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Microsoft Project Server 2010 Project Manager's Guide for Project Web App

Project Server 2010

Updated: February 28, 2012

Summary: The first article in a series of eight articles about how to use Microsoft Project Web App to work with Microsoft Project Server 2010 data and to perform project management-related tasks.

Applies to: Microsoft Project Server 2010 | Microsoft Project Web App

The content of this guide is available two ways:

As a single, downloadable file (in .docx, .pdf, or .xps format). This version includes many screen shots that accompany the procedures in the book. (File size: approximately 3 MB) The .docx version is editable, for allowing you to customize the book for your own needs.
As a series of eight articles, starting with this one. This version does not include the screen shots that are included in the downloadable file.

Organization of this guide

Introduction
Chapter 1: Navigating Project Web App
Chapter 2: Managing projects in Project Web App
Chapter 3: Managing resources in Project Web App
Chapter 4: Managing task updates in Project Web App
Chapter 5: Managing issues, risks, and documents in Project Web App
Chapter 6: Managing status reports in Project Web App
Chapter 7: Configuring e-mail notifications and reminders in Project Web App

Send your feedback (projdocs@microsoft.com). Please say what you think about the quality of this content. If this does not meet your needs, let us know how to we can improve it. If this text was helpful, let us know how it helped.

Introduction

This guide helps project managers in your organization to better understand elements of project management in Microsoft Project Web App (PWA), such as the following:

Projects
Resources
Status updates and approvals
Project issues, risks, and documents
Notifications and alerts sent to project members

Important:
Although Microsoft Project Professional 2010 can be used with Project Server 2010 to perform many project management tasks, this guide only covers procedures done through Project Web App.

In Microsoft Project Server 2010, PWA has new functionality that previously had only been available in Microsoft Project Professional. This table compares the Web-based project management capabilities of Project Web App in Project Server 2010 with those same capabilities in Project Professional 2010.

Project Web App (2010)

Project Professional 2010

Multi-resource assignments: Assign more than one resource for a particular task.

Available

Status change updates: Receive updates on status changes that reschedule the project plan.

Available

Keyboard shortcuts: Use keyboard shortcuts for common operations such as indent/insert.

Available

Task hierarchy: Display and render tasks with hierarchical information.

Available

Indent/Outdent: Apply full indenting/outdenting of tasks in a project plan.

Available

Change highlighting: Easily view project changes and all parts of the schedule affected by the change (successor tasks, summary costs, and so on) with change highlighting.

Available

Multi-level undo: Perform what-if analysis and fully understand the effect of changes by reversing and reapplying a whole set of operations, including views, data, and option changes.

Available

Cut/Copy/Paste: Collaborate on schedule development by copying/pasting schedule details between applications.

Available

Flexible views: Move columns to define a specific view.

Available

High fidelity Gantt charts: Create vivid, colorful Gantt charts; customizable Gantt chart styles.

Available

Grouping: Apply multiple grouping rows to a project plan.

Available

Sorting: Sort project plan data by end-users.

Available

Filtering: Ability to filter project plans by any value in the plan.

Available

Automatically scheduled tasks: Indicate tasks (mode) to be scheduled automatically by using the Project scheduling engine.

Available

Manually scheduled tasks: Indicate tasks (mode) to be scheduled manually.

Available

Linking: Create, edit, and delete task dependency relationships.

Available

Zoom in/zoom out: Use zoom controls on the status bar to quickly change the timeline perspective of your project schedules.

Available

Scroll to task: Select a task and then move the task into view on the Gantt chart.

Available

View and edit custom fields: View and edit project metadata by using custom fields.

Available

Project Information: Edit project-level fields and properties.

Available

Edit large projects: No limit to the size of plans that are editable.

Note:
Larger projects may have performance limitations, but no limits are built in.

Available

Import from SharePoint task list: Import data from a SharePoint project task list into a project plan.

Available

Connect to Project Server 2010: Connect to Project Server 2010.

Available

Microsoft Office Fluent™ User Interface: Increase productivity with the ribbon, a tab interface to quickly find and use Project features and controls.

Available

Real-time validation: Mark cell data as invalid while you edit, instead of after you save and validate.

Available

Error handling: Handle invalid data and present data in an easy-to-use interface that helps resolve issues.

Available

Fill down: Drag the bottom-right corner of a cell to repeat data in the cells below.

Available

Percent complete: Mark task progress as a percentage of the assigned work that is completed.

Available

Cost and material resource assignments: Assign Cost Resources or Material Resources to tasks

Note:
Assignments cannot be made through PWA, but previous assignments from Project Professional 2010 are available as Read-Only.

Limited or Read-Only

Available

Inactive tasks: Mark a task as inactive.

Note:
In PWA, tasks marked as inactive in Project Professional 2010 are Read-Only.

Limited or Read-Only

Available

Edit master projects: Edit master projects.

Note:
In PWA, master projects are Read-Only.

Limited or Read-Only

Available

Cross-project links: Create, edit, and delete a dependency relationship with a task in another project.

Note:
In PWA, editing cross-project links is not supported; cross-project links created in Project Professional 2010 are Read-Only.

Limited or Read-Only

Available

Summary task assignment: Create a resource assignment on a summary task.

Note:
In PWA, creating summary task assignments is not supported. Summary task assignments created in Project Professional 2010 are Read-Only in PWA.

Limited or Read-Only

Available

Task calendars: Define a custom calendar associated with a task.

Note:
In PWA, task calendars cannot be used, and project plans created in Project Professional 2010 that contain task calendars are available as Read-Only.

Limited or Read-Only

Available

SharePoint 2010 Project Task Lists: Accept status updates for SharePoint 2010 project task lists.

Note:
In Project Professional 2010, project task list status updates are synchronized/bi-directional with SharePoint Server 2010 after the plan is published. In PWA, project task list status updates are one-way and only occur from the SharePoint project task list to PWA.

Limited or Read-Only

Available

Edit sub-projects: Edit sub-projects inside a master project.

Note:
In PWA, sub-projects cannot be added to a project, and master projects are Read-Only. Sub-projects can be edited separately from a master project.

Limited or Read-Only

Available

Task deadlines: Create deadlines for a task

Note:
In PWA, deadlines are displayed but cannot be created.

Limited or Read-Only

Available

Edit task type: Edit a task type.

Note:
In PWA, task type is not an editable field.

Limited or Read-Only

Available

WBS codes: Define custom Work Breakdown Structure codes.

Note:
In PWA, viewing custom codes is supported, but changing the code definition is not.

Limited or Read-Only

Available

Create baselines: Create a snapshot baseline of the current project plan.

Note:
Baselines created in Project Professional 2010 can be viewed in PWA as Read-Only.

Limited or Read-Only

Available

Time-phased editing: Edit plans and work on a day-by-day basis.

Note:
Time-phased data in manually scheduled tasks can be viewed in PWA as Read-Only.

Limited or Read-Only

Note:
Project Server 2010 Service Pack 1 allows you to edit time-phased values for manually scheduled tasks in PWA.

Available

Fixed work tasks: Define the type of a task as fixed work.

Note:
In PWA, tasks cannot be created as fixed work, and project plans created in Project Professional 2010 that contain fixed work tasks are Read-Only in PWA.

Limited or Read-Only

Note:
Project Server 2010 Service Pack 1 allows you to edit a project plan with fixed work tasks in PWA.

Available

Effort-driven tasks: Edit projects that contain effort-driven tasks.

Note:
In PWA, you cannot edit the effort-driven field. However, a task whose effort-driven field was set in Project Professional will calculate correctly when edited in PWA.

Limited or Read-Only

Note:
Project Server 2010 Service Pack 1 allows you to edit effort-driven tasks in PWA.

Available

Timeline: Build and customize the timeline view to visualize schedule details and communicate with stakeholders.

Available

Team planner: Drag and drop resources in an interactive resource view to simplify complex resource scenarios.

Available

Resource leveling: Recognize and correct resource over-allocation scenarios by using various automatic resource-leveling techniques.

Available

Edit assignment fields: Edit assignment views.

Available

Paste with task hierarchy: Paste hierarchical information that is included, such as indentations.

Available

Network diagram view: View, edit, create, and delete tasks in a network diagramming view.

Available

Task Form View: View, edit, create, and delete tasks in a form view.

Available

Task Information dialog box: See task details by using a dialog interface.

Available

Blank (null) Tasks: Create blank rows (blank, or null, tasks) in a project plan.

Available

Automatic calculation: Schedule the whole project plan, instead of only the current task, without pressing Calculate or F9.

Available

Text formatting: Modify text formatting by using colors and styles.

Available

Edit calendars: Edit calendars for your projects.

Available

Define local custom fields: Define local custom fields by users.

Note:
In PWA, only users who have administrator permissions can define local custom fields.

Available

Split tasks: Split tasks and show them as split in the Gantt chart.

Available

Backstage view: Quickly access Project tools, templates, and program options by using the new Microsoft Office Backstage view.

Available

Assignment units: Change the percentage units for each resource.

Available

Task Inspector: Get analysis and intuitive guidance to resolve scheduling conflicts, which you can choose whether to act upon.

Available

Offline editing: Edit project plans when you are not connected to Project Server 2010.

Available

For information about PWA functionality improvements in Project Server 2010 Service Pack 1, see the Microsoft Project 2010 blog post, Announcing Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=241595).

For information about how to apply Project Server 2010 Service Pack 1, see Deploy Service Pack 1 for Project Server 2010.

Who should read this book?

This book provides maximum benefits for the following professionals:

Project Managers. Those people in your organization who create and maintain projects and tasks, assign resources to tasks, manage approvals for task status and timesheet updates, and configure notifications for project team members.
Project Management Office (PMO). Those people who help define and maintain project management standards and practices throughout the organization.

Microsoft Project Server 2010 Administrator's Guide

If you are looking for Project Server 2010 administrative guidance in a role-guide format that resembles this guide, we also have available the Microsoft Project Server 2010 Administrator's Guide. That guide describes tasks that are involved with administering Project Server 2010. It provides many step-by-step procedures (and accompanying user-interface screen shots) about how to manage Project Server 2010 through the Project Web App Server Settings page.

You can download the Microsoft Project Server 2010 Administrator's Guide in .docx, .pdf, or .xps format from the Project Server 2010 Administrator's Guide article in this Microsoft TechNet library.

Change History

Date	Description
February 28, 2012	Added a table that compares feature availability in Project Web App and Project Professional 2010.
January 10, 2012	Added seven sub-articles, one for each chapter in this guide.
January 4, 2012	Initial publication

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