One of my favorite features in Microsoft Project is the stop light indicator because it can quickly highlight areas in the project plan that are falling behind. The tool is very easy to set up. The following is a step-by-step guide so you can start utilizing this feature.

• First, open Microsoft Project from the Tools menu, select Customize –>Fields
• From the Outline Codes page, enable the tasks button from the “type” drop down box by selecting “Number”.
• With the “Number 1″ field highlighted, click “Rename”, let’s call it “Dashboard Calculation”
• Under Custom Attributes, select “Formula”, then click on the “Formula” button.  Insert the following expression:
  IIf([Baseline Duration]=0,99999,[Finish Variance]/[Baseline Duration]*100)
• Click OK, then in the “Calculations for task and group summary rows” section, select “Use formula”.
• In the field section, highlight “Number 2″ click “Rename”, let’s call it “Dashboard Null Test”
• Under Custom Attributes section, select “Formula” then click the “Formula” button.  Inset the following expression. IsNull([Baseline Duration]).  Click OK.
• From the “Type” drop down menu select “Text”
• With the “Text 1″ field highlighted click “Rename”, title “Dashboard Schedule”
• Under Custom Attributes select “Formula” then click on the “Formula” button.  Inset the following expression.
  Switch([Number1]=99999,”No Baseline”,[Number1]<5,”On Schedule: <5%”,[Number1]<15,”Late: 5-15%”,[Number1]=15,”Late: 5-15%”,[Number1]>15,”Behind Schedule: >15%”). Then click OK.
• In the “Calculations for task and group summary rows” section, select “Use formula”.
• In the values to display section, select “Graphical Indicators” then click the “Graphical Indicators” button. Click on Nonsummary rows, then insert the data like the screen below and click ok.

Now add the field as a column in your favorite view. I like the Tracking Gantt.

• From the insert menu select “Column”
• From the “Field Name” drop down box select “Text 1 (Dashboard Schedule)”
• Click OK, then save this as a template for future projects.

The result is an indicator that is white if no baseline is set, green if the task is <5% behind, yellow for 5-15% behind and red if the task is >15% behind schedule. 

Troy Wheeler, Vice President of Technology, EPM2e, can be reached at 800-878-0385.

One of the most common areas of confusion in Microsoft Enterprise Project Management Solution (MSEPM) is security. EPM has a very granular security model and a fair amount of complexity.

Within EPM, the first set of security objects defines group and individual access to the application. You can manage access to application features and functions through the use of Users and Groups and Security Templates, found under the Administration screen in Project Web Access (PWA).

• Users - Any individuals who access Project Web Access.
• Groups - Collections of individual users with the same permission requirements.
• Security Templates - Rules applied to groups to simplify the administration of permissions.

The second set of security objects provides ways to access, or limit access, to data including projects, resources and views. Categories are the collection of projects, resources, assignments, views and models to which users and groups are granted access.

A defined Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) is a major tool used by categories in defining how they grant access.  Project Web Access includes the following default Categories:

• My Tasks - Intended for individual team members who are assigned to tasks in one or more enterprise projects.
• My Projects - Intended for project managers, grants read and write access to projects created by project managers.
• My Resources - Intended for resource managers and uses a security rule based on RBS.  It is useful only when RBS is defined.
• My Direct Reports - Intended for resource managers who need to approve timesheets.
• My Organization - This category is used to grant access to all information in the organization. It is intended for members of a Project Management Office, or Executives in an organization, and other key users who require the ability to view projects and resources across the entire organization.

Security Rules are used to query the Project Server database to determine the list of projects, resources and models a particular user can access. Examples are:

• Information for all resources that a resource manager manages.
• A project manager’s or resource manager’s own models.
• Models created by resources that a resource manager manages.

So to summarize, Security Templates and Groups are just convenient ways for system administrators to assign rights to a large number of users. Categories and Security Rules define and automate the granting of access to data relating to projects, resources and models in the project server database.

Troy Wheeler, Vice President of Technology, EPM2e, can be reached at 800-878-0385.

More than 1,500 business managers, technology professionals and developers gathered in Seattle June 17 - 19 for the sold out Microsoft Office Project and Visio conferences, where Microsoft Corporation CEO Steve Ballmer detailed advances in the upcoming releases of Microsoft Office Project and Microsoft Office Visio.

In addition, Ballmer announced the completion of the acquisition of software and intellectual property assets from UMT, a leading project and portfolio management and consulting firm. The acquisition will provide Microsoft with new technology and talent that will complement and expand upon the existing Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution.

“We’re excited because acquiring UMT will help us meet customers’ needs for deep portfolio management capabilities,” said Ballmer. “By combining our software and expertise, we’ll also create a new range of solution development opportunities for customers and partners.”

Portfolio management software helps organizations strategically create, manage and optimize project, application, product and process portfolios. Although traditionally used in the information technology (IT) industry, portfolio management capabilities are broadly applicable and growing in importance to any company for which work takes the form of individual projects, complex programs or enterprise portfolios.

The UMT acquisition will help Microsoft address these scenarios through an end-to-end, integrated project and portfolio management solution that helps enable both excellence in project execution and better decision-making in prioritizing and funding those projects.

Key members of the UMT executive team and a number of UMT product development employees will join the Microsoft Office Project team.

Microsoft recently acquired software and IP assets from UMT, a company founded in 1989 and headquartered in New York City, which may lead to improvements in MS Project Server.

UMT, a leading project and portfolio management software and consulting firm, connects the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution with UMT’s Portfolio Management Solution via the UMT Microsoft Project Server Gateway.   This combined technology allows organizations to identify and prioritize the right portfolio of projects within deadline, scope and budget constraints. 

“With UMT’s technology and portfolio framework, we will extend the Office EPM Solution to offer an end-to-end enterprise project and portfolio management solution,” said Chris Capossela, Corporate Vice President of the Information Worker Product Management Group at Microsoft.  “Through the acquisition, we will be able to more quickly deliver on our vision of bringing project and portfolio management capabilities to all levels of an organization.”

“UMT founders Mike Gruia, Yorai Linenberg and I share Microsoft’s vision of bringing enterprise project and portfolio management together, and have built the UMT business on innovating to meet customers’ portfolio management needs,” said Gil Makleff, CEO North America at UMT. “We look forward to working with Microsoft to develop solutions that help customers better manage their project portfolios and accelerate their business success.”

On November 16, 2005, Microsoft made a technical beta release of the new Microsoft Office 12 to 10,000 of its customers.  General release of the software is expected mid-year 2006.  

Among the changes were several significant revisions to Microsoft Project. These updates include:

New Client Side-Cache:

• Project Pro interacts directly with the local cache for opens and saves, which means terminal services are no longer needed to support remote Pro users and project opening, closing and saving in Project Pro should be significantly faster.

Server-Side Custom Fields:

• Project Server 12 expands reporting functionality. The changes in this area utilize the strength of the Project EPM Solution in defining fields which are then used for reporting. Project 12 redesigns enterprise custom fields as a server-side feature allowing customized defined enterprise fields using PWA.  With this change, nearly unlimited custom fields are possible.  This support extends to the Project Pro client.

Server Side Scheduling:

• This new feature allows project managers to view submitted updates, preview the impact of changes on a project plan, and then update the plan, all using a web browser and Project Web Access.

Project Web Access (PWA) Built on WSS:

• PWA is a site collection on a WSS virtual server. This means that WSS MUST be installed on every Project Server. PWA is made-up of various webparts that can be mixed and matched with webparts from WSS, SPS and other Office servers.

Reporting:

• Project 12 expands the range of reports supported on Project Server and greatly simplifies the process of building reports on Project Server.

Workflow/Server-Side Events:

• A nearly universal element of EPM (enterprise project management) deployments is the implementation of custom business processes. Each organization has their own methodology for proposing projects, asking for resources to fund or staff a project, taking dependencies, changing dates or scope, etc. Project 12 adds server-side events to support customers in building business processes tightly integrated into Project Server.

Troy Wheeler, Vice President of Technology, EPM2e, can be reached at 800-878-0385.