Project managers are responsible for day-to-day project management tasks such as creating, maintaining, and updating schedules, and coordinating with other project managers, resource managers, and team members.

This article describes the activities that are available to you as a project manager or team lead on a project when you use Microsoft Office Project Web Access. It presents a broad overview of Project Web Access from the perspective of a project manager or team lead in a project.

Depending on the security group to which your administrator has assigned you, you can work with Project Web Access features by using Project Web Access, Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007, or both.

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• Work from the Project Web Access home page

• Work with tasks and timesheets

• Work with resources

• Work in the Project Center

• Analyze data and create reports

• Collaborate with others in your organization

• Work with Project Professional

• Get deployment advice, blogs, and other online information

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Work from the Project Web Access home page

The Project Web Access home page is the primary entry point for users who work with data saved to the Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 database. When you log on to Project Web Access, pending items that might require action (such as task updates that must be approved) and items that have changed since the last time that you logged on are displayed. From the home page, you can access Project Web Access features, including Tasks, Project Center, Resource Center, Updates, Status Reports, Documents, Issues, and Risks pages.

 Note    The content that appears on the Project Web Access home page is determined by the features that are available on the server, the role of the user, the permissions that are assigned to the user, the security categories to which the user belongs (including the projects and views assigned to that security category), and any customizations that were configured for the home page.

Project Web Access home page activities

• Customize the Project Web Access home page with Web Parts
• Add or change a view
• Change a password
• Keyboard shortcuts for Project Web Access

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Work with tasks and timesheets

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• Manage tasks

• Manage task updates

• Manage timesheets

• Integrate with Outlook

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Before team members can record timesheet (timesheet: In Project Web Access, the timesheet is a page where resources can record their progress on tasks and send updates to the project manager.) hours or their task (task: An activity that has a beginning and an end. Project plans are made up of tasks.) status, the administrator must set up timesheets, task status, or both. Timesheets record the actual hours worked on tasks, projects, and other items, and are important if you track utilization, billable time, and other time-based metrics. Team members can enter the task status by using their My Tasks pages, which enables the administrator to accurately track the status or progress toward the completion of tasks in projects.

If your organization tracks progress for the projects that you created in Office Project Professional 2007, you will want to track the task status.

Team leads are responsible for overseeing many of the tasks that are assigned to team members in one or more projects. Team leads might also be assigned to tasks in projects, and might be asked to report actual work against project tasks in their timesheets, maintain and reply to status reports from project managers, and collaborate with others in the organization. In some organizations, project tasks are assigned to team leads, who then delegate the tasks to the appropriate team members.

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Manage tasks

Team members can use the My Tasks page in Project Web Access to view, edit, delegate, and update tasks and working times that are assigned to them or their team by a project manager who is using Project Professional 2007. To access the My Tasks page, click My Tasks on the Quick Launch.

Task management activities

• Assign work to a team
• Add a task to your task status
• Assigning a task to another resource
• Print a view
• Create, view, and link project issues and risks
• Approve or reject task updates
• Get e-mail alerts or reminders when tasks change
• Understand the indicators on the Tasks page

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Manage task updates

On the Task Updates page in Project Web Access, you can review changes to tasks and working times (working time: Hours designated in a resource or project calendar during which work can occur.) that team members submit from their My Tasks pages. You can also use the Task Updates page to update projects with the latest information.

You can update projects with information from the Task Updates page in two ways:

• Manually   You can accept each task change by clicking Accept on the Task Updates page. If you reply to a task change request before accepting it, the change request is removed from the list on the Task Updates page until the team member replies. You can update and reply to new task and task delegation requests at the same time.
• Automatically (by using rules)   You can create and run rules to automatically update projects with changes that do not have to be reviewed before approval. You can create rules that run for specific projects, for all projects, for specific resources (resources: The people, equipment, and material that are used to complete tasks in a project.), or for groups of resources at a specific location in the Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) (RBS: The structure that describes an organization's hierarchy. The RBS code defines the hierarchical position that a resource holds in the organization.) of your organization.

Task update management activities

• Approve or reject task updates
• Add a task to your task status
• Report the status of tasks
• Restrict a manager from changing a resources actuals
• Prevent task updating
• Get e-mail alerts or reminders when tasks change

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Manage timesheets

Timesheets (timesheet: In Project Web Access, the timesheet is a page where resources can record their progress on tasks and send updates to the project manager.) record the actual hours worked on tasks, projects, and other items, and are important if you track utilization, billable time, and other time-based metrics.

You should create a timesheet if:

• Your organization wants to track billable and nonbillable hours.
• You must integrate with an accounting system for payroll or billing purposes.
• Management wants to see the details about the number of hours that resources are spending and how those hours are being spent (overtime billable versus standard billable versus nonbillable).

Timesheet management activities

• Create a timesheet
• Add or remove a timesheet task (line)
• Recall a timesheet
• Make adjustments to a timesheet
• Submit a timesheet
• Report vacation and other nonworking time
• Print a timesheet
• Approve or reject timesheets
• Export a timesheet to Excel
• Make adjustments to a timesheet

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Integrate with Outlook

Project Web Access integrates with Microsoft Office Outlook to enable team members to update their tasks by using Office Outlook 2007, 2003, or XP. In order to use any Outlook integration features, team members must:

• Have a valid user account for Project Web Access to access the page from which the Outlook integration features are configured.
• Use Office Outlook 2007, 2003, or XP.
• Download and install the Microsoft Office Project Add-in for Outlook.

Outlook activities

• Install and set up the Microsoft Office Project Add-in for Outlook
• Connect to Project Web Access from Outlook
• Get e-mail alerts or reminders when tasks change

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Work with resources

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• Manage resource information

• Staff Projects

• Skill scheduling

• Work with administrative projects

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Project managers and resource managers use the Resource Center in Project Web Access to view, modify, and analyze information for one or more resources (resources: The people, equipment, and material that are used to complete tasks in a project.) who are assigned to tasks in projects that are published to the Project Server database. The Resource Center displays a list of the resources in the enterprise resource pool (resource pool: A set of resources that is available for assignment to project tasks. A resource pool can be used exclusively by one project or can be shared by several projects.); permission to view items in the Resource Center is granted by the Project Server administrator.

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Manage resource information

In the Resource Center, you can edit information about resources, such as their e-mail addresses, account information, and groups to which they belong. You can also view their assignment and availability information.

 Note   Some resource attributes, such as their calendar settings, can only be changed with Project Professional 2007.

Resource information management activities

• Change the resource details
• View resource availability
• Add or change a user to Project Server
• View the resource assignments
• Manually check in resources that are checked out by another user
• Print a timesheet
• Export to Microsoft Office Excel

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Staff projects

Project managers can build teams (team: A group of enterprise resources who may be assigned as a single resource to a task.) for projects based on many different parameters, including resource skills and resource availability. You can use the Build Team feature in Project Web Access to build a project team.

Consider the following when you are using the Build Team feature:

• Managers might not be able to see all resources, or they might not be able to assign all of them to projects.
• In order to find resources that have the necessary skill sets, your organization must apply Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) (RBS: The structure that describes an organization's hierarchy. The RBS code defines the hierarchical position that a resource holds in the organization.) and other enterprise resource outline codes (outline codes: Custom tags you define for tasks or resources that allow you to show a hierarchy of the tasks in your project that is different from WBS codes or outline numbers. You can create up to 10 sets of custom outline codes in your project.) that are used to define various skills and resource relationships in the organization.
• You can assign tasks to a team of resources; individual team members can then select those tasks that they want assigned to themselves.
• Managers can use both proposed (proposed resource: A resource with a pending resource allocation to a task assignment that has not yet been authorized. This resource assignment does not detract from the availability of the resource to work on other projects.) and committed (committed resource: A resource that is formally allocated to any task assignments they have within a project. This is the default booking type.) booking types for resources. By assigning resources to projects without committing them, managers can track potential resource assignments for proposed new projects. Service organizations, for example, often use proposed booking so that they can compare various assignment scenarios and manage both proposed and approved assignments. Resource managers in organizations that use a centralized resource pool (resource pool: A set of resources that is available for assignment to project tasks. A resource pool can be used exclusively by one project or can be shared by several projects.) and project managers who do their own staffing use proposed booking to track and manage staffing requests.

Team leads can help staff projects, and are often responsible for overseeing many of the tasks that are assigned to team members in one or more projects. Team leads might also be assigned to tasks in projects, and might be asked to report actual work against project tasks in their timesheets, maintain and reply to status reports from project managers, and collaborate with others in the organization. In some organizations, project tasks are assigned to team leads, who then delegate the tasks to the appropriate team members.

 Note   Some resource attributes and settings, such as calendar settings and substituted resources, can only be changed with Project Professional 2007.

Project staffing activities

• Add resources to projects by using the Build Team feature
• Assign work to a team
• Add or change a user to Project Server (requires administrator permissions)
• Use proposed and committed resources
• View resource availability
• Substitute resources in a project

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Skill scheduling

To find the best resource for the job, use the skill scheduling features that are available in Project Web Access and Project Professional 2007 as part of your organization's Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution. Use the Resource Substitution Wizard within Project Professional 2007 to replace generic resources (generic resources: Placeholder resources that are used to specify the skills required for a specific task.) with actual resources. Use the Build Team feature in Project Web Access to build find resources with the correct skills for the job.

 Note   Some resource attributes, such as calendar settings and the resource substitution wizard, can only be changed with Project Professional 2007.

Skill scheduling activities

• Use the Build Team feature to add resources to your project
• Substitute resources in a project using Project Professional 2007
• Assign work to a team

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Work with vacation and other nonworking time (administrative time)

Project Web Access enables you to track nonworking time (administrative time), such as vacations, team meetings, training, internal projects, and other nonproject time. Team members enter administrative time on their My Timesheets pages.

Your organization should track administrative time if:

• You are integrating with an accounting system that requires data on exceptions.
• Your management team wants to see reports on exceptions.
• Project managers or resource managers want team members to enter out-of-office time so that the time appears as unavailable for project assignments.

Administrative time management activities

• Report vacation and other nonworking time
• Approve or reject administrative time

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Work in the Project Center

The Project Center provides a convenient way for project managers, team members, and other project stakeholders to view detailed information about individual projects and project proposals , and to view summary information about projects across the organization. Any user who has permission to access the Project Center in Project Web Access or Project Professional 2007 can use the Project Center to work with any project to which they are assigned. Only projects that are published to the Project Server 2007 database are available in the Project Center.

Project Center activities

• Create a project
• Create a project proposal
• View a project by using the Project Center
• Create a proposal that others can comment on
• View and add documents to your project workspace site
• Add or change a view (requires administrator permissions)
• Print a view
• Create and manage project deliverables
• Create, view, and link project issues and risks

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Analyze data and create reports

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• Manage status reports

• Work with OLAP reports

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Project Web Access provides many reporting options to help your team collaborate in the most efficient ways. Resources can create status reports to report how their tasks are progressing. In addition, a project manager can create detailed online analytical processing (OLAP) reports.

 Note   Keep in mind that some tasks can only be performed if a user belongs to the Project Web Access administrators group. If you don't see the Server Settings link in the Quick Launch of Project Web Access, then you don't belong to the administrators group, and cannot perform actions such as customizing views, setting up reports, setting up timesheets, or deleting projects.

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Manage status reports

Status reports describe the progress on assigned tasks. Project managers can automate the process of requesting and receiving status information; they can send team members status report requests, and team members can then respond to them by providing the information requested. Team members can also initiate the submission of status reports. Project managers can configure status reports so that they receive individual submissions and a merged report that consolidates responses.

Status report management activities

• Set up a status report
• View status reports
• Submit a status report
• Get e-mail alerts or reminders when tasks change

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Work with OLAP reports

Managers at various levels can use a variety of reports to analyze project and resource performance in a project or across multiple projects. You can use PivotTable (PivotTable report: An interactive table that summarizes, or crosstabulates, large amounts of data. You can rotate its rows and columns to see different summaries of the source data, filter the data by displaying different pages, or display details.) and PivotChart (PivotChart: Provides a graphical representation of the data in a PivotTable report, an interactive, crosstabulated report that summarizes and analyzes data. Use the Portfolio Analyzer to select the data that you display in a PivotChart.) views if you want to work interactively with the reports and change some of the fields that structure them. All these reports help you understand the health of your organization in terms of project and resource performance.

 Note   Some reports, such as visual reports, can only be created and viewed using Project Professional 2007.

OLAP report management activities

• View project reports
• Create a visual report with Project Professional 2007

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Collaborate with others in your organization

Project Web Access has many features to help your organization's resources collaborate on project tasks, issues, risks, and other areas that affect the success of the project.

Collaboration activities

• Create, view, and link project issues and risks
• View and add documents to a project workspace site
• Create (provision) a project workspace site
• Create a proposal that others can comment on
• Create and manage project deliverables
• Get e-mail alerts or reminders when tasks change
• Create and manage inter-project dependencies and deliverables

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Work with Project Professional

You can use Project Professional 2007 to accomplish many project management tasks as part of the Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution for your organization.

 Note   Project Server 2007 permissions are required in order to complete various enterprise project management tasks by using Project Professional.

Project Professional activities

• Connect (log on) to Project Server
• Create and manage inter-project dependencies and deliverables
• Create an enterprise project
• Publish the latest plan and team assignments
• Delete a project
• Manually check in projects and resources that are checked out by another user (requires administrator permissions)
• Available fields for customizing views

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Get deployment advice, blogs, and other information online

• Project management quick reference guide for Project 2007
• The Project Map: Your road map to project management
• Connect with other Project users
• Project Server 2007 permissions
• Project Server 2007 demo
• Project Server and SharePoint Security Roadmap