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Project SenseiDave Gochberg's Project Server Blog
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August 12 Timesheet only time entryThis Post continues a discussion about changes within the Project Server and Client Infrastructure Update.
When Project Server was first released as RTM, there was a setting within Task Settings and Display that said "Time entry by Timesheet only. Users will sync to update tasks." On its face, this was a noce idea. For organizations that choose to use the Timesheet features (usually those that required users to record a full 40 hours of time, project or non-project), one of the most difficult process for users was that they had to either enter data twice or use the Import Timesheet feature. This did create some issues of data validation between Tinesheet hours and Task Actual Work depending on several factors. My first thought was "Great, no users can do everything from the Timesheet and completly avoid the Task page." Unfortunetly, while you could make the Timesheet the single point of entry, it disabled the Remaining Work field altogether. This is an absolutely required field for most even marginally mature organizations, so it was not something that I would recommend.
In the Infrastructure update, it is possible to add the Remaing Work field to the Timesheet View so that users can add their work, Administrative time, and change Remaining Work all from within the Timesheet page. When Saved or Submitted, the Remaining Work does "automagically" move into the My Tasks grid. This is a great improvement and as noted in the field name, entry only has to occur from a single view. Note, however, that Timesheets still need to be improted for Project Time to become Actual Work in the MyTasks page.
My first client runs a lot of very small projects and has a very fluid resource allocation due to the nature of these many small projects. This reuires them to allocate resources daily. In order to accomplish this somewhat unusual set of requrements, they update using the systen like this:
Large Projects are still updated on a more typical weekly cycle.
There is a way to make the Timesheet and Tasks page fully link to avoid the Import Timesheet through custom coding. A starter solution is available at
Task Updates (more)Another new feature set for Tasks is that Project Server now allows views to be sorted anf filtered. The first thing that you need to do is add a column to the View from within Server Settings | Manage Views | My Assigments. From there add any Enterprise Custom Task Fields you wany to use for either sorting or filtering. Within the My Tasks page, the end user can group on any field that is displayed in the View. See below for a view to what the tools look like.
Just like other Views in Projec Web Access, you can sort by just clicking on a column name and reverse the sort by clicking it again. This can appear to offer little help as the tasks are sorted within each project. If, however, you want to sort on Tasks by Start you can change the View to not include the Project Name.To get there, select the Setings | View Options and deselect Project Name and clieck Apply. See below:
After removing the Project Name fron the display, selecting on a column will sort without the Project grouping. This can be used for any column that is displayed, such as if you want to see only billable tasks (Task Field for Billable or Not) or if you want to sort on a Task-level Cost Center code.
July 29 Updates to My TasksAs I mentioned a few days ago, Microsoft has released a set of Infrastructure updates for SharePoint, Project Server, and Project Professional. These updates focus on quality and usability improvements. The Project and Project Server improvements are detailed in http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721699(TechNet.10).aspx. I am going to target on specific items a post at a time, starting with changes in the My Tasks features. Here are a couple of them to start. Grid Start Date When using the daily grid that was first made available in SP1, the week that was displayed always placed the current date in the middle of the grid. This was by design, but many people (including me) preferred that the grid always display regular work weeks. With the new update, weeks display in the My Tasks page now use the "Week Starts On" setting instead of the SP1 "mid-week" visual. This is a nice usability improvement. Note also that the current date column has bold borders as a new visual clue. Task Path Lookup It is general good practice to use unique task names within a project. There are many reasons for this practice. For example, a PM uses the task name "design" in the context of several different Summary Tasks. If a person receives a notifcation e-mail that says she is assigned to "design," there is no context that would inform her of what she is designing even though it is obvious to the Project Manager due to the Summary Task information. Just in case, your PM did not get the message about unique task names, Microsoft has delivered a new feature to locate that context of a Task. To get there from the My Tasks page, hover over the Task name to see the arrow appear and click on the Task Name to get the menu shown below (click on image for better view):
July 28 New Infrastructure DownloadsMicrosoft has recently released a set of downloads that include significant improvements to Project Server and its base platform, whether it be Windows SharePoint Services or WSS with Office SharePoint Server. Details can be located at the SharePoint Team Blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/07/15/announcing-availability-of-infrastructure-updates.aspx.
As I type this blog entry, I am in the process of installing the bits in my test environment and over the next few posts I will provide more details. A detailed document is provided at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=121912 that describes wat is included for Project Server and Project. If the update delivers as promised, this will be a "must have" update. July 24 Release of P14I have not posted for a while as I have been travelling a ton recently all over the northern US and into Canada workig with clients. I have had quite a few folks ask me when I thought the next version will be released. Project Server will almost certainly be released along with the rest of Office as has been the recent tradition. It will include Project Portfolio Server functionality and significant updates to functions in several areas (I will tell you more when I can). A release in 2009 has been discussed, but nothing is definite.
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