Set the Project Online desktop client or Project Professional to Computer mode

The practice tasks in this book require that Project be set to Computer mode and not be connected to Project Web App. One advantage of Project Online desktop client or Project Professional is that they can connect to Project Web App (PWA), where your organization saves and views plans as part of your PPM solution. In addition, PWA-integrated features can vary from the desktop features discussed in this book, which is why working in Computer mode is important. If you’re using Project Online desktop client or Project Professional, follow the instructions we provide here to determine what mode you’re in and how to change it, if needed.

To check your connection, follow these steps:

1. In the Backstage view, select Info.

2. Under Project Web App Accounts, confirm that you can see the statement “You’re not connected to Project Web App” (see Figure C-1).

   

If you’re not connected to Project Web App, your computer is already running in Computer mode and no further steps are needed.

If you are connected to Project Web App, follow these steps:

1. In the Backstage view, select Info.

2. In Manage Accounts, select Configure Accounts.

3. In the Project Web App Accounts dialog, under When starting, select Choose an account (see Figure C-2) and then select OK.

   

4. Restart Microsoft Project and, in the Login dialog, in the Profile list, select Computer, as Figure C-3 shows, and then select OK.

   

   Tip

   When you simply turn on the option to choose an account, you don’t have to delete any PWA accounts used in your organization.

Link to a Microsoft Planner plan

Planner is a task-focused Microsoft 365 solution that may be used independently or may be connected to a task in a Project plan if a PPM solution is being used. Tasks in Planner may be managed on the Board view, and tasks are summarized on the Charts view, as Figure C-4 shows. If a task in a Project Professional or Project Online desktop client needs to be explored further by a team outside of PPM, that team may use Planner for that purpose.

To access Planner plans or set up a new plan

1. Sign in to Microsoft 365 using your preferred web browser at the website https://portal.office.com.

2. Select the Microsoft 365 app launcher (looks like a waffle) and then select Planner.

   Tip

   The website https://tasks.office.com is a shortcut to the same location.

To link a Project task to a Planner plan

1. Start Project Online desktop client or Project Professional connected to your PWA profile.

2. Open the desired plan and select Check Out on the top status bar.

3. If needed, switch to a Gantt chart view.

4. Select the task that you want to link a Planner plan to and then on the Task tab, in the Link To group, select Planner.

5. In the Link to plan pane, select Link to existing Planner plan.

6. Using the search box, enter the 365 Group that the plan is part of and then select the correct 365 Group when it appears.

7. Select the desired Planner plan from the available list and then select Create link. The resulting link icon is illustrated in Figure C-5.

   

Import into Project for the web

Project for the web is a new, browser-based, easy-to-get-started solution to manage plans. It may complement Project Online/Project Server or may be used independently. Project Online desktop client plans can be imported into Project for the web. Plans created in Project Standard or Project Professional may also be imported if Project for the web is available in your organization.

Features found in desktop versions may have similar features in Project for the web. As Figure C-6 shows, the Timeline view in Project for the web looks similar to the Gantt Chart view in Project desktop. The desktop versions of Project contain a more comprehensive list of features, while Project for the web simplifies sharing of information across Microsoft 365 users and groups. You’ll need to decide which option meets your scheduling needs. After you import an MPP file into Project for the web, the original MPP file is still available for later use in desktop versions of Project.

To import into Project for the web

1. Sign in to Microsoft 365 using your preferred web browser at the website https://portal.office.com.

2. Select the Microsoft 365 app launcher (looks like a waffle), and then select Project.

   Tip

   The website https://project.microsoft.com is a shortcut to the same location.

3. Select the arrow to the right of New blank project and then select Import from Project desktop.

4. In the Import from Project desktop dialog, select Choose .mpp file, as Figure C-7 shows.

   

5. Navigate to the desired file and then select Open.

6. In the Import complete dialog, select OK. The results are shown in Figure C-8.

   

Synchronize tasks with SharePoint Online

Project managers and teams benefit when they share information. With Project Online desktop client, you can synchronize tasks between Project and SharePoint Online. You can either create the initial task list in Project and then synchronize it with a new or existing SharePoint site, or you can create the initial task list in SharePoint and then create a new Project plan based on the task list. Team members can view, edit, and report the status of their tasks in the SharePoint tasks list.

You can see in Figure C-9 that the SharePoint Project Summary page includes task status information and other key details about the plan.

From the Project Summary page, you can share the plan, customize the site, and drill into the tasks list, as Figure C-10 shows.

In SharePoint, you can track progress on a task or add new tasks, but no active scheduling occurs. You can even view your tasks list in other views, including a Calendar view (see Figure C-11) and a Gantt Chart view.

When the SharePoint tasks list is synchronized with Project, you can take full advantage of the Project feature set and scheduling engine (see Figure C-12).

For Project Online desktop client users, task synchronization with SharePoint Online serves two useful purposes:

• You can create an initial task list in SharePoint and invite team members and other stakeholders to add tasks, durations, and other details in SharePoint. You can then open the list in Project and perform scheduling work in Project. Then you can resynchronize back to SharePoint so that the team can see the results.

• You can create an initial task list in Project and then synchronize it with SharePoint. You can invite team members and other stakeholders to adjust task details as needed. Then you can edit the list in Project for additional schedule fine-tuning.

In both cases, you use the scheduling engine in Project and the collaborative, multi­user capabilities of SharePoint—the best combination of the strengths of both products.

You can also convert a SharePoint tasks list into a PWA project (described in the next topic). You might choose to do so, for example, when you need more detailed status tracking or workflow management of tasks.

This topic introduced you to Project and SharePoint integration via task list synchronization. Depending on the collaborative practices and tools of your organization, you might find that Project and SharePoint together make a powerful combination.

Collaborate in Project Online/Project Server by using Project Web App

Project Web App (PWA) is the browser-based interface to Project Server running on-premises, or to Project Online hosted in the cloud. Project managers can use PWA in conjunction with Project Online desktop client to build and manage projects. Others might find PWA useful as well—for example:

• Team members who have task assignments

• Resource managers who review capacity and utilization of resources

• Portfolio managers who collect and analyze data across multiple projects

• Site administrators who set up and manage access to PWA and create custom user experiences

Projects that can be managed in PWA can come from a variety of sources, including these:

• Project Online desktop client or Project Professional plans (MPP files)

• SharePoint task lists

• Projects created directly in PWA

A PWA project is stored in Project Server or Project Online, and it can be edited by authorized stakeholders in PWA and by the project manager in Project.

At first glance, a tasks list in PWA might look similar to a SharePoint tasks list. However, PWA tasks lists offer much greater scheduling capabilities and support both the scheduling features in PWA and the full feature set of Project Online desktop client.

The hub of PWA is the Home page, as shown in Figure C-13.

From the Home page, you can manage your PWA site and drill down into your projects and tasks (see Figure C-14).

The commands on the Projects tab (see Figure C-15) indicate some of the actions you can perform. Important capabilities include adding new projects to the portfolio, controlling access to projects, and changing how the list of projects appears.

When you view a project, you get a familiar Gantt Chart with Timeline view, similar to what you would see in Project. In fact, on the Task tab (see Figure C-16), you can see many of the same task-management features that Project has, including features for tracking progress and applying groups or filters.

Next, we’ll examine PWA from the perspective of a team member who has task assignments in a PWA project.

One important use for team members is to record work status in sheet, timephased, or Gantt chart format. See Figure C-17 for an example of a team member’s Tasks page used for recording task updates.

After the team member has recorded work status, he or she can submit it for approval by the project manager. See Figure C-18 for a project manager’s Approvals page with pending updates.

Team members can add notes to their status per task. As Figure C-19 shows, these notes are available to project managers through the Approvals page.

After the project manager accepts the status updates, Project’s scheduling engine responds to the progress team members reported, as well as any other changes made to the plan in PWA (see Figure C-20).

The next time the plan is published, all team members and other project stakeholders will see the changes. This collaborative process continues throughout the life of the project.

Finally, we’ll look at PWA from the perspective of a resource manager or project manager who wants to know whether resources are fully allocated.

In PWA, you use the Resource Center, as Figures C-21, C-22, and C-23 show, to evaluate resource requests, view resource assignments, and review resource capacity. These options can be useful before or after assigning resources to projects.

Several factors affect the information shown in the Resource Utilization view, including approved resource requests and published projects.

Project portfolio management

The previous topics introduced you to some of the team collaboration and integration features available with Microsoft 365 solutions. Project Online desktop client combined with Project Server or Project Online (which includes Project Web App) makes up the Microsoft project portfolio management, or PPM, solution. (You also might see the related label enterprise project management, or EPM.) The project management functionality of PPM extends far beyond the desktop functionality of Project as you’ve practiced in this book.

This topic introduces some of the key differences between desktop project management and PPM. PPM is one of the most complex but potentially rewarding practices that an organization can adopt.

Some organizational benefits of PPM include the following:

• You can capture your organization’s best practices in enterprise templates.

• You can gain insight into resource workload and availability across all projects and other activities in your organization.

• You can develop consistent ways of describing and tracking project activities across your organization.

• You can collect a broad range of data related to projects and report this data in timely and informative ways.

Even if you’re the sole user of Project in your organization, the real “user” of PPM is the entire organization; thus, the software toolset is correspondingly more complex than Project running on a single computer. For this reason, fully addressing the details of PPM is far beyond the scope of this book. However, we want to introduce PPM here so that you can start to determine whether it can serve a useful role in your organization. For most organizations, we think the answer will be ”Yes,” but getting from an initial interest in PPM to a full implementation involves a series of complex steps. We hope this brief introduction can help you formulate some ideas on how PPM can improve your organization’s performance.

If you read the chapters of this book, you have a good introduction to project management on the scale of a single project manager with projects that have dozens of resources working on hundreds of tasks. You might be practicing project management at this scale now. In fact, with a resource pool and multiproject features such as consolidated projects, a single project manager should be able to stay on top of several different projects in various stages of completion by using Project running on a single computer.

Now imagine dozens of project managers planning and tracking hundreds of projects, each with hundreds or even thousands of resources and tasks—all within a single organization. Project management at this scale requires a high degree of planning, coordination, and standardization. This is the realm of PPM: an organization planning, coordinating, and executing a large number of projects simultaneously.

Think about any past or current experiences you’ve had working on projects in a large organization, and try to answer these questions:

• Were potential projects evaluated against the goals and objectives of the organization so that the projects selected for execution aligned well with the strategic goals of the organization?

• Were the projects defined and scoped in a consistent way that enabled apples-to-apples comparisons?

• Were resource assignments made with the full knowledge of each resource’s skills, location, and availability?

• Did the executive leadership of the organization have a clear picture of the status of each project?

If your answer to any of these questions is “No,” the organization was probably not practicing PPM effectively. Certainly, many small and large organizations can gain great benefits by adopting PPM; however, this is no easy task, or such organizations would have implemented PPM already. Succeeding with PPM requires a strong willingness from the leadership of the organization (executive sponsorship), a well-trained group of administrators, project and resource managers, and a software infrastructure (either on premises or hosted) capable of supporting it.