Project Management Strategies

The following scenarios demonstrate how project managers can use different project management strategies offered by the integration. For additional scenarios, see Choosing the Right Synchronization Mode.

Publishing a Project Management Work Plan through Microsoft Project

A project manager who uses Project Management to manage projects can use the integration to publish the projects. Publishing can simply mean distributing the Microsoft Project file to external audiences (such as a Program Management Office group). Publishing could also mean synchronizing the Microsoft Project file with Project Management, and then running Microsoft Project reports for distribution. The projects can be published on a regular basis (weekly or quarterly) or at defined milestones (such as design completion).

To publish a Project Management work plan through Microsoft Project:

Open a blank file in Microsoft Project.
Open the Project Management work plan in Microsoft Project. (See Open a Project Management work plan from Microsoft Project for detailed instructions.)
Save the project and run reports as usual.

After the first export, you may choose to synchronize the Project Management work plan with the Microsoft Project file in Project Management-controlled mode. This will effectively regenerate the Microsoft Project file.

This can also be used to recover a lost Microsoft Project file from a previously-synchronized Project Management work plan.

Publishing a Microsoft Project File through Project Management

A project manager who uses Microsoft Project to manage projects can publish those projects using Project Management. You can create a work plan in Project Management from a work plan template and subsequently open it in Microsoft Project for further editing. This allows you to take advantage of any standards enforced by a PMO. Publishing means loading the project data into the Project Management repository, which has the following benefits:

The project status appears in the PPM Dashboard. Project Management calculates exceptions and health status (red/yellow/green) based on the project's policy settings.
Project participants and external audiences can see the project in various interfaces such as the My Tasks portlet and search pages. Although these participants cannot use Project Management to update project status, this is an effective way to increase visibility of project information.
Project Management users can create references from other PPM entities (such as requests and packages) to tasks in the synchronized project. These references could be used to monitor the state of a particular task.

To publish a Microsoft Project file through Project Management:

Create a project in Project Management without a work plan.
Ensure that the project's integration mode is set to Microsoft Project control.
Send the Microsoft Project file to Project Management. (See Sending a Microsoft Project Work Plan to Project Management for detailed instructions.)

The project manager is likely to publish the project to Project Management on a regular basis. This can be done by selecting PPM > Update Associated Work Plan in Microsoft Project. Information in Project Management is updated based on the information in the Microsoft Project file, and information unique to Project Management is retained.

Using Both Applications to Track Different Project Data

A project manager who uses Microsoft Project to plan and manage projects can use Project Management to collect actuals from participants. In addition to the benefits described previously in Publishing a Microsoft Project File through Project Management, this integration shifts some of the effort of collecting and entering actuals information from the project manager to the participants. The project manager will need to synchronize the projects periodically, either to publish a re-planned work plan to Project Management or to collect new actuals updates into Microsoft Project.

To use Project Management to track actuals from Microsoft Project:

Create the work plan.
- You can create the work plan initially in Microsoft Project and subsequently send it to Project Management in order to establish the work plan integration. All work plan editing should still be done in Microsoft Project.
- You can also create the work plan initially in Project Management using a work plan template and subsequently edit it in Microsoft Project. This allows standards to be enforced even when using Microsoft Project for work plan management.
In Microsoft Project, select PPM > Update associated work plan.

The Update Associated Work Plans dialog box opens.
Select Send work plan information from MSP to PPM or Retrieve actuals from PPM to MSP and click OK.

See Set Synchronization Mode for Project Management and Microsoft Project for more detailed information.