Sending and Receiving Workgroup Messages

With Project’s workgroup features, a project manager can do the following:

  • Send task assignments to team members via e-mail.

  • Receive confirmation that the team member has accepted the task.

  • Update the project to reflect acceptance of assignments.

  • Send updates to team members when task parameters change, such as duration.

  • Request and receive status reports that show how much work the team member has completed on the task.

Based on the content of each communication, Project automatically updates the project data to reflect any changes made.

Setting Up an E-Mail System for Team Collaboration

For a project manager to communicate with team members, you need to set up the PC of each team member (as well as the project’s manager) to read and respond to Project-specific messages and forms. This requires the installation of the e-mail handler tool, WGsetup.exe, found on the Project installation CD. When this tool is installed, each PC can then send and receive team collaboration messages.

Note 

The WGetup.exe e-mail handler tool works with both Project Standard and Project Professional, and does not require the installation of Project Server.

To install the WGsetup.exe e-mail handler tool, follow these steps:

  1. Insert the Microsoft Project CD-ROM into the computer’s CD drive.

  2. On the CD-ROM, navigate to the WGsetup folder and then copy the folder to the computer’s hard drive. (Alternately, you can copy the folder to a shared network drive so that all team members can install from a central location.)

  3. Open the WGsetup folder, double-click the WGsetup.exe file, and follow the onscreen instructions to complete the installation.

The installation of this tool enables rich-text messages and forms sent from Microsoft Project to be properly displayed in the team member’s e-mail program. Because this capability revolves around each user’s e-mail program—not Project, per se—a team member doesn’t actually need to have Project installed to use this tool and respond to Project-related e-mail messages. All that’s required is that the team member be running a MAPI-compliant, 32-bit e-mail system, have a network or Internet mail connection, and have workgroup functionality installed on their computers.

Configuring a Project for E-Mail Communication

When you first create a project, you must manually configure the project for either e-mail or Project Server-based communication. If you accidentally configure a project for Server-based communication and then try to use standard e-mail communication, you’ll be plagued by a bevy of Server-related messages and warnings. Better to set up your project for e-mail communication from the start.

To configure a project for e-mail communication, select Collaborate Ø Collaboration Options to open the Options dialog box, with the Collaboration tab selected. Pull down the Collaborate Using list, select E-mail Only, and click OK.

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Assigning Tasks to Workgroup Members

The first step in communicating with resources about project tasks is to publish the team’s assignments to each member of the team, via e-mail. You can publish these types of messages from Project as long as you have made e-mail addresses accessible to Project, and have installed Project’s e-mail handling tool on each team member’s computer. You can publish team assignments at the beginning of a project, or whenever assignments have changed.

You can also choose to send messages for all tasks or just for selected tasks. To send messages for only specific tasks, switch to the Gantt Chart view and then select the tasks you want to assign in the task list. If you want to send messages for all the tasks, you don’t need to select them first.

Note 

This process also applies to organizations using Project Server. If you’re using Server, the messages are automatically sent via Server to all team members, rather than via MAPI e-mail.

To send e-mail messages announcing team assignments, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Collaborate Ø Publish Ø New and Changed Assignments.

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  2. Project will inform you that your project will be saved to Project Server (even if you don’t have Server installed on your system), and ask if you want to proceed. Click OK.

  3. Project now displays the Publish New and Changed Assignments dialog box, shown in Figure 15.3. All your resources, or any resources related to tasks you selected prior to opening the dialog box, are displayed in alphabetical order, with all of their assignments listed. If you prefer to see this list grouped by task instead of resource, check the Show Resource Grouped by Task option.

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    Figure 15.3: The Publish New and Changed Assign-ments dialog box

  4. If you want to send messages to only those resources or tasks you previously selected, pull down the Publish New and Changed Assignments For list and then select Selected Items; otherwise, leave Entire Project selected.

  5. By default, Project sends each resource the following message:

    Here are the latest schedule changes. Let me know if there are any problems with the new dates. Thank you.

    To send a different message, click the Edit Message Text button. When the Edit Message Text dialog box appears, enter a new or changed message and then click OK.

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  6. Click OK to send the e-mail messages.

    Note 

    As project manager, you can customize the fields displayed in the messages that Project sends. See “Customizing Workgroup Messages” later in this chapter.

Project sends the messages to the team members and adds an icon to the Indicator column next to the task in the project. If you point to the icon, a screen tip indicates the status of the outstanding message. When the team member responds to the message, the icon in the Indicator column disappears.

Responding to Task Assignments

When a team member receives a task assignment, the message appears in their e-mail inbox. If the message arrives through the Internet, the Project message appears as an attachment to a standard message. The team member opens the message and double-clicks the attachment to open the Project message. If the message arrives through a network connection, the Project message appears automatically when the team member opens the message.

The Project message, similar to the one shown in Figure 15.4, shows standard message information such as To, Date, From, Subject, and Message. It also contains a table at the bottom that lists the tasks that are being assigned. If the team member accepts all the assignments (although they can say no!), all they have to do is click the Reply button at the top of the message form. If the team member does not accept one of the assignments, they can click in the Accept? column to change the Yes to No.

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Figure 15.4: The Project message

When the Team Member clicks Reply, a new message form opens in which they can enter a message, if desired, or merely click the Send button to send the reply.

If the team member is using Outlook, the Project task is added to their Outlook Task list.

Tip 

If you’d rather not give team members the ability to refuse an assignment, you can remove that option from the messages they receive. See “Customizing Workgroup Messages,” later in this chapter.

Updating Responses to Task Assignments

As the project manager, you can open the team member’s reply, shown in Figure 15.5, and review the team member’s responses to each task assignment.

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Figure 15.5: Reading the team member’s reply

If you are satisfied with the response, you can click the Update Project button to confirm the team member’s acceptance of the task assignments.

If you need further communication with the team member before updating the project information, click the Reply button. (When Project asks if you want to update the project before replying, click No.)

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Mastering the Opportunities: Tracking Team Member Responses

Every project contains two fields that are useful for tracking the status of team members’ responses to assignments. These fields, Confirmed and Response Pending, are not displayed by default in any view; however, these are valuable fields to add to a task sheet view after you have made team assignments as a way to track the status of those assignments.

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To add the fields to the Gantt Chart view, for example, right-click on the column heading where you want the Confirmed field to appear (columns are inserted to the left of the selected field), and then choose Insert Column. Choose the Confirmed field from the Field Name drop-down list. Repeat this process to add the Response Pending field.

After a task is accepted by a team member and the project manager updates the project, the Response Pending field changes to No. If a task is declined, both the Confirmed field and the Response Pending field display No.

The Confirmed field displays Yes for all tasks that have been accepted and for all unassigned tasks. The Response Pending field displays No for all tasks that have been declined and for all unassigned tasks. To get the most accurate assessment from Project, we advise you not to insert the Confirmed and Response Pending fields until after you have assigned every task.

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Sending Task Updates

As project manager, when you change the start or finish date or duration of tasks you’ve assigned to project team members, you can send assignment updates to the appropriate team members.

Tip 

You can add the Update Needed column to any task sheet as another way to show whether an update should be sent.

To send a message informing team members of an updated schedule, follow the exact same procedure as for assigning tasks for workgroup members. When you choose Collaborate Ø Publish Ø New and Changed Assignments (and complete the accompanying dialog box), any tasks that have changed since the last posting are flagged for new e-mail messages. Team members respond to the new e-mails as they did to the original e-mails, and you respond to their responses correspondingly.

Resending Task Assignments

If, for whatever reason, one or more team members have not received or have lost their original assignment information, you can resend a project’s assignments to all or selected team members. Follow these steps:

  1. Select those tasks that need to be resent.

  2. Choose Collaborate Ø Publish Ø Republish Assignments to display the Republish Assignments dialog box, shown in Figure 15.6.

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    Figure 15.6: Republish task assignments for selected team members

  3. Pull down the Republish Assignments For list and then select Selected Items.

  4. To change the standard message text, click the Edit Message Text button to display the Edit Message Text dialog box. Enter a new or changed message; then click OK.

  5. To include actual information for each task assignment you republish, select the Overwrite Actual Work Entered by Resources option.

  6. If you want to assume responsibility for these projects, check the Become the Manager for These Assignments option.

  7. Click OK to send the message.

    Tip 

    If you want to resend all workgroup messages related to a task or a project, choose Collaborate Ø Publish Ø All Information.

Sending and Receiving Status Reports

Status reports from the team members keep the project information up-to-date. Status reports can be initiated by the team members who use Outlook, or solicited by the project manager. In a status report, a team member can record the following:

  • A message to the project manager

  • The actual date they started work on the task

  • The amount of work remaining

  • The actual work completed on the project task, including dates and number of hours they worked on the task

  • The amount of overtime hours they have worked on a task

  • Comments about the task

You can include additional fields if you customize workgroup messages before sending the original message. For more about how to customize workgroup messages, see “Customizing Workgroup Messages” later in this chapter.

Soliciting Status Reports

As project manager, you can send a request for a status report rather than waiting for team members to submit reports. To request a status report, follow these steps:

  1. Select the tasks about which you want to receive status reports; otherwise, you can choose to receive reports on all the tasks in the project.

  2. Click Collaborate Ø Request Progress Information.

  3. Project informs you that your project will be saved to Project Server, even if you don’t have Server installed on your system, and asks if you want to proceed. Click OK.

  4. Project displays the Request Progress Information dialog box, shown in Figure 15.7. Pull down the Request Progress Information For list, and choose whether you want to send messages for the entire project or only the selected tasks.

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    Figure 15.7: Requesting a status report from team members

  5. By default, Project sends each resource the following message:

    Please update your status on the tasks listed below. Thank you.

    To send a different message, click the Edit Message Text button. When the Edit Message Text dialog box appears, enter a new or changed message and then click OK.

  6. Enter the start and finish dates of the reporting period in the Request Progress Information for Period From drop-down boxes.

  7. Click OK to send the request.

Replying to Status Report Requests

When a team member opens a progress information request, such as the one shown in Figure 15.8, they can click the Reply button and enter actual work completed on the task in the reply form. To enter actual work, the team member uses the horizontal scroll bar to see the day they want in the timesheet grid, and double-clicks in the corresponding cell of the table. Entries can contain these abbreviations: m for minutes and h for hours.

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The team member must also enter values in the Start and Remaining Work columns. This is so Project can calculate the percentage of work remaining, know when work on the task actually started, and whether the task is completed (see Figure 15.8).

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Figure 15.8: Click Reply to enter the actual hours worked on the task.

In Outlook, the team member can then choose to Send the report or Save and Send Later. If they choose Save and Send Later, the original message moves to their Outbox, showing the team member as the message recipient in the To column. In addition, the message is not italicized, which means that it stays in the Outbox until the team member reopens the message, clicks Reply, and clicks Send. Even though the team member chooses to send the reply later, all data updated in the timesheet grid appears in the reply that is finally sent.

Once again, when you as project manager receive message replies, open each one of the team members’ responses and then click Update Project on the message form to integrate the updated information into the project.

Initiating Status Reports by Team Members

A team member who uses Outlook may initiate sending a status report to the project manager at any point in the project. To initiate a status report, the team member follows these steps:

  1. In Outlook, switch to the Tasks view and choose Actions Ø New TeamStatus Report from the menu.

  2. The New TeamStatus Report dialog box shown in Figure 15.9 lists the projects for which there are active tasks in the Task list—choose the project or projects to report on.

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    Figure 15.9: The New TeamStatus Report dialog box

  3. Enter a start and finish date for the report in the From and To boxes.

  4. Choose how you want to report the work. You can choose Broken Down by Day, As a Total for the Entire Period, or Broken Down by Week.

  5. Select the Track Overtime Work check box if you want to report overtime hours. Click OK.

  6. Open the NewTeam Status Report that Outlook creates in your Inbox.

  7. Complete the form by entering the actual start date in the Start column, the amount of work remaining in the Remaining Work column, and, depending on the choice made in step 4, the actual time spent on the project task. If the team member chose to include Overtime in step 5, they should enter overtime hours in the Overtime columns and not mix it in with regular time.

  8. When all the data is entered, click Reply and then click Send; or click Save and Send Later to have the opportunity to make additional changes.

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Tracking Project Tasks in Outlook

If you’re using e-mail for communications between team members, Microsoft Outlook can be configured to keep a record of the work an individual member does on a Microsoft Project file—opening, saving, printing, and so forth. This is useful for tracking actual hours worked, although the information is stored only on the individual team member’s computer, not on the project manager’s PC.

To configure Outlook to record Project files, follow these steps:

  1. From within Microsoft Outlook, select Tools Ø Options.

  2. When the Options dialog box appears, select the Preferences tab.

  3. Click Journal Options to display the Journal Options dialog box.

  4. In the Also Record Files List, check the Microsoft Project option and then click OK.

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When Outlook is configured in this manner, work on a Project file is logged even if Outlook isn’t currently open.

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Updating Project Tasks in Outlook

If a team member makes changes to assigned tasks directly in Outlook, these changes are reflected on the reports about those tasks. Likewise, changes made to tasks in the timesheet grid of the request project information message are reflected on Outlook’s Task form. Table 15.1 shows the mappings between Project and Outlook fields.

Table 15.1: Field Mapping between Project and Outlook

Project Field

Outlook Field

Contact

Contacts (only maps the first contact)

Finish

Due Date

Priority

Importance

Project

Categories

Start

Start Date

Task Name

Subject

Other Outlook fields, such as Status, % Complete, Total Work, and Actual Work, are used by Project to calculate work on tasks. For example, a team member can select Actions Ø New Tasks to open a Project task form, shown in Figure 15.10, in Outlook’s Tasks module and then make changes to any of the work-related fields in the task. The work-related fields are found on the Details tab, shown in Figure 15.11. The next time the team member opens the form, it resynchronizes the work with Outlook so all of these changes are reflected on a task’s status report for Project.

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Figure 15.10: A Project task form

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Figure 15.11: Making changes on the Task form’s Details tab

Outlook doesn’t have a way to record work done by day or week. Instead, it evenly distributes the value entered in the Actual Work field on the Task form across the time period of the timesheet grid. If you want to record actual work completed on a given day, you must edit the values directly in the message.

Warning 

A team member cannot add or delete Project tasks. If a team member adds or deletes a task from within Outlook, it has no bearing on the master project. Only the project manager can add or delete tasks—and even then, only from within Project.

Sending a Schedule Note

When a member of the project team (including the team manager) needs to communicate with other team members, they can use Project to send a schedule note via e-mail to one or more members. A schedule note is an e-mail message that is sent to the project manager, resources and contacts assigned to a task, or to the entire project team. The schedule note can contain a copy of the complete project, or an image of whatever view is visible onscreen. For example, you may want to send an image to a member of the team who is putting together a PowerPoint presentation about the project. This team member may to include an image showing the Project tasks or Resource Sheet.

Note 

A contact is a person identified as the individual responsible for a task. This may be the resource assigned to the task, or it may be an individual responsible for a team of people working on a task or group of tasks. You can add the Contact field to any task sheet view and enter a person’s name in the field. Although this field is mapped to the Contacts task field in Outlook, only the first Project contact is mapped in Outlook.

Follow these steps to send a schedule note:

  1. If you want to send the note to selected resources, select the relevant task and then select File Ø Send To Ø Mail Recipient (as Schedule Note).

  2. When the Send Schedule Note dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 15.12, select the recipients of the note. You can choose to send the note to the resources assigned to the task, the contacts for the task, or the project manager—or any combination of the above.

  3. If you want to send the note to those resources assigned to a specific task, make sure you’ve selected the task first and then choose the Selected Task option. If you want to send the note to all resources within the project, choose the Entire Project option.

  4. To send a bitmap image of the current view (of a piece of a Gantt chart, for example), select Picture of Selected Tasks in the Attach section.

  5. To send a copy of the entire project file along with your note, select File in the Attach section.

  6. Click OK to send the note via e-mail.


    Figure 15.12: Sending: schedule note

    Warning 

    Microsoft Outlook cannot reconcile a Project resource or contact that is entered in a different order from what’s in the Outlook Address Book. For example, if you have the Address Book property set to Last Name, First Name and then enter a resource in Project as First Name, Last Name, Outlook sees that entry as two different names and tries to reconcile the First Name and the Last Name as separate entries. To work around this problem, enter Resource and Contact names in Project consistently with the Address Book properties in Outlook.

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Using the Collaborate Toolbar

Most of Project’s collaboration functions are accessible from the Collaborate menu. You can also display these functions on the Collaborate toolbar, as shown here. To display this toolbar, select View Ø Toolbars Ø Collaborate.

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Routing a Project File

When you are finalizing a project plan, it never hurts to solicit comments about the plan from stakeholders in the project. Although you can send a copy of the project to each person, you are then faced with the daunting task of consolidating all of the changes into a central project file. If you route the project file instead, each person can make comments and changes to the active copy of the project. It then moves on to the next person on the routing list, and finally returns to you as one project file with all the incorporated changes. All recipients must have Microsoft Project on their systems to review the project file.

You route a project by following these steps:

  1. Select File Ø Send To Ø Routing Recipient to display the Routing Slip dialog box, shown in Figure 15.13.

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    Figure 15.13: Use a routing slip to send a copy of a file to several recipients.

  2. To choose the e-mail addresses of the intended recipients, click the Address button to open the Address Book dialog box.

  3. Select as many recipients as you want from the Address Book by double-clicking their name, or clicking once and then clicking the To button.

  4. Click OK to return to the Routing Slip dialog box.

  5. Use the up and down Move arrows to change the order of the routing recipients.

  6. Edit the subject and then enter a message in the Message Text box.

  7. Select to route to recipients One After Another or All At Once. The All at Once option sends duplicates to each recipient and should not be used if you want to incorporate changes from multiple recipients.

  8. Select Return when Done to have the project file returned when everyone has reviewed it.

  9. Select Track Status to receive an e-mail message every time the file is sent on to the next recipient. This helps you to know where the project is, and whether it has been held up along the way.

  10. Click the Route button to send to the project to the first recipient, or click Add Slip to add the routing slip to the project file but not send it yet. If you choose the Add Slip option, the menu command and toolbar button change to Other Routing Recipient. Choose Other Routing Recipient to add another recipient, or to activate the routing by clicking Route. You can remove the routing slip by choosing Remove All.

When a routing recipient receives the message, they can double-click on the attachment to open the project file within Microsoft Project. When they are ready to send on to the next recipient, they choose File Ø Send To Ø Next Routing Recipient. The sender can choose to send the file to the next person on the routing slip, or to send a copy of the file to any other mail recipient.

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Posting to a Public Folder

To make a project available to multiple stakeholders, the easiest way is to post the project file to a Microsoft Exchange public folder. In a public folder, anyone with permissions to the folder who has Project can open the active project file. To post a project to a public folder, do the following:

  1. Choose File Ø Send to Ø Exchange Folder on the menu.

  2. When the Send to Exchange Folder dialog box appears, select the folder to which you want to post the project file. Alternately, you can click the New Folder button to create a new folder.

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  3. Click OK to post the folder.

You can set permissions to the public folder to restrict access to other users. To set permissions to a folder you created, right-click the folder and then choose Properties. When the Properties dialog box appears, select the Permissions tab.

Note 

For more about setting permissions in Exchange public folders, see Mastering Outlook 2002, Sybex 2001.



Mastering Microsoft Project 2002
Mastering Microsoft Project 2002
ISBN: 0782141471
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 241

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