Using local calendars in a plan on the server

[Wiley]

Project Server 2003 (SP2)

I have a PM who needs to use a local calendar to block out non working days
that are not a part of any of our enterprise calendars. The plan has no
resources assigned. The PM is a novice MSP user and does not want to learn
how the resources affect scheduling, so he is putting resource names in a
text field, which is OK in this case because they are all external. However,
mgmt wants the plan on the server for reporting.

That’s the background, here’s the question. What are the consequences of
him using a custom calendar in a plan on the server? My Project Server DBA
emphatically says you cannot, that it will cause errors, corrupt the
scheduling info in the plan, and generally cause havoc. I am finding this
difficult to believe. Is there any truth to this?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Wiley --

Your Project Server DBA is mistaken. You can allow the use of local base
calendars in enterprise projects with no harm, other than possible
misunderstanding as to why the project is scheduled the way it is. The
trouble is that you have to enable the use local base calendars for EVERYONE
in the system; you cannot restrict their use to only one PM. The other
problem is that the PM is question is simply not competent in his use of
Microsoft Project, thus creating the situation you have.

If I can offer a piece of advice: get this PM some training on how to use
Microsoft Project correctly, and mandate that he take the training and
perform as trained. After training, if he still needs a custom base
calendar for his projects, then ask the Project Server administrator to
create an enterprise base calendar to meet the PM's scheduling needs. Just
some thoughts. Hope this helps.

 

[Wiley]

Dale,

You have validated not only my thoughts on the calendar issue, but also the
training issue. There is definitely a training deficiency, which is
recognized by mgmt.. However, I am not at a level at which I can push it.
My role is to advise the PM's here whenever they get into these types of
troubles. These are the things that add interest to ordinary days.