EIF Overview

The term “Enterprise Implementation Toolkit (EIT)” appears to be a remnant of a marketing concept of having both a framework and a toolkit, and you arguably get both, but the language is not consistent among all the documents. Although the EIF bundle is surprisingly sloppy in places, it remains an invaluable resource.

EIF Trilogy

Segregating the EIF artifacts into three classifications helps to thresh the wisdom from this resource mlange. Think of the EIF as containing three types of resources: instructional documents, deliverable templates, and white papers. Once installed, you’ll find the following contents in your EIF directory.

Instructional documents:

1. EIF FAQ

2. EIF Setup and Overview

3. EIF System Design Guidelines

4. EIT Enterprise Project Overview

Deliverable templates:

1. EIF Interview

2. EIF Project Plan

3. EIF Red Flags

4. EIF Requirements Specification

5. EIF System Design

6. Training-Administrators

7. Training-Executives

8. Training-Project Managers

9. Training-Resource Managers

10. Training-Team Members

White papers:

1. Microsoft Project 2002 Documents Overview

2. Microsoft Project 2002 Enterprise Codes Overview

3. Microsoft Project 2002 Enterprise Project Management Architecture Guide

4. Microsoft Project 2002 Issues Overview

5. Microsoft Project 2002 Notifications Overview

6. Microsoft Project 2002 Project Guide Architecture and Extensibility

7. Microsoft Project 2002 Resource and Skills Management Guide

8. Microsoft Project Server 2002 Architecture and Extensibility

9. Microsoft Project Server Configuration Guidelines White Paper

10. Microsoft Project Server Data Migration

11. Microsoft Project Server Security Architecture and Planning Guide

12. Microsoft SharePoint Team Services Integration Architecture and Extensibility

13. Migration to Microsoft Project Professional 2002

White Papers

The white papers are available redundantly on the Microsoft site. The selections listed in the preceding section pertain specifically to enterprise configurations and represent a slightly expurgated list of all available white papers. You can find a complete list of Project 2002 version white papers at http://www.microsoft.com/office/project/techinfo/whitepapers/default.asp. The important thing to keep in mind is that half of the EIF file payload is composed of white papers that are available elsewhere. I strongly recommend that you read the white papers and all of the other documentation Microsoft makes available through TechNet and MSDN, but I do not discuss the white papers included in the EIF bundle here. Instead I focus on the unique information the EIF contains.

Are You Approaching This As a Project?

Examining the deliverable templates and instructional documentation makes one significant first impression : You have a project on your hands. Have you already begun your planning? Have you appointed a project manager for this initiative? Who are your stakeholders? If you don’t have the wherewithal to organizationally support your Project Server implementation as a formal project and a model for the business rules driving your implementation, then you should ask yourself why you’re implementing project management software. No project management application provides a silver-bullet solution. Project management is a discipline and, as such, adding a tool will confound an organization that hasn’t already succeeded in implementing the management disciplines of project management. Your organization must have at least made a commitment to project management disciplines to have reasonable expectations for success.

Instructional Documents

The EIF Setup and Overview document provides a high-level framework for conducting your Project Professional 2002 and Project Server 2002 implementation, as you can connect the process it outlines to its recommended deliverable templates. The EIF System Design Guidelines document is a very compressed, comprehensive guide to the feature-to-organizational use mapping considerations you’ll make in pursuing your EIF implementation strategy. It includes detailed instructions for completing the deliverable templates. These two documents embody the EIF strategy and the instructions for its practical use. You also have an FAQ document, which clarifies some of the concepts expressed , and the EIT Enterprise Project Overview document, which is a primer on the Project Server big picture. Consider this last document optional reading if you read the first chapter of this book.

Deliverable Templates

The list of templates can be bifurcated along the lines of training outlines and process templates. The latter group includes a model project plan to govern your implementation effort. An interview question-and-answer template constructed in Excel supports the creation of a Red Flags Report from a Word template and the creation of a requirements specification document from another Word template. The information gathered during the requirements phase is coalesced into a system design document provided as a multitab workbook.

The other half of the deliverable templates consists of training outlines for the various roles predefined in Project Server. Training is an important step and I endorse its emphasis by these template inclusions. Essentially, the documents are lists of specific Microsoft Project 2002 courseware training modules recommended for each predefined role. The Project 2002 courseware itself is available for download on the Microsoft Web site at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;325846. You must tailor these recommendations to your specific needs, keeping in mind that you may not implement all of the default roles or you may implement other roles not considered by the EIF architects . Training is an important reason to have outside resources lined up for your Project Server implementation.