Other Functions in Project Web Access
Several other Project Web Access features and functions can be used throughout the duration of a project. Team members have the ability to modify the Project Web Access views to better accommodate their working styles. They also have access to project information across the organization—not just projects they are assigned to.
 | Two exciting new features in Project 2002 are the ability to link projects with a document library and issues tracking and submission. |
The document library feature allows you to link supporting documents such as project justification, feasibility analysis, and budget estimation to a project plan, a task in a project plan, or a to-do list. This is a public document space where documents can be posted and shared across the organization. There is also a project document space for each project plan, where documents specific to the project are stored. Documents are linked to project plans by using SharePoint Team Services, which ships with Microsoft Project Server and must be installed in order for the documents and issues functions to work properly.
Issues tracking helps improve communication on project-related issues. An issue is a collaborative document that typically has attached to it a business process that defines how the issue will be handled. Issues are created and managed in individual project plans or to-do lists. Team members can create and edit issues; project managers can create, edit, and customize issues; and all others have read-only permissions to issues. An issue can be associated with a project, a task in the project, and documents in the project’s document library or other issues within the same project. An issue can have three status states—Active, Closed, and Postponed— and you can subscribe to email notifications that alert you to any change in status for an issue.
Enterprise users might have their own document management or issue tracking solution in place. The Microsoft Project Server Object Link Provider allows those solutions to be integrated with Project Server.
Linking Documents with the Document Library
Clicking the Documents tab on the Web Access home page presents a page that lists all the projects you have read access to, as shown in Figure 24.32.
Figure 24.32. The View and Upload Documents for All Projects page shows all public documents and all projects you have read access to.
Clicking on a project on the View and Upload Documents for All Projects page allows you to view documents located in the project’s document library, search for documents within the selected project(s), or create a new document library, as shown in Figure 24.33.
Figure 24.33. The View and Upload Documents for All Projects page allows you to access documents associated with a project or create a new document library.
Click Shared Documents to see the list of documents associated with the project, as shown in Figure 24.34.
Figure 24.34. You can see a list of documents associated with the selected project.
Using Issues Tracking and Submission
Clicking the Issues tab on the Web Access home page takes you to a list of all projects where you have permissions to view or submit issues, as shown in Figure 24.35.
Figure 24.35. The View and Submit Issues in All Projects page shows all projects in which you can view or submit issues.
You can click on a project name to go to the View and Submit Issues in All Projects page. To submit an issue, you click the New Issue button, which brings up the page shown on Figure 24.36.
Figure 24.36. The Create a New Issue screen of the View and Submit Issues page allows you to submit an issue for tracking.
After you have defined the issue, you can click Save Changes to add the issue to the list for that project. See Figure 24.37.
Figure 24.37. The issues list shows the essential details for all issues in the selected project.
You can click on the name of an issue to go to a page that lists all the detailed information submitted with the issue, as shown in Figure 24.38.
Figure 24.38. The View Issue Details screen provides all the available information about the selected issue.
Modifying Views
In Project Web Access each team member has access to his or her task list in the Timesheet and Gantt Chart views. You can use various display customizations to make the views more applicable to the way you work.
Modifying the Timesheet View
The Timesheet view is laid out in a similar fashion to the Resource Usage view in Project. On the left side, task information appears in a table format. The timescale grid displays the actual work on the right side. The following fields of information are displayed for each task:
Indicators— This field contains icons that provide information about a task.
Task Name— This field contains a task description, as defined in the project plan.
Work— This field contains the estimated or current work field.
% Work Complete— When the team member enters actual work in the timescale grid, this field is calculated based on the estimated work.
Remaining work— When the team member enters actual work in the timescale grid, this field is calculated based on the estimated work. The team member should update this field as needed.
Start— This field contains the estimated or current start date and time.
Finish— This field contains the estimated or current finish date and time.
Update Sent— This field contains the date of the last task update.
Project— This field contains the name of the project that each task comes from.
Assigned to— This field contains the name of the resource assigned to the task. If the task assignment has been delegated, this column reflects the name of the delegated resource.
Project Manager— This field contains the name of the project manager.
Lead Name— This field contains the name of the resource who is designated as the lead when the task has been delegated to another resource.
Priority— This field contains the task priority. It defaults to Medium for to-do list tasks if it is not specified.
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You might need to move the vertical bar that separates the table and the timescale grid to see all the columns.
There are several ways you can modify a timesheet:
You can modify the timescale grid by selecting the fields that appear and by designating a particular timeframe.
You can rearrange the columns of data that display in the table and apply groupings and sorts to the tasks.
You can include and exclude tasks from displaying, with the option to show Outlook tasks, which is located in the View Options tab.
Timesheet View Options
Figure 24.39 shows the options that control the display of the Timesheet view tasks.
Figure 24.39. There are several options for viewing task information on the View My Tasks page.
You can include Outlook tasks and configure which tasks should appear. Users can also resize the width of the columns: place the mouse over the vertical bar that separates the column headings; when the cursor is a double-headed arrow, drag and drop the vertical line to get the desired column width.
You can move the entire column to another location in the table by selecting the column heading and then holding down the left mouse button until it is a double-headed arrow. Then you can drag and drop the column to a new location.
You can modify row height in the same way you change the column width. The row height must accommodate the fields in the timescale grid.
Changes to the view settings persist when you switch away from the changed view, so you need to customize only once.
Grouping and Sorting Tasks
When the timesheet is first displayed, it is grouped based on the Project field. Figure 24.40 shows the options that are available for grouping and sorting the tasks, as well as for filtering the tasks that are displayed and searching for specific values.
Figure 24.40. The Filter, Group, Search tab provides options for the task display.
Modifying the Gantt Chart View
The individualized Gantt Chart view in Project Web Access is like the Gantt Chart view in Project. The task table resides on the left side of the screen, and the right side of the screen displays a timescaled bar chart.
The options that are available for displaying the Gantt Chart view are comparable to the Timesheet view options. There are some different options that control the bar chart section of the display, as shown in Figure 24.41.
Figure 24.41. The individual Gantt Chart view has three options that control the bar chart section of the display.
Each time you click the Zoom In or Zoom Out options, the Gantt Chart view timescale is incrementally changed. Table 24.1 summarizes the major and minor timescale levels found at the top of the calendar bar chart.
Viewing Other Project Plans
One of the collaborative features of Project Web Access is the ability to see project and resource information for projects you are not be assigned to. The Project Web Access administrator is responsible for setting the security to determine the projects and resource assignments each user is authorized to see. Clicking the Projects tab on the Web Access home page takes you to the Project Center page, where your project portfolio is displayed. You can select a project to see more detail, such as the tasks and resources.
Using Project Web Access to Submit Changes in Availability
Project Web Access provides two methods for team members to communicate changes in availability. The first method is to submit a work day change. Team members who are not using Outlook as their personal management system can use this method. The second method is to transfer nonworking time directly from Outlook. Either method creates a notice in the project manager’s Project Web Access home page and provides an automated way to post the availability change in the resource’s calendar.
Notifying the Project Manager of Work Day Changes
In Project Web Access a project team member can alert the project manager to changes in his or her availability, and those changes can automatically update the selected project plans. The project team member selects the Notify your manager of a change in your working days function from the sidepane on the Tasks page.
The first step in the process is shown in Figure 24.42. The team member specifies working or nonworking time and enters the dates affected by the change.
Figure 24.42. The team member designates the type of change and dates affected in step 1.
NOTE
You cannot select time blocks. Project Web Access assumes that a documented change is for the entire calendar day.
In the second step in the process, shown in Figure 24.43, the team member specifies one or more project managers who need to be notified of the schedule change. This page provides a list of the project managers defined in Project Web Access.
Figure 24.43. In step 2 you select the project managers who will receive the notification.
Before you send the update, a third screen, shown in Figure 24.44, provides a summary of the information you have provided. After checking the summary, click Send to complete the process.
Figure 24.44. Step 3 provides a preview of the notification information.
After the team member completes the notification of a change in his or her working days, the project manager receives a message in his or her Project Web Access home page. Clicking on the notice takes the project manager to a page that summarizes the schedule change. The project manager can automatically update the resource’s calendar after selecting the appropriate project. If Project is not active, it opens when the project manager clicks Update to accept the schedule change.
When the resource calendar update is complete, Project prompts you to delete the original schedule change message.
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You can select only one project file to be updated. If the resource is assigned to more than one of your projects, you should not delete their message when Project prompts you that the update has been completed. You can then repeat the calendar update process for another project until all project files have been updated.
Transferring Calendar Entries from Outlook
If a team member is using the Outlook calendar to enter events, the dates and times of these events can be automatically updated in nonworking time in either the resource’s calendar or in a Project Web Access timesheet. A wizard guides you through the process of transferring these calendar entries. The wizard selects calendar entries that are assigned the status Busy or Out of Office.
After you submit the transferred information, the project manager has the ability to automatically post the nonworking time in the project plan in the same manner as described in the previous section.