Maintain projects

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Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

In this article:

• Plan timesheets

• Plan task management

• Plan reporting

• Enterprise Reports

Once the project is created, there are activities that serve to update the project and move it to completion. Some of these activities benefit from planning. This article addresses this planning.

Plan timesheets

If you plan to introduce timesheets in your organization for the first time, you'll want to work with your accounting department, managers, executive management, and project managers to determine how to structure timesheets and how they relate to updating task status. The process of using timesheets introduces practical and cultural changes to an organization, both areas that need to be carefully managed.

If you have used timesheets in previous versions of Microsoft Project, it is important to note that they have been significantly changed for Microsoft Office Project 2007. In Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, every timesheet entry is represented by a row in a database table. This means that timesheet data will be precise and accessible though the Project Server Interface. For more information about the Timesheet Web Service, see the Office Project 2007 SDK. Another significant difference from previous versions of Microsoft Project is that anyone who has access to Microsoft Office Project Web Access can make an entry in timesheets. This means that the user does not need to be assigned to any project. They merely need to be a member of the Viewers security group. This can be useful if an organization wants to collect information about work or other administrative activities that have not been anticipated within a project.

Management of timesheets is done in Office Project Web Access on the Server Settings page in the Time and Task Management section. When planning timesheets, consider the server settings found under Timesheet Periods, Timesheet Classifications, Timesheet Settings and Defaults, and Administrative Time.

Timesheet Periods

Accessing and making changes to the Timesheet Periods Web page requires that the user be assigned to the Project Server Administrators group. To plan the configuration of timesheet periods, you will need to know the number of periods, the length of each period and the starting date for the first period. The default setting is 52 periods with a length of 7 days starting on today's date, but you can choose whatever scheme fits your needs.

You then create your periods by clicking Create Bulk. The status field allows for periods to be open or closed. If a period is closed, Office Project Web Access users are not able to enter time in future periods. The best practice is to leave future periods open. This allows users to enter planned time for upcoming events like vacations or training. However, if your organization requires that future periods be closed, you can do this in the status column in the Create Periods section of the page.

Changes are committed to the database when you click Save.

Timesheet Classifications

Accessing and making changes to the Timesheet Classifications page requires that the user be assigned to the Project Server Administrators group. Here you can create new timesheet line classifications. There are many reasons for doing this. Here are a couple of examples.

1. You have a task that is common throughout your project. It is done many times. The reasons for doing the task can be different. In some instances the task is done as a matter of standard maintenance and in other instances it is done to satisfy warranty requirements. You want to track why the work was performed. Creating a timesheet line classification would allow you to track this distinction.

2. Your organization supports three types of overtime: 150%, 200%, and flex time. You want to be able to differentiate between these types of overtime. Creating a timesheet line classification would allow you to track these overtime differences.

Administrative Time

Administrative time is the way to track non-working and non-project time . By default, three categories of administrative time are created:

• Administrative

• Vacation

• Sick

In Office Project Server 2007, administrative time is managed and tracked in Office Project Server 2007. If you are a member of the Project Administrator group, you can add or edit existing administrative time categories on the Administrative Time Web page. This Web page is found by logging in to Office Project Web Access, clicking Server Settings, and then clicking Administrative Time in the Time and Task Management section. You can ensure that each user's timesheet has a line for that category by selecting the Always Display option.

In Microsoft Office Project Server 2003, Administrative Projects were available as a Project template that could be used in the enterprise. To create an administrative project, you needed to be using Project Professional 2003 and needed to be connected to the Project Server database. You did not need Project Professional to enter time against a task in an administrative project. Non-project and non-working time, such as vacation or sick leave, could be reported directly in a resource's timesheet in Project Web Access 2003.

If you want to use your Administrative Projects from Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 in Office Project Server 2007, you can continue to do so. You migrate the Administrative Projects in the same way that you would any other project. However, the user does not automatically see the administrative task in the timesheet, as is possible in Office Project Server 2007. To have full Office Project Server 2007 Administrative Time functionality, you will need to create the tasks anew on the Administrative Time Web page. If it is not convenient to do this at the time you migrate your deployment, we recommend that you pick a time that makes sense for your organization — for example, at the beginning of your next fiscal year or at the beginning of the next calendar year.

Plan task management

When resources update their task status and submit it for approval, you can approve or reject those updates if you have approval permissions. Office Project Web Access enables you to set up rules to approve task updates, or you can approve or reject task updates manually. If you manage a large number of resources, you might find rules helpful in approving those task updates that are in alignment with your projects. For information about how to configure approval rules, refer to Help in Office Project Web Access under the article named "Approve or reject task updates."

Plan reporting

Data Analysis

The Data Analysis feature of Office Project Server 2007 makes use of Microsoft Office Web Components, which is a collection of Microsoft ActiveX components. Office Project Server 2007 uses Office Web Components to access OLAP cube data that is stored in the Analysis Services database (an Analysis Services database is created for each OLAP cube that is created in Office Project Web Access). Users can interact with this data in Office Project Web Access and Office Project Professional 2007 by using fully interactive PivotTable and PivotChart reports. Users can sort, filter, add, or modify data, expand and collapse details, and save their results for future reference.

Plan to configure Data Analysis with Microsoft SQL Server 2000

The Data Analysis feature requires Analysis Services, Service Pack 3 or later, which is part of Microsoft SQL Server 2000. Data Analysis requires Decision Support Objects (DSO), running with the same service pack as Analysis Services. If Analysis Services is not installed on the computer that is running Office Project Server 2007, DSO must also be installed on the computer running Office Project Server 2007. For additional information about installing DSO, see the Analysis Services article, "Running Setup," in the SQL Server Books Online, which is available with the installation media for Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

Plan to configure Data Analysis with Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Data Analysis requires Analysis Services, Service Pack 1, which is part of Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Service Pack 1 provides a backward compatibility component that can be installed on Analysis Services. If Office Project Server 2007 is installed on a different computer, the backward compatibility component should be installed there as well. This backward compatibility component provides the DSO support needed for Data Analysis to work.

Prepare for Data Analysis users

Users can use Office Project Web Access to create and work with Data Analysis views and can use Office Project Professional 2007 to work with Data Analysis views. In order to create and work with Data Analysis views, users:

• Must be assigned permission to access the Data Analysis pages in Office Project Web Access that allow interaction with Data Analysis, and they must have permissions to access the data that will be part of the Data Analysis view.

• Must be assigned permission to view Data Analysis from the Report Center site in Office Project Web Access or from Office Project Professional 2007.

• Must have a fully-interactive version of Office Web Components (OWC) 2003 installed on their computer. Fully interactive versions of OWC are only available in Microsoft Office 2003 and Project Professional 2003. OWC must be available on the computer from which Portfolio Analyzer is being accessed. If the client computer does not have OWC, then Project Server 2003 will install a non-interactive version of OWC that enables users to view Portfolio Analyzer views but does not enable them to create or modify the views.

In order to use the Data Analysis feature, users must be assigned the following permissions:

• View Data Analysis   This is a global permission that allows a user to view the Data Analysis by using Office Project Web Access or Office Project Professional 2007.

• Manage Project Web Access Views   This is a global permission that allows a user to create new views in Office Project Web Access.

Review Enterprise Settings

Settings in the Office Project Server 2007 Enterprise Global Template and Enterprise Resource Pool can have a significant effect on the way that data is handled when users are using Data Analysis. Before using Data Analysis, consider the following:

• Has your organization defined Enterprise Project custom fields and Enterprise Resource custom fields?

• Have you added all required resources to the Enterprise Resource Pool?

• Have values been assigned to any of the Enterprise custom fields?

• Have you assigned resources in the Enterprise Resource Pool to the correct Project Server security categories to allow access to Data Analysis views? (If you import resources or synchronize the Enterprise Resource Pool with the Active Directory directory service, all resources are added to the Team Members security category.)

  Note

  For more information about building an OLAP cube, creating Data Analysis views, or working with Data Analysis views, see Operations for Office Project Server 2007.

  Note

  For more information about migrating views from Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 to Office Project Server 2007, see the Migration guide for Office Project Server 2007.

Enterprise Reports

The Enterprise Reports feature of Office Project Server 2007 uses Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services to produce enterprise reports. SQL Server Reporting Services is a comprehensive, server-based reporting solution designed to help you author, manage, and deliver both paper-based and interactive Web-based reports. If you are going to use Enterprise Reporting, you will need to enter the Microsoft Reporting Service URL. To do this:

1. Log on to Office Project Web Access as an Administrator.

2. Click the Server Settings link on the Office Project Web Access home page.

3. Click the Additional Server Settings link in the Operational Policies section of the Server Settings page.

4. Type the default URL for Microsoft Reporting service in the box in the Microsoft Reporting Service URL section of the Additional Server Settings page.

5. Click Save.

In a default installation of Office Project Server 2007, only one SQL Server Reporting Services instance can be accessed. It is possible to access additional instances by creating a new Web part. If you are going to use Enterprise Reporting extensively, we recommend that you split the Project Reporting Database to a separate server.

Download this book

This topic is included in the following downloadable book for easier reading and printing:

• Planning and architecture for Office Project Server 2007

See the full list of available books at Downloadable content for Project Server 2007.