324
Part V: Working with Enterprise Projects managers in your company who use the enterprise features, and somebody (or three or four somebodies) from your IT department who actually have to set the thing up. As with most network-oriented computing, everybody has a role to play and has to be set up to use features on the network based on that role. Project Server provides a user model with three types of participants, providing various information and access requirements accordingly: Managers, who oversee the day-to-day operations of a project Team members, who perform the work on the project Shareholders, such as clients and senior management, who require regular updating on project progress, often across several projects in an organization You should analyze how these roles relate to the functions in your project teams and work with your IT folks to set up Project Server permissions accordingly.
Gather information Next, set up a process to research and come to an agreement on all the enterprise-wide information you need to enter into Project Server, such as resources, their rates, their calendars of availability; WBS (work breakdown structure) code structure; standard report formats; custom fields you’d like to include in the Project Server Enterprise Global Template (kind of like the Global Template in Project 2007, but available online); and filters, views, tables, and so on. The key word in this planning process is standardization. By standardizing the information in your projects and making that information available online, you increase efficiency in building projects and provide mechanisms for comparing projects in an apples-to-apples way.
Standardize processes Pay special attention to the reporting process that different people use on their projects. Standardizing reporting processes and formats ensures that those who read reports about multiple projects can easily and quickly understand what they’re looking at. Also, determine how project performance will be assessed. For example, the way in which earned value is used in creating tasks produces different measures of progress on projects.