Portfolio Analyzer Views

Portfolio Analyzer views are different in many ways from other Project Server views available, such as Project, Project Center, Resource Center, and Assignment views.

Before you can start defining your custom Portfolio Analyzer views, you must build an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) multidimensional cube that contains resource availability and work data. You first configure OLAP services in PWA client, and then you can configure custom Portfolio Analyzer views. Whoever wants to define a new Portfolio Analyzer view must have a permission to manage views. Users who will be Portfolio Analyzer view consumers must also have permission to access the projects and resources through PWA client to access existing Portfolio Analyzer views.

NOTE

Portfolio Analyzer requires that Project Server have the Enterprise Features enabled to view the data. Portfolio Analyzer displays only enterprise projects (non-enterprise projects are not part of the OLAP cube).

Portfolio Analyzer views provide powerful data analysis tools. It is beyond the scope of this chapter and this book to exploit all possible features, customizations, extensions, and nuances of OLAP cubes and Portfolio Analyzer use.

NOTE

Portfolio Analyzer features are based on OLAP and Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services. If you want to learn more about the fundamentals of OLAP and Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, consider reviewing the following book available from Sams Publishing: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Unleashed, Second Edition, by Ray Rakins, Paul Bertucci, and Paul Jensen, ISBN: 0672324679.

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The Enterprise Outline Codes that you define for your organization determine the dimensions (such as Location, Department, Project Status, and so on) available to you in Portfolio Analyzer views for reporting. These Enterprise Outline Codes enable you to analyze workload from many different perspectives: by skill, location, department, project, and more.

TIP

By design, task information is not included in the Analysis Services database. Therefore, you cannot use task information in Portfolio Analyzer views.

If your organization wants to include task data in Portfolio Analyzer views, you need to extend the OLAP cube (manually or programmatically) to include task and other custom data required for your organization.

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In addition to using Enterprise Outline Codes for focused, executive style reporting, Portfolio Analyzer views can be used to filter, group, or search for data values, including data in your Enterprise Outline Codes. Portfolio Analyzer is based on a reporting interface that uses the PivotChart and PivotTable features. By using these two features, you can manipulate and interact with your project and resource data and drill into specific dimensions of data based on hierarchical structures defined by your Enterprise Outline Codes.

To use and/or define the Portfolio Analyzer views, users must be assigned the following related permissions:

• Manage Enterprise Features A global permission that allows a user to access the Manage Enterprise Features page from the Admin page in PWA client. Users who have permission to access the Manage Enterprise Features page can create the OLAP cube for Portfolio Analyzer.

• Manage Views A global permission that allows a user to access the Manage Views page from the Admin page in PWA Access. Users who have permission to access this page can add, modify, or delete Portfolio Analyzer views.

• View Portfolio Analyzer A global permission that allows a user to view the Portfolio Analyzer by using PWA or Project Professional client.

• View Project Center A global permission that allows a user to access the Project Center from PWA or Project Professional client.

Creating and Modifying Portfolio Analyzer Views

Project Server uses OLAP technology to generate multidimensional OLAP cubes and then stores the information in Extensible Markup Language (XML) for presentation and loading into the Project Center pages for the Portfolio Analyzer views. Also, Project Server updates the resource tables for viewing and reporting based on parameters you specify.

Views store definitions of the fields and formats available in a report. Views do not determine the resources or projects visible through the report. After you define a Portfolio Analyzer view, you add the view to one or more categories to allow the PWA client users assigned to that category to access it. If you omit this step, the view will not be available for any data analysis. Categories define the specific projects and resources that a particular user or group of users can see. By adding views to categories, you define the objects (projects and resources) and the properties of the objects (views) available to any user or group of users.

NOTE

OLAP databases are called cubes because they include several dimensions, such as project, resources, and time, with summarized data, such as work, cost, and availability.

OLAP cubes are designed for ad hoc data reporting. It is often used to organize large business databases. OLAP cubes are built based on your reporting requirements as defined by Enterprise Outline Codes. If you define your Enterprise Outline Codes carefully, you can easily create the reports you need for multiple user groups in many different roles.

NOTE

OLAP cubes generated by Microsoft Project Server 2003 can be accessed by other tools such as Microsoft Office Excel 2003.

All new projects saved to a Project Server are saved with the version Published first. Other project versions can be created and saved later, but the Published version has to be created first. For example, if you want to save a Baseline version of a project schedule to the server, you must first save a Published version.

In addition, there is no way to exclude a Published version of any project when generating an OLAP cube. Therefore, Baseline and other project versions published to a Project Server are included when OLAP cubes are generated. You can control which project versions you want to include and analyze using filters. You can also use the project and resource "dimensions" in the OLAP cube data to manually include or remove the specific projects or resources in the view that you're interested in using for your analysis.

Portfolio Analyzer uses the following Microsoft Office Web Components features:

• PivotTable Provides dynamic views that allow users to analyze Project Server data by sorting, grouping, filtering, and pivoting. The data is extracted from the Project Server database view tables and is displayed in a familiar Microsoft Excel PivotTable format.

• Chart provides graphical representation of data in PivotTable. Chart is linked directly to the PivotTable component, so it is updated instantly in response to user actions in the PivotTable.

When you define a Portfolio Analyzer view, you can choose whether to display data in the form of a PivotTable, chart, or combination of both.

When you create a Portfolio Analyzer view, you have the option to link the view to a Project Server OLAP cube on the current or a different server. You can also bind the Portfolio Analyzer view to one of several possible Project Server OLAP cubesmultiple OLAP cubes are supported. However, each single Portfolio Analyzer view can be connected only to a single Analysis Services database (OLAP cube). Although you can create multiple OLAP cubes, no utilities are available to help you manage them or the Portfolio Analyzer views that bind to them. If you want to create multiple Project Server data cubes within a single Project Server instance, the system administrator must manage OLAP cube refresh using manual techniques.

Portfolio Analyzer view data is as up-to-date as the OLAP cube it is bound to. Typically, the Project Server administrator schedules Project Server OLAP server cube updates.

TIP

You can use the Portfolio Analyzer view PivotTable Commands and Options dialog box (Data Source tab) to change the OLAP cube that the view is currently bound to.

To create a new Portfolio Analyzer view, select Admin, Manage Views, Add View, and then select the Assignment radio button.

To modify an existing Portfolio Analyzer view, select Admin, Manage Views; then select the Portfolio Analyzer view that you want to modify and click Modify View.

Also, you have the ability to copy an existing view definition and use it as a starting point for a new view.

The menus and options you have available for creating and modifying Portfolio Analyzer views are identical, except that when you are modifying an existing view, the current view definition information is displayed.

For example, if you want to create a new Portfolio Analyzer view, you need to perform the following steps:

1.

In PWA select Admin, Manage Views from the menu.

2.

Click the Add View button and select Portfolio Analyzer in the View Type section. Figure 10.11 shows the Portfolio Analyzer screen. Figure 10.11. Enter the information required to define a new Portfolio Analyzer view. Following is the description of fields that can be customized to create a new view or used to edit an existing one: View Type The view type is already set to the Portfolio Analyzer view type when you choose to modify one of the Portfolio Analyzer views. Select a view type if you are defining a new view. View Name and Description The view name must be unique. Choose a name that describes the purpose of the view or the view users. The Description field is available for editing only to the administrator, and it is used to describe the view purpose in more detail. Analysis Server and Cube Specify the name of the Analysis Services server and the OLAP cube name. Portfolio Analyzer Mode Select one of the following options: PivotTable with Chart Displays both the PivotTable and Chart workspaces. PivotTable Only Displays only the PivotTable workspace. Chart Only Displays only the Chart workspace. Customize the PivotTable and Chart Allows you to add fields to your custom Portfolio Analyzer view. Right-click the Chart or PivotTable workspace and select Field List from the shortcut menu to open the Field List dialog box as shown in Figure 10.12. Figure 10.12. Choose and lay out the information you want to display as part of a new Portfolio Analyzer view.

Creating a new Portfolio Analyzer view, or editing an existing one, is different from creating views for projects, resources, and assignments. The steps involved in creation or modification of a view for Portfolio Analyzer are as follows:

1.	Select Versions, Resource Department, and Resource Status from the PivotTable Field List and drag them to the Drop Filter Fields Here area of the PivotTable workspace. Resource Department and Resource Status are example Enterprise Outline Codes that you may have defined in your Enterprise Global Template, as shown in Figure 10.13. Figure 10.13. Choose and lay out the Enterprise Outline Codes you want to use as filters in your new Portfolio Analyzer view.
2.	Consider adding the Time dimension to your custom views to organize your view data by years, quarters, months, or days. Expand the Time set of fields in the PivotTable Field List, select Years, and add it to the Drop Column Fields Here PivotTable area, as shown in Figure 10.14. Figure 10.14. Add the Time dimension to your new Portfolio Analyzer view. NOTE You may prefer to add the Time dimension to Column fields rather than Row fields. The Time dimension creates generally fewer columns in the PivotTable than, for example, adding Projects or Resources. This arrangement makes PivotTable reports more memory efficient, and you can stay away from PivotTable limits. For more details on the limits of PivotTable reports, see article 820742 in Microsoft Knowledge Base, available from http://search.support.micrsoft.com/search/?adv=1.
3.	Add the required fields to the Drop Row Fields Here PivotTable areaselect the Resources field for the Row fields display as shown in Figure 10.15. Figure 10.15. Add Resources to your new Portfolio Analyzer view.
4.	Expand the Totals set of fields in the PivotTable Field List, select Work and Availability, and then add them to the Drop Totals or Detail Fields Here PivotTable area. Review the resulting Portfolio Analyzer view shown in Figure 10.16. Figure 10.16. Add Resource Work and Availability to finish your new Portfolio Analyzer view.
5.	Now all your resources are displayed as part of the view, making the view, especially the chart part, too cluttered. Use the Resource Department filter to restrict the data displayed to a group of resources. Expand the Resource Department field, clear the All box, and then select the Corporate department. Also, you may want to filter only the Published versions of projects. Use the Versions filter and ensure that only the Published version is selected. For the Resource Status filter, select Enterprise Active only. Figure 10.17 shows the resulting view. Figure 10.17. Use filters to limit the amount of data displayed in your new Portfolio Analyzer view.
6.	You can also control the graph type you want to use with your Portfolio Analyzer views. Review the default chart (Clustered Column type) further filtered for years 2003 and 2004 in Figure 10.18. Figure 10.18. Default chart type used in your new Portfolio Analyzer view.
7.	Change to a different chart type by selecting the Chart Type button (first icon from the left in the toolbar) to display the Commands and Options dialog box. You can choose from 12 predefined chart types as seen in Figure 10.19. Be careful to select an appropriate chart type for your datanot all chart types are created equal, and some of them are not that useful when displaying project and/or resource data. Figure 10.19. Twelve chart types are available for your Portfolio Analyzer views.
8.	When you further filter currently displayed Portfolio Analyzer view data, the chart is updated immediately to reflect your changes as shown in Figure 10.20. Resources were further filtered to show only the IT department resources. Figure 10.20. Your Portfolio Analyzer views are updated as soon as you make any changes in the definition of the view.

When defining the Portfolio Analyzer views, a couple more sections on the Specify Views page can be edited. These two sections are described here:

• Default View Settings Select the Show Field List or Show toolbar options to make the Portfolio Analyzer Field List and Toolbar available to Portfolio Analyzer view users. Users will be able to temporarily modify and manipulate (add or remove fields) the view.

• Categories (Optional) Control users who will be able to see and use the view. Users associated with categories that include this view can see the view in the Project Center.

  The Categories section has two panes. The pane on the right side defines the categories that the view is currently part of. The left pane contains the list of available categories. You can move categories between panes by selecting a category name and clicking Add, Add All, Remove, or Remove All.

After you save your changes, this Portfolio Analyzer view becomes available to all users in your organization who belong to the security categories that this view belongs to. On the Portfolio Analyzer page, users need to select the Portfolio Analyzer view from the Choose a View drop-down list.

NOTE

For additional in-depth information about defining, using, and managing Portfolio Analyzer views, see Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Administrator's Guide, Chapter 10, "Working with Portfolio Analyzer."