Who Should Read This Book

This book is intended to be a comprehensive guide to the implementation and use of Microsoft Office Project Server 2003. As such, portions of this book will be of more interest to one set of users than another. The following information should help readers determine which parts are most applicable to their needs.

Business Managers and Leaders

Leadership within the organization should pay special attention to Part I, Chapter 4 from Part II, and Part V. These components will help you understand how this product can be used to help your organization and will also help you understand the features that will be of most direct benefit to you. They will help you to sponsor and plan a successful deployment of the software and enable you to understand the evolutionary aspects of creating and refining the data within the system. The software is intended to support good project and portfolio management processes, and it will not be effective if effective processes are not in place.

Project and Resource Managers

This book is also intended to provide essential guidance and instruction for project and resource managers. The people in these positions play key roles in the success of the implementation and ongoing operation of Microsoft Project Server 2003. If performing one of these roles, you need to familiarize yourself with the capabilities of the system. It is important that you can perform your role effectively within the system. Also, given the enterprise focus and collaborative nature of the system, it is critical that you understand how to perform these roles in relation to the other roles being performed in the system.

There is also content in the book especially targeted and useful to those performing a resource manager role. Especially in matrix organizations, this role needs to be performed well to effectively plan, manage, and deliver projects using Microsoft Project Server 2003. Resource management can ultimately determine whether a project gets delivered as planned. To that end, the resource manager's knowledge of the features of the system, and how to best interact with the project manager, project team members, and other project participants is critical.

Project managers and resource managers represent two of the most important roles in both successfully delivering projects and in effectively managing them using Microsoft Project Server 2003. The material contained in this book provides guidance and key insights into enhancing and maximizing effectiveness and increasing the likelihood of a successful outcome in these areas. Project and resource managers provide the key planning, scheduling, and resource data that are the foundational details for all the information in Microsoft Office Project Server 2003. They also manage, and keep current, all of this detail during the operational life cycle of a project.

Part I, Chapter 4 from Part II, Part V, Part VI, and Part VII will be the most useful to project and resource managers.

Project Server Administrators

Because the application administration capabilities of this product are extensive, Project Server administrators will find most parts of this book useful. They need to be familiar with the administrative capabilities but also will find that they are better able to deal with the end users of the tool if they understand the various user roles and how they interact with the software. Even the parts focused on customization will help administrators understand the product limitations.

Technologists and Implementers

Technologists and implementers bring a new and exciting role to Project Server 2003 (EPM). They do more than install, enhance, configure, and maintain the system components; they aid in the definition of the Enterprise Project Management solution of an organization.

Implementers are the Project Server experts who supply in-depth knowledge of configuration and technology. The best implementers understand the discipline of project management and how it interacts with business processes. Technologists' responsibilities range from development of the system architecture to development of software and web interfaces and integration with or management of the databases. Each of these roles will find useful material throughout the book.