Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Unleashed [Paperback]

QuantumPM LLC (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0672327430 | ISBN-13: 978-0672327438 | Publication Date: June 25, 2005

This go-to-resource is a must-have for anyone using Project Server 2003!  Written by a widely recognized authority on project management, QuantumPM, this in-depth approach to planning and implementing Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 is derived from the team's technical and practical client experiences.  Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Unleashed provides an in-depth look at Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 and the possibilities of this technology.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Unlike most books, this one was not written by an individual or a group of two or three experts. Instead, it was written by a large and diverse group of people from QuantumPM, LLC (QPM). The authors are undeniable experts; they have used this software within our organization and have helped hundreds of customers install and configure the software for their organizations. In addition, the QPM team works closely with the Microsoft team to support the rollout of the product and to provide input for future versions.

QuantumPM, LLC is a consulting firm specializing in strategic and tactical project management services. The company's focus is improvement of organizational bottom lines through effective project and portfolio management, targeting a balance of philosophy and tools. To this end, QuantumPM works closely with Microsoft, Inc. as a Premier Project Partner and with the Project Management Institute as a Registered Education Provider and active participant in standards development and various local chapter activities. These partnerships allow QuantumPM to provide state-of-the-art products and services to our customers.

The authors of the book include people from a variety of roles within the organization. They brought their unique perspectives to this effort and hope to have provided you with a great balance of technical and operational material based on many years of practical application of the product. Following are the QuantumPM team members who worked many long hours to develop the contents of this book:

• Our project manager and miracle worker who managed to get us all to deliver our work as promised: Genie Peshkova.

• Members of our sales and marketing teams who help our customers understand the capabilities of the software as a part of a complete solution for their needs: Greg Bailey, Karla Ferguson, Jim Patterson, and Crystal Trevino.

• Members of our operations staff who manage our internal administrative projects and keep things running smoothly: Laurie Dawkins and Jennifer Rollins.

• Members of our technical staff who help customers with system architecture, scalability and capacity planning, and other system administration decisions. They also keep this software running smoothly in our customer-hosted environment as well as our own internal environment: Tony Blackburn and Katie Stewart.

• Members of our project management consulting team who work together to provide solutions for our customers: Claudia Baca, Boris Bazant, Robert Bowman, Steve Drevon, Cristian Filip, Scott Footlik, Herman Gaines, Patti Jansen, Brian Musgrave, and Russ Young.

• Members of our development team who create custom solutions to enhance the capabilities of Microsoft's Enterprise Project Management software: Danny Allen, Adam Berle, Bruce Johnson, and Ethan Young.

• The project sponsors and founders of QPM: Kris Athey and Rose Blackburn.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction to Enterprise Project Management

Throughout this book, you will see that Enterprise Project Management (also called Enterprise Portfolio Management) is made up of two components—Philosophy and Tool. Although the book is primarily technical in nature, it is impossible to separate the technology from the environment in which it works. This software is not a "silver bullet" that will solve all process problems. Although it is great software, it has limitations, and the primary one is that it is only as good as the processes that surround the tool.

Why We Wrote This Book

The Sams Publishing Unleashed series is intended for both beginner and intermediate audiences. The primary purpose of this book is to provide knowledge to the reader of the capabilities of Microsoft Office Project Server 2003, a robust Enterprise Project Management (EPM) software application. It does not provide a step-by-step cookbook answer but rather provides the logic and approach that should be used for implementing a complex project management software product.

The material covered in this book is simple enough for a beginner to understand but also allows you to grow with the book as more advanced topics are covered as well.

The intermediate user will find that the material is new and interesting and provides practical tips, tricks, and guidelines based on this team's experience of hundreds of successful EPM installations and implementations for thousands of users.

This book is comprehensive enough to be a source of powerful and meaningful information but is not meant to be a "cradle-to-grave" guide of all things possible with this software. (It does need to fit in a briefcase or next to your desk!)

The team is excited to offer you the opportunity to get into the consultants' heads and get some practical and real-world examples on how to plan, install, configure, deploy, and manage an EPM implementation.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is divided into 10 parts designed to be of interest to a wide variety of readers. Some of the chapters focus on planning and organization, whereas others are focused on technology details. The following information should help you decide which chapters are important for your role.

Part I—Enterprise Project Management Overview

Part I is an introduction to the software application and to the philosophy of approach to EPM. It is intended for all audiences to provide context for successfully planning and managing the EPM environment.

Chapter 1, "Enterprise Project Management—The Philosophy," describes enterprise thinking and what it takes to be successful with deployment of a software tool. The tool is not a silver bullet that will solve all problems regarding people, process, and environment.

Chapter 2, "Using Microsoft Office Project 2003 As an Enterprise Project Management Solution," is an overview of the major features of the EPM tool and how these features are integrated within the tool.

Chapter 3, "Knowing Product Limits and Overcoming Them," addresses the limitations of the tool. Although feature-rich, the tool does have limits and will not fit all organizations with the "out-of-the-box" functionality. Chapter 3 addresses these limits and provides an overview of other tools available to meet specific needs and custom approaches to solving specific problems.

Part II—Planning Your Enterprise Project Management Implementation

Chapter 4, "Planning the Organizational Processes," helps the reader approach the implementation of this tool realistically.

Chapter 5, "Understanding Project Server Architecture," provides the high-level view of the software components, the solution architecture, and considerations for scalability and security.

Chapter 6, "Designing the Enterprise Project Management Solution Architecture Details," provides an in-depth look at design requirements that need to be considered when planning an EPM implementation.

Part III—Implementing Microsoft Office Project Server 2003

Chapter 7, "Enterprise Project Management System Deployment Considerations," focuses on the key components of the software that will be configured to match the business processes and standards of the organization. Because the software is highly configurable, it is important for the team to spend planning time making sure that the configuration decisions are appropriate to the organization's maturity and its capacity to manage change.

Chapter 8, "Establishing Security Model Settings," addresses the security options and capabilities of the software. This important chapter helps the reader create a security model that is both robust and flexible so that it does not require a great deal of administrative time to maintain.

Chapter 9, "Enterprise Global Codes," describes the core configuration elements of the software. Configuration models vary from organization to organization based on the complexity of the setup and the needs of the business. This chapter discusses the options available for the user.

Chapter 10, "Creating Project Web Access Project and Resource Views," explains how an organization can set up views of the data that will meet the needs of different users of the system. The data within the system can be depicted in an almost limitless variety of views.

Chapter 11, "Completing the Implementation and Configuration," describes the final components that need to be considered when developing a robust solution for the organization. It includes discussions of calendar uses, time reporting methods, and administration projects.

Part IV—Validating the Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Implementation

Chapter 12, "Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Validation," stresses the importance of performing thorough testing of all the system components and configuration to ensure that the system produces the expected results. Special attention must be paid to the roles and permissions, the security model, and the business and operational processes that surround this software.

Chapter 13, "Troubleshooting Business Process Implementation in the Application," provides a guide to common problems and their potential causes.

Part V—Using Microsoft Office Project Web Access 2003

Chapter 14, "Project Web Access Collaboration," discusses the capabilities of the system from a user perspective and provides insight into how the Project Web Access (PWA) interface can be used to improve the way in which the organization gets its work done.

Chapter 15, "Time Tracking in Project Web Access," describes the capabilities provided in the system and the various methods that can be used to measure project progress. The chapter includes information regarding entry and approval of project progress.

Chapter 16, "Using Project and Resource Centers," helps users understand how to use the software to manage their project and resource data.

Chapter 17, "Portfolio Management Using Portfolio Analyzer and Portfolio Modeler," helps users understand how to manipulate the data in the system to help them make business decisions and determine the real-time status of projects and portfolios of project or resource data.

Chapter 18, "Risks, Issues, and Documents Using Windows SharePoint Services (WSS)," describes the capabilities of the system to help the project teams with day-to-day management of their projects and project artifacts.

Chapter 19, "Using the Project Web Access Admin Menu Tab," describes the administrative capabilities managed via PWA. Although some portions of the software are administered via Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003, many of them can be administered via PWA.

Part VI—Using Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 Enterprise Features

Chapte...

Product Details

• Paperback: 888 pages
• Publisher: Sams (June 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672327430
• ISBN-13: 978-0672327438
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,536,807 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too many propellers, April 11, 2006

By 

Steve Rollins (Ft Mill, South Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Unleashed (Paperback)

I bought this book hoping to learn MS Project Server workflow from a functional utilization perspective. While the book covers the features, it fails miserably to connecting the dots in a clear manner. This has diminished this book to a reference guide. In the next edition, take note. Make the security model more clear. Make the portfolio feature more clear, etc., etc., etc.

I have worked with many epm tools in a similar manner as a field consultant and this book as written for MS Project Server does not advance the practice.

On a brighter note, you have a strong foundation, wear the shoes of a PMO leader to gain better understanding of what content is required in your next edition.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Oriented Towards the Implementer, Not the User, October 10, 2006

By 

A Project Manager "A Project Manager" (St. Paul Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Unleashed (Paperback)

This work contains over 800 pages of densly packed information. However at least 600 of those pages are directed towards system administrators who are implementing MS Project Server, not towards Project Managers who wish to use the tool.

I purchased the book thinking it would help me use features such as Project Analyzer, Project Center, etc. Less than 140 pages are oriented towards the user. Those pages that are directed towards users describe each feature in detail, but don't present them in the context that a project manager would find appealing. For example, what I would like to know is: "What are the top five views that would most enable a Project Manager to get a better grasp on how the project is doing?" You won't find the information presented in that context.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Guide for the Advanced User, June 21, 2006

By 

Brian (Highlands Ranch, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Unleashed (Paperback)

The Unleashed series is for Advanced users and System Administrators, so this book is a shining example of that series. Covering aspects from a real-world perspective, the authors have captured what it's like to really use Project Server and how to squeeze every last drop of productivity out of the software.

This book isn't afraid to go "under the hood" and really get into the meat of the software, allowing users to get the most out of the book and the server.

With a wide variety of authors, this is an excellent resource no SysAdmin using Project Server should be without.