sure if I actually understand your questions, but I assume your
question is, "how do I resolve all Issues for my PM's". Well the first step
should be to identify what the issue actually is. Is it technical? ( e.g. MS
Project doesnt open my project ), is it lack of knowledge ( e.g. Why does MS
Proejct does this to my schedule?), is it process related ( e.g. How do I
conduct a Post Implementation Review), or is it lack of governance ( e.g. how
do I know that all of my PM's updated their project?).

As you can see many things apply. To be honest, I believe you should get
someone to help you who has implmeneted many successfull EPM solutions. The
investement your organisation may need to spend on the short run will ensure
that your projects are managed professionally on the long run, saving you
money. I am not saying that because it is my job, I am saying this due to my
experience. Most organisations fail when their implement Project Server
internally without knowing what they need to do.

Anyway, sorry for the long winded reply, but if you have any specific issues
that you need some assistance, please let me know
Hope this helps
Marc
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Frank J --

I think it's time to ask your bosses to resign and to put you in charge.
From your description, it sounds like you are the only one who knows what
they are doing at your company! :)

Seriously, I think you need to be much more specific about what kinds of
"strange things" you are seeing in your people's projects. I wouldn't have
the slightest idea about how to answer your question about some kind of
tracking device unless I know what kinds of issues you are seeing. Let us
know, and please be much more specific; otherwise, I doubt we can help you.
 
S

Shawn Everingham

Frank J...

Welcome to the club. We have a single app/iis server instance attached to a
highly available sql 2005 cluster. We made every team lead/manager a Project
Manager, because they have to manage their own operational, internal efforts.

So...pushing 160+ projects with 40-50 pms...keeps a single admin hoppin!
We are hoping to cluster out the app server this quarter to alleviate some
slowness, disaster recovery, etc.

I feel your pain Frank!
 
F

Frank J.

Some of the issues:

Can only open some published projects in Read only mode... state it was not
checked in. However when trying to force check in project it's does not show
as checked out.

Uses state hours they saved and published are missing.... difficult to prove
one way or the other (i.e., did they really save and publish).... how can I
truely know.

We have one project missing in action. I know it was there.... have reports
from prior weeks. But it's gone now. In both Project and Sharepoint
workspace. Did some one delete it by mistake???

So again... basic question is.... is there some sort of audit trail I can
turn on to record all changes???

Thanks for your insite.

Frankj
 
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