The convenience of synchronizing project information between Project and SharePoint becomes evident when you assign tasks to team members and start tracking progress on those assigned tasks.
Before you start assigning tasks to team members, set up SharePoint and your project file with the names of all team members. Be sure that the names are in the same form in both places, as SharePoint doesn’t allow any resources to be assigned that are not members of the SharePoint group.
To ensure that you have the same resource names in SharePoint and your project file, it’s best to use one of the following techniques:
Set up all resources in SharePoint, and then copy and paste their names from a table in SharePoint into the Resource Sheet in Project 2010.
Assign resources only in SharePoint, at least at first. When the project tasks list is synchronized, the resources show up in the project plan, not only on the assigned tasks, but also in the Resource Sheet. They can then be used for future task assignments within Project.
To assign a resource in SharePoint, follow these steps:
In your SharePoint project tasks list, click in the Assigned To cell for the task you want to assign to a team member.
Click the Browse button that appears when you click in the cell.
The Select People And Groups dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 21-10.
If necessary, type a name in the Find box, and then click the Search button. In the list, click the name of the resource you want to assign to the current task.
Instead of browsing in the Select People And Groups dialog box, you can type a resource name directly in the Assigned To box. However, you need to be careful that you use the proper form of the name so that SharePoint recognizes it. If SharePoint doesn’t recognize the name, you’ll see an error on the task, as shown in Figure 21-11.
To assign a resource in your project plan, follow these steps:
In your project plan, first be sure that the Resource Sheet reflects the resource names as they are entered in SharePoint.
Switch to the Gantt Chart or other task sheet.
Select the task to which you want to assign a resource.
On the Resource tab, in the Assignments group, click Assign Resources.
Click the resource name(s) you want to assign to the selected task, and then click Assign.
With the Assign Resources dialog box still open, select other tasks and continue to assign resources to them. (See Figure 21-12.)
When you are finished assigning tasks, click Close.
Whether you assign resources in SharePoint or Project, the next time you give the Sync command, the assignments are synchronized across the two locations.
For more information about working with resources in Project 2010, see Chapter 8.
Although a custom solution could be designed, there is no formal mechanism for using SharePoint to request task updates from team members. However, team members can update their assigned tasks in SharePoint. When you synchronize the project tasks list with Project 2010, the updates can appear in the project plan. Likewise, if you include progress tracking in the project plan, this information can be included in the SharePoint project tasks list. For progress information to appear in both places when synchronized, be sure that the progress fields are mapped and showing in both places.
The default view for the project tasks list shows the % Complete and Task Status columns for entering task updates. To update progress in the SharePoint project tasks list using these fields, follow these steps:
In your SharePoint project tasks list, click in the % Complete cell for the task.
Press Tab to move to the Task Status cell.
Note that the Task Status cell does not change when you enter a percent complete.
Click the arrow in the Task Status cell, and then select one of the choices: In Progress, Completed, Deferred, Waiting On Someone Else.
To update progress in your project plan, first decide what kinds of progress information you want to use. You have many choices, from the very broad to the very detailed, as follows:
Percentage complete
Actual duration and remaining duration
Actual start and actual finish
Percentage work complete
Actual work complete and remaining work
Actual work complete by time period
Your update progress choice is not an all-or-nothing decision; you can use any combination of these methods that suit the purposes of your project, your team, and the individual tasks.
For more information about progress tracking in Project 2010, see Updating Task Progress.
When you decide which types of progress tracking information you and your team want to use, you can map those fields to be sure there are corresponding pairs in Project and SharePoint that always synchronize with each other.
For information about properly synchronizing fields between SharePoint and Project, see Mapping Fields Between Project and SharePoint.
When the fields are mapped, you can add columns as necessary and enter progress information. When you give the Sync command, progress entered in either SharePoint or Project is reflected in both locations.
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