Microsoft Project 2002 Resource and Skills Management Guide
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By Toney Sisk , Dieter ZirklerMicrosoft , Corporation
Applies to:
Microsoft Project Server 2002
Microsoft Project Web Access 2002
Microsoft Project Professional 2002
Summary This white paper describes the architecture and enterprise resource features of Microsoft Project Professional and Microsoft Project Server. It includes tips to help you maximize the value and power of the resource management tools, as well as key steps to help you plan and deploy resource management features.
On This Page
Introduction
Microsoft Project 2002 Enterprise Resource Management Design Goals and Concepts
Architecture
Features
Working with Resources in Microsoft Project Professional 2002
Usage Tips
Planning and Deployment Tips
Extensibility and Interoperability
Summary and Conclusions
Introduction
Microsoft© Project 2002 has expanded its product family to include a complete enterprise project and resource management solution. Microsoft Project 2002 integrates the enterprise functionality previously provided by eLabor.com Enterprise Project into Microsoft Project. The solution includes the following products:
Microsoft Project Server
Provides timesheet, status report, portfolio reporting and modeling, enterprise resources, an enterprise global template, and templates to quick-start new projects. Microsoft Project Server requires Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server or later, Microsoft Internet Information Services 5.0, and Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000.
Microsoft Project Web Access
Provides a browser-based client that allows team members, resource managers, and executives to enter or view timesheet information and view portfolio reports. Microsoft Project Web Access requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later.
Microsoft Project Professional
Provides a desktop client that allows project managers to create and edit project plans and enterprise resources. Project plans and resources are saved to the Microsoft Project Server database. Microsoft Project Professional runs on Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition and later and Windows NT® 4.0 Workstation and later.
The Microsoft Project enterprise project management solution supports a wide range of users with features designed to support the needs of each member of a project team or organization. These team members may include the following:
Executives
Executives can use Microsoft Project Web Access to quickly access reports of project status and resource usage across their organization. Reports are available for project portfolios, projects, and resources. The Portfolio Analyzer, online status reports, and project documents stored on SharePoint™ Team Services from Microsoft enable executives to see trends across projects and resources. The Portfolio Modeler allows executives to model strategies of project staffing with interactive project staffing and scheduling tools.
Resource managers
Resource managers can use Microsoft Project Web Access to access reports of resource assignments and availability across the projects in their organization. With the timesheet feature, resource managers can review requests for resources, delegate assignments to team members, and track progress on assignments. Reports are available on project status, resource assignments, and resource availability. With the Portfolio Analyzer, resource managers can analyze details of how and where resources are being used in an organization. With the Portfolio Modeler, resource managers can explore a variety of staffing strategies for active and proposed projects. Resource managers can update skills information for resources directly from Microsoft Project Web Access. To create and edit other resource information, resource managers must use Microsoft Project Professional.
Project managers
Project managers can use Microsoft Project Professional to create and edit project plans. Integrating Microsoft Project Professional with Microsoft Project Server ensures that project managers can easily access resources from the list of enterprise resources and provide information required by an organization's project management office (PMO). With the new Build Team from Enterprise and Substitute Resources features, project managers can quickly and easily staff their projects based on the availability of resources and the match between resource skills and the skill requirements of the project. Microsoft Project is also integrated with Microsoft Project Web Access. Project managers can now access reports, status reports, and project plan updates from within Microsoft Project. Microsoft Project Professional seamlessly integrates new enterprise project management features into the familiar Microsoft Project user interface.
Team members
Team members can use Microsoft Project Web Access to access timesheets, status reports, and project-related documents. Team members can quickly view their timesheets for assignments that need to be completed and report progress on the assignments to the project manager. Team members can create and access status reports and project documents to simplify communication between members of the project team. Microsoft Project Web Access provides team members with a single place to access and work with project information.
This white paper describes:
The architecture of Microsoft Project Professional and Microsoft Project Server.
The enterprise resource management features in Microsoft Project Professional, Microsoft Project Server, and Microsoft Project Web Access.
Tips to help you maximize the value and power of Microsoft Project 2002 resource management tools.
Key steps in planning and deploying resource management features.
Extensibility features for Microsoft Project Professional and Microsoft Project Server.
Microsoft Project 2002 Enterprise Resource Management Design Goals and Concepts
The design goals for Microsoft Project Professional include:
Enterprise scalability and performance
Microsoft Project is designed to support hundreds of project managers and thousands of team members. The Microsoft Project 2002 enterprise project management solutions are based on the Microsoft® Windows Server System™ platform and can be scaled up and scaled out.
Ease of use
The enterprise project management features of Microsoft Project are tightly integrated with Microsoft Project, Microsoft Project Web Access, and Microsoft Project Server. Users familiar with prior releases of Microsoft Project will find the new enterprise features to be natural extensions of the Microsoft Project user interface. Microsoft Project Web Access allows team members and managers to access timesheets, reports, documents, and analysis tools with Internet Explorer.
Flexibility
Microsoft Project provides a flexible enterprise project and resource management solution. Customers can begin by using a limited number of enterprise features and then use additional features as needed. For example, customers may begin by deploying enterprise resources without using skills and then add one or more skills over time. Microsoft Project was designed to fit the way customers work rather than forcing customers to adopt a specific methodology or make significant organizational changes before experiencing benefits.
Extensible
Microsoft Project is designed to allow customers, partners, and solution providers to extend its enterprise project management solution. The middle tier of Microsoft Project Server provides a Simplified Object Access Protocol (SOAP) interface and an extensibility model to allow third parties to access enterprise data from their own applications or clients and to extend the functionality of the server. For example, customers can programmatically synchronize skills data from their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems with the enterprise resources in the Microsoft Project Server database using the SOAP interface to the Project Data Service (PDS). Microsoft Project Server also supports extending the security model, the online analytical processing (OLAP) cube creation process, and the user interface for Microsoft Project Web Access users.
The following are some of the new resource management concepts introduced in Microsoft Project 2002. An understanding of these concepts is useful when reading the architecture section of this white paper, which ties the concepts together.
Enterprise global template
The global file (Global.mpt), which has always been a part of Microsoft Project, is distinct from the enterprise global template and is used in Microsoft Project to define and reuse views, field definitions, macros, and so forth. When you start Microsoft Project Professional, the enterprise global template that is stored in the Microsoft Project Server database is loaded into memory. The enterprise global template contains all the fields in the Global.mpt plus additional enterprise-only fields. Administrators can define the value lists and look-up tables for these fields, and they can define whether the fields are required. This ability to define elements of the enterprise global template ensures that all enterprise projects use a consistent set of fields to generate cross-enterprise reports.
Enterprise resources
Microsoft Project 2000 used a local resource pool to enable multiple project managers to share a common set of resources, thus allowing project managers to view how a resource is used across multiple projects and to gain an accurate picture of the resource's workload and availability. Microsoft Project Professional can access resources from an enterprise resource pool stored in the Microsoft Project Server database. Microsoft Project Professional adds only the required enterprise resources to a project and adds only one summary record for each shared project that uses the resources added to a project. This change allows Microsoft Project Professional to support large (greater than 1,000) enterprise resource pools while improving performance when accessing and adding resources from the enterprise resources to a project.
Skills
Skills are enterprise resource outline codes with the "use to match generic resources" property enabled. Customers may define up to 30 skills for their enterprise resources.
Skill requirements
With Microsoft Project Professional you can specify an assignment's skill requirements. Skill requirements are one or more selected values for the skills (defined by enterprise outline codes) on an assignment. Skills can be defined manually in the Task Usage view or by assigning a generic resource to an assignment.
Generic resources
Generic resources are used to define types of resources frequently assigned to projects. Each generic resource has one or more defined skills. When a generic resource is assigned to a task, the assignment record is stamped with the generic resource's skills, making it easier to define the skill requirements for tasks in a project.
Resource Substitution Wizard
The Resource Substitution Wizard replaces resources in one or more projects based on the skill requirements of assignments and the skills possessed by enterprise resources. Users can access this wizard from Microsoft Project Professional.
Portfolio Modeler
The Portfolio Modeler enables projects to be staffed based on skill requirements and allows users to quickly view the effects of various staffing options on the schedule start or finish and on resource allocation levels. Users access this feature from Microsoft Project Web Access.
Architecture
Microsoft Project enterprise resource management features are based on the architecture provided by Microsoft Project Professional and Microsoft Project Server. For more details on the overall systems architecture, see the "Microsoft Project 2002 Project Guide Architecture and Extensibility" white paper (see link at the end of this paper). This section focuses on the architectural elements supporting the Microsoft Project 2002 enterprise resource management features.
Microsoft Project enterprise project management solution is an n-tiered application with three layers described in the following sections.
Client layer
Microsoft Project Web Access provides access to timesheets, project views, status reports, to–do lists, and document library and issue tracking (through Microsoft SharePoint Team Services integration). Microsoft Project Web Access consists of a set of ActiveX® controls (primarily a grid control) and HTML pages (provided through Active Server Pages) running in Internet Explorer 5 and later. While Microsoft Project Web Access provides limited offline features, it is primarily intended for use when connected to Microsoft Project Server.
Microsoft Project Professional is a Microsoft Windows application that runs on Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition and later, as well as Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 Workstation and later. Project managers add enterprise resources to their projects using the Build Team dialog box and the Resource Substitution Wizard. These features request access to the enterprise resources by sending XML (Extensible Markup Language) requests through HTTP to the Microsoft Project Server and then using the returned connection information to bind to the Microsoft Project Server database (stored on Microsoft SQL Server).
Application server layer
Microsoft Project enterprise resource management features are enabled through interactions between Microsoft Project Server and Microsoft Project Professional using the PDS. Requests from Microsoft Project Professional to read or save enterprise projects or resources to the server are first made through an XML request to the PDS. The PDS checks the permission for the authenticated user and then returns a list of available objects and connection string information. Microsoft Project then uses the connection information to bind to the enterprise database using ODBC. Requests from Microsoft Project Web Access for enterprise resource information are also made to the PDS. In this case, the PDS checks security and then directly queries the enterprise database and returns resource information to Microsoft Project Web Access. The PDS is indirectly involved when administrators use Microsoft Project Web Access to generate a Portfolio Analyzer OLAP cube or when users create and analyze models using Portfolio Modeler.
Microsoft Project Server runs on Windows 2000 Server or later and Microsoft Internet Information Services 5.0 or later.
Database layer
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or later provides the database layer services for Microsoft Project 2002 Professional. Microsoft Project Server merges and extends the Microsoft Project 2000 project database schema with the Microsoft Project Central database schema. Microsoft Project Professional and Microsoft Project Web Access interact with data in the enterprise database.
The Microsoft Project Server enterprise features include a significant revision of the way Microsoft Project binds to the project database. When Microsoft Project 2000 opened a project from a database, it bound directly to the Microsoft Project tables in the database. If the user's data source name (DSN) allowed read/write access to the database, Microsoft Project could open and save changes to any project in the database—even those projects managed by other project managers. Microsoft Project Professional uses connections that don't require DSNs to bind to SQL Views in the enterprise database. The SQL Views contain only the information required to open the project or resource(s) selected by the user. This information only exists in the SQL Server Views while Microsoft Project is opening or saving a project or resources.
The systems architecture is illustrated in the following figure:
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Figure 1: Microsoft Project system architecture
In the next sections, several typical usage scenarios illustrate the Microsoft Project resource management architecture.
Features
Microsoft Project Professional
This section describes the key enterprise resource management features unique to Microsoft Project Professional.
Integration with the Microsoft Project Server database
Microsoft Project Professional includes features to allow you to modify the enterprise global template; open projects and templates saved in the server database; add enterprise resources to projects; and save projects to the Microsoft Project Server.
Find resources based upon skill and availability
The Build Team dialog box allows users to add enterprise resources to a project by manually selecting resources or by querying for resources based on availability or attributes.
Resource Substitution Wizard
The wizard allows users to automatically assign enterprise resources to tasks in one or more projects based on the skill requirements of tasks and resource availability.
Assign Resources dialog box
In the Assign Resources dialog box, users can view availability for resources based on their assignments in projects across the enterprise.
Summary assignments
When enterprise resources are added to a project, Microsoft Project Professional works with Microsoft Project Server to add one assignment for each enterprise project that is using each resource. Project managers can then see a resource's actual remaining availability.
Microsoft Project Web Access
This section describes the key enterprise resource management features unique to Microsoft Project Web Access.
Resource Center
In the Resource Center, managers can view and modify settings for enterprise resources. Resource managers can access detailed assignment and availability information from the Resource Center.
Portfolio Analyzer
Portfolio Analyzer allows managers to use powerful OLAP tools to see and evaluate how enterprise projects and enterprise resources are performing across an organization.
Portfolio Modeler
With the Portfolio Modeler, managers can identify staffing problems across projects in an organization and then model how staffing changes affect schedules, costs, and workloads. Model results can be saved as reports, which can then be used with the Microsoft Project Professional Resource Substitution Wizard to apply the model to project plans.
Microsoft Project Server
This section describes the key enterprise project management features unique to Microsoft Project Server.
Enterprise global template
Microsoft Project Server allows you to open, edit, and save an enterprise global template directly from the server database. Because the enterprise global template resides on the server and is opened read-only, organizations can distribute and maintain project and resource management standards for items in the enterprise global template, including skill codes, resource breakdown structure codes, and calendar settings.
Enterprise resources
Microsoft Project Server allows resources to be opened, edited, and saved to the Microsoft Project Server database.
Enterprise templates
In Microsoft Project Server, templates can be opened and saved to the Microsoft Project Server database. Microsoft Project Professional users can view templates saved to the server database and create new projects based on the templates. Assigning generic resources to tasks in project templates can provide project managers an easy way to identify required skills when staffing a project.
Integrated database
Microsoft Project Server integrates the Microsoft Project database and the Microsoft Project Web Access database. The integrated database simplifies application and database management and provides Microsoft Project Professional users with a seamless user experience as they open and save projects and resources.
Integrated security
Permission to access Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Web Access data is managed through the Microsoft Project Server administrative features. Security for Microsoft Project Server is supported per user per project and resource at both the application and database layers. Integrated security simplifies application management and significantly improves security.
Project Data Service
Requests to access or update enterprise data are made to the PDS. The PDS provides a SOAP interface that allows third-party client applications to access the same Microsoft Project Server features as Microsoft Project Professional and Microsoft Project Web Access. In addition, the PDS provides an extensibility model that allows third parties to extend the functionality of Microsoft Project Server.
Portfolio Analyzer OLAP cube generation service
The cube generation service creates the Portfolio Analyzer fact and dimension tables based on the Microsoft Project Server database. The service then calls Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services to generate an OLAP cube based on the fact and dimension tables. Administrators can manage the service through Microsoft Project Web Access. Third parties can include their own data in the Portfolio Analyzer cube.
Working with Resources in Microsoft Project Professional 2002
The following sections give overviews of how you add and work with enterprise resources.
Adding a Resource to a Project with the Build Team Dialog Box
The Build Team dialog box is the primary tool for adding enterprise resources to a project. The Build Team dialog box displays all the resources available to a project manager to be added to a project (based on security settings made in Microsoft Project Server). Project managers can then use filters to identify the specific resources needed in a project. After enterprise resources are added to a project, project managers can use the enterprise resources in the same ways that they use local resources.
When resources are added by using the Build Team dialog box, Microsoft Project posts an XML request to the PDS on Microsoft Project Server to check whether the user has "Read Summary Assignment" permissions. If the user has been allowed this permission, the PDS then queries the Microsoft Project Server security object to identify the specific resources that the user can view (by checking the resources for which the user has "See Enterprise Resource Data" permissions). If the resulting set of resources is fewer than 1000, the PDS configures SQL Server Views in the enterprise database that contain the enterprise resources available to the user and returns connection information to Microsoft Project. If the resulting set of resources is more than 1000, the PDS returns an error message and allows the user to prefilter the resources returned from Microsoft Project Server.
When the PDS returns connection information to Microsoft Project, Microsoft Project connects to the SQL Server Views in the enterprise database and places the available resources into a hidden project. The project manager can then select the resources to add to the project. When the desired resources are selected from the Build Team dialog box, they are added to the Microsoft Project Professional hidden resource pool. At this point, the resources appear in the Resource Sheet view and the Assign Resources dialog box. The resources can then be assigned to tasks.
Staffing a Project by Using the Resource Substitution Wizard
You can also use the Resource Substitution Wizard to add enterprise resources to a project and then assign those resources to tasks based on the skill requirements of those tasks. The Resource Substitution Wizard matches the resources defined in the enterprise resource pool with the skill requirements of tasks in a project. The wizard can then add enterprise resources to the project and assign the resources to the appropriate tasks.
The wizard allows the user to select the projects currently opened in Microsoft Project that the wizard should consider. Users can then select the resources that should be assigned to tasks in the selected projects. When resources are selected, the wizard posts an XML request to the PDS on the Microsoft Project Server to identify all projects related to the selected projects (through external dependencies or shared resources).
When the resources are substituted in the selected projects, the project manager can then level the projects and choose whether to save the changes. It is important to realize that changes made to the projects by the wizard are not final until the modified projects are saved to the enterprise database.
Viewing a Resource Report Using Microsoft Project Web Access
Microsoft Project Web Access uses Internet Explorer to access project and resource information on the Microsoft Project Server. Resource Center reports display enterprise resources and values for all enterprise resource custom fields, assignments, and remaining availability. Users access these reports by logging on to the server with Microsoft Project Web Access and then navigating to the Resource Center. Microsoft Project Web Access queries the MSP_ASSIGNMENTS and MSP_WEB_VIEW tables and binds the resulting data to both the Microsoft Office Web Chart control and the Microsoft Project Web Access grid control. These reports are only available on resources assigned to tasks in Microsoft Project Professional.
Creating a Model with the Portfolio Modeler
Microsoft Project 2002 supports OLAP through the Portfolio Analyzer feature. Portfolio Analyzer uses components in all three tiers of Microsoft Project. The database tier uses Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services to create an OLAP cube. The middle tier uses the cube generation service to create a set of fact and dimension tables (used by Analysis Services) based on data in a number of tables in the Microsoft Project Server database. The client tier (Microsoft Project Web Access) uses the Microsoft Office Web PivotTable® and chart controls bound to the OLAP cube.
Usage Tips
Microsoft Project 2002 provides a flexible set of resource management tools. It allows customers to fit these tools into their methods and processes for managing resources rather than requiring a specific methodology or process to be used with the tools. However, customers can maximize the value and power of Microsoft Project 2002 resource management tools by following a few tips:
Manage all the projects assigned to a group of resources with Microsoft Project Professional. To ensure that the enterprise database can provide complete data about resource assignments and availability, avoid managing some projects assigned to a group of resources with Microsoft Project Standard or earlier versions of Microsoft Project.
In general, projects from Microsoft Project Standard or earlier versions of Microsoft Project should be migrated in blocks of projects defined by the sets of resources used in those projects. Projects sharing the same resources should be migrated to Microsoft Project Professional together. It is practical and prudent for your deployment plans to include incremental migration of collections of projects based on their shared resources.
Minimize your use of master projects. Specifically, avoid saving master projects to the Microsoft Project Server database. Saving master projects and their subprojects may double-count resource assignments and produce inaccurate Microsoft Project Web Access views. Microsoft Project users have used master projects in the past to produce rolled up reports across multiple projects and to easily create external dependencies between tasks in different projects. Microsoft Project 2002 enterprise outline codes and features such as the Portfolio Analyzer provide users with significantly more flexible and powerful reporting tools for rolling up results across multiple projects than the tools provided with master projects. To create external dependencies or simply to retain familiar reports, users should create local master projects on their workstations with inserted enterprise projects. Users can then save the subprojects (inserted projects) to the Microsoft Project Server database while saving the master project to their workstation. With this method, users can work with familiar master projects while maintaining accurate enterprise resource data and the more flexible and powerful reporting tools in Microsoft Project Web Access.
Create enterprise generic resources and use them in template projects saved to the Microsoft Project Server database. The skills management features in Microsoft Project 2002 require resources to have defined skills and to define assignment skill requirements. Skills are an optional feature for Microsoft Project 2002 users. However, use of skills enables use of features such as the Resource Substitution Wizard and the Portfolio Modeler as well as providing more detailed information on how resources are used across an organization.
While administrators or resource managers can define resource skills, project managers must specify skill requirements for assignments. Skill requirements for assignments are typically specified by assigning generic resources to a task. Microsoft Project Professional copies all the skills defined for the generic resource to the assignment. To further simplify the process of defining skill requirements for assignments, administrators or the PMO can create project templates and use enterprise generic resources for assignments in the templates. This technique enables project managers to open a template, identify the project team or enterprise resources, and then use the Resource Substitution Wizard to staff the project and assign the appropriate resources to tasks in the projects.
Planning and Deployment Tips
Microsoft Project 2002 provides a flexible, scalable platform for resource management. Central to the Microsoft Project enterprise resource management features are the enterprise global template and the enterprise resources. The design and configuration of these features affect Microsoft Project Server users. Careful planning is critical for a successful Microsoft Project Professional and Microsoft Project Server deployment.
Enterprise Global Template
The enterprise global template defines all enterprise custom fields, including resource custom fields and skills. Configure the enterprise global template before creating or importing enterprise resources. Microsoft Project Professional is used to configure the enterprise global template.
The following are key elements to define in the enterprise global template:
Enterprise resource custom fields
These fields are those used in reports of resources in the enterprise resource pool. In general, it is useful to review any current reports used to report the status of resources and to create enterprise custom fields to be used as resource fields in these reports. You can also define which fields should be required. Required fields should be used sparingly. However, a resource field that you consider critical in a report should be required.
Skills
Skills are simply enterprise resource outline codes with the Use this code to match generic resources check box selected in the Custom Outline Codes dialog box. Skills can be extremely useful when staffing projects and in analyzing resource capacity and demand. In general, two approaches can be taken when defining skills:
Use a single outline code to define all skills. This approach works well when you have a relatively small number of possible skills (fewer than 50) and only one skill is used to define assignment skill requirements. For example, a Web programmer is assigned to one task while a technical writer is assigned to another task. This approach is recommended for customers new to enterprise resource management tools.
Use multiple outline codes to define distinct types of skills. This approach works well when multiple skills are used to define assignment skill requirements. For example, a Web programmer who speaks French is assigned to one task while a Japanese-speaking technical writer is assigned to another task. This approach can significantly improve a customer's ability to understand how resources are being used across an organization. However, this approach also requires significantly greater effort in terms of creating and updating information regarding resources in the enterprise resource pool.
Calendars
Enterprise resources and projects can be required to use calendars defined in the enterprise global template.
Views
Typically, you need to create an enterprise version of both the Resource Sheet and Task Usage views. The Resource Sheet should be updated to include all enterprise resource custom fields. The Task Usage view should include all skills.
Enterprise Resource Pool
After you have defined the enterprise global template, you can create enterprise resources. Enterprise resources are created in Microsoft Project Professional. The process for creating resources is largely determined by whether one want wants to move currently active projects from an earlier version of Microsoft Project to Microsoft Project Professional 2002.
Starting with new projects
Minimal preparation is necessary for this scenario. The process is simplified if all required resource information can be centralized in a single document. Microsoft Excel can be a useful tool to gather this information. The resulting spreadsheet can then be imported into Microsoft Project and then saved to the Microsoft Project Server database.
Migrating active projects
In this scenario, multiple projects are currently managed with Microsoft Project 98 or Microsoft Project 2000—typically with projects saved to a database. Since these projects often do not use a resource pool, each project may use a different resource name, rate schedule, or calendar for the same resource. To simplify migration of the projects to Microsoft Project Server, it will be helpful to standardize the use of resources in your organization. All projects should use a consistent definition of resources.
Resource pools can help support this process. Resources in an organization are added to a resource pool, which is then used by all projects being migrated. After issues are resolved with the Microsoft Project 98 or Microsoft Project 2000 resource pool, an administrator can import the resource pool into the Microsoft Project Server database.
Microsoft Project Web Access Views
When the enterprise resource pool is populated, project managers can add enterprise resources to their projects and then save the projects (with assignments) to the enterprise database. Resource information (including skills and enterprise custom fields), availability, and assignments can be viewed in Microsoft Project Web Access. Microsoft Project Web Access views can be defined by administrators and can then be selected by users based on their permissions.
Three Microsoft Project Web Access view types are specific to resources:
Resource Center views
Display properties of enterprise resources, showing predefined groups and filters. Users can also access resource assignment and availability charts from the Resource Center. However, users cannot define the available charts.
Portfolio Analyzer views
Display PivotTables and charts of enterprise resource properties, timephased attributes (for example, work, cost, actual work, availability), and project properties. Administrators can predefine views as well as allow users to customize the reports (if the users have Office XP installed on their workstations).
Assignment views
Display a Gantt Chart view of assignments made with workgroup and enterprise resources. Assignment views can include predefined groups and filters.
Views are defined by Microsoft Project Server administrators. Views only define the fields and format of the report. The views do not define the resources (or projects) visible in the report. After a view is defined, the administrator must add the views to one or more categories to allow the views to be accessed by users. Categories define the specific projects and resources available to the user. By adding a view to a category, administrators can define the objects (projects or resources) and the properties of the objects (views) available to any given user or group of users. For detailed information on Microsoft Project Server security, categories, and views, see the "Microsoft Project Server Security Architecture and Planning Guide" white paper.
The views and security tools within Microsoft Project Server are very flexible. Small to medium organizations should find the predefined views, categories, and groups to support their needs. Larger organizations with more complex security and reporting needs should include adequate time in their deployment schedules to carefully plan and design their views and categories.
Extensibility and Interoperability
Microsoft Project 2002 provides customers and solution providers with an extensible project management platform for both the client and server. A Microsoft Project Software Developer Kit (SDK) will be available shortly after Microsoft Project 2002 is available. The SDK provides detailed descriptions and sample code for extending Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server.
In addition, you can review selected extensibility features of Microsoft Project 2002 by reading the following white papers (see links at the end of this paper):
Microsoft Project Server Security Architecture and Planning Guide
Microsoft Project 2002 Project Guide Architecture and Extensibility
Microsoft SharePoint Team Services Integration Architecture and Extensibility
Microsoft Project Professional
Microsoft Project 2002 continues to provide a rich object model and support for Microsoft Visual Basic® for Applications. Developers can access and automate most of the features available from the Microsoft Project user interface, including the new enterprise project management features. New for Microsoft Project 2002 is the ability to open and save projects as XML documents. XML can be extremely useful when exchanging data between applications or systems. The Microsoft Project XML schema is provided in the document Microsoft Project XML Schema (Projxml.xml) that is shipped on the Microsoft Project 2002 CD-ROM. In addition, Microsoft Project 2002 introduces the Project Guide, which integrates HTML pages with the Microsoft Project client. While Microsoft Project 2002 is shipped with a full set of Project Guide pages, developers can replace and extend Project Guide pages with full access to the Microsoft Project object model. Customizing Project Guide pages allows developers to integrate custom solutions into the Microsoft Project user interface.
Microsoft Project Web Access
Microsoft Project Web Access continues to support reuse of the ActiveX grid controls and Web Parts based on Microsoft Project Web Access pages. New for Microsoft Project 2002 is the ability to extend or modify the Microsoft Project Web Access menu.
Microsoft Project Server
The PDS is the key middle-tier object for the Microsoft Project enterprise project management features. Developers can call PDS methods through its SOAP interface. PDS allows custom solutions for accessing many of the enterprise features of Microsoft Project Professional and Microsoft Project Web Access. One key feature of the PDS is support for programmatically defining and updating enterprise outline codes. If customers want to keep the Microsoft Project Server enterprise codes consistent with the schema of other business intelligence or line-of-business solutions (such as general ledger, customer relations management, or employee relations), custom applications can be written to query for schema definitions in external systems and then to use PDS calls to update the corresponding enterprise codes in the Microsoft Project Server database. In addition, developers can extend the set of methods exposed by the PDS by registering extender objects on Microsoft Project Server.
Developers can extend the Microsoft Project Server security system. This capability allows solution providers to extend the Microsoft Project Server with new functionality (for example, risk management) yet allow access to the functionality to be controlled through the Microsoft Project Server administrative tools.
Developers can also extend the data used by the Portfolio Analyzer OLAP cube generation service, allowing integration of project data with other project or resource data in the Portfolio Analyzer views.
Summary and Conclusions
Microsoft Project 2002 introduces enterprise project and resource management to the Microsoft Project family of products. Microsoft Project Professional, Microsoft Project Web Access, and Microsoft Project Server provide an integrated enterprise resource management solution that combines ease of use, a centralized project and resource database, and powerful reporting and analysis features. Microsoft Project Web Access provides Internet Explorer users with reporting, analysis, and modeling tools for projects and resources across an enterprise. Microsoft Project enterprise project management features are built on the Windows Server System platform, allowing customers to scale Microsoft Project from a single server to high-availability configurations with a Web farm and clustered database servers. Microsoft Project Server provides a rich middle-tier service, the PDS, which customers can use to integrate project management data with other business intelligence and line-of-business solutions using a SOAP interface.
For More Information
More information on Microsoft Project Standard, Microsoft Project Professional, and Microsoft Project Server is available online.
Specifically, the following white papers may be useful:
Microsoft Project Server Security Architecture and Planning Guide
Microsoft Project 2002 Project Guide Architecture and Extensibility
Microsoft SharePoint Team Services Integration Architecture and Extensibility
Toney Sisk is a technical writer on the Microsoft Project team. Toney specializes in project management and enterprise resources documentation, and has been with Microsoft for twelve years.
Dieter Zirkler is a lead program manager in the Microsoft Project business unit. Dieter was the product lead for Microsoft Project Professional 2002 and has been with Microsoft for six years.