Weeek-4

17

As stated in the Introduction, some of the philosophical background behind Microsoft Project will be provided to help understand the “why” of each chapter. The authors’ goal is to help you understand not just “check box 4, on screen 3” but why that box should be checked. This chapter is an introduction to Micro- soft Project Server and Microsoft Project Professional, and how they interact, to provide a foundation for understanding the following chapters. As such, while this chapter is an introduction of a technical, software “tool,” it is important to understand that this tool is there to help with project management, resource management, and portfolio management.

While Project 2010 is constructed to include as many variables and customer types as possible, and designed to be a viable product on the market, it should be used to best match your organization’s needs. The options and capabilities should be used according to your business and to customer and stakeholder needs. We will discuss how to match needs and software options in more detail in the following chapters.

Microsoft spent considerable time and effort aligning Project Professional and Project Server to the standards of the Project Management Institute’s Proj- ect Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). This coordinated effort helps organizations that align their business processes to the PMBOK® Guide to more easily use Microsoft Project. Use of the guide has helped in the area of

2

Microsoft Project 2010: Why Use It?

C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 0 . J . R o s s P u b l i s h i n g .

A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . M a y n o t b e r e p r o d u c e d i n a n y f o r m w i t h o u t p e r m i s s i o n f r o m t h e p u b l i s h e r , e x c e p t f a i r u s e s p e r m i t t e d u n d e r U . S . o r a p p l i c a b l e c o p y r i g h t l a w .

EBSCO Publishing : eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 9/14/2020 9:36 PM via UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS AN: 1094730 ; Quiring, Collin, Foster, Tanya.; Mastering Resource Management Using Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010 Account: s8501869.main.eds_new

18 ◆ Mastering Resource Management Using Microsoft® Project and Project Server 2010

vocabulary since many terms in the PMBOK® Guide and in Microsoft Project are the same and have the same definitions. At the same time, Project is flex- ible enough that those organizations that do not adhere as tightly to the prin- ciples in the PMBOK ® Guide can still use the software in their own manner. It all comes down to which options you set, and your business procedures, on how to best use this tool.

Since this chapter is the introduction to the tools that are used for resource management, it is beneficial to know the philosophy that Microsoft has placed behind their product. It sometimes helps to have an understanding of what the tools’ goals are, and the philosophy of the developers, to better understand how to configure settings for your needs. Therefore, we have added some of Micro- soft’s philosophy about these tools as they relate to resource management:

In today’s competitive and changing markets, organizations are look- ing to maximize return on investment (ROI) and drive efficiencies to sustain the business and support future growth. Resources are argu- ably an organization’s most valuable asset and potentially its biggest expense. Proper management and optimal use of resources is key for an organization to realize its business strategy. With intelligent re- source management, an organization can develop and retain a world- class workforce.

Adopting best-practice resource management techniques helps organizations accomplish the following:

Gain visibility and control using an enterprise resource pool. With a large number of employees and globally dispersed teams, it can become difficult to keep track of who is available, what they are capable of doing, and where they are located. Centralizing resources and standardizing metadata about the enterprise resource pool is the first step to gaining visibility and control.

Proactively compare capacity to demand to maximize re- source utilization. Resource capacity often will determine whether organizations are able to complete strategic projects in a specific planning horizon. Capturing resource requirements early in the proj- ect life cycle helps analysts anticipate future demand and proactively schedule projects to maximize resource utilization.

EBSCOhost - printed on 9/14/2020 9:36 PM via UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use

Microsoft Project 2010: Why Use It ◆ 19

Find the right people for the project. Projects often include globally dispersed teams and require a diverse set of skills. Finding the right people with availability for each project significantly increases the chance of successfully completing the initiative and realizing ROI. Managers need to be able to effectively tap the resource pool to find potential candidates and then quickly see if they are available to join the team.

Intuitively manage resource assignments and overcome conflicts. Managers improve project success rates by effectively managing resource assignments. This means quickly resolving over- allocation and reacting to resource conflicts. Managers require tools that help them assess and manage assignments through the project life cycle and easily communicate with team members about assign- ments. (Microsoft Enterprise Project Management, Microsoft EPM So- lution Guide, Microsoft Corporation, 2010, p. 48)

Many customers have Project Professional without Project Server and this book is about Microsoft Project Server and stand-alone Microsoft Project Profes- sional which acknowledges those customers. Some books are just about how Project Professional and Project Server interact without consideration of how Professional is used by organizations without Project Server. Therefore, when applicable, each chapter will first cover how Project Server and/or Project Pro- fessional work together, and then how Project Professional works in stand-alone mode. Normally, Project Server will have more capabilities and functions than the stand-alone version of Project Professional, and we will highlight some dif- ferences in each chapter.

The first step in using the Project Server capabilities is to be able to connect to Project Professional. In order to connect, you need to have Microsoft Project Professional 2010. The Microsoft Project 2010 Standard edition does not con- nect to Project Server. Also, note that Project Professional 2007 can connect to Project Server 2010 if the Server has the compatibility option selected.

Since this book is only about the resource management portions of Project Server and not about its installation or configuration, it is assumed that you already have a fully functional connection to an installed Project Server 2010 installed with your client copy of Project Professional 2010. However, we also understand that this might be your starting point and you may not have

EBSCOhost - printed on 9/14/2020 9:36 PM via UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use

20 ◆ Mastering Resource Management Using Microsoft® Project and Project Server 2010

connected to Project Server. Therefore, here are the steps to connect Project Server 2010:

1. Open Project Professional. 2. Go to File, Info, Manage Accounts (Figure 2–1).

Figure 2–1

A pop-up box, Project Server Accounts, appears (Figure 2–2).

EBSCOhost - printed on 9/14/2020 9:36 PM via UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use

Microsoft Project 2010: Why Use It ◆ 21

Figure 2–2

3. Click Add. 4. Enter something you will remember in the Account Name field. 5. Enter the URL in the Project Server URL field (Figure 2–3).

Figure 2–3

6. If this is the URL that you use most often, then select the Set as default account checkbox.

EBSCOhost - printed on 9/14/2020 9:36 PM via UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use

22 ◆ Mastering Resource Management Using Microsoft® Project and Project Server 2010

7. After clicking OK, you are back at the Project Server Accounts box. 8. Select Choose an Account, in case you add more instances or often go off-line. 9. Close Professional. The next time you open Professional, it will automati-

cally connect to Project Server (or give you the option to connect if you chose the Manual option).

As a note of clarification, when this book refers to Project Server, it is really referring to Project Web App (PWA), not the actual hardware where the Project Server software is residing. The PWA homepage may look different for different users based upon the security settings and organizational design of the page. Since it is SharePoint Server based, web parts can be easily modified, added, or removed, resulting in some instances of PWA looking different than others. As an example, Figure 2–4 is a partial screenshot of a regular PWA homepage for an Administrator.

Figure 2–4

EBSCOhost - printed on 9/14/2020 9:36 PM via UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use

Microsoft Project 2010: Why Use It ◆ 23

Figure 2–5 is an example of that same page for a user with more limited permissions.

Figure 2–5

The screenshots and images used in this book are based upon the “out of the box” Project Server 2010 and Project Professional 2010 software. There are no third-party software additions to the examples. Understanding how Project Server and Project Professional work in a normal environment help the orga- nization gain more value from the software. Understanding how the existing software works is key to being able to understand when it might be beneficial to purchase third-party software to add functionality.

It is the authors’ goal that you and your organization will benefit from Proj- ect Professional and Project Server by gaining a better understanding of how a feature or function works and some of the reasoning as to why it works the way that it does. Learning resource management and Project is a bit like put- ting together the pieces of a puzzle and in some cases it takes an awareness of many of the pieces before a more comprehensive understanding is obtained. The authors’ intention is to help you put those pieces together.

EBSCOhost - printed on 9/14/2020 9:36 PM via UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use

EBSCOhost - printed on 9/14/2020 9:36 PM via UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use