Tips and Tricks

Microsoft Office Enterprise Project ManagementSolution
Quick Reference Guide

Introducing the New Microsoft Enterprise Project ManagementSolution

Intelligently Manage the Entire Investment LifeCycle from Strategic Portfolio Decisions to Managing Work

The Microsoft® Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solutionis an end-to-end collaborative portfolio,project, and resource management environment that helps organizations gain visibility, insight, and control toenhance decision-making, improve alignment of project and work initiatives with the business strategy, maximize resource utilization,and measure and increase operational efficiency.

The EPM Solution isfor organizations that want a complete solution, from top-down portfolio planning, optimization, and tracking to standardization across projects and programs, centralized resource management, and strong team coordination. The EPM Solutionprovides a central repository of portfolio, project, and resource information to consistently manage and report on all work across the enterprise.

What’s New in the EPMSolution

Some of the important capabilities now available in the EPM Solutioninclude:

• Portfolio Management: Standardize business case development; establish business drivers for project alignment;select and prioritize projects according to defined constraints; define optimal portfolios for value maximization; track project portfolios using summary project cost and schedule data.
• FinancialManagement:Cost Resourcesfor planned and actual cost by task; Multicurrency support; Budget definition and tracking.
• Manage all work:Multiple Undofor “what-if” scenarios; Proposals and Activity Plan features for full lifecycle project management; Manage Programs through Master Projects that can be scheduled, tracked, and reported; Deliverables Managementfor definition of key commitments with dependencies across the organization; Task updates with previews to assess impact on Project Plans.
• Resource management:Resource Plans and Team Resources for capacity planning; Timesheets for tracking project and non-project work.
• Reporting:CubeBuilding Service and Reporting Data Service support incremental updates versus full cube rebuilds; Visual Reports of project plans; integration with Microsoft SQL Server™Reporting Services for report, model definition, and full run-time report environment.
• Enterprise ready:Improved performance with the Active Cacheand Queuing Service.
• Built on Microsoft Windows® SharePoint® Services: Project Web Access has the same look and feel as Windows SharePoint Services with the ability to customize through WebParts.
• Extensible:Redesigned Project Server Interface application programming interface (API), Server-Side Events, and Workflow capabilities for improved process management.

What Has Been Improved

• Timesheets include fiscal periods, reporting against summary tasks and projects, better tracking of non-project time, separate progress versus time spent, and much more.
• More out-of-the-box templates and the ability to customize richer templates.
• Robust top-down portfolio management and tracking, and improved project planning, tracking, and resource management capabilities.
• Expanded Project Workspaces for collaboration.
• Better integrationwith Microsoft Office Outlook®(timesheet integration, To-Do Bar, tasks on the calendar, time-phased tracking).
• Expanded Timesheets functionality separate from task updates.
• Integration of SQL Server Reporting Services for real-time Enterprise Reports.
• New sophisticated architecture with high availability and scalabilitythrough the use of four databases and a multithreaded queuing system together with published methods of the Project Server Interface API for easier line-of-business systems integration.

What Are the Major Impact Areas

• Complete Project Portfolio Management capabilities.
• Create in Project Web Access for short-duration projects and maintenance work with Server-Side Scheduling.
• Financial controls at the Portfolio, Program, and Project level with full budget development and tracking of actuals.
• Coverage of the entire project life cycle from Proposals to post-project Activity Plans for operations work.
• Resource timesheets and task updates.
• Integrated EnterpriseReporting through a Reporting Data Service taking published data to the reporting database and a Cube Building Service from the Reporting Data Service.
• Support of workflow for integration of business processes to project work with the Event Service support of Windows Workflow Foundation.

Architecture

The EPM Solution has a three-tier architecture and consists of a range of products offering capabilities for specific business needs.The architecture is built for scale and reliability. The emphasis on integration and openness makes the EPM Solution programmable and extensible.It is built with powerful reporting and integrated with familiar tools.

At a high level, the solution offers the following applications:

Overview of the EnterpriseProject ManagementSolution

The EPM Solution value proposition is built around four pillars, taking advantage of the functionality that strives for true adoption and sustainable business value.

Visibility and Insights

Surfaces information for analysis of your investments in work, and resources from one-timeprojects to complex programs and portfolios across their entire lifecycle.

Easier to Get Started

Increases value by enabling organization-wide adoption through integration with familiar tools, to communicate status, and to work effectively as teams.

EnterpriseReady

Delivers a dependable, scalable solution both in terms of number of users and different types of work, while providing a high-performance and manageable infrastructure.

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 accordingly.

●Attain deeper insight into resource allocation for better alignment with strategic priorities.

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 ProjectCenter, 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 organizationusing enterprise templates.

Benefitsfor Managers

Accurately assess yourproject’s needs to effectively deploy resources today and create Resource Plans for your organization’s future work.

●Build the right plans through a rich set of tools to meet your organizational goals.

●Drive accountability with your team through effective collaboration.

●Help ensure organizational alignment and efficiency through rich reports.

Benefits for Team Members

Enhance information-sharing and coordination among project teams for better participation, progress reporting, and collaboration.

●Take advantage of project management infrastructure using everyday Microsoft Office tools with built-in integration.

●Work more effectively with your team members through Windows SharePointServices (workspaces andWeb Services in Project Web Access).

●Bean active participant in your organization’s transformation.

Benefits for ITOrganizations

Employ a cost-effective and enterprise-ready solution.

●Easier to adopt with lower training and management costs.

●Take advantage of existing skills and rely on an experienced partner ecosystem.

●Meet your needs witha 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 occasionaland advanced project managers.Server-side scheduling and tight integration with Windows SharePoint Services provide tools for defining high-level project plansand 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.
• The Project Guide supports users with step-by-step instructions for project planning, tracking, and reporting.
• Creation of proposals and activity plans in Project Web Access can be upgraded to Office Project Professional for full project plan development.
• The Project Task List feature of Windows SharePoint Services enables users to quickly create simple projects that can be imported into Office Project Server as they evolve or for reporting purposes.

QUICK TIP
MultipleLevel Undo, Change Highlighting, and Task Drivers
In Office Project Professional, project managers can visualize the impact of changes and trace back their steps.
To turn the Change Highlighting feature on or off,click the View menu, and then click HideChange Highlighting or Show Change Highlighting. While the feature is enabled, all levels of tasks affected as a result of a change are highlighted with a color as a visual indicator. Using this feature together with the Multiple Level Undo feature,project managers can do “what-if analysis” by trying a set of changes and then reversing unwanted changes.
If further analysis of a task’s scheduleis needed, the project manager can use Task Driversin the Project menuto determine the factors (such as task dependency, calendar constraints, schedule date, or vacation time) driving a task’s start date.

In this screenshot, a duration change highlights its impacts.

Efficiently Manage All Work Activities

With the new EPM Solution it is easier to track a broader range of work than just project work.Tracking of all work activities (project and non-project) provides better control of an organization’s resource utilization.

Track Time for Unplanned Activities or Non-Project Work

Besides reporting the time spent on project activities, users can now report against non-project activities and administrative time through the use of Timesheets. These processes make possible the capturing of time spent on task-oriented work and non-project time commitments that historically have not been tracked in Project plans.

Managing Programs

The EPM Solution helps organizations easily manage sets of very large projects as a single program through the use of Master Projects. Assign budgets, define key performance indicators (KPIs), track progress, and handle issues all at the program level.

Handling Large Programs

With the EPM Solution, you can now manage large programs efficiently to help improve performance. New solution capabilities to accomplish this include:

• A high-performance scalable platform for handling large and complex programs through the publishing of master projects.
• Active Cache and Server Queues for improved performance.
• Integration with a wide range of line-of-business applications for cost and time accounting and reporting.
• Commitment list to easily show dependencies between projects in a program.

Support for Real-World,Top-Down Planning

Define and manage large programs top-down, tracking the program milestones separately from individual projects. Now it is possible to trackdependenciesbetween projects,enabling meaningful reporting at the program level. This functionality is provided by using Master Projects and Project Deliverables, new in this release ofthe EPMSolution.In addition, project work site provisioning means program sites can have sub-project work sites.

Program-Level Reporting

New features and capabilities for program reporting are now available in the EPMSolution, 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

The EPM Solutionprovides the tools to support the full project lifecycle from concept stage to initiation, execution, monitoring, and closure.

Creating Proposals and Activity Plans

Proposals in Project Web Access now enable project initiation on the Web. Tracking Proposals provides better analysis of 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 Server. Create Proposals and have them authorized to become new Projects.

Also, after concluding a project, you can use Project Web Access for closing and archiving of a project, as well as for the management ofoperations work, which usually follows after completing a project.

Functionality that supports the whole project lifecycle includes:

• Web-based interface for Proposals and Activity Plans for project requests, short projects, and maintenance work creation.
• Project Deliverables and Resource Plans.
• Extensive reports and views for tracking project phases.

QUICK TIP
Create a Project Proposal
Using Proposals, high-level project plans canbe defined, providing the key project information, milestones, and resource demands.

1. InProject Web Access, click Proposals and Activity Plansin the left action pane.
2. In the Newmenu,click Proposal.
3. In the New and Import section, click New.
4. Enter Name of the Project, Description, Start Date, Finish Date, and the Plan Owner. You can also add Details with tasks or resources with a Resource Plan or Build Team.
5. Click Publish to complete the Project Proposal.

You have now created a complete Project Proposal pending approval.

Reporting with the EPM Solution

New and enhanced reporting functionality provided with the EPM Solution enables greater insight for better decision-making.

Visual Reports

With the Visual Reports features in Office Project Professional,project managers can create dynamic report templates in Microsoft Office Excel® and Microsoft Office Visio®Professional to communicate projectstatus to different stakeholders.

The EPM Solutionalso provides 11 predefined data cubes that are customizable and easily manageable, and run with improved performance.

CubeBuildingService andReporting Data Service

The EPM Solution includes a graphical interface to build custom analytical cubes for reporting by picking from a list of data tracked in Project. The Cube Building Service relies on the Reporting Data Service, which takes data in real time from the published database to the reporting database.

Additional reporting functionality now available in the EPM Solutionincludes:

• Unlimited enterprise custom fields with multivalue custom fields.
• Enterprise Reports: a set of predefined reports integrating SQL Server Reporting Services withinthe EPM Solution.
• Reporting Wizard: a guide to enable users to specify data and print reports.
• Four new types of views for Resource Plans, Activity Plans, Timesheets, and My Workcapabilities enhance screening and reporting.

Timesheet Management

The EPM Solution offers another step in the evolution of Project Timesheets.New functionality makes it possible not only to track time against work performed, but also for timesheets to serve as input for financial systems.

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 tasksand other activities in their timesheets.You now have the flexibility to define multiple administrative time categories for non-project work.

Timesheet Approvals and Adjustment

Resourcemanagers can now approve or reject timesheets independently from project status updates sent to project managers.They can use Timesheets to track and audit actual time worked against tasksin a project.Timesheets are approved by the timesheet owner and can have multiple, serial approvers.

Customized Timesheets and Task Management

Timesheets now support billable and nonbillable time and fiscal periods, and are 100 percent HTML Web-based through Project Web Access.Also, the EPM Solution now provides for built-in task update approval workflow with rules.

The improved task management functionality provides the ability to include task details or report work in the My Work section of Project Web Access.Team members can communicate with the project manager by using Assignment Details to enter Transaction Comments and Task History, Attachments, Contacts, Related Assignments, and Notes.In addition to Office Project Professional, task updates can be done using Project Web Access, Microsoft Visual Studio®TeamCenter, and Outlook—this latter using a COM add-in available to Office Project Server customers.

Project managers receive and approve or reject the task updates.After the updates are approved, team members can import task updates to their Timesheets for approval by their resource manager.

QUICK TIP
Task Updates and timesheet submittal and approval
Team members update project work in the Tasks, My Work section of Project Web Access.After they submit their task updates, the project manager approves or rejects their time on tasks in the Approvals, Task Updatessection of Project Web Access.
At the end of each timesheet period, team members useImport Task Progress to show progress on their timesheets along with any other administrative time spent during the period.
Resourcemanagerscan review, approve,and reconcile timesheets against reported project, non-project work, and non-working time.You can use the following steps:

1. In Project Web Access,click the Action pane.
2. In the Approvals section,click Timesheet.
3. In the Review My Timesheet Summary, click My Timesheet.
4. Click the Review Timesheet Detail page.
5. Click Approve to complete the approval process.
6. In the Approvals section,click AdminTime.
7. Clickthe Review Admin Time Detail page.
8. Click Approve to complete the approval process.