SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans

I came across a little possible pitfall while generating some reporting for a client, which I thought I should share with the community.

In Microsoft Project, the Start Date in Project Information defaults to the Start Date of the first task in the plan.

Obviously this can be changed in the Project Information so that the Start Date of the Project does not necessarily reflect the Start of the first task in the plan, or the Project Summary task.

So which date does appears in the reporting database? Well, here are the results:

From the MSP_EpmProject_UserView view in the reporting database

As you can see, the date from the MSP_EpmProject_UserView displays whatever is set in the Project Information. This might cause some unexpected information in reports, so we need to expand our query to include the date from the Project Summary task:

So, when writing the specifications for your reports, make sure you’re clear which date the client wants – it’s not unheard of having a plan created a few months in advance of the work being realistically scheduled which might cause this confusion!

Obviously the clear process-driven workaround is to have your Project Managers ensure that the Start Date in Project Information is updated when scheduling the project!