Configuring MS Project to Connect to Project Server

Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 (MS Project) provides the capability to publish the project schedule to the Project Server for access by other members of the team and centralized tracking of the status, issues, documents, etc. MS Project requires some configuration to be done to allow it to connect to the server.

1. Click the Tools | Enterprise Options | Microsoft Office Project Server Accounts… menu item.

1. In the Project Server Accounts dialog box that appears, click Add.

 

1. In the Account Properties dialog, enter the following information:
   1. Account Name is an arbitrary name of the account or connection.
   2. Project Server URL is the address or URL of the Project Web Access (PWA).
   3. Check the Set as default account checkbox.

       

1. Click button to save the account and close the Account Properties dialog box.
2. Click OK button to close the Project Server Accounts dialog box.
3. Close MS Project.
4. Open MS Project again. You will now be prompted to select the Profile to use.
5. Select the Account you created earlier. If you don’t need to update the PWA, you can select the Computer profile instead.

    

 

1. Click the Enter User Credentials to enable the User Name and Password fields.
2. Enter the credentials you use to login to the Project Web Access.

    

 

1. Click the OK button to log-in.
2. After successful connection to the server, MS Project is now ready. You can work on your project plan and publish it to Project Server.

Tracking Methods in Project Server 2007

Here is a comparison of the three tracking methods available in Project Server 2007 and I’m quoting this from the book Microsoft® Office Project Server 2007: The Complete Reference by Dave Gochberg and Rob Stewart.

Percent of Work Complete – This method assumes that the task starts on the scheduled date, and users simply enter a percentage (from 0 to 100) of completed work. Project Server will calculate the actual work based on the percentage complete of planned work.

Actual Work Done and Work Remaining – Regardless of the calendar time, the resource enters overall actual work and remaining work for a task.

Hours of Work Done per Period – Resources are expected to enter their actual work over a given time period. They can enter remaining work on the task to indicate variance from the planned work. This is the preferred option for a best practices approach.

This is important to note because I have experienced a number of fields moving or recalculating as a result of some fields being changed in Microsoft Project. This is frustrating when one does not know what fields automatically recalculate.