Enterprise Custom Fields are custom fields that are unique to the Enterprise Global Template. They can only be created for and assigned to projects that are saved to the Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 database from Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003. You can use Enterprise Custom Fields to help to establish consistency across all of your organization’s projects and ensure that fields and associated lookup tables are used in the same way for all projects, tasks, resources, and assignments.

 Note   Only individuals who have permission to use Project Professional and to check out the Enterprise Global Template from Project Server 2003 can use Enterprise Custom Fields.

Enterprise Custom Fields can include custom formulas and can allow the use of value lists and graphical indicators. By using Enterprise Custom Fields effectively, you can help to customize Project Server 2003 to fit the unique needs of your organization. When you use Enterprise Custom Fields, all users in your organization have access to a standard set of fields, which enables operations to be applied the in same way across entire sets of projects. For example:

• You can customize project management to reflect your organization’s structure and processes. All users in your organization can have access to a standard set of fields, enabling the same operations to be completed across entire sets of projects.
• You can store organizational-level settings in the Enterprise Global Template., including definitions and lookup tables, but not the values assigned to a task, resource, or project.
• You can set Enterprise Custom Fields as required fields so that users are prompted to enter information in that field before saving.

 Note   It is best to limit the number of people who can define Enterprise Custom Fields in your organization; only users who have permission to check out and edit the Enterprise Global Template are able to create, modify, or delete Enterprise Custom Fields.

Because creating Enterprise Custom Fields can range from being simple to being very complex and time-consuming, it is important to correctly design your Enterprise Custom Fields. To determine the scope of Enterprise Custom Fields that your organization requires, consider the following questions:

• What words or phrases are used by stakeholders in your organization, such as return on investment (ROI), Key Indicators, and so on? You might want to quantify and codify these concepts by means of Enterprise Custom Fields. Also consider the concepts behind the common words and phrases used by stakeholders in your organization.
• What are the user requirements in your organization? User requirements are frequently based on reporting requirements.
• How will you sort and select data? How will you use graphical indicators to help users identify the correct data?