Parallon Business Solutions Microsoft Project Server 2010 Project Server 2010 Inter-Project Dependencies

Training Outline External Dependencies Cross-Project Links Setting up Inter-Project Dependencies Setting a Cross-Project Dependency

External Dependencies 3

Other projects or groups have deliverables on which tasks in your project have dependencies You have no control over the management of the external tasks Changes to the schedule of external dependency tasks require adjustments to assignments in your project You may have tasks within your project that other projects are dependent on and a delay to your scheduled tasks requires them to make adjustments to their project work schedule

External Dependency Considerations Two projects must be open for read/write to set the dependencies but the security model may not allow the project managers to change and save any projects but their own Communication between the two project managers may need to be facilitated Tasks in one project may have successors in multiple projects Big picture visibility is essential but may be difficult for individual project managers to achieve Inefficiencies may occur if all the project managers attempt to manage these dependencies only two projects at a time Setting the dependencies is a complex process

The External Dependency Management Process The PMO will maintain a single work schedule with milestones that connect two or more projects Project managers will add a predecessor milestone to their work schedules for any milestones upon which other projects are dependent Project managers will add a successor milestone to their work schedules for any milestones upon which their project is dependent The PMO will facilitate the communication process for project managers to identify interdependent deliverables The PMO will collect information from project managers regarding the baseline finish dates and the accountable person for the milestones and distribute these details to project managers impacted by the deliverables

Cross-Project Links 7

Logical dependencies between Tasks in different work schedules Also referred to as external dependencies Can be of different types (FS,FF,SF,SS) Both lags and leads can be set Two ways to establish external dependencies Temporarily consolidate projects Type a path to identify the link Typing a path the recommended way and the method that will be presented

Setting up Inter-Project Dependencies 9

Action: Setting Up Inter-Project Dependencies … 1.Set up a work schedule managed by a person in the PMO who has read/write rights to all projects 2.Name level one of this schedule ‘Inter-Project Dependency Milestones’ or a name similar to this that makes it clear in the Project Center views that this is the purpose of this schedule 3.Enter at level two the name of the project to which the milestone belongs 4.Enter labels for levels three and four that are consistent with the schedule structure of the project owning the milestone Four levels are necessary so the milestones can be entered at level five

Action: Setting Up Inter-Project Dependencies … 5.Define the interdependent milestones by gathering information from Project Managers Ask all project managers for both their external predecessors and their external successors 6.Verify the predecessor milestones in the appropriate work schedules and verify that they are assigned to the responsible resources 7.Verify the successor milestones in the appropriate work schedules and verify that they are assigned to the responsible resources

Action: Setting Up Inter-Project Dependencies … 8.Enter the milestones in the interdependency work schedule at level five 9.State the milestones in a way that they have meaning without needing the summary tasks 10.Use a milestone with a fixed date and lags to hold all milestone dates to the date promised by the responsible project manager 11.Baseline the finish dates according to the expectations of the project manager responsible for the deliverable 12.Assign a local resource to each milestone; this doesn’t have to be an actual person and could be, for example, “PMO”

Action: Setting Up Inter-Project Dependencies 13.Define an external dependency between the predecessor milestone in a work schedule and the associated milestone in the interdependent milestone work schedule 14.Define an external dependency between the associated milestone in the interdependent milestone work schedule and the successor milestone in one or more work schedules that have a dependency on the deliverable being tracked

Setting a Cross-Project Dependency 14

ACTION: Setting Cross-Project Dependencies 1.Close all other projects and open both projects in any view 2.Click on Ribbon  View (Tab)  Window (Section)  Arrange All to view the two projects on the same screen 3.In the task name field, double-click the task that is to be the successor to the external predecessor 4.In the ‘Task Information’ dialog box, click the ‘Predecessors’ tab 5.In the ‘ID’ column, type ‘<>\predecessor project\task ID’ Example: ‘<>\MyPhaseMilestone\2’ The external link tasks display in gray in each of the projects

Questions & Answers 16 Training End

Reference Books Project Managers Step by Step – Microsoft Office Project 2010 By Carl Chatfield & Timothy Johnson Dynamic Scheduling By Eric Uyttewaal Project Management Office Lean Project Management – Eight Principals For Success By Lawrence P Leach Critical Chain Management By Lawrence P Leach Enterprise Architecture & Strategy By Jeanne W Ross, Peter Weill & David C Robertson 100 Questions to Ask your Software Organization By Mark I Himelstein

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