Office Project Server 2007 addresses the needs of a variety of roles in an organization:

• Executives who allocate funds and oversee projects and programs by providing visibility, decision-making tools, and control.
• Project managers and staff who create and manage projects.
• Resource managers who work with staff and assets, by providing rich, Web-based tools for tracking and planning.
• Team members who work on projects, by providing access in familiar tools to view work and report status.
• Administrators and IT staff who manage the server and extend the integration or client functions, by realizing decreased license acquisition costs, a flexible platform, and enterprise functionality.

Office Project Server 2007 and its clients (Office Project Professional 2007 and Office Project Web Access) offer new capabilities:

• Provide rich analytics and market-leading reporting on projects and programs
• Govern projects from initiation through their entire life cycle.
• Manage schedules from ad hoc projects to large programs.
• Connect business decisions to the people doing the work.
• Support enterprise needs (such as performance and scalability).

Office Project Server 2007 is used for a variety of functions and applications in a wide range of industries, which include:

• IT Governance.
• Product development.
• Quality management with Six Sigma.
• Professional Services Automation.
• Project, resource, and risk management.
• Industries such as construction, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, government, retail, financial services, healthcare, and more.

Yes. In addition to all the languages supported by Microsoft Office Project 2003, Office Project 2007 adds full support for Arabic and Hebrew. In addition to the client being Unicode enabled, Office Project 2007 supports Unicode for desktop client-to-server communications and delivers full Multilingual User Interface (MUI) compliance.

Yes, the Office Project 2007 clients (Office Project Web Access, Office Project Professional 2007, and Office Project Standard 2007) will support MUI. However, Project Workspaces will be in only one language, because those depend on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services technology, which itself does not support MUI.

Find pricing and licensing information on the 2007 Microsoft Office system pricing page or the How to buy Project page.

If you purchased Software Assurance on Project 2003 applications, you will receive similar (for example, Server, Professional, CALs) future versions of Project for the lifetime of your Software Assurance agreement. The specific software packaging options for the next release of the Microsoft Office system have not been determined at this time..

Yes, though details remain to be determined. The technology guarantee will give automatic upgrade rights to users who acquire software within a set time period (to be determined) prior to launch.

In Office Project Server 2007, Microsoft will provide a simple mechanism to track the number of users that are Office Project Professional 2007 users. Microsoft will also display the number of users who are not Office Project Professional 2007 users. This should display a more accurate number of the CALs required.

The new Office Project Professional 2007 features include:

• Background Cell Highlighting
• Change Highlighting
• Cost Resources
• Desktop Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) Cube
• Multiple Level Undo
• Task Drivers pane
• Budget Tracking
• Visual Reports

For more information, see the Microsoft Office Project 2007 frequently asked questions

The core technology stack remains mostly the same: Windows Server 2003, SQL Server 2000, Windows SharePoint Services, Office Project Professional 2007, and Office Project Web Access. The two new requirements are Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0. New optional components include: Windows Workflow Foundation (free with Windows SharePoint Services) and Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 with its Web client, Office Project Portfolio Web Access.

Yes.

The new Office Project Server 2007 features include:

• Active Cache
• Assignment Owner
• Cube Building Service
• Deliverables
• Event Model
• Multi-currency support
• Programs
• Project Server Interface
• Queuing Service
• Reporting Data Service
• Server-side scheduling
• Timesheets

Office Project Professional 2007 will interact with Office Project Server 2007 through a local cache. It will manage replication of the enterprise global resource pool information and project updates. Updates to Office Project Server 2007 will be message-based and will use only the differences between files rather than the whole files.

This is the individual who has the responsibility for entering actual work or reporting progress against the assignment. For asset resource assignments, this will be a surrogate user. In Project 2003, only named enterprise resources could report their own time through Project Web Access; with Office Project Server 2007, users can track time and assignments for other types of resources such as generic, cost, or material resources.

You can access the Cube Building Service through a flexible graphical user interface to build portfolio analyzer cubes with more data options. You can also choose what custom fields to include in the cube. The CBS consumes the Reporting Data Service (RDS) generated data and metadata from the Reporting database in order to build cubes for end-user reporting.

Project managers can create a Windows SharePoint Services list of items to which they commit dates such as milestones. Other projects can then create soft or hard cross-project dependency links to these deliverables.

Office Project 2007 includes a well-documented server-side Event Model. Developers can extend the Office Project 2007 functionality by developing custom event handlers and associating them with events raised by Office Project Server 2007. An event is a message sent by an object to signal the occurrence of an action, which could be caused by a user interaction such as a mouse click or triggered by some other program logic. The events can trigger processes in the Windows Workflow Foundation.

Programs are collections of projects to accomplish a large objective. The program level supports key performance indicators (KPIs), analysis, and reporting.

The Project Server Interface (PSI) replaces the Project Data Service (PDS) application programming interface (API). All Office Project Server 2007 clients and components for integration (Office Project Web Access, Office Project Professional 2007, and third-party applications) interact with Office Project Server 2007 solely through the PSI. The PSI, along with the Project Server Eventing Service, exposes all of the functionality and data that client applications need to integrate fully with Office Project Server 2007.

This server-side service queues work requests pending server availability, which provides greater resiliency and use of server resources.

The Reporting Data Service (RDS) extracts data from the Project Server Publish, Working, and Version databases, transforms the data into a format suitable for end-user reporting and Analysis Services cube building, and loads it into the Reporting database.

With server-side scheduling, if a third party builds a front end, winproj.exe no longer has to be installed on each client, because the server contains the scheduling engine. This reduces license needs from Office Project Professional 2007 to a CAL.

In Project 2003, the timesheet was mainly for reporting progress on tasks in Project 2003 through Task Statusing. In Office Project 2007, you can enter times for more than Office Project 2007 activities and non-project time. Time can be linked to project tasks, and can also be run independently. You no longer need an assignment and can capture time at different levels, such as against the summary task, project or account code level, instead of just for individual tasks. Full auditing will be available; when enabled, an audit log entry will be created for all changes made when the timesheet is saved or submitted. Timesheets support billable/non-billable and fiscal periods. They are completely HTML Web-based. Project managers can approve or reject timesheets independently from project status updates. Timesheets will track actual time worked and that will be protected through auditing. Additionally, Office Project 2007 will be able to lock tasks and projects against further time tracking.

No. The EPM Solution consists of the following Project products, each of which is sold separately:

• Office Project Professional 2007 (includes one Office Project Server 2007 CAL)
• Office Project Server 2007
• (Optional) Office Project Server 2007 CALs — User or Device (to use Office Project Web Access, which is enabled by Office Project Server 2007)
• (Optional) Office Project Server 2007 External Connector
• (Optional) Office Project Portfolio Server 2007
• (Optional) Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 CAL (to use Office Project Portfolio Web Access, which is enabled by Office Project Portfolio Server 2007)

 Note   Project Server also requires:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server CALs
• Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (a component technology for Windows Server 2003) for file management, and issue and risk tracking as well as for using Project Web Access
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or newer versions and SQL Server CALs
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0

Project Server is part of the Microsoft EPM Solution. For more information, see the Microsoft EPM Solution product page.

Yes. Office Project Web Access requires Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with all functions being Web Parts.

The new Project Web Access features include an enhanced user interface, a recycle bin, list item versioning and history, the ability to track work lists and then promote or publish these into full projects, and great access to desktop and administrative functions. Office Project 2007 streamlines the process for provisioning project workspaces.

The plan of record is to try to support the same system requirements for each edition of Project. At this point, Microsoft is aware of several changes: Project Web Access will require Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later; some features will require the .NET Framework version 3.0. For more details, see the system requirements for Office Project Server 2007.

SQL Server 2000, Service Pack 3 (SP3) or later is required for Project Server 2007. See the system requirements for Office Project Server 2007.

The clients and server for Office Project Server 2007 are built on top of, and use, the Windows platform and will continue to do so for Windows Vista. Microsoft expects to continue enriching Windows infrastructure investments, like XML, ASP.NET, and Web Parts. Customers and developers can develop and deploy Office Project 2007 today, knowing that those investments will be carried forward with additional customer value when Windows Vista comes to market.

No. Users can also work with Microsoft Office 2003, but not prior versions.

Customers should examine which edition of Office Project 2007 best suits their requirements and acquire accordingly. Microsoft is continuing to invest in both the desktop editions and the EPM Solution sets of capabilities in the Office Project 2007 timeframe.

Yes. Office Project Web Access will require Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

Customers have given us feedback on the many project management and compliance standards they are required to address today, and in the future. This is more than a technology issue; it is the processes and controls of the organization that need to be certified as compliant. Office Project Server 2007 offers infrastructure to support this compliance.

Yes. With a common object file format (COM) add-in, you can import Office Project Server 2007 assignments to your calendar. This adds a timesheet tab to the appointment detail window so you can report time and progress directly to Office Project Server 2007.

Yes, with one click these lists can be promoted to full projects in Office Project Server 2007.

Office Project Server 2007 leverages functionality in Windows SharePoint Services to deliver these features.

Yes. Office Project Server 2007 includes wizards and a report center to leverage the rich, new reporting capabilities of Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and Office Visio Professional 2007 to communicate information on Office Project Server 2007. Office Project Server 2007 continues to support the ability to import task lists from Excel, Outlook integration, as well as exporting reports into Microsoft Office Word and Microsoft Office PowerPoint. The Web interface will require Windows SharePoint Services 3.0; all Office Project Web Access functions are true Web services. Project leverages SharePoint for issues, risks, and document management. The software development kit (SDK) will provide other examples of integration as reference implementations.

No. These products are not included together out-of-the-box nor do they require each other to work.

Yes, the white paper explaining migration can be found here.

No, it cannot connect to the server. However, Project 2003 and Office Project 2007 clients can be run side-by-side on the same computer.

Yes. Microsoft also supports side-by-side client installations. Project Professional 2003 cannot connect to Office Project Server 2007, nor can Office Project Professional 2007 connect to Project Server 2003.

Office Project Server 2007 requires .NET Framework 2.0. Office Project Server 2007 also requires (and includes) Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, which also requires .NET Framework 2.0. The .NET Framework is not installed by setup; it must be installed prior to installing Office Project Server 2007.

Yes. Adding additional servers and reconfiguring roles is designed into how Microsoft supports growing customer needs.

No, they will not lose any functionality; performance may be better on SQL Server 2005. However, the Report Center (obtained from the full Office SharePoint Server 2007 product) has considerable additional functionality such as support for SQL Server 2005 key performance indicators (KPI).

Yes. This pack plugs into MOM and alerts the administrator when it traps specific events and performance counters to ease system management.

Yes. Office Project Web Access now offers all the Administrator functions available from the central page rather than having to drill down into multiple levels to locate a feature.

Yes.

No, they remain unchanged. Office Project 2007 adds substantial new capabilities in addition to these legacy reports, with Visual Reports on the desktop and the Reporting Data Service and Cube Building Service on the server.

Yes. Office Project Server 2007 permits easy user reporting with common business reporting tools by means of transformation and loading of a true reporting schema with the Reporting Data Service.

Yes. Visual Reports will support the 2003, 2002, and 2000 versions of Excel and Office Visio Professional 2007.

The desktop reporting engine will not, but Office Project Server 2007-based reporting will.

Yes. A set of changes support project finances: predefined project accounting fields (for example, cost code), budget fields, and cost resources.

Yes, it is called Cost Resources. It more accurately monitors Project financials by assigning multiple costs to a task, tying costs to account codes, and rolling up costs against budgets. Additionally, the costs are not tied to the work contours, so changing the percent complete or end date of the task will not affect Cost Resources.

Material resources are expected to tie directly to the work contour. Cost Resources should be independent from the work contour and don't accrue in the same fashion as material resources.

Yes. Timesheets support billable/non-billable and fiscal period.

No. Cost Resources are not thought of as something that accrues at a rate, but rather as straightforward costs.

Yes.

Yes. Time can be linked to project tasks or run independently. You no longer need an assignment and can capture time at different levels, such as against the project or account code level, instead of individual tasks. Full auditing will be available; when enabled, an audit log entry will be created for all changes made when the timesheet is saved or submitted.

Yes.

After launch, the Project Resource Kit will include guides on configuration, security, administration, and more.

The Microsoft Office Developer Center for Project includes summaries and links to information about planning, developing, and deploying solutions based on Project.

Microsoft has a large and diverse community of experienced solution providers that will be ready to help you after the Project conference. Locate a Project solution provider.

For information, visit the Microsoft Office Project Solution Providers Web site.

Downloads on Microsoft Office Online is your one-stop resource for Project software updates, downloads, add-ins, templates, service releases, online services, and more.

See previous versions for product information, downloads, and support options.