Project planning boost

By Brian Kennemer, TechRepublic, 26 July, 2002 21:37

ANALYSIS

Two of the most exciting enterprise-level features added with the release of Microsoft Project Server 2002 and Microsoft Project Professional 2002 are Enterprise Global and the Enterprise Resource Pool. The organisational benefit of these two features, which improve on features in previous versions, cannot be overestimated. It was once very difficult to provide usable standard views and tools and very time-consuming to track use of organisationally pooled resources, but this capability is now part of the product. PMO organisations now have effective tools for ensuring standards for viewing and working with data and for the use of resources in enterprise project management. Here's a look at how Project Server 2002 and Project Pro 2002 work together to support Enterprise Global and Enterprise Resource Pool. The solution, part 1: The Enterprise Global Project Server/Project Pro fixes issues in Project 98 and 2000 with sharing resources and the Global.mpt file by building enterprise features right into the Server product. The Enterprise Global is essentially a semi-hidden project in the Project Server database that contains the views, toolbars, filters, and macros that the administrator wishes to make available to every Project user across the organisation. Every Project 2002 Pro user still has a Global.mpt file on the local machine that acts the same way it did in Project 2000. The file still stores the customisations that a user makes to the application and any macros or custom views. However, when Project 2002 Pro is opened -- in addition to opening the Global.mpt file on the local machine -- it connects to the Project Server database and gets the items stored in the Enterprise Global project and makes them available as well. In this way, individual users can still save their customisations and preferences, and the organisation can make sure all users have the same views and other items available. More importantly, users can easily keep these items up to date because every time that Project 2002 Pro is opened, the Enterprise Global is checked for the most current version of the items in the file. For an example of how this saves time and effort, let's examine how an organisation might distribute a new version of a VBA macro to 200 project managers. In an organisation using Project 2000, it would require e-mailing an mpp file that contained the new code and a "distribution" macro that would insert the code into the users' Global.mpt file. Each of the 200 users would need to run this mpp file on their machines. If they didn't, they wouldn't be up to date. There are several similar ways to distribute the new code but each comes with serious drawbacks and most are time-consuming and hard to verify. Using Project Server and Project 2002 Pro, this whole process is reduced to the administrator opening the Enterprise Global file, deleting the old version of the macro, replacing it with the new version, saving the file, and closing it. From that point on, all 200 project managers will have the new macro the next time they open Project 2002. This process also caches the enterprise elements so that if the project managers go offline, they can still have access to the last set of cached elements from the Enterprise Global. The solution, part 2: The Enterprise Resource Pool As with resource pools from Project 2000, Project Server has a project in the database that contains all the "enterprise" resources, but that is where most of the similarity stops. This new architecture doesn't require projects to open the whole pool every time they open. A project manager adds resources to a project from the Enterprise Pool using the Team Builder dialog. Figure A shows this dialog as it is used to add two resources from the Enterprise Resource Pool to a new project.

Figure A

This project now essentially contains linked copies of these resources (Aidan Delaney and A. Francesca Leonetti). Each time the project is opened, Project 2002 Pro updates the linked copy it holds with the most up-to-date information about the resource from the Enterprise Pool. Every time the project is saved, the updated information about how much work has been assigned is updated in the database and linked to the Enterprise Pool. The whole process is deceptively simple. There is a connection between the individual projects and the Enterprise Pool but it's not a constant link in which both projects have to be open at the same time. It's a dynamic update that occurs only when the project is opened and closed. This makes the transfer of data very fast, particularly when compared to the way resource pooling was done in Project 2000. Having more than 100 enterprise resources assigned to a project adds only about five seconds to the opening time. This time is not dependent on the number of other projects the resources are assigned to as it was with the old pooling scheme. A similar project using resource pooling in Project 2000 would have taken at least several minutes to open and it was not uncommon to see resource-pooled projects in Project 2000 take more than five to 10 minutes to open.

Have your say instantly in the Tech Update forum. Find out what's where in the new Tech Update with our Guided Tour. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

I totally dislike pirating of works, I fear that artists will be deterred from creating works if they think that they are going to get ripped off....

47 minutes ago by GHar123 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

How dare film makers, artists or anybody that invests in creativity stop us pirating their works for free. I want to be able to walk into my local...

6 hours ago by JCB33 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

@GrueMaster. I prefer horses for courses rather than one size fits all. I, and I suspect most other computer users, do not really wish to have...

9 hours ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

The product that scares me every time I have to use it is the Office 2007 version of Excel. The first bug that I found was applying the median...

9 hours ago by greycynic on Ten flawed products that derail productivity

Nice review and very informative. One thing I'd like to add (in reply to whs001's 1st question), the main reason to have the same interface from...

10 hours ago by GrueMaster on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

I'be been using Mint 12 since the RC came out, and I am far more happy with the Cinnamon, the Mate, and, yes (with extensions), theGnome 3...

11 hours ago by Frederick Wrigley via Facebook on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Excellent article. One small correction, though--although a fresh installation of Linux Mint 12 will, indeed, provide the user with a version of...

12 hours ago by bdantas on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

12 hours ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

12 hours ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material

For Gnome 2 die-hards, it is possible to add icons to the bottom panel (or top top panel, if you prefer) which provide the exact Gnome 2...

13 hours ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Your comments would seem pretty naive and immature. Your 'solution' appears to be, "gee, let's all just give in to the hackers and give them...

13 hours ago by ramwellian on Cloud computing security: no more oxymoron?

"Interesting thought ... If you installed Win7 as a dual boot on a machine that previously only had Linux, and it wrecked your Linux installation,...

13 hours ago by BugStalker on Windows 7 Declares War on GRUB

This is an excellent summary of Ubuntu and Mint and the interface differences between them. Most such articles take a very partisan position for...

14 hours ago by whs001 on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

@ewallace. Not so clear. Anyone can obtain the text, for example from here http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/2379. I support ACTA so long as it and...

14 hours ago by Moley on ACTA: Facts, misconceptions and questions

I think WinRT is fantastic. I just wish it was an option for people that didn't want to go through Microsoft's App Store with its attendant...

17 hours ago by 45283 on Why Windows 8 needs architectural hygiene for WOA

Nine people? £30m? Who's back pocket is that lot going in? And IF they say it is for new buildings, what about all the ones the government has...

18 hours ago by Burn-IT on Police set to launch three £30m e-crime hubs

Just to be clear, nobody knows what is in the text of ACTA, here is a photograph of the text of ACTA http://twitpic.com/8h9iju as submitted to the...

18 hours ago by ewallace on ACTA: Facts, misconceptions and questions

Unfortunately main issue is that ASUS is refusing to accept that they make some mistake on this version of asus Transformer prime. 1 - GPS sensor...

19 hours ago by fgvrg56 on Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime Wi-Fi & GPS problems?

@Marcus A fair question. Just talked with Archos which said it was working on an announcement for next week....

20 hours ago by Ben Woods on Archos confirms G9 Ice Cream Sandwich update schedule

Any update on this, considering the claimed "first week of February"?

22 hours ago by Marcus Karlsson via Facebook on Archos confirms G9 Ice Cream Sandwich update schedule

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Project planning boost

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Microsoft talks the talk on security

Microsoft says: Trust me

Microsoft set to acquire Navision

Ten flawed products that derail productivity

Adobe relents on CS6 upgrade charges

Post your comment

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in Desktop Apps

Ten flawed products that derail productivity

Adobe relents on CS6 upgrade charges

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Test Analyst - Business Intelligence /Data Warehousing

Test Analyst - Business Intelligence /Data Warehousing

Technical MI Manager - 50-60k - Leeds

Inside ZDNet UK

A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

2012 Predictions: VCE FastPath, VI SAN Probe & Hadoop

BlackBerry Bold 9790

Case study: How cloud enables growth

Ten factors that make Ubuntu 11.10 a hit

Toshiba Portégé Z830-10P Review

BT's archive: Pictures from the vault

News & Analysis

Reviews

Blogs

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features

ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Workspace IT / Desktop Apps

Project planning boost

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Post your comment

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in Desktop Apps

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Inside ZDNet UK

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features