Pilot CSI Project Setup Guide - Trinity College, Dublin · MS Project 2010 Project Manager Guide CSI MS Project Setup Guide v0.4.docx Page 3 of 20 1. Introduction The aim of this

Pilot CSI Project Setup Guide

MS Project 2010 Project Manager Guide

CSI MS Project Setup Guide v0.4.docx

Page 2 of 20

Table of Contents

1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3

2. Setting up Project Information ....................................................................................................... 4

3. MS Project Basics ............................................................................................................................ 7

Versions, Licensing & Installation ....................................................................................................................... 7

Configure MS Project to Connect to Project Server ........................................................................................... 7

4. Opening the new CSI Project in MS Project .................................................................................... 8

5. Saving the Project Schedule to the Server .................................................................................... 10

6. The Project Schedule .................................................................................................................... 11

Milestones ........................................................................................................................................................ 12

7. Managing Resources ..................................................................................................................... 12

Creating the Resource List (Building the Project Team) ................................................................................... 13

Assigning Resources ......................................................................................................................................... 13

8. Publishing the Project ................................................................................................................... 14

9. Project Workspaces ...................................................................................................................... 15

10. Preparing Bi-weekly Status Report ........................................................................................... 20



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1. Introduction

The aim of this guide is to outline, for nominated individuals, the specifics of setting up the project

structure for the running of a pilot program for reporting on CSI projects to the ISS PO.

From a technical standpoint, Project Managers using MS Project 2010 Professional will be interacting

with the MS Project Server which introduces features and concepts that even those familiar with

using MS Project need to be aware of.

For further information on Project Server c.f. the MS Project 2010 Product Guide available on the ISS

PO site under getting started.



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2. Setting up Project Information

Launch Internet Explore and go to following location;

https://epmprojects.tcd.ie/PWA/

Click on the “New” button and choose “CSI Plan”

This will bring up the following form to be completed;

https://epmprojects.tcd.ie/PWA/



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Project Fields

In Name*enter the ISS accepted name for this piece of work. For pilot purposes the name of the

project should follow the convention “CSI <ISS Team> <Project Name>”

In Description enter a brief description of the project.

Enter a Start date. This is applied to task 1 and other dates in the project schedule are incremented

based on this start date.

The Owner should default to the name of the person completing the setup task.

Project Details

The following 6 entries must be completed;

(01) Project ID - The Project ID is based on the Remedy ticket number associated with the work, if no

Remedy ticket number is available use the Project Longname as per (02) Project Longname below

(02) Project Longname - The project cannot be saved without the mandatory fields being completed.

The Project Longname should correspond to the ISS accepted name for this piece of work. For pilot

purposes the name of the project should follow the convention “CSI <ISS Team> <Project Name>”

(20) RAG Status – this starts off as GREEN and is updated in consultation with your team lead prior

to submitting your bi-weekly report.



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(21) PMO Phase – this corresponds to the stage your CSI project is at, the template is based on the

standard Framework stages and sub-stages of Design, Implementation (Build, Test & Deployment)

and Closing. You should manually set this value to match the stage of your CSI project prior to

submitting the bi-weekly report. In the beginning this should be set to “Design” if this represents the

stage at which your project is at.

(51) PMO Project Status – for all pilot CSI projects this should be set to “Current”. This value is set

once at the beginning of the project and is not changed again until the project completes.

(52) PMO Project Type – for all pilot CSI projects this should be set to “Operational Project ISS

Operational Project” This value is set once at the beginning of the project.

All other fields can be ignored, when completed click the Save icon in the top left hand side of the

page.

After saving you will need to select Close to check in the project

Click Yes to check in the project.

Next we will open the newly created project in MS Project 2010



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3. MS Project Basics

Versions, Licensing & Installation The correct version of MS Project to use is MS Project 2010 Professional. MS Project 2010 Standard

is not capable of interacting with the MS Project server.

If you are not sure what version you have installed on your computer then launch MS Project and

choose File – Info from the main menu. If the corresponding options, shown below, are displayed

then you are using the required MS Project 2010 Professional.

Please contact the ISS PO Office if you need to install, or obtain a license for, MS Project 2010

Professional.

Configure MS Project to Connect to Project Server MS Project will usually be listed under the Microsoft Office listing in the Start Menu programs list.

When you first launch MS Project you will need to configure some settings so that your version of

the application will interact with the MS Project server.

1. From the main menu choose File - Info – Project Server Accounts…

2. Click Manage Accounts

3. Choose Configure Accounts

4. Click the Add button

5. Enter a nominal Account Name e.g. Project Server 2010



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1. Enter the Project Server URL – https://epmprojects.tcd.ie/pwa. Check the box beside Set as

default account

2. Click OK – you may get a security message

3. Close and re-launch MS Project

4. Choose File – Open. A list of projects that you have access to is now available.

4. Opening the new CSI Project in MS Project

All project schedules are to be created using the appropriate template held on the Project server.

Launch MS Project 2010 and select File > Open > Retrieve the list of all projects from Project Server

https://epmprojects.tcd.ie/pwa



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If the following message appears, click OK

The new CSI project template will then appear



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Your new project schedule is populated with a simple list of default tasks, organised into a set of

project phases as outlined in the EPM Framework document. You will need to customise this list of

tasks for your project adding tasks appropriate to the piece of work that you are undertaking. This

should be completed in agreement with your team lead.

5. Saving the Project Schedule to the Server

1. From the main menu choose File – Save

2. For the filename (Name) enter the “CSI<ISS Team><Project Name> convention you used in

the Project Information field.

3. Ensure the information for the mandatory Custom Fields has been provided, as outlined

previously

4. Click Save. The file is saved to the Project server but note that this project schedule is not

available to other staff until you Publish it. This process is outlined in Section 7 Publishing

the Project.

After saving the project schedule for the first time it is suggested that you close MS Project and

launch it once more.



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1. From the main menu choose File – Exit

2. When you close MS Project you will be prompted to Save and Check in the project schedules

that are open, as below. Select the appropriate options and Click OK

6. The Project Schedule

1. Launch MS Project

2. From the main menu choose File – Open

3. You will be presented with a list of the project files you have access to. If you do not see all

of your projects here you may need to click on the top item listed - Retrieve the list of all

projects…

4. Select the appropriate project schedule and choose Open

5. If the Cache Status is incorrect, for example if it incorrectly lists a project as not being

Checked In and so you are only able to open the project in read-only mode, then you will

need to do the following:

a. Cancel the File-Open dialogue box

b. Choose File –Options - Save - Cleanup Cache from the main menu

c. Select the relevant project and choose Remove From Cache



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d. Click Close. You should then be able to open the project schedule for editing.

Milestones Zero-work or zero duration tasks are automatically categorised as milestones. A milestone acts as a

marker of the end of a phase of work. Milestones automatically appear in the ISS PO status report.

The ISS PO CSI Pilot Plan template has a number of generic milestones that can be used for any piece

of work. This are for guideline purposes only, if they are appropriate to your piece of work, keep

them and integrate into your tasks. If they are not appropriate, remove them and replace with more

appropriate milestones tasks.

Important: The ISS PO report relies on milestones for its content so any CSI plan will require

meaningful milestones to be of value to the ISS PO.

7. Managing Resources

Resources for most projects will take the form of personnel and, where appropriate, materials.

Personnel data is stored on the MS Project server meaning that when a person is assigned to a

number of projects it is possible to determine their cumulative availability. For this reason it is

essential that when Project Teams are being built into a project schedule the team is built from

the central personnel list and not manually entered by the Project Manager. Before assigning staff



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to a particular project, the Project Manager should agree the resource requirements with the

relevant line manager(s).

Creating the Resource List (Building the Project Team) To assign personnel to your project team:

1. Chose Resource – Add Resource - Build Team from Enterprise

2. Select the name of the person you wish to add to the team and click Add >. Repeat this step

to add further personnel

3. Click OK when done

An exception to the above approach would be when there is a requirement to assign tasks to

someone outside of IS Services. In this case the suggested approach is to manually enter a resource

called External Resource and assign this to the relevant tasks. This resource may be manually

entered into the Resource Sheet.

Assigning Resources To assign personnel to individual tasks:

1. Choose Task Tab then select the relevant task and choose Information

2. Select the Resources tab then select each name from the drop-down list and set the %

assignment for that member of staff under Units .



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3. Click OK when done

8. Publishing the Project

After you have updated the task list and assigned resources, and once you are ready for the other

team members to view the project schedule, you may publish the project.

From the main menu choose File – Publish.

At this point you should choose to have a Workspace set up on the Project server. This Workspace is

effectively a SharePoint site for the project to enable collaboration amongst team members and

with ISS PO staff.



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Click Publish

Once the project has been published the data will be available via Project Web Access (PWA).

Where a Workspace is created it will be available to the Project Manager (owner), Team Members

(contribute access) and Supervisors of the Team members (read-only access).

9. Project Workspaces

A Project Workspace can be created for each new CSI project when you publish your project

schedule.

The Project Workspace is for the use of that project’s PWA Team Members and will hold the

following data for that project:

Project Snapshot

Project Documents (e.g. Project Proposal)

Issues

Team Contacts

Links

o Current Status Reports

Project Snapshot

This will need to be updated fortnightly prior to the production of the ISS PO status report. To add

the first snapshot click Add new item.



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Change Category to ISS PO Snapshot (team + ISS PO) available via dropdown.

Set the Title to “<Date><Project Name>Status Report”

In the Discussion files, add in about a 5 line status update to reflect what has been going on in the

project during the previous 2 weeks and what the next steps may be.



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If you need to update the snapshot, click the drop-down arrow beside the Project Snapshot link and

choose Edit Item.

Each reporting period (every 2 weeks), you should select “Add new item” and follow the steps above

(changing the Title to the relevant date) and enter the latest status for the project in the Discussion

field.

Project Documents

This document library will hold general project documentation. Any relevant project documentation

can be stored here for instance if the CSI has an associated Proposal document it could be stored

here. Any other technical or project documentation should also be stored here.

Issues

Any issues pertinent to the project should be listed in this section. This is a useful section to populate

and use as a discussion basis for status meetings with your team leader. To add an issue, click on

“Add new item” Set the Category to “(02) PMO Issue(team+PMO)” to ensure the issue appears on

the status report for the project. Give the Issue a Title, an Owner a Due Date and enter a description

in the Discussion field.



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Team Contacts

This is a list of the Project Team and their contact details. For the pilot just enter the name of the

person responsible for compiling the bi-weekly status report via the Project Snapshot.

Links

This section will contain the link to generate the bi-weekly status report for submission to ISS PO.

Click “Add Link” and paste the following link into the “URL” field;

https://epmprojects.tcd.ie/PWA/ProjectBICenter/_layouts/ReportServer/RSViewerPage.aspx?rv:Rel

ativeReportUrl=/PWA/ProjectBICenter/SSRS%20Library/PMOStatusReport/PSR3.rdl&rp:p_ProjectNa

me=MyProjectName

Replace “MyProjectName” at the end with the name of your project as it appears in EPM (as per

Section 4 above; “CSI<Team><Project Name>) using “%20” where any spaces occur in the project

name.

In the “Type the description” field enter “ISS PO Status Report” Click Save.



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Note: It is only possible to generate a status report once you have published the plan in MS Project.

Once you have created the link and re-published your plan in MS Project it can take Reporting Server

a few minutes to register the change and produce the report.

The report is created based on a combination of information taken from the project workspace

(Project Snapshot) and the project plan (RAG Status, Project Name, Project ID, Project Manager,

Project Start/End, Current Phase, Completed v Schedule visual, Upcoming Milestones, Milestones

Reached and Milestones Late).

Hence for the status report to be relevant the user must ensure to update all relevant fields within

the project plan and project workspace before creating the ISS PO Status Report any given week.

Note: all changes to the plan must be followed by selecting to “Publish” the plan in MS Project

following the change update.



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10. Preparing Bi-weekly Status Report

Follow the following steps when preparing the bi-weekly CSI project status report;

Project Plan

Make sure the statuses of all Tasks and Milestones in the project plan are correct with

respect to dates, duration, % complete and resource assigned.

In Project Information set the RAG status to Red, Amber or Green.

In Project Information set the PMO Phase to reflect the current phase of the project

Publish the project and Save any changes

Project Site

Update the Project Snapshot

Update any relevant Issues

Create the Status Report

Export and Save as a PDF (see screenshot below) and e-mail to ISS PO