administering project server 2010 manual ppmiab version

Wellingtone 2010 1

Copy provided as part of your PPMiaB Project Server 2010 deployment

Administering Microsoft Office Project

Server 2010 www.wellingtoneEPM.co.uk [dedicated EPM site]

www.wellingtone.co.uk [main corporate site]

Administering Microsoft Office Project Server 2010

Wellingtone 2010 Page 2


INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 6

SYSTEM OVERVIEW AND ARCHITECTURE ................................................ 8

The Web Tier .......................................................................................................................................... 8

Middle Tier ............................................................................................................................................. 9

The Database Tier .................................................................................................................................. 9

ACCESSING PROJECT WEB APP .............................................................. 11

The Administrator Role ....................................................................................................................... 11

SHAREPOINT PERMISSIONS...................................................................... 13

SERVER SETTINGS THE ADMINISTRATOR CONSOLE ........................ 14

SECURITY ..................................................................................................... 15

Manage Users ........................................................................................................................................ 15

Manage Groups .................................................................................................................................... 22 Active Directory Synchronisation ...................................................................................................... 27

Manage Categories ............................................................................................................................... 28

Manage Security Templates ................................................................................................................ 32

Project Web App Permissions ............................................................................................................. 33

Manage Delegates ................................................................................................................................. 35

ENTERPRISE DATA ..................................................................................... 38

Enterprise Custom Field Definition .................................................................................................... 38

Enterprise Look up Tables .................................................................................................................. 43

Enterprise Global ................................................................................................................................. 44

Enterprise Calendars: .......................................................................................................................... 46

Resource Centre ................................................................................................................................... 48




About Project Server ............................................................................................................................ 48

DATABASE ADMINISTRATION ................................................................... 48

Delete Enterprise Objects .................................................................................................................... 48

Force Check-In Enterprise Objects .................................................................................................... 49

Daily Schedule Backup ......................................................................................................................... 51

Administrative Backup ........................................................................................................................ 51

Administrative Restore ........................................................................................................................ 52

OLAP Database Management ............................................................................................................. 53

Build Settings ........................................................................................................................................ 53

Configuration ........................................................................................................................................ 55 Working with custom fields ............................................................................................................... 55 Working with calculated measures .................................................................................................... 56

LOOK AND FEEL .......................................................................................... 57

Manage Views ....................................................................................................................................... 57 Project Views ..................................................................................................................................... 59 Project Centre Views ......................................................................................................................... 59 Resource Assignments Views ............................................................................................................ 59 Resource Centre Views ...................................................................................................................... 59 My Work ............................................................................................................................................ 60 Resource Plans ................................................................................................................................... 60 Team Tasks ........................................................................................................................................ 60 Team Builder ..................................................................................................................................... 60 Timesheet ........................................................................................................................................... 60 Portfolio Analysis .............................................................................................................................. 60 Portfolio Analysis Project Selection .................................................................................................. 60

Grouping Formats ................................................................................................................................ 60

Gantt chart Formats............................................................................................................................. 61

Quick Launch ....................................................................................................................................... 62

TIME AND TASK MANAGEMENT ................................................................ 63

Fiscal Periods ........................................................................................................................................ 63

Time Reporting Periods ....................................................................................................................... 64

Timesheet Adjustment ......................................................................................................................... 65




Line Classifications ............................................................................................................................... 66 Editing Classifications ....................................................................................................................... 67

Timesheet Settings and Defaults ......................................................................................................... 67

Administrative Time ............................................................................................................................ 70

Task Settings and Display .................................................................................................................... 70

Close Tasks to Update .......................................................................................................................... 71

Queue ..................................................................................................................................................... 72

Manage Queue ...................................................................................................................................... 73 Choose Filter Type ............................................................................................................................. 73 Length of History ............................................................................................................................... 74 Choose Job Type ................................................................................................................................ 74 Choose Job Completion States ........................................................................................................... 74 Choose Columns ................................................................................................................................ 74 Advanced Options .............................................................................................................................. 74 Job Grid .............................................................................................................................................. 75

Queue Settings ...................................................................................................................................... 75

OPERATIONAL POLICIES ........................................................................... 78

Alerts and Reminders ........................................................................................................................... 78

Additional Server Settings ................................................................................................................... 79 Project 2007 Compatibility Mode ...................................................................................................... 79 Project Professional Versions ............................................................................................................ 80 Enterprise Settings ............................................................................................................................. 80 Currency Settings ............................................................................................................................... 80 Resource Capacity Settings ................................................................................................................ 80 Resource Plan Work Day ................................................................................................................... 80 Exchange Server Settings ................................................................................................................... 80 Task Mode Settings ............................................................................................................................ 81

Server Side Event Handlers ................................................................................................................. 81

Active Directory Resource Pool Synchronisation .............................................................................. 81

Project Sites........................................................................................................................................... 82

Project Site Provisioning Settings ....................................................................................................... 82

Bulk Update Project Sites .................................................................................................................... 83

WORKFLOW AND PROJECT DETAIL PAGES ........................................... 84

Enterprise Project Types ..................................................................................................................... 86




Workflow Phases .................................................................................................................................. 89

Workflow Stages ................................................................................................................................... 90

Change or Restart Workflows ............................................................................................................. 95

Project Detail Pages .............................................................................................................................. 96

Project Workflow Settings ................................................................................................................. 100

Copyright Wellingtone Limited 2010 All Rights Reserved. No Part Of This Document May Be Reproduced, Stored In A Retrieval System or Transmitted, In Any Form or Any Means Electronically, Mechanically, Photocopied or Otherwise Without

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Wellingtone 2010 6


Introduction The Project Server EPM solution provides organisations with the opportunity to connect

people to the project scheduling and documentation information they need to better

perform their roles within projects and their organisation.

The vast majority of those engaged in projects will gain access to the information they need

through the Project Web App (PWA) browser. This client internet browser connects the

individual to information relevant to them. The information resides in the Project Server

databases that are stored in SQL Server.

People with an interest in project information are able to access up to date and relevant

information on their workload, the state of the project or projects they are engaged in and

through the provision of SharePoint Project Workspaces also access information about risks,

issues and deliverables as well as gaining access to documents relating to the projects they

are engaged in.

Consequently administering this system is a very important role; effective disciplined

administration will ensure that access to information is provided in a controlled and logical

manner.

This guide introduces you to the essential principles and procedures associated with

Administering Project Server. Before going any further it is worthwhile pointing out that this

Administrator role is more reliant on good Project Management and Project Management

Office (PMO) experience than it is upon good IT Administration skills.

The Administration console available from Server Settings in Project Web App is arranged

in a logical and easy to navigate fashion. The environment is also reasonably forgiving in that

there is normally an easy and relatively painless route out of any problems that you may

encounter, most typically simply cancelling the action you are engaged in at the time.

However this should not absolve you from approaching your role as an Administrator in a

disciplined and ordered fashion.

A default installation of Project Server is invested with what Microsoft have identified as

being the most logical and commonly employed approach to managing an Enterprise Project

environment. This guide is based on a default installation of Microsoft Office Project Server

2010. The solution can be customised and configured to suit whatever business needs there

may be.

This manual is also designed to provide Administrators of Microsoft Office Project Server

2010 with a quick and easy to follow reference point enabling them to perform their role

with confidence.

The manual walks you through elements of both the Microsoft Office Project Web App 2010

client Interface and the Microsoft Office Project Professional 2010 scheduling client. Both of




these client tools will be used by the Administrator at some point in their performing of their

role.

The primary interface is the Microsoft Office Project Web App 2010 client (PWA). The

Administrator can access this client using either a Windows user account, SQL forms

authentication or LDAP authentication for the purposes of expediency this manual

assumes Windows Authentication at all times.

Note in order to protect your instance of Project Server it is suggested that you have at

least one service account using Windows Authentication associated with the

Administrators group in Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 so that you avoid rendering the

Administrative functionality inaccessible. It is also suggested that in order to avoid confusion

when testing any changes you may have made to user permissions, group permissions or

security templates that you have a test account using Windows Authentication available to

test and verify that changes you have made work as intended.




System Overview and Architecture Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 is designed as a true multi-tiered solution. Its

architecture includes Microsoft Office Project Professional 2010 and Project Web App clients

in the front-end tier. These front-end client applications communicate with the middle tier

only through the Project Server Interface (PSI) Web services, which in turn communicate

with the business object layer. Business objects use the databases through the data access

layer (DAL). The business objects, DAL, and primary databases are maintained at a distinct

distance from the clients and can be regarded as being hidden from the client Interfaces.

Figure 1 This diagram does not show workflow architecture, configuration, or integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server or other Microsoft Office system applications.

The Web Tier The front-end tier can include third-party applications in addition to the intended Project

Professional and Project Web App client interfaces. Project Web App uses Microsoft Internet




Explorer (IE) to display Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 pages, consequently IE version 6.0 or above is

required other browsers such as Mozilla are incompatible with the Project Server solution.

The Project Web App pages use standard Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (WSS)

version 3 Web Parts that communicate with the PSI.

Client applications on separate computers can call the PSI through proxies to the PSI Web

services. Client applications and back-end components of line-of-business (LOB) Web

applications can also use PSI proxies to make direct calls to the PSI Web services if they can

access the Project Server computer. If applications do not have direct intranet access to

Project Server, they can use a Project Web App server in a perimeter network.

Middle Tier The middle tier of the solution includes the PSI and the business logic layer, which consists of

logical business objects that represent Project Server business entities. Business objects

include Project, Task, Resource, Assignment, and so forth. The PSI and the business logic tier

are tightly coupled and are located on the same server. A client application calls the PSI Web

services, and the PSI invokes business objects in the business logic tier.

The DAL allows communication between the middle tier and the database. All Project Server

data is stored in Microsoft SQL Server databases, which can be located on separate servers.

The Project Server databases are factored into the following stores: Draft, Published,

Archive, and Reporting.

The Project Web App components of Project Server also use the Windows SharePoint

Services configuration database for project site setup and the content database for project

site content such as management settings, documents, and lists of issues, risks, and

commitments. The Windows SharePoint Services configuration and content data stores

support additional features for project management, such as Project templates and

workspaces, workflow, team collaboration, and reporting.

The PSI provides a highly programmable means of manipulating and interrogating data in

the project server databases this is beyond the scope of day to day administration and is

not covered in this manual.

The Database Tier The Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 EPM solution stores data in a series of SQL

databases

There are 4 separate databases in a Project Server Installation:

1. Draft

2. Published

3. Reporting

4. Archive




These four databases allow for significantly improved handling of data over the previous

version of Project Server where all data was written to a single database.

When a project is first created it is written to the drafts database. On first publication and

subsequent publication the project schedule is then written to the published and reporting

databases.

The Archive database retains copies of project plans and other enterprise components as

determined by the Administrator in the options available from the Database Administration

section within the Administrative console.

The Archive database and back-up options available within the Administrative console

should be regarded as an additional level of protection and should be employed in addition

to regular SQL back-up policies operated by your IT function.




Accessing Project Web App Microsoft Office Project Web App 2010 (PWA) is the browser interface for connecting users

to relevant information from the Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 Database. You will

need to use Internet Explorer version 6.0 or above to access this data.

Enter the URL for your instance of Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 in the address bar in

Internet Explorer. You should ensure that this address is added to the Trusted Sites listed

within the Security section of Internet Options. It can also be useful to add the URL to your

Favourites in Internet Explorer or to create a desktop or menu shortcut to this URL as you

will likely be accessing it on a regular basis in your role as an Administrator.

Once you have been validated to the Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 database you will

be given access to the home page in PWA, your identity will be visible in the top right hand

corner of the PWA home page.

The Administrator Role In order to Administer Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 you need to:

either be a member of the Administrators group

or

be able to connect to Project Web App using an account that has Administrator

group membership.

Of the two approaches the second is more preferable. If your normal user account is a

member of the Administrators group you will by default have access to all facets of Project

Web App, in effect this will counter the security principles which are a fundamental aspect

of this tool and how it is designed to work if you are also likely to be involved in managing

projects or working in project teams.




Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 now supports two distinct means of authenticating

people to the server.

Windows Authentication

Forms Authentication

It is also useful to have at least one Test Account that you can use to verify that any

changes you have made operate in the intended manner. This test account can use either

Windows Authentication or Forms based Authentication.

In order to create Enterprise Custom Fields and to also configure elements of the Enterprise

Global an Administrator will also need to have a copy of Microsoft Office Project

Professional 2010 installed and to have their Project Server Account details set up to allow

communication between this client scheduling tool and the project server database.

To establish connection between Microsoft Office Project Professional 2010 and your

instance of Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 you will need to perform the following

actions. In Microsoft Office Project Professional 2010 select the Tools menu, the last item

listed is Enterprise Options from this item select the Project Server Accounts option. In

the Project Server Accounts dialogue box enter a username and the URL for your instance of

Microsoft Office Project Server 2010. You can set the account you have created as being the

default account. During this process you may be asked if you trust the site identified by the

URL you have entered, indicate that you do trust it.

In the Project Server Accounts dialogue box there is an option for allow automatic or manual

connection status having this option set to Automatic deprives you of the option to work

off-line. A further downside to Automatic connection status is that if you opt for manual

connection in the dialogue box presented to you at connection there is an option not to load

summary resource assignments. Not loading summary resource assignments allows a

manager to assess the workload for Enterprise Resources in a single project plan without

consideration of their workload in any other Enterprise Projects they may be assigned to.

Once you have created a Project Server Account you will need to close Microsoft Office

Project Professional 2010. When you next open Microsoft Office Project Professional 2010

you will have the option to connect using your account if you have elected for manual

connection. Otherwise you will be connected automatically. Once connected you will be able

to open any Enterprise Projects that you are allowed access to through the permissions

you have been granted.




SharePoint Permissions Project Server 2010 is a SharePoint Application and as such it resides within SharePoint

whereas Project Server 2003 worked alongside SharePoint and Microsoft Office Project

Server 2007 was a Shared Service in SharePoint. As a consequence there are some

Administrative actions that are common to SharePoint rather than specific to Project Server.

As Project Server 2010 can only be installed within a SharePoint environment for the sake of

expediency covering elements of SharePoint Administration is not within the scope of this

user manual.




Server Settings The Administrator Console The Server Settings link will take you to the Administrator Console in PWA where the full

range of Administrative options are available to those who have Administrative rights. The

Server Settings menu item is also available to some people who are not Administrators

through their membership of other groups, however the functionality available to them is

pared down compared to the extensive options available to Administrators.

The Administrative Options are conveniently set out in logical groupings, the rest of this

manual works through the various groupings and all the actions and options available from

each of them.




Security The Security section within the Server Settings Administrative Console covers the following

concepts:

Managing Users

Managing Groups

Managing Categories

Security Templates

Project Web App Permissions

Manage Delegates

Security considerations are at the very heart of the Microsoft Office Project Server 2010

EPM solution. By carefully managing security you can ensure that access to information is

controlled in an effective and robust manner.

By default the Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 EPM solution is invested with a default

hierarchy of groups which users can be added to. The groups that are available model the

typical organisational hierarchy and are Microsoft Corporations best fit solution however

the default hierarchy of groups available at install can be modified and augmented with

further groups should the need arise.

Manage Users When you select Manage Users the list of all existing users on Project Server is displayed,

you can search for a user, select a users name from a drop down list or search for a user by

entering part or all of their name you can add or edit information for one or more users at

this point, you also have the option to print or export the list to an Excel spreadsheet from

the actions menu should you wish.




Adding users to the Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 environment can be achieved in

one of three ways.

1. Individual details entered within PWA




2. Active Directory Synchronisation

3. Adding Resources to the Enterprise Resource Pool

Each of these approaches has their merits and de-merits.

Adding individual details in the users section within Security in the Server Settings console in

PWA is a relatively long-winded approach, however it does provide the administrator to be

specific in defining various user attributes.

In the New User page you are first give the option to specify whether the new user can be

assigned as a resource, this means that the new user is added to the Enterprise Resource

Pool.

You are then required to provide information about the new user as follows:

Information Comments

Display Name Make sure the user name complies with any in-house

naming conventions that may be in operation.

E-mail address This can be used by the system to notify individuals of

new assignments and also allow them to subscribe to

alerts and reminders on both assignments and some

SharePoint features.

RBS The Resource Breakdown Structure identifies where the

user resides within the hierarchy of the organisation it

can be regarded as indicating who reports to whom.

The RBS when allied to membership of groups can

significantly restrict access to information that is off

limits to the individual.

Initials Enter the individuals initials to uniquely identify them.

Hyperlink Name If the user maintains a team Web site, type the hyperlink

destination and the URL address in the Hyperlink Name

box and Hyperlink URL box, respectively.

Hyperlink URL

Account Status

User Authentication Authentication can only be Windows user account based.

The option to opt out of Active Directory synchronisation




is also available.

Assignment Attributes: 1 Resource can be levelled means assignments can be re-

scheduled in the Microsoft Office Project Professional

2010 scheduling client to avoid overload situations for

specific resources, this feature has been significantly

improved over previous versions.

Assignment Attributes: 2 Base Calendar by default this is listed as Standard,

however if the enterprise employs a suite of different

calendars for the purposes of either mirroring different

work patterns or the different statutory holidays in

different locations where the enterprise has operations

these can be selected from the drop down list. Note

a user can have only one base calendar.

Assignment Attributes: 3 Default Booking Type by default this is set to be

Committed, this means that any assignments given to

the user as an Enterprise Resource in a project plan

created in Microsoft Office Project Professional 2010 or

as part of a Resource Plan or Project Team for a Web

Based Project created within the PWA client will have an

impact on their capacity and availability. The other

option is for the booking type to be set to be Proposed

- this booking type when employed has no impact on a

resources capacity and availability.


Timesheet Manager If you are going to use Timesheet Routing you can

specify who the users Timesheet Manager will be by

clicking the browse button and selecting the relevant

individual from the list provided. By default new

resources are their own Timesheet Managers the good

news is you can change this attribute for many people at

the same time using the Bulk Edit option in the

Resource Centre in PWA.

Default Assignment Owner This field displays the users name by default. It can be

left blank or associated with another person in instances

where an individual managing a group or team of people

has responsibility for updating their progress and time on

tasks.




If the default Assignment Owner field is left blank and

the user is assigned to tasks in a Project created in

Microsoft Office Project Professional 2010 and the

project plan is then published the assignments will be

sent to the person who published the project plan.

Earliest Available This field along with the Latest Available field can be

used to define attributes for a user who is only available

for a defined window of time by default these fields are

left blank as a person is assumed to be available

indefinitely into the future.

Latest Available This field can also be updated if a user will be leaving the

organisation at a defined point in the near future. Any

work assigned to the individual beyond this date will be

identified as being an Over-allocation as the person in

question will be unavailable to perform the work when

scheduled.

Standard Rated A new feature in Project Server 2010 is the facility to

enter and edit Resource Costs in the PWA client. The

default value is 0.00/h but you can enter costs per

minute, day or week we would not recommend using a

larger denomination as it can lead to rounding errors.

We strongly advocate associating costs with resources in

order to truly model the cost of a project for business

case validation. The standard rate is NOT what a person

is paid but what they are costed at or charged to a

project this value is sometimes known as the FTE or

Full Time Equivalent cost you may wish to consult

your finance function if this is unfamiliar territory.

Overtime Rate Some people see the word overtime and move straight

on Microsoft Project uses overtime work to turn

around tasks in a shorter duration. If people do not

receive an enhanced overtime rate we suggest this rate

be the same as the Standard Rate above.

Per Use Cost This is a non-time dependant cost for employing a

resource a good example would be an emergency

plumber they will charge you an hourly rate, either

their standard or overtime rate but will also charge you a

fixed figure for Call Out2 this cost is incurred

regardless of the work performed and defrays over

time.




Exchange Synchronisation Another new feature in Project Server 2010, this allows

tasks to be synched to a persons task list in Outlook via

Exchange Server, tasks cannot be displayed in a Calendar

view and Exchange Server 2010 is required.

Departments Another new feature in Project Server 2010, this allows

Resources to be associated with defined Departments

created within the Enterprise Custom Fields section

covered later in this manual. This feature operates

without regard to the RBS again this is covered in more

detail later in this manual.

Security Groups Users can be added to one or more security groups at

this point in order to maintain a degree of control over

who has access to information it is recommended that

users are added to as few a number of groups as

possible. Security Groups are covered in more detail in

the next section of this part of the manual.

Security Categories This option is available but should be ignored as Security

Categories are designed to operate in conjunction with

Groups rather than individual users.

Global Permissions Similarly editing individual user options in the Global

Permissions section whilst being an option should be

avoided users belong to a group and are invested with

permissions through membership of that group. Security

Groups are covered in more detail in the next section of

this part of the manual.


Resource Custom Fields

Another new feature in Project Server 2010, this allows

you to assign Enterprise Attributes to people as with

the Bulk Edit option for Timesheet Managers you can

associate the same Custom Enterprise Resource Field

values with more than one person at the same time.

However for ease of editing we prefer to update these

attributes in a Resource View in the Project Professional

2010 scheduling client, more on that in the Resource

Centre section later in this manual.

Group Fields: 1 Group field this is a default option in the install of

Project Server it can be used to define which group a




user belongs to, this group is within the Project

scheduling environment and Enterprise Resource Pool

NOT the security groups within Project Server.

Group Fields: 2 Code this is a legacy field from earlier versions of

Microsoft Project it was used to reference code values

such as cost centre, payroll number or employee ID

number. Given the potential for custom fields available

in the Project Server environment this attribute is of

limited value.

Group Fields: 3 Cost Centre is a default Group field option in this

instance of Project Server the Administrator can define

how Cost Centre values are determined, this is controlled

in the Enterprise Custom Field Definition section within

the Enterprise Data section of the Administrative

Console.

Group Fields: 4 Cost Type again this is a default Group field option in

this instance of Project Server

Team Details Team Resources are a feature of Project Server 2010 that

allow you to assign work to a team and then have

anyone who is a member of that team self assign the

work this is sometimes known as Cafeteria Working

or Self Service assignments are pushed down to the

individual, team assignments need to be assumed by the

individual. The good news is that it is possible to oversee

the work allocated to team resources and when required

impress upon team members the need to assume

responsibility for work assigned to the team they belong

to.

In theory a person can be a member of more than one

team but this can lead to problems and is best avoided.

System Identification Type additional identifying information for the user in

the External ID box. This information can be used to link

the person to corresponding information in a human

resources department, or to facilitate the consolidation

of reporting of resource use beyond that which Project

Server provides.

When you are confident that you have entered the information for a user correctly click the

Save button to have the values updated for the user.




Manage Groups Groups are an intrinsic element of security within the Project Server environment. Groups

are an established security concept in basic Windows environment administration the idea

being that people or users belong to groups and inherit permissions invested in the groups

they belong to. This approach makes the administering of permissions far more manageable.

If a change is made to a group, everyone within the group is impacted by the change in the

same way and at the same time, therefore many people or users can be treated the same.

Groups invest users with permissions controlled by two factors Security Templates and

Categories.

By default when Project Server 2010 is installed there is a default hierarchy of groups

defined. The hierarchy of these groups reflects the typical flow of information from the

bottom to the top of an organisation.

Team Members have the lowest level of privileges whilst Administrators have the highest

level. Additional groups to those installed by default can be created by an Administrator

should the need arise.

Ideally you should aim to place individual users in as little a number of groups as possible to

both exhibit rigorous security and also to avoid potential confusion or ambiguities.

A security group is a collection of users who have the same security requirements in Project

Web App. By adding users to groups, you can significantly reduce the amount of time spent

managing user permissions. Users will automatically inherit the permissions of any group to

which they have been added. An Administrator can manage groups by using the Groups

page of the Manage users and groups section of the Project Web App Server Settings page.

The following groups are created by default when Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 is

installed:




Team Members As projects are created, saved, and published; accounts are

created in Project Server for any resources in the project that are not already Project

Server users. By default, Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 adds any new

resources to the Team Members group, which is granted permissions to the My

Tasks category. The Team Members group is able to view but not edit data in the

category. The Team Members group is granted a number of global permissions that

allow use of the Project Web App timesheet and status reports features.

Team Leads: You can add users to this group who do not manage projects but need

limited abilities to view and edit project information. This group is granted

permissions to the My Projects category.

Resource Managers The Resource Managers group is granted permissions to the

My Resources category. Resource Managers have the permission to view and

change the assignments for people that they manage this facility can be useful in

Matrix Management oriented organisations where a Project Manager may not

have direct management authority over resources within the organisation.

Project Managers: The Project Managers group is granted permissions to the My

Projects category. The Project Managers group is able to view and edit projects in

the category. Project managers are granted a number of global permissions that

enable them to create new projects, status reports, and to-do lists. They are also

granted limited permissions to the My Organization category.

Portfolio Managers Users who manage the Enterprise Global Template and

Enterprise Resource Pool in an organization can be added to the Portfolio Managers

group. These users can create and edit data, but cannot perform Project Server

administrative tasks such as adding users or creating groups. Portfolio Managers are

able to view and edit all projects and resources in the organization. This group is

granted permissions to the My Organization category.

Executives Users who require a broad view of the projects and resources in an

organization can be added to the Executives group. This group can view any project

and any resource published to the server. Administrators must manually create user

accounts for users who belong to the Executives group. Only team members and

project manager accounts can be added automatically. The Executives group is

granted permissions to the My Organization category. The Executives group is

granted global permissions to view project and resource information in the Project

Centre, the Resource Centre, and Data Analysis features.

Administrators This group is granted all available Project Server permissions and is

granted permissions to the My Organization category.

These default groups are designed to be used together with the six default categories.

To manage groups in Microsoft Office Project Server 2010, you can perform the following

procedures provided you have Administrative rights.




Create a security group

Modify a security group

Delete a security group

Groups can be edited by simply clicking on the name of the group, the name being displayed

as a hyperlink. Editing a group provides you with the following options:

Group Name

Description

Active Directory Synchronisation




Users

Categories

Global Permissions

If you wish you can edit the Group name and also the description of the group.

Active Directory Synchronisation provides you with the facility to associate a Project Server

Group with an Active Directory group this can make the populating of users a more

seamless and less time consuming activity.

There is however a sting in the tail in that Active Directory has primacy over Project Server.

This means that changes in Active Directory will be applied to Project Server which can

sometimes cause problems. It is possible to associate a group with Active Directory for the

purposes of populating the group with information that already resides within the

organisation but once this linkage has been employed you can then break the link between

Active Directory and Project Server.

Users give you the facility to add to or remove people from the group you are editing.

Categories are one of the two factors that influence a group, the other being security

templates. Whilst the facility to add people to a category is available it is recommended that

you avoid this as it can introduce anomalies in terms of permissions for users.

Ideally people belong to groups, Security Templates determine what members of the group

can do and Categories influence what members of a group can do things to in the Microsoft

Office Project Server 2010 environment.

Global Permissions list out the actions that members of the group may be permitted to

perform. The global permissions list is conveniently broken down in to logical groupings of

permissions as follows:

Admin

General

Portfolio Strategy

Project

Resource

Status Reports

Time and Task Management

Views




Permissions can be set at the group level; this will apply the same permissions to all actions

within the relevant group either not allowed, allowed or deny. Alternatively mixed

permissions can be applied to individual permissions within a grouping although this runs

counter to the concepts supported by the existence of Groups as an Administrative

mechanism.

There are 3 permission states:

Not Allowed No Tick

Allowed Ticked

Denied Ticked

Only one option for each permission is permitted you cannot have Allowed and Denied on

the same permission. When making selections in these tick boxes you should be aware of

their implications

Not Allowed No Ticks

Allowed Ticked Over-rides Not Allowed

Denied Ticked Over-rides Allowed

If a person belongs to two groups and in one group permission is set to not allowed whereas

in the other group it is set to allow then the individual is allowed to perform that action. If

however a person belongs to several groups and all bar one of them have a permission set

to allow and in the one other group the permission is set to deny then this action is rendered

inoperable.

Note: The Deny setting should therefore only be used sparingly as it is an extreme

option. Setting a permission to deny may however be appropriate when an

Administrator wishes to block part or all of the functionality in Microsoft Office

Project Server 2010 for a particular reason.

At the very bottom of the list of permissions is a drop down list allowing one of the existing

Security Templates to be applied to the permissions grid for the selected group. The security

templates are named to match the default groups within Microsoft Office Project Server

2010.

Note: If you make changes to a Security Template the changes do not automatically

impact upon the group that the Security Template or Category that the Security

Template is associated with. You will need to edit the Group and/or Category and re-

select the Security Template and apply it and save changes for the changes to the

Security Template to come into effect.




Active Directory Synchronisation

Project Server users and resources can be synchronised with the users of the Active

Directory service across multiple domains and forests. This feature helps administrators with

tedious tasks, such as manually adding large numbers of users, updating user metadata such

as email addresses, and deactivating users who no longer require system access.

Active Directory synchronization can be done manually or on an automated schedule. When

Active Directory synchronization occurs, only the Project Server data is changed. Active

Directory data is never altered it is only queried.

Project Server user/resource properties updated during synchronisation

When synchronisation occurs, Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 updates the following

Project Server user/resource properties with specific Active Directory user metadata fields:

Active Directory user property Project Server user/resource property

ADGUID

(UserObject.objectGUID)

Stored in the Project Server Published database

(WRES_AD_GUID field in MSP_RESOURCES table). This

property is not viewable in the Project Web App user

interface.

Windows User Account

(domain\AccountName)

Windows User Account

Display Name

(UserObject.displayName)

Display name/Resource name

Email Address

(UserObject.mail)

Email address

Department

(UserObject.department)

Group (resource property only)

Note

This does not refer to Project Server security groups.

It is possible to customise Active Directory synchronisation to map to additional metadata

fields by using server-side handlers. This is a developer feature and is not covered in this

manual.

Best practices for Active Directory synchronisation




The following are best practices that Microsoft recommends when managing Active

Directory synchronisation in Microsoft Office Project Server 2010:

Create specific Active Directory groups that correspond to each Project Server

security group and the Project Server enterprise resource pool. For example, give

the new Active Directory groups names such as Project Server PPM, Project

Server Project Managers, Project Server Executives. Nest existing Active

Directory groups inside these groups for better organization.

Always synchronize the enterprise resource pool first, and then synchronize Project

Server security groups. This ensures enterprise resource properties are set up

correctly.

Schedule the synchronization to take place once per week during off-peak hours.

Troubleshoot synchronization issues by examining the application event log on the

farms application server.

Ensure that the account specified for the Project Server application Shared Services

Provider has permission to read from all Active Directory domains and forests used

in synchronization.

Procedure Requirements

The following are required to perform the procedures for this task:

Access to Project Server through Project Web App with an account having the

Manage Active Directory Settings and Manage users and groups global settings.

Read access (for the Service Application Account (SAA) for the Project Server

instance) to all Active Directory groups and user accounts involved in the

synchronization. You can verify this account in the SAA's properties on the Shared

Services Administration page on the SharePoint Central Administration Web site.

Manage Categories Categories determine what a group can do things to in the Project Web App Client

Environment.

Categories are the collections of projects, resources, assignments and views to which users

and groups in Project Server are granted access. Categories define which collections of

specific data (projects, assignments, resources, and views) that these users and groups have

access to. Categories allow the administrator to separate the data by the scope of the

information accessed. Categories also allow the administrator to filter data using security

rules, like Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS), that can help organize and display data in

specific ways.




Users and groups can be added to categories directly. However, you can add projects and

resources to categories manually by choosing them from lists, or you can use predefined




filters (dynamic rules) to automatically add them to categories. Any user who has permission

to a category is granted permission to all of the projects and resources in the category.

You must have the Manage users and groups global permission to add, modify, or

delete a group.

Avoid creating unnecessary categories. Having a large number of groups and

categories within an organization can stress the authorization system, which can

affect performance.

Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 creates five default categories during installation. These

default categories are designed to enable Project Server to provide the most common layer

of security for a hierarchical organization or matrix organization.

Users can be added to these categories manually or by default. For example, when you add a

user to a project as a resource, the user automatically becomes a member of the default

Team Members group, which has permissions in the default My Tasks category.

Default

category

Default

groups in the

category Description

My Tasks Team

Members

Primarily used by project resources who have assigned

tasks.

My Projects Project

Managers

Resource

Managers

Team Leads

Provides access to all projects that a user owns.

My

Resources

Resource

Managers

Intended for resource managers and is useful only after the

Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) is defined.

My Direct Resource Intended for users who need to be able to approve




Reports Managers timesheets.

My

Organization

Executives

Portfolio

Managers

Project

Managers

Resource

Managers

Team Leads

Team

Members

Used to grant access to all information in the organization.

This category is intended for members of a Project

Management Office (PMO), executives in an organization,

and other key users who require the ability to view projects

and resources across the entire organization.

Procedure Requirements

The following are required to perform the procedures for this task:

Access to Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 through Project Web App.

The Manage users and groups global permission in Microsoft Office Project Server

2010 in order to create, modify, or delete a category.

To manage categories in Microsoft Office Project Server 2010, you can perform the following

procedures:

Create a category

Modify a category

Delete a category

When editing a Category you may notice that more than one group is associated with the

same category. However if you click on an individual group name the list of permitted

actions displayed below will show differing allowed options depending which group name

you click on.

In the examples shown here we have the My Projects Category selected and there are

several groups associated with it. The selected group on the left, Team Leads, displays a

different set of permissions compared to the Project Managers group selected in the right

hand pane even though they are both in the same category.




Note: Project Server provides you with the facility to associate individual users with a

Category please avoid this. The golden rule should be that users belong to groups, groups

invest members with privileges, security templates determine what members of a group can

do and categories determine what a groups members can do things to in the Project Server

environment.

Manage Security Templates Security Templates determine what a group can do. By default there are a series of

security templates available with a default installation of Microsoft Office Project Server

2010 . These templates match the default groups.

Note: Before making changes to existing security templates it is recommended that you

make a copy of the template.

This is easily achieved by clicking the New Template command at the head of the Manage

Templates page and then selecting the Copy Template drop down list and selecting the

relevant security template.




In the Add or Edit Template page enter a name for example Administrator BACKUP and

provide a description. In the Copy Template select the relevant template and then click Save.

Repeat this process for any templates you may wish to backup.

Replacing an edited security template at any time in the future will then be quite simple

simply delete the template then create a new template with the same name select the copy

template command and select the backed up version of the original template and then save

the template.

Note: As before if you make changes to a Security Template the changes made do not

automatically impact upon the group that the Security Template is associated with. You will

need to edit the group and re-select the Security Template and apply it and save changes for

the changes to the Security Template to come into effect.

Project Web App Permissions Project Web App permissions control which global and category permissions are enabled on

the Project Server.

An administrator can use Project Web App permissions to deny access to all Project Server

users for a particular feature in Project Professional or Project Web App. If a Project Web

App permission is enabled, the equivalent global or category permission is enabled for users

with those permissions. If it is not enabled then the permission is rendered inoperable

regardless of any other permission the user may be invested with through membership of

groups.




Project Web App Permissions are grouped under the following logical headings:

Admin

General

Portfolio Strategy

Project

Resource

Status Reports

Time and Task Management




Views

For example, if you deny the Delete Project Web App permission, users cannot delete

projects, regardless of whether they have the Delete Project category permission.

Manage Delegates This is a new feature in Project Server and allows someone to act as a delegate for

somebody else for a specified window of time. Examples of where you may wish to set up

delegation can be as follows:

A manager is on vacation and the timesheets their team members have submitted

need to be reviewed and approved.

A manager is off work through illness and their project plan needs to be updated

with the latest submissions from team members.

To enable delegation navigate to the delegation page.

Select the delegation option to display the delegation page; it will list any existing active

delegations. To create a new delegation click the New option at the top left hand corner of

the page.

Set the Delegation Period

Set the Delegate or Delegates the people who will assume responsibility on behalf

of someone else for the delegation period.




Working on behalf of - the people who the delegates will act on behalf of for the

delegation period.

The Browse buttons in the last 2 options listed above present you with an intuitive drop

down list to select people from.

Once you have saved the selections you have made the delegation page will list effective

delegations operating on your instance of Project Server.

Intriguingly you can have more than one person act as a delegate for one or more resources

at the same time. A person can also act as a delegate for many people at the same time.

Once delegation has been enabled those who are permitted to act as a delegate will be able

to perform this action.

To act as a delegate select Personal Settings

from the Quicklaunch bar and then select

the Act as Delegate option.

Delegations available to you will be

displayed on the delegation page.

Click on one of the listed delegations and

then click the Start Delegation Session

button on the ribbon above.




You can edit or delete an existing delegation at any time, you may wish to reduce or extend

the time-span of the delegation or to terminate it with immediate effect.

Filtering of the delegation page allows the user to zero in on relevant delegation information

either by date range or by user.




Enterprise Data

This section is where you are able to add

significant value to your tasks, resources and

projects through custom fields and

associated look up tables, calendars and

other Enterprise attributes as well as

investing your users of Microsoft Project

Professional 2010 with enhanced

components through the Enterprise Global.

Enterprise Custom Field Definition Enterprise Custom Fields provide the Enterprise with the facility to define numerous specific

criteria that can be attached to tasks, resources or projects for reporting and analysis

purposes. These fields can be employed in Project, Project Centre and Resource Centre

views as well as being used in the OLAP Cube and as a result Data Analysis views.

There are no limits to the number of custom fields that can be created some custom fields

are available by default when Project Server is installed.

Clicking on an existing fields name will allow you to view and edit the attributes of the

selected field.

To create a new Enterprise Custom field click the New Field button at the top of the list of

fields.




Creating a new custom field presents you with a page where you can define its name and

which entity, Task, Resource or Project the field is aligned to. The type selector allows you to

define if the field displays Cost, Date, Duration, Flag, Number or Text values.

Within custom attributes you can specify if the field is associated with a Lookup Table or if it

employs a formula.




Note: To define formulas you must have a copy of Microsoft Office Project Professional

2010 installed and have setup a Project Server account that references the same URL as your

instance of Project Server.

Note: Formulas can be applied to Text fields just as easily as to number or cost fields.

If you associate a field with a lookup table you can set a value from the lookup table as a

default entry. You can allow multiple selections for a Resource entity and also use the field

value for matching Generic Resources. It is also possible to force people to select only codes

with no subordinate values.

Departments A new feature of Project Server 2010 is the provision of the Department attribute; in a

custom field context it allows you to define custom fields that are specific to a particular

department within your organisation. As an example the engineering department are likely

to have very different parameters by which to report and evaluate projects compared to the

HR or Finance departments, each department can be invested with custom fields to satisfy

their exclusive reporting requirements.

With Departments it is one of those cases where it might be easier to define what this

feature is NOT.

The word Department is a word that Microsoft chose for this feature and should not

necessarily be regarded as would normally be the case in a business environment. A

Department should not be considered a division of a business like Human Resources or

Information Technology or Marketing Department.

Think of Department as a grouping mechanism. As an example, think of a company that

has an IT group that has two separate functions a Help Desk and New Development. Even

though these are the same department in a company, they may have totally separate

work processes, requirements and reporting needs. Therefore, we would set each up as a

unique Department in Project Server 2010.

As with numerous items within Project Server, the Department appears to be only a

custom field at first glance but actually can be very powerful since it is possible to be used

in many areas of the Server from users to Enterprise Project Types. It should be thought of

as a very powerful tool within Project Server rather than just a mere custom field.

Now for some of that high level summary information about Department:




The Primary purpose of the Department field is to be a filter for:

Projects

Resources

Resources Custom Fields

Enterprise Project Types

Drivers

Users can be assigned to none, one or multiple departments

Projects can be assigned to none, one or multiple departments

Different Users can see different User Interfaces based on their departments

It filters out Enterprise Project Types and Custom Fields

Can be used for OLAP database data filtering

Different groups can have their own custom fields (Note: a custom field NOT

assigned a Department are global)

Projects associated with different departments will only show their custom fields

Portfolio Drivers can be associated with departments

Driver prioritization can be associated with departments

Departments allow for Enterprise-wide consistency AND different processes, forms

and fields for different groups

Departments are NOT tied to the RBS directly

Values to Display versus Graphical Indicators The Values to Display section for custom fields provides you with the option to display

values using either data or graphical indicators the latter option is particularly useful if you

are looking to build Project Centre Views that provide Dashboard displays on project

status.




When creating graphical indicators you can define the attributes for non-summary rows and

then have summary rows and the project summary inherit criteria from the level beneath

them, in order to achieve this you need to define the attributes of the non-summary rows

first.

Another new feature in Project Server 2010 is the leveraging of the workflow potential

invested in SharePoint. Custom fields can have their behaviour controlled by a workflow. An

example of this may be that some Project level Enterprise Custom fields are defined at the

inception of the project and once the project has been approved by means of a workflow

these values cannot be changed at a later date.

Note: Flag fields CANNOT be controlled by a workflow. It also appears that fields that

include a formula cannot be controlled by a workflow.

The Required section lets you determine if the custom field is required if it is required this

will mean that people creating project schedules or using Server Side scheduling to create

Activity Plans or Proposals will have to provide the required information. Required fields can

also be applied to resource records. Required fields can force people to provide information

that the organisation wants to report and analyse.

Note: If you create Project Templates in Microsoft Office Project Professional 2010 you

do not have to provide an entry against a required field in such circumstances it is best to

leave the selection blank so as to avoid people leaving the value as displayed at the time that

a project is created based upon the template.

The final section of the custom field page has System Identification data the SQL GUID for

the attribute you have defined and the option to save or cancel the action of creating or

editing the custom field.




Note: Whilst there is the facility to delete custom fields it is strongly recommended that

you avoid doing this as there may be tasks, resources or projects that have references to the

custom field and this could result in data being corrupted in the Project Server databases.

Similarly it is possible to delete individual entries in a look up table associated with a custom

field it is better to edit the description of the redundant value in a look up table to indicate

that it should no longer be used.

Enterprise Look up Tables In addition to defining fields this section also provides for the defining of Look Up Tables

that can be associated with one or more custom fields.

To create a new lookup table click the New Lookup Table option at the head of the list of

look up tables. In the name section enter a meaningful name for the Lookup Table. The type

selector allows you to define if the field displays Cost, Date, Duration, Number or Text

values.




The Code Mask section allows you to define several levels for the lookup table this models

the same behaviour as Outline Codes in the previous incarnation of Project Server. The code

mask can comprise Numbers, Uppercase Letters, Lowercase Letters and Characters

characters will allow a mix of numbers and letters and offers the most flexible option. Code

Masks allow you to define values in a hierarchic fashion.

The Lookup Table section provides you with the means to ascribe values and descriptions

and to show the hierarchic structure endowed by the Code Mask. Values in the look up table

can be sorted by row number or in ascending or descending order. You can also move values

in the look up table up and down in the list using the up and down arrows displayed to the

right of the look up table values.

Note: Be careful to avoid making changes to the Team Name field and associated lookup

table in early versions of Microsoft Office Project Server 2010 once a lookup table had

been defined and associated with the Resource Team Name field the association could not

be undone.

Enterprise Global The Enterprise Global can be regarded as a toolkit that invests all users of the Microsoft

Office Project Professional 2010 client scheduling tool with the same consistent suite of

components. An up to date copy of the Enterprise Global is cached locally when a user

connects to project server using the client scheduling tool in an on-line mode using their

Project Server Account.




The Enterprise Global broadcasts out to all users the following consistent Components:

Grouping

Maps

Tables

Filters

Views

Reports

Modules

Views are divided into two classifications in Microsoft Office Project Professional 2010,

either task or resource oriented views. Some views will comprise a time-phased element and

a tabular element, the tabular element displaying selected fields from the Project Server

database.

If you create a new view in the Enterprise Global it can incorporate tables, filters and

grouping formats once created and saved the view will be available to all users who have a

Project Server Account and a copy of Microsoft Office Project Professional 2010 installed

(this assumes you are not operating in a backward compatible mode this can be defined

during the install process but cannot be introduced retrospectively).

Tables display a selected number of fields of information for either a task, a resource or an

assignment within a project.

Note: Be careful to avoid making changes to existing tables in the Enterprise

Global itself as some of these tables are used as the basis for Reports available

within Microsoft Office Project Professional 2010 adding further fields to an

existing table can render the associated reports ineffective as the person viewing




them may be overwhelmed by too much data. It is far better to make a copy of an

existing table and to then add and remove fields to suit your specific needs.

As with views filters are available for both tasks and resources. Building a filter is a fairly

intuitive process and if a filter does not deliver the anticipated degree of information it is

easy to either modify or delete the filter without any problems.

Filters can incorporate And/or queries and can have layered queries for example

Critical Test Value

And

Duration Is greater than 5d

Or Predecessors contains +

Or Predecessors contains -

In this example the filter will show all tasks that are critical where either the duration is

greater than 5days or predecessors contain lag(+) or lead (-)

Grouping Formats provide you with what Microsoft call flexible analysis as with filters

grouping can be applied to tasks or resources. Grouping can also employ several levels of

detail.

Enterprise Calendars: By default there is just one Standard

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