SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans

I am a Project Server and SharePoint consultant but my main focus currently is around Project Server. I have been working with Project Server for nearly five years since 2007 for a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in the UK, I have also been awared with the Microsoft Community Contributor Award 2011. I am also a certified Prince2 Practitioner. This article has been cross posted from pwmather.wordpress.com (original article)

This is part two of the mini series on the new Resource Management feature that is being rolled out to Project Online, the first part on upgrading / activating the feature can be seen here:

http://bit.ly/1X7lgjU

In this post we take a look at what this feature has to offer from a Project Manager and a Resource Manager point of view.

For the purpose of this demo, I have created a new simple test project called “Pauls Resource Engagements Test” that can be seen below:

I have also created two test resources, “TestRes1” and “TestRes2”, see below:

Notice only “TestRes1” has been marked as requiring an engagement – this is to demo the different behaviour. The new field “Requires Engagements” indicates this. This is set against the resource using the new resource attribute as detailed in post 1 but can be seen below:

Both these resources have been added to my project team. So firstly I am going to assigned the resources to those test tasks to see what happens. TestRes1 who requires the approval is assigned to Task1 and TestRes2 is assigned to Task2 and the project is saved and published. Notice the new icon in the indicator column for Task 1 only as TestRes2 on Task 2 doesn’t require the approved engagements:

This is telling the Project Manager that the assignment is created without an approved engagement. Right-clicking on the icon gives the ability to view a new feature, “Fix in the Engagement Inspector…”

Clicking this loads the Inspector:

Clicking the “View Engagements conflicts in Task Usage” loads the following:

Here the PM can easily create an engagement request using the “Create and save new engagement for this assignment’s resource” button under actions or assign the task to another resource using the “Assign the task to a different resource” button. These actions are also available without accessing the Inspector, right-clicking the icon in the indicator column for the assignment row gives these options:

Clicking the Create new engagement option will load this dialog box:

It will default to the Resource and the task start and finish dates. The PM then has the ability to add a description and comments plus change the allocated by options:

Clicking OK then updates the Inspector to give the ability to submit the engagement:

Clicking the “Submit my engagement for review” will then create the request for the Resource Manager to accept / reject. The Inspector then indicators that there is a proposed engagement that covers the assignment:

Putting the Resource Manager hat on I will jump to the Resource Center in PWA. I select “TestRes1” in the grid then click the “Resource Requests” button on the ribbon:

This loads the following page:

Here I can change the views, check resource assignments, check the new capacity planning feature, edit the engagement, delete the engagement, add a new engagement or accept / reject the engagement. Firstly I will look at the new Capacity planning page:

The default view here shows a heat map for the engagements but my test engagement doesn’t appear here and it is only proposed and not committed as I am yet to accept it. I can check the checkbox “Include proposed booking” and my engagement data will appear for this example assignment:

There are other configuration options on the ribbon such as units, timescales and thresholds for under and over capacity. Also on this page is the ability to change the view:

In this example I switched to the Resource Utilisation view:

The others are similar, just show the data differently. These can be exported to various other formats uing the Download option:

Now I will switch back to the Resource Requests page and Accept the engagement request by selecting it and clicking the Accept button:

The Resource Manager then has the ability to add comments:

The engagement then updates to committed:

Putting my Project Manager hat back on, I switch back to Project Pro and I see that I still have a warning:

To fix this I need to refresh the engagements in this project. To do that, change the view the the “Resource Plan” view and click the Engagements tab:

Now click the Refresh button on the ribbon:

The engagement status has now updated to Committed. Switching back to another view and the warning has been removed:

Switching back to the Resource Plan view, the Project Manager can open the engagement and see the comments:

Clicking in the Format tab the Project Manager can change the view settings:

On the Engagements tab the Project Manager can create new engagements, launch the inspector, submit engagement requests for approval or refresh the engagement data:

A new request has been created for TestRes2 called Test and the details planned using the time phased grid:

Once submitted the Resource Manager will see this in the Resource Request page for TestRes2 – this time showing the time phased view:

In this example, as the Resource Manager I will edit this request to add 8 hours for the 3rd, 5th and 6th November:

Then I will click the Accept button. As the Project Manager in Project Pro, I refresh the engagements and see the changes:

The Resource Manager can also create engagements for resources in the Resource Center using the Add Engagement button in the resource requests page:

This gives the Resource Manager the ability to create engagements for the resources selected from the resource center grid, in this is example I only had TestRes1 selected:

As before, the Project Manager would need to refresh the engagements in the project to see the updates.

Next up part 3 where we will look at some quick reporting options for engagements.