Tips and Tricks

Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management Solution Quick Reference Guide

Introducing the New Microsoft Enterprise Microsoft SQL Server™ Reporting Services for report, Project Management Solution model definition, and full run-time report environment.  Enterprise ready: Improved performance with the Active Cache and Queuing Service. Intelligently Manage the Entire Investment Life Cycle  Built on Microsoft Windows® SharePoint® Services: from Strategic Portfolio Decisions to Managing Work Project Web Access has the same look and feel as The Microsoft® Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Windows SharePoint Services with the ability to customize Solution is an end-to-end collaborative portfolio, project, and through Web Parts. resource management environment that helps organizations  Extensible: Redesigned Project Server Interface gain visibility, insight, and control to enhance decision- application programming interface (API), Server-Side making, improve alignment of project and work initiatives Events, and Workflow capabilities for improved process with the business strategy, maximize resource utilization, and management. measure and increase operational efficiency.

The EPM Solution is for organizations that want a complete What Has Been Improved solution, from top-down portfolio planning, optimization, and  Timesheets include fiscal periods, reporting against tracking to standardization across projects and programs, summary tasks and projects, better tracking of non- centralized resource management, and strong team project time, separate progress versus time spent, and coordination. The EPM Solution provides a central repository much more. of portfolio, project, and resource information to consistently  More out-of-the-box templates and the ability to manage and report on all work across the enterprise. customize richer templates.  Robust top-down portfolio management and tracking, and improved project planning, tracking, and resource What’s New in the EPM Solution management capabilities. Some of the important capabilities now available in the EPM  Expanded Project Workspaces for collaboration. Solution include:  Better integration with Microsoft Office Outlook®  Portfolio Management: Standardize business case (timesheet integration, To-Do Bar, tasks on the calendar, development; establish business drivers for project time-phased tracking). alignment; select and prioritize projects according to  Expanded Timesheets functionality separate from task defined constraints; define optimal portfolios for value updates. maximization; track project portfolios using summary  Integration of SQL Server Reporting Services for real-time project cost and schedule data. Enterprise Reports.  Financial Management: Cost Resources for planned and  New sophisticated architecture with high availability and actual cost by task; Multicurrency support; Budget scalability through the use of four databases and a definition and tracking. multithreaded queuing system together with published  Manage all work: Multiple Undo for “what-if” scenarios; methods of the Project Server Interface API for easier Proposals and Activity Plan features for full life cycle line-of-business systems integration. project management; Manage Programs through Master Projects that can be scheduled, tracked, and reported; Deliverables Management for definition of key What Are the Major Impact Areas commitments with dependencies across the organization;  Complete Project Portfolio Management capabilities. Task updates with previews to assess impact on Project  Create in Project Web Access for short-duration projects Plans. and maintenance work with Server-Side Scheduling.  Resource management: Resource Plans and Team  Financial controls at the Portfolio, Program, and Project Resources for capacity planning; Timesheets for tracking level with full budget development and tracking of actuals. project and non-project work.  Coverage of the entire project life cycle from Proposals to  Reporting: Cube Building Service and Reporting Data post-project Activity Plans for operations work. Service support incremental updates versus full cube  Resource timesheets and task updates. rebuilds; Visual Reports of project plans; integration with  Integrated Enterprise Reporting through a Reporting Data Service taking published data to the reporting database

www.microsoft.com/office/epmsolution and a Cube Building Service from the Reporting Data Visibility and Insights Service. Surfaces information for analysis of your investments in work,  Support of workflow for integration of business processes and resources from one-time projects to complex programs to project work with the Event Service support of Windows and portfolios across their entire life cycle. Workflow Foundation. Easier to Get Started Architecture Increases value by enabling organization-wide adoption The EPM Solution has a three-tier architecture and consists of through integration with familiar tools, to communicate a range of products offering capabilities for specific business status, and to work effectively as teams. needs. The architecture is built for scale and reliability. The emphasis on integration and openness makes the EPM Enterprise Ready Solution programmable and extensible. It is built with Delivers a dependable, scalable solution both in terms of powerful reporting and integrated with familiar tools. number of users and different types of work, while providing a high-performance and manageable infrastructure. At a high level, the solution offers the following applications: Extensible and Programmable Provides an extendable platform with workflow, application integration, and custom development.

EPM Solution Benefits

The EPM Solution provides a wide range of benefits for the different stakeholders of Enterprise Project Management within an organization.

Benefits for Executives Capture, align, select, and prioritize all projects and programs, and all work initiatives with enterprise objectives.

● Gain better visibility of all the work taking place in your organization. ● Manage your portfolio of project and program investments. ● Implement top-down budgeting and cost tracking. ● Anticipate project problem areas and make changes Overview of the Enterprise Project accordingly. Management Solution ● Attain deeper insight into resource allocation for better alignment with strategic priorities. The EPM Solution value proposition is built around four pillars, taking advantage of the functionality that strives for true Benefits for the Project Management Office (PMO) Improve the PMO value proposition through deeper project analysis, standards definition, and better portfolio reporting.

● Improve analysis through Project Center, Data Analysis, and Enterprise Reports of all project and program data. ● Accelerate definition and management of best practices through the Project Guide, an interactive, step-by-step planning aid that guides users through the steps of the project management process. • Easily create standard project plans for consistency and time saving in your organization using enterprise templates.

Benefits for Managers Accurately assess your project’s needs to effectively deploy adoption and sustainable business value. resources today and create Resource Plans for your organization’s future work. www.microsoft.com/office/epmsolution ● Build the right plans through a rich set of tools to meet that can be imported into Office Project Server as they your organizational goals. evolve or for reporting purposes. ● Drive accountability with your team through effective collaboration. ● Help ensure organizational alignment and efficiency through rich reports.

Benefits for Team Members QUICK TIP Enhance information-sharing and coordination among project teams for better participation, progress reporting, and Multiple Level Undo, Change Highlighting, and Task collaboration. Drivers In Office Project Professional, project managers can visualize ● Take advantage of project management infrastructure the impact of changes and trace back their steps. using everyday Microsoft Office tools with built-in To turn the Change Highlighting feature on or off, click the integration. View menu, and then click Hide Change Highlighting or ● Work more effectively with your team members through Show Change Highlighting. While the feature is enabled, Windows SharePoint Services (workspaces and Web all levels of tasks affected as a result of a change are Services in Project Web Access). highlighted with a color as a visual indicator. Using this ● Be an active participant in your organization’s feature together with the Multiple Level Undo feature, transformation. project managers can do “what-if analysis” by trying a set of changes and then reversing unwanted changes. Benefits for IT Organizations Employ a cost-effective and enterprise-ready solution. If further analysis of a task’s schedule is needed, the project manager can use Task Drivers in the Project menu to ● Easier to adopt with lower training and management determine the factors (such as task dependency, calendar costs. constraints, schedule date, or vacation time) driving a task’s ● Take advantage of existing skills and rely on an start date. experienced partner ecosystem. ● Meet your needs with a high-performance, scalable, and more secure platform. ● Integration out of the box or with flexible customization. ● Defines the enterprise standard for project management systems in the organization.

Create a Project

Creating project plans is facilitated by new features that address the needs of both occasional and advanced project managers. Server-side scheduling and tight integration with Windows SharePoint Services provide tools for defining high- level project plans and for shorter, maintenance-type projects. The strong scheduling capabilities of Office Project Professional are used for fully developing project plans.  Enterprise Templates drive project management standards and support best practices with predefined project schedules. In this screen shot, a duration change highlights its impacts.  The Project Guide supports users with step-by-step instructions for project planning, tracking, and reporting. Efficiently Manage All Work Activities

 Creation of proposals and activity plans in Project With the new EPM Solution it is easier to track a broader Web Access can be upgraded to Office Project Professional range of work than just project work. Tracking of all work for full project plan development. activities (project and non-project) provides better control of  The Project Task List feature of Windows SharePoint an organization’s resource utilization. Services enables users to quickly create simple projects

www.microsoft.com/office/epmsolution Track Time for Unplanned Activities or Non-Project The EPM Solution provides the tools to support the full project Work life cycle from concept stage to initiation, execution, Besides reporting the time spent on project activities, users monitoring, and closure. can now report against non-project activities and administrative time through the use of Timesheets. These Creating Proposals and Activity Plans processes make possible the capturing of time spent on task- Proposals in Project Web Access now enable project initiation oriented work and non-project time commitments that on the Web. Tracking Proposals provides better analysis of historically have not been tracked in Project plans. project requests and enables the use of business processes to track potential projects. Create a project task list and import it in Project Web Access to become a project in Office Project Managing Programs Server. Create Proposals and have them authorized to become new Projects. The EPM Solution helps organizations easily manage sets of very large projects as a single program through the use of Also, after concluding a project, you can use Project Web Master Projects. Assign budgets, define key performance Access for closing and archiving of a project, as well as for indicators (KPIs), track progress, and handle issues all at the the management of operations work, which usually follows program level. after completing a project.

Functionality that supports the whole project life cycle Handling Large Programs includes: With the EPM Solution, you can now manage large programs  Web-based interface for Proposals and Activity Plans for efficiently to help improve performance. New solution project requests, short projects, and maintenance work capabilities to accomplish this include: creation.  Project Deliverables and Resource Plans.  A high-performance scalable platform for handling large  Extensive reports and views for tracking project phases. and complex programs through the publishing of master projects.  Active Cache and Server Queues for improved performance. QUICK TIP  Integration with a wide range of line-of-business Create a Project Proposal applications for cost and time accounting and reporting. Using Proposals, high-level project plans can be defined,  Commitment list to easily show dependencies between providing the key project information, milestones, and projects in a program. resource demands. 1. In Project Web Access, click Proposals and Activity Support for Real-World, Top-Down Planning Plans in the left action pane. Define and manage large programs top-down, tracking the 2. In the New menu, click Proposal. program milestones separately from individual projects. Now 3. In the New and Import section, click New. it is possible to track dependencies between projects, 4. Enter Name of the Project, Description, Start Date, enabling meaningful reporting at the program level. This Finish Date, and the Plan Owner. You can also add functionality is provided by using Master Projects and Project Details with tasks or resources with a Resource Plan or Deliverables, new in this release of the EPM Solution. In Build Team. addition, project work site provisioning means program sites 5. Click Publish to complete the Project Proposal. can have sub-project work sites. You have now created a complete Project Proposal pending approval. Program-Level Reporting New features and capabilities for program reporting are now available in the EPM Solution, including:  Enhanced Program Workspace, a portal for every program.  Rich standard and customized Program Reports.  Executive Dashboards and KPIs.  Program-level Risk and Issue reporting.

Managing the Whole Project Life Cycle

www.microsoft.com/office/epmsolution The EPM Solution now includes predefined project accounting codes such as cost codes, which enables better integration into other timesheet and payment applications.

Reporting All Types of Work Team members can now report how they spend their time on project and non-project activities by entering their actual hours against project tasks, summary tasks, projects, cost codes, or non-project administrative tasks and other activities in their timesheets. You now have the flexibility to define multiple administrative time categories for non-project work.

Timesheet Approvals and Adjustment Reporting with the EPM Solution Resource managers can now approve or reject timesheets independently from project status updates sent to project New and enhanced reporting functionality provided with the managers. They can use Timesheets to track and audit actual EPM Solution enables greater insight for better decision- time worked against tasks in a project. Timesheets are making. approved by the timesheet owner and can have multiple, serial approvers. Visual Reports With the Visual Reports features in Office Project Professional, Customized Timesheets and Task Management project managers can create dynamic report templates in Timesheets now support billable and nonbillable time and fiscal periods, and are 100 percent HTML Web-based through Microsoft Office Excel® and Microsoft Office Visio® Professional to communicate project status to different Project Web Access. Also, the EPM Solution now provides for stakeholders. built-in task update approval workflow with rules. The improved task management functionality provides the The EPM Solution also provides 11 predefined data cubes that ability to include task details or report work in the My Work are customizable and easily manageable, and run with section of Project Web Access. Team members can improved performance. communicate with the project manager by using Assignment Details to enter Transaction Comments and Task History, Cube Building Service and Reporting Data Service Attachments, Contacts, Related Assignments, and Notes. In The EPM Solution includes a graphical interface to build addition to Office Project Professional, task updates can be custom analytical cubes for reporting by picking from a list of done using Project Web Access, Microsoft Visual Studio® data tracked in Project. The Cube Building Service relies on Team Center, and Outlook—this latter using a COM add-in the Reporting Data Service, which takes data in real time available to Office Project Server customers. from the published database to the reporting database. Project managers receive and approve or reject the task Additional reporting functionality now available in the EPM updates. After the updates are approved, team members can Solution includes: import task updates to their Timesheets for approval by their  Unlimited enterprise custom fields with multivalue custom resource manager. fields.  Enterprise Reports: a set of predefined reports integrating SQL Server Reporting Services within the EPM Solution. QUICK TIP  Reporting Wizard: a guide to enable users to specify data and print reports. Task Updates and timesheet submittal and approval  Four new types of views for Resource Plans, Activity Plans, Team members update project work in the Tasks, My Work Timesheets, and My Work capabilities enhance screening section of Project Web Access. After they submit their task and reporting. updates, the project manager approves or rejects their time on tasks in the Approvals, Task Updates section of Project Timesheet Management Web Access. At the end of each timesheet period, team members use The EPM Solution offers another step in the evolution of Import Task Progress to show progress on their Project Timesheets. New functionality makes it possible not timesheets along with any other administrative time spent only to track time against work performed, but also for during the period. timesheets to serve as input for financial systems. Resource managers can review, approve, and reconcile www.microsoft.com/office/epmsolution timesheets against reported project, non-project work, and independently or together with project plans developed in non-working time. You can use the following steps: Office Project Professional, or with proposals or activity plans in Project Web Access. Resource plans help an organization to 1. In Project Web Access, click the Action pane. effectively manage its future resource demand against 2. In the Approvals section, click Timesheet. availability. 3. In the Review My Timesheet Summary, click My Timesheet. New Resource Plans functionality includes: 4. Click the Review Timesheet Detail page.  Resource selection (Build Team) from the Enterprise 5. Click Approve to complete the approval process. Resource Pool. 6. In the Approvals section, click Admin Time.  Support for start date, finish date, and units of resource 7. Click the Review Admin Time Detail page. allocated to a project (FTE or Hours). 8. Click Approve to complete the approval process.  Project summary resource assignment to pull from resource plan or project assignments.  Resource plan reporting in Office Project Server.

QUICK TIP Create a Resource Plan Resource and project managers can make resource assignments to projects that have not yet been fully developed thereby reducing the availability of the resource for project work. To accomplish this, you can use the following steps: 1. In Project Web Access, under the Projects section of the left Action pane, click Proposals and Activity Managing Different Resource Types Plans. 2. On the New menu, click Activity Plan. The ability to manage different types of resources is an 3. Complete your new Activity Plan, and then click Save important focus area in the EPM Solution. Project managers (or Publish). require the flexibility to assign different types of resources in 4. After saving, click Resource Plan on the Activity Plan projects aside from the existing work and material resources. page. In the planning process, project managers need the ability to 5. Click Build Team, then click Add, and then click Save build project budgets that can be tracked against actuals. to select resources for the project. New solution capabilities to meet these needs include: 6. On the Resource Plan page, click View Options to define the Date Range, Resource Units, and Utilization  In addition to work and material, a new resource type, settings for the Resource Plan, and then click Apply. Cost, that can track arbitrary, non-time phased costs in 7. Define the hours for each resource in the resource projects. plan, and then click Save (or Publish).  Budget resources to define total project budgets and track actuals through the project summary level.  Team resources to assign work to a group of resources that can self-assign or be assigned tasks by their resource manager.

Capacity Utilization and Planning

With the EPM Solution, you can now do capacity planning with high-level resource allocation when detailed resource assignments (such as proposed and anticipated projects, or single task projects) do not exist, or where assignments do not accurately reflect resource availability. Managers now can build Resource Plans that ensure the right people are reserved in advance or assigned to high-priority projects when detailed planning has not yet occurred. Resource Plans are created against project plans and can be used www.microsoft.com/office/epmsolution Portfolio Management

The EPM Solution now includes Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007, a top-down portfolio management solution that helps organizations to realize their potential by identifying, selecting, managing, and delivering portfolios that best align with their business strategy. Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 can help executives gain visibility, insight, and control across their project, program, and application portfolios.

Centralize and Streamline Portfolio Data Collection Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 enables you to quickly capture all project, program, and application investments in an enterprise repository, with easy-to-use customizable templates to help ensure you standardize and streamline the collection of essential data.  Capture all project, program, and application investments in the Portfolio Builder module, providing you with a holistic view of all your investment portfolios in one central system of record. Gain visibility into your project, program, and application  Quickly slice and dice the investments across portfolios to portfolios by using Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 to create intuitive and informative reports using the flexible standardize and streamline the collection of data within one scorecard. enterprise system of record. Automate the governance  Standardize and streamline the collection of data across processes across the organization to subject each project to the organization by defining templates and forms for each the appropriate governance controls throughout its entire life investment type using the Portfolio Builder module of cycle. Measure and track portfolio performance to help ensure Office Project Portfolio Server 2007. the portfolios are managed effectively and realize the forecasted benefits.

Define Workflows and Automate Governance Controls Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 enables you to define, communicate, and standardize multiple workflows to help manage the projects throughout their entire life cycle, while enforcing the portfolio governance framework across your organization. The workflows establish a blueprint for your organization’s governance framework to help ensure all projects complete the necessary deliverables and receive managerial sign-off before moving to the next life-cycle step. This audit functionality keeps stakeholders aware and accountable as projects move from business case creation to consideration to implementation.

www.microsoft.com/office/epmsolution Prioritize Business Strategy One of the most critical tasks in the portfolio management process is to define and prioritize the organization’s business strategy. The Portfolio Optimizer module in Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 includes the Pairwise Comparison Matrix technique to help executives objectively prioritize business strategy for the upcoming planning horizon.

Generate Charts to Map Potential Portfolio Investments Create charts and investment maps to visually evaluate the competing investments from multiple dimensions using the derived prioritization scores and other key metrics.

QUICK TIP

Derive a strategic value score for projects Finalize Portfolio Selection Using the Decision Use the intuitive prioritization wizard in Portfolio Optimizer to Dashboard derive a strategic value score for projects. The Portfolio Optimizer Decision Dashboard enables portfolio analysts to publish key metrics and recommended portfolios  Select an organization in the Builder Scorecard, and then into an intuitive view, helping to provide executives with the click the Optimizer link on the main navigation bar. data to support project and program funding decisions. In real time, executives can model project and program funding  Click the Analyze link to launch the Open Dialog screen decisions and automatically see the impact on the portfolio’s in the wizard. strategic value.  Select a completed pairwise comparison matrix and impact matrix, and then launch the wizard. QUICK TIP  Click Next Step to derive the business driver priorities. Generating an Efficient Frontier Assess your selected project portfolio against the Efficient  Click Next Step to launch the project to business driver Frontier. (Note: The steps below assume you have already impact matrix. run an optimization scenario.)  Click Next Step to derive a Strategic Value score for  Right click an optimization scenario, and select Insight each project. Analysis from the Advanced Analysis options.

 Wait while the Efficient Frontier generates.

Select the Portfolio Best Aligned with Strategic and  Analyze the constraints (in the right panel) prohibiting Financial Goals the portfolio from reaching the Efficient Frontier.  Employ sophisticated algorithms and embedded best practices to quickly determine the optimal project or program portfolio under varying budget and business constraints (for example, cost, FTE, and interproject dependencies).  Force in compliance or favorite projects, overriding the optimization algorithm to ensure these projects are included in the resulting portfolio.

www.microsoft.com/office/epmsolution  Provide your organization with a scalable end-to-end project portfolio management solution.  Help maintain data integrity between the two environments through regular synchronization events.  Consolidate across project servers in a central enterprise repository.

Extending the EPM Solution

The EPM Solution offers an extendable platform for including workflow, application integration, and custom development. You can derive additional value by tailoring the solution to your organization’s unique needs.

Capitalize on Investments Take advantage of your existing investments by integrating Measure and Track Portfolio Performance current software applications with the EPM Solution. Office With the Portfolio Dashboard module of Office Project Project includes many out-of-the-box wizards for integration Portfolio Server 2007, you can measure and track with Microsoft Office system applications, such as the projects, programs, and applications throughout their life previously covered reporting in Excel or Visio Professional and cycle, giving you the visibility to proactively identify time reporting via Outlook. The EPM Solution also delivers potential issues, make decisions, and help ensure that solution starters such as the ERP Connector. You can also your portfolios deliver maximum business value. create custom integration or functional extensions with published methods for the Project Server Interface included in  Analysts, managers, and executives can create the Office Project Server 2007 Software Development Kit personalized scorecards to track portfolio investments, (SDK). This API exposes all the functions of the server to the and drill down from the organization level to view project, clients and can be extended. program, and application-level status reports.  The snapshot reporting mechanism enables project, Standard Technology program, and application managers to generate periodic Capitalize on your existing IT experience and skills. The status reports to measure the overall health of each Project Server Interface can be used with the .NET investment throughout its life cycle. Framework 2.0. Project Web Access is based on Windows  Use the Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 report SharePoint Services (version 3) with all of its capabilities generators to customize and publish report templates so exposed as Web Services. These elements make the Office you can standardize and streamline the reporting process Project Server 2007 application a true enterprise class across the organization. development platform.

Business Processes Integrate with Office Project Server 2007 The EPM Solution enables you to bridge business processes Tight integration with Office Project Server 2007 can help with project management. Office Project Server includes an ensure that customers and partners can quickly deploy world- Event Service that enables use of the new Windows Workflow class portfolio analytical techniques and tools within the EPM Foundation. Office Project Portfolio Server includes built-in Solution. The out-of-the-box integration between the two workflow frameworks that can be tailored to your Project solutions provides the following benefits: Portfolio Governance process for IT and other lines of business.

For More Information on the Enterprise Project Management Solution Category Online Location Project Home Page http://office.microsoft.com/project/ Business Value from the Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/business/epm.aspx Enterprise Project Management Solution MPA—the Official Industry Association of http://www.mympa.org/default.aspx www.microsoft.com/office/epmsolution Microsoft Office Project

Microsoft Office Project Communities http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/en- us/project/default.mspx Microsoft Office Project Developer Center http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/program/project/default.aspx Microsoft Office Project TechNet http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/project/default.mspx Microsoft Office Project Support http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=offpr2003 Information

www.microsoft.com/office/epmsolution