Managing Enterprise Projects

 Server   Pro   For a project to be an enterprise project, it must be configured to use Project Server, as defined in ”Configuring Project Professional for Project Server Use,” earlier in this chapter. Your copy of Project Professional should also be logged onto Project Server, as defined in the “Logging On to Project Server” section of this chapter. After you’re logged on to Project Server, you can create new enterprise projects, or work on existing projects.

Creating and Saving a New Project

When you’re using Project Professional connected to Project Server, any new project you create is, by default, an enterprise project, created with the enterprise global template. The project, however, isn’t available to other users until it’s saved to the enterprise global database and “checked in” to Project Server. (To be available to other users, a project must be checked in; for you to work on an existing project, it has to be “checked out” from the server, as explained in the following section.)

The first time you save a project to Project Server’s enterprise global enterprise, follow these steps:

  1. From within Project Professional, select File Ø Save. This should display the Save to the Microsoft Project Server dialog box, shown in Figure 21.9.

    click to expand
    Figure 21.9: Use the Save to Microsoft Project Server dialog box to save your enter-prise projects.

  2. Enter a name for the project in the Name box.

  3. Make sure that Project is selected in the Type field.

  4. Pull down the Version list and then select the desired version. (For a first-time save, Published is the correct choice.)

  5. Pull down the Calendar list and then select which calendar you want to save with this project; Standard is the default choice.

  6. If there are any custom fields listed, enter the appropriate values for each field in the Value column.

  7. Click Save.

After the file has been saved to Project Server, selecting File Ø Save again will initiate a background save, without displaying any dialog boxes.

Note 

To save a new project as a standard (non-enterprise) file, click the Save As File button in the Save to Microsoft Project Server dialog box. To save an existing enterprise file as a standard (non-enterprise) file, select File Ø Save Offline.

Checking Out an Existing Project

The process of opening an existing enterprise project involves checking it out from Project Server. When you check out a project, other users can’t make changes to it while you’re working on it.

To check out and open an existing enterprise project, follow these steps:

  1. From within Project Professional, select File Ø Open to display the Open from Microsoft Project Server dialog box, shown in Figure 21.10.

  2. Select the Read/Write to Check Out option.

  3. Select the project you want to open; then click Open.

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    Figure 21.10: Use the Open from Microsoft Project Server dialog box to open and check out enterprise projects.

    Note 

    To open a project that is stored on your computer (rather than on Project Server), click the Open from File button and then use the Open dialog box as normal.

When you open the Open from Microsoft Project Server dialog box, you may find that another user has already checked out the project you want to open. A project is checked out—and therefore inaccessible to you—if the Checked Out? column is checked. If the project is checked out, the Checked Out By field will display the name of the user who has checked it out.

Importing Older Projects into Project Server

If you’ve recently upgraded to a Project Server installation, you may have older standalone projects that you want to upgrade for centralized management on Project Server. The process of upgrading a standalone project to an enterprise project uses the new Import Projects Wizard. After your project is upgraded to enterprise level, you’ll need to check it out of Project Server to work on it.

To import a standalone project into Project Server, follow these steps:

  1. From within Project Professional, select Tools Ø Enterprise Options Ø Import Project to Enterprise.

  2. This launches the Import Projects Wizard, shown in Figure 21.11. Click Next to proceed.

  3. When the Import Project dialog box appears, navigate to and select the file you want to upgrade; then click the Import button.

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    Figure 21.11: Use the Import Projects Wizard to upgrade standalone projects to enterprise status.

  4. If there are any major incompatibilities between the project you’re importing and the enterprise global template, the wizard notifies of you of the problem. You can then choose to proceed (click OK), or back out of the process (click Cancel).

  5. The next screen of the Import Projects Wizard (shown in Figure 21.12) prompts you for the Name, Version, and Type for the project you’re importing. You should also choose a default Calendar, and select any enterprise project custom field value. Click Next to proceed.

    click to expand
    Figure 21.12: Enter the name, version, and type for the project you’re importing.

  6. You’re now prompted to map the imported project resources onto Project’s enterprise resources, as shown in Figure 21.13. For every resource listed, you can use the pull-down list in the Action on Import column to choose from the following actions: Map to Enterprise Resource, Keep Local with Base Calendar (default), or Import Resource to Enterprise. Make your choices and then click Next.

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    Figure 21.13: Choose the mapping for the imported project’s resources.

  7. The next screen (shown in Figure 21.14) prompts you to map task fields from the imported project to fields in the enterprise global template. Pull down the From and To lists to make your selections; then place a check mark in the check box next to each field map you’ve selected. Click Next to proceed.

  8. The Import Projects Wizard now lists all the tasks in the file you’re importing. Any import errors are noted next to the affected task(s). You can correct import errors by selecting the task and then clicking Task Information to access the Task Information dialog box. When you’re done correcting errors (or if there are no errors), click the Import button to complete the process.

  9. When the import process is complete, the wizard displays an Import Complete screen. Click Finish to close the Import Projects Wizard.

Your original standalone project is now a fully fledged enterprise project. When you next select File Ø Save, the project will be fast saved with no dialog boxes displayed.

Applying Custom Fields and Outline Codes

If you’ve created enterprise project custom fields and outline codes, you need to configure individual projects to use these fields and codes. You do this by using the Project Information dialog box to assign an outline code to each custom field.

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Figure 21.14: Map task fields from the file you’re importing.

Follow these steps to apply enterprise custom fields and outline codes to the current project:

  1. From within Project Professional, select Project Ø Project Information to display the Project Information dialog box, shown in Figure 21.15.

  2. The available custom project fields are listed in the Custom Field Name column. Assign an outline code to a field by clicking in the Value column next to the field name; then, either enter a value, or select a predefined value from the pull-down list (if available).

  3. Continue assigning outline codes to each custom field, and click OK when done.

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    Figure 21.15: Apply enterprise outline codes to enterprise custom fields.

    Warning 

    The Project Information dialog box only lists custom project fields, not resource or task fields.

Working with Project Versions

Project Professional and Project Server enable you to save different versions of your enterprise projects. Working with different versions is useful when it comes to archiving or modeling your projects; for example, you have to enable versioning to use the Project Modeler, discussed in Chapter 22.

Note 

Versions are different from baselines in that baselines don’t include all the detailed data within a project. A version is, in effect, a perfect snapshot of the entire data at a particular place in time.

When you save a project to Project Server, you’re automatically saving what Project calls the Published version, and a .published extension is appended to the project filename. (For example, a file previously named file1 is now named file1.published.) Saving different versions of a project (under different names, of course) makes it easier to compare progress from period to period; older versions of a project can also serve as backup copies.

To save a version of your current project, follow these steps:

  1. From within Project Professional, select File Ø Save As to open the Save to Microsoft Server dialog box.

  2. Pull down the Versions list and select a version.

  3. Enter a new name for the file, if necessary. (You may want to assign different names to sequential files of the same version type.)

  4. Click Save.

    Note 

    Before you can save any other versions (other than the Published version), your Project Server administrator needs to define them. See “Managing Enterprise Features” in Chapter 20 for more information.



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

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