Update Anomalies: How to get yourself into and out of trouble with resources in a Project Server World Mark Read

Agenda The Second Law of Thermodynamics Project and Process Management Examples of Data Challenges in Project Server Introduction to Sequence Advisors Questions

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that all work processes tend towards a greater entropy (disorder/lower energy density) over time.

Project Management: Order out of Chaos Order Chaos ThermodynamicsProject Management

Process Development: Order out of Chaos SolutionProblem FeedbackProcess

Project Server: Order out of Chaos Project Manager Users TasksActuals

Common Resource Naming Issues Same Resource, Different Resource Names Hand Typing Resources Project Managers not used to a resource pool

Duration with Multiple Assignments The Gantt chart view won’t help you understand what part of a task with multiple assignments is causing your duration to be longer than anticipated. The task usage view, when coupled with the Assignment Units column, can help sort out which assignment is pushing the duration.

When editing tasks, they help remember the rubberband (duration/work/units relationship) They are only effective during the editing of a task. If you edit another task, they are gone Can help you wrestle with the scheduling engine. Smart Tags

Resource Usage Summaries Include work for all plans, not just the plan you’re looking at. Use the Project Team Members filter, but remember that the summary task still includes everyone’s time for all tasks.

Complex Rollups Used to be there were regular calculation errors on multiple group bys, but Microsoft has fixed some of these in SP1. Needless to say, they are hard to read.

Multi Value Fields 1.Great for skills, not for costs 2.Two Different Groupings with Outline Code 20 and MV 20 3.Flat or Hierarchical with OK rollups 4.Group takes first data instance only, filter for others

Data Levels Enterprise Project Resource Task or Assignment Resources are the only level have multi-value fields Any multi-value data that needs to be rolled up or down should be stored at the assignment level Assignment level fields are hard to get compliance on because there are so many of them…

Maximum work per day The PWA timesheet will warn about a single cell being over the predefined limit, but it won’t warn about someone working more than 24 hours a day over a group of tasks.

Published Fields in PWA You can add fields to your plan and to the PWA timesheet You must set them to be Published fields (Tools>Customize>Publi shed Fields) You can make them user settable, or NOT May need VBA on client or SQL on the server to populate formula based fields

Portfolio Analyzer Great multiple filter capability. The largest challenge is readability

Permissions Resources inherit rights from their (multiple) group membership(s) and selectively use the RBS This comes in handy with complex permission requirements Use View Effective Rights to diagnose issues

Summary There is a whole lot of functionality in the base product. With great power comes great responsibility The key is to focus on getting the users trained to get the numbers right Don’t Panic …there is help out there…

Introduction to Sequence Advisors Focus on Microsoft Project Management and Knowledge Management Solutions Expertise in MS Project, Project Server and Office Products including Sharepoint products and MapPoint Background in Financial Services, Information Technology, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Professional Services, Consulting, Startups, Telecommunications, Construction Microsoft Certified Partner with Information Worker Competency

Team Members – Skill Matrix Mark Read – Principal Pablo Aguilar - Director of Technology, MCSE Jean Thompson - Senior Consultant David Luper - Senior Consultant Lisa Leung - Senior Consultant Angel Lance – Consultant, PMP Dyelan Grace - Senior Software Engineer, MCSE

What do we do? Project and portfolio management consulting Installation and configuration services (Server products including Project Server, Sharepoint) Custom development and integration services (.net, c#, VB) Infrastructure assistance (Exchange, domain admin, backups, SUS, etc) Training, Training, Training Long-term support

What don’t we do? We don’t provide or license MS software We don’t sell hardware

Quantitative Evaluation – 30 Plans

SQL Reporting Services

Recent Projects Utilities Project Server 2003 for major reengineering effort (25 PMs and 500 users) at large utility. 15 SQL Reporting Services reports covering issue, risk, variance and milestone reports. Insurance Project Server 2003 and Project Professional 2003 for 400 people at insurance provider in San Francisco. Financial integration, posting, audit and specialized permissions. Financial Project Server and Project Professional 2002 for 220 people at a large financial company in southern California. Integration with Project Request system. Upgrade to 2003 this week. Medical Products Project Server 2003 and Project Professional 2003 for 80 person Research & Development division for company in Sunnyvale. Government Conversion of legacy data in eLabor system to Project Server 2003 for 80 users in state agency, including conversion of Crystal Reports to Microsoft Reporting Services. Manufacturing Project Server 2003 for a waste water control system manufacturer field service in the North Bay. Network Services Project Server 2003 and Sharepoint Services for 150 people at a leading broadband services provider. Consulting Project Server, Sharepoint Services for a sales program company in the North Bay for 5 Project Managers and 40 Team Members at different IT vendors. We manage their network, servers and desktops as well.

Last but not least… We are part of the Project 12 Technology Adoption Program and will be involved in the beta process for the next version. We think Project 12 rocks, and will have some major functionality enhancements that you will get excited about.

Contact Information Contact us at: Sequence Advisors 1512 La Loma Ave Berkeley CA