EPM Considerations

• Overview Microsoft's EPM System (MS Project Server and MS Project Professional). Understand the software and hardware requirements and how Microsoft Office Project Server can grow.
  EPM Guides
  Introduction to EPM 2003, Getting Started with Project 2003

• Conduct interviews. Determine how your organization currently uses Microsoft Project and the skill levels of users. Use Microsoft's EIF (Enterprise Implementation Framework) questionnaire to determine your organization's current abilities and skill level with Microsoft Project.

   

  Starting off with an assessment is always a good idea.
   

  • You may want to consider using an enhanced questionnaire; our PMSIP (Project Management System Implementation Process). The PMSIP questionnaire extends the EIF with over 200 additional questions.

  • You may want to consider using our Enterprise Web Questionnaire to automate collection and analysis of the interview information.
     

• Establish Organizational Standards. The interviews will provide information to make decisions regarding changing or implementing your organization's standards. Your organization's standards directly influences your MS Project Server configuration.
   

• Use code structures for projects, tasks and resources. Coding structures provide the foundation for analysis across task, project and resource information. Consider the difference between codes and user defined fields and their effective use.
  Microsoft Project Server 2003 Configuration Guidelines

• Enforce standards across your project plans. Use the Enterprise Project Global template to enforce standards across your enterprise project plans.

• Enforce standards across your resource pool. If resource information is maintained in a different system, consider integrating MS Office Project Server with the respective system. Use code structures to define resource attributes and when using resource user defined fields, design it with a list selection, versus free form text entry.
   

• Determine Enterprise Project Template definition and use. Use Enterprise Project Templates to guide users in project creation and planning. Ensure generic resources are defined and assigned to tasks in the Enterprise Project template. Provide all information regarding static elements of your projects. When implemented properly, Enterprise Project Templates can enable a quick initial assessment of project schedule and budget, which then facilitates enhanced 'what-if' planning
   

• Create your enterprise resource pool. Resolve naming issues across project plans.

  • Generic Resources. Generic resource skill sets should match human and/or material resource skill sets.

  • Human Resources. Your ability to search and find individuals with the right attributes to perform work will depend on how you establish your resource code structures and your skill sets.

  • Material Resources. If you are going to do real project costing, you will likely need to define material resources.

• Import historical data. Be careful to ensure consistency in the resources and tasks across the project plans being imported to enable immediate reporting across your portfolio of historical projects.
   

• Use the Portfolio Modeling tool. The Portfolio Modeler is a perfect tool to evaluate resource assignments across one or more projects and recommend re-assignment based on the following:

   

  • Project Priority

  • Task Priority

  • Skill Set required for the task

  • Resource demanded or requested

  • Resource Availability
     

• Use the Portfolio Analyzer. Your coding structures for projects and resources will determine the reporting effectiveness of the Portfolio Analyzer. Evaluate your organizational reporting requirements and structure to help determine Portfolio Analyzer views that facilitate corporate initiatives
   

• Manage the administration and maintenance of project forms, resource skill sets, security, and other maintenance requirements. Consider the options in the role-based security model and outline the desired functionality. Don't accept the defaults, investigate the security access you are providing. Determine who will act as administrators and what areas they will administer, i.e. Resource Skill Sets.
   

• Archive Project Information. How will your firm archive and access project data. Use of the version functionality in MS Office Project Server, data warehousing, and backup/restore features are all vehicles to consider when determining archival methods for project information.
   

• Implement across two servers (at a minimum). While MS Project Server and all components will run on one server, we strongly suggest a minimum of two servers for excellent performance.
   

• Establish alert notification vehicles, i.e. email, Project Web Views with graphical indicators, dashboards, etc. Provide alert notifications based on project and resource attributes, i.e. overallocation of resources, cost overruns, project slippage. Prove the tools to drill-down to analyze the details.
   

• Role-based training. Users must be trained or the system will not be effective. Role-based training is our recommended solution. We provide the level of training that ensures each "user" understands exactly what their "role" is in the Enterprise Project Management Environment. This includes process, procedure and "tool" training. Don't implement MS Project Server without having a valid and realistic training program defined and ready to go.
   

• Support (on-site, phone, remote administration) your users. Your users will need support. Count on it. Questions will come up. Our solution is on-site, phone, and remote support. You focus on your core business and we save you money by having a staff of experts available to help you when you need it.
  Our EPM Support Information

• EPM Solutions & MS Project Server Solutions. Carefully evaluate all MS Project Server consulting services, enterprise project management specialists, products, and add-ins. Microsoft boasts of more than 2000 partners that provide EPM Solutions. Experts with the system would provide a very short list of individuals, companies that can support the claim of "MS Project Experts." Time and money spent initially finding the right support, solutions, and MS Project Server consulting will pay off handsomely during the final phases of deployment.
   

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