Pick-lists and Lookup Tables in Enterprise Custom Fields To make gathering information from team members easier and more accurate, the Project Web Access 2003 timesheet provides users with pick-lists and lookup tables in enterprise custom fields and outline codes of tasks. Note that pick-lists are not available for project, resource, or assignment custom fields or outline codes.
Timesheet Lock Down An administrator can lock specific time periods in the Project Web Access 2003 timesheet to prevent resources from reporting hours for time periods other than the current time period. Timesheet periods can be locked for projects that are tracked by hours of work per time period. Entering of actuals cannot be disabled in specific time periods for projects that are tracked in any other way, such as by the percentage of completed work or the total hours of actual work. Actuals entered using these tracking methods are distributed over a timephased period according to the usual scheduling rules.
Protected Actuals When enterprise resources use the timesheet to submit actual work on their assignments, the actual work can be protected to prevent project managers from modifying it. Only actuals for enterprise resource assignments can be protected. Project managers will still be able to edit actuals for tasks that have local or no resources assigned. This feature is tightly integrated with the Timesheet Lock Down feature.
You can now print the grid on the Tasks page, Projects page, Resources page, Updates page, Risks page, Issues page, or Documents page. After specifying the view options for the grid, you can use the Print Grid functionality to arrange and format the columns in the grid the way you want, and then print the grid or export it to Microsoft Office Excel 2003.
For Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003, the Build Team feature is available from Project Web Access 2003. This better meets the staffing needs of businesses who use functional resource managers for assigning resources. It provides resource managers with an easy-to-use tool for finding and assigning enterprise resources to selected projects. It also allows resource managers to staff projects from any computer, without the need to have Microsoft Office Project 2003 on their desktop.
The Build Team feature allows you to:
In Project Web Access 2003, a resource manager can specify different booking types for resources to staff them as proposed or committed to projects in the new Build Team feature or to assess capacity versus demand in the Resource Availability Graph.
Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 integrates with Windows SharePoint Services to provide document management, issue tracking, and risk management. Microsoft SharePoint Team Services 1.0 is no longer supported.
Document check in and check out Because Windows SharePoint Services provides check-in and check-out functionality, Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 supports the locking of documents. When a document is checked out of a Document Library, it is automatically locked so no other user can make changes to the document until it is checked back in to the Document Library. When checking documents in, you can add comments to describe the changes made to the document. These comments are saved as part of the document's history.
Document versions For comparison and archiving purposes, Document Libraries provide the ability to store multiple versions of a document. When checked-out documents are checked in, a copy of the previous document is created and saved as an earlier version of the document. Documents that are linked to projects and tasks in Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 are always the most current version of the document. You can, however, view all versions of a document, restore the current document to a previous version of the document, or delete an archived version of the document.
Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services provide the ability to record and manage risks, such as events or conditions that can have a positive or negative impact on the outcome of a project. Risk tracking can help you with your risk management process of identifying, analyzing, and addressing project risks proactively. It enables you to record, share, update, and analyze project risks. You can also customize risk tracking for a specific project or the entire organization. Risk tracking is implemented in Project Web Access 2003, where risks can be submitted, updated, and associated to elements such as projects, tasks, documents, issues, and other risks.
This new risk management functionality allows you to attach risk assessments to tasks but it does not provide cross-project risk tracking, reporting, or sophisticated risk management, such as Monte-Carlo analysis.