Microsoft Office Project Server 2007/Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution

Technical Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Page title: Office Project Server 2007/Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution Technical Frequently Asked Questions

Keywords: Microsoft Office “12” Project, Office Project Server 2007, Project 2003, new Project Server/Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution, technical information about Microsoft Office Project, Office EPM solution, visual reports, Office reporting tools, Project Portfolio Server, PPM, portfolio management.

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On This Page: General Information Project Desktop Project Server–Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution Project Web Access System and Technology Requirements Integration Standards Deployment Upgrade and Migration Administration Security Customization Reports Financials Resource Management Technical Resources

General InformationQ. What are the applications in the Microsoft Office Project 2007 family?A. The Microsoft Office Project 2007 family includes Project Standard, along with the five programs that are integral to the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution: Project Professional, Project Server, Project Web Access, Project Portfolio Server, and Project Portfolio Web Access.

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Q. What are the top future areas of investment Microsoft expects to make in Project?A. Desktop

Delivers great reports. Easier to get started. Control finances.EPM Solution Gain visibility and insights

o Provides rich analytics and market-leading reporting. Easier to get started

o Propagate best practices for project work with enterprise templates to improve the project management process throughout your organization.

Enterprise readyo Manages schedules from simple projects to large programs.

Extensible and programmableo Provides the flexibility to meet your needs as your business

requirements evolve.

Q. Will Office Project 2007 add support for additional languages? A. Yes. In addition to all the languages supported by Project 2003, Office Project 2007 will add full support for Arabic and Hebrew. In addition to the client being Unicode enabled, Office Project 2007 will support Unicode for the desktop client to server communications and deliver full Multilingual User Interface (MUI) compliance.

Q. In what languages is Project localized?A. The current plan provides localization for these languages: Arabic, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simple), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (European), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. Please note Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 is English only.

Q. What languages are enabled in Project?A. The following languages will be enabled: Bulgarian, Chinese (Hong Kong), Croatian, Estonian, Hindi, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Serbian (Latin), Slovak, Slovenian, Thai, and Ukrainian. “Enabled” means that the user interface (UI) will not actually be localized into that language, but that the English version and possibly localized versions for other languages are designed and tested so that they can properly handle data in the enabled language.

Q. Will Office Project 2007 support the Multilingual User Interface (MUI) pack?A. Yes, the Office Project 2007 clients (Project Web Access, Professional, and Standard) will support MUI. Project Workspaces will be in only one language because those depend on Windows SharePoint Services, which itself does not support MUI.

Q. What is the offline strategy for the Office Project 2007 offering?A. Office Project 2007 provides both an online and offline solution analogous to Microsoft Office Outlook.

Q. What file formats will be supported?A. There will be no cutting of any file type reading from Project 2003, except for .mpx. However, you cannot write to the Project 98 format, nor can you write to a database of any type. ^ top

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Project DesktopQ. What is new in Office Project Standard 2007 and Office Project Professional 2007?A. The new Project features include:

Budget Tracking Visual Reports Desktop OLAP Cube Multiple Level Undo Task Driver Pane Change Highlighting Background Cell Highlights Cost Resources 3-D Gantt Bars Hijri Calendar

Q. How does Budget Tracking work?A. This means a manager can define a budget at a high level (program or project) so the project manager can allocate funds and track costs against the budget.

Q. What is the Visual Reports feature?A. This feature uses Microsoft Office Excel and Microsoft Office Visio Professional to produce charts, graphs, and diagrams based on Project data. A user can define custom report templates to share with other Project users. These templates and reports can be previewed from a dialog box in Office Project 2007.

Q. What is the Desktop OLAP Cube?A. Users can create customer reports or archive Office Project 2007 values with data exported from Project into a Microsoft Office Access database and OLAP cubes. Five cubes are generated: Task Time Phased, Task Non-Time Phased, Resource Time Phased, Resource Non-Time Phased, and Assignment Time Phased.

Q. What exactly is meant by Multiple Level Undo?A. The user can reverse the most recent series of changes, that is, undo and redo changes to views, data, and options. This functionality also enables undo actions or sets of actions from compliant macros or third-party applications.

Q. What is the Task Driver pane?A. This pane appears to the left of the table portion of the view. It shows prerequisites and resource constraints that drive the start data of the selected task. The user can click these drivers to link to the relevant information.

Q. What is Change Highlighting?A. When the user changes data in the project, then all impacted tasks—such as dependencies and summary task—are highlighted. The highlights reflect only the most recent change.

Q. What is Background Cell Highlighting?A. This function enables a project owner to change the background color of cells in the table/grid portion of the view.

Q. Is “cost” an actual resource type? A. Yes, Cost Resources is the resource type for fixed costs assignable to a task. It more accurately monitors Project financials by assigning multiple costs to task, tying costs to account codes, and rolling up costs against budgets. Additionally, the costs are not tied to the work contours, so changing the percent complete or end date of

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the task will not affect Cost Resources. More predefined cost-related fields enables easier mapping to project accounting systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning modules.

Q. With Multiple Level Undo, can users go back past the last save?A. Yes. But users cannot undo the save itself.

Q. What are the updates on the Project Guide? A. The Project Guide is not updated other than small changes to indicate new features such as Task Drivers.

Q. What is the difference between Office Project Standard 2007 and Office Project Professional 2007?A. Office Project Standard 2007 is the latest release of the desktop project management program. As a stand-alone program, Project Standard enables project managers, business managers, and planners to manage and plan projects independently with familiar, easy-to-use tools. Project Standard 2007 is not designed to exchange data with Project Server 2007. Office Project Professional 2007 is the desktop client that is used with Project Server 2007 as part of the Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution. Project Professional 2007 offers all the capabilities found in Project Standard 2007, and when used with Project Server 2007, it also provides powerful EPM capabilities such as collaboration, management of shared resources, and reporting across projects and programs run by different project managers.

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Project Server–Enterprise Project Management (EPM) SolutionQ. Has the architecture of the EPM Solution changed?A. Yes. The architecture has a front end (Project Web Access thin client for Microsoft Internet Explorer, or Project Professional Win32 client, or Project Portfolio Web Access), middle-tier (Project Server hosts the Web Services API layer and interacts with the back end by means of a data access layer (DAL) and optionally Project Portfolio Web Access), and back end (SQL Server 2000 SP3a database). All functions are exposed through .NET using Web Services and managed code instead of ASP. All clients communicate with the server using Web Services, which are designed to work across the firewall.

Q. Has the core technology stack of the EPM Solution changed?A. The core technology stack remains mostly the same: Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Project Server, Windows SharePoint Services, Project Professional, and Project Web Access, and new optional components from the UMT acquisition (Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server and Project Portfolio Web Access). The two new requirements are Windows SharePoint Services (version 3) and .NET Framework 2.0.

Q. What is the Data Access Layer (DAL)?A. The DAL provides record-set and logical access to Project Server information. It uses ADO.NET datasets to ferry data.

Q. How will Project Professional communicate with Project Server?A. Messaging will be directed to the server and SOAP over HTTP with the Project Server Interface (PSI) rather than direct to the database with Open Database Connectivity (ODBC).

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Q. Will one Office Project Server 2007 support users in more than one language?A. Yes.

Q. Are there any changes regarding time zones?A. There are no significant changes to time zones.

Q. What are the new Project Server features?A. The new Project Server features include:

Programs Deliverables Assignment Owner Timesheets Reporting Data Service Cube Building Service Multicurrency Project Server Interface Event Model Server Side Scheduling Active Cache Queuing Service

Q. What are Programs?A. Programs are collections of projects to accomplice a large objective. The program level supports KPIs, analysis, and reporting.

Q. What are Deliverables?A. Project managers can create a Windows SharePoint Services list of items to which they commit dates such as milestones or deliverables. Other projects can then create soft or hard dependency links to these deliverables.

Q. What is an Assignment Owner?A. This is the individual who has the responsibility for entering actual work or reporting progress against the assignment. For asset resource assignments, this will be a surrogate user. In Project 2003 only named enterprise resources could report their own time through Project Web Access. Now users can track time and assignments for other types of resources such as generic, cost, or material resources.

Q. What is new in Timesheets?A. In Project 2003 the timesheet was mainly for reporting progress on tasks in Microsoft Project (task statusing). In Office Project 2007 users can enter times for more than Project activities and non-project time. Time can be linked to project tasks or run independently. Users no longer need an assignment and can capture time at different levels, such as against the project or account code level, instead of individual tasks. Full auditing will be available and if enabled an audit log entry will be created for all changes made when the timesheet is saved or submitted. Timesheets support billable/non-billable and fiscal periods. They are 100 percent HTML Web-based. Project managers can approve or reject timesheet independently from project status updates. Timesheets will track actual time worked and that will be protected through auditing. Additionally Office Project 2007 will be able to lock tasks and projects against further time tracking.

Q. What is the Reporting Data Service (RDS)?A. The Reporting Data Service extracts data from the Project Server Publish, Working, and Version databases, transforms the data into a format suitable for end-

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user reporting and Analysis Services cube building, and loads it into the Reporting database.

Q. What is the Cube Building Service (CBS)?A. Users access the CBS via a flexible UI to build portfolio analyzer cubes with more data options. Users can also choose what custom fields to include in the cube. The CBS consumes the RDS generated data and metadata from the Reporting database in order to build cubes for end user reporting.

Q. What degree of multicurrency support does Office Project 2007 deliver?A. You can define an exchange rate table for each project. This supports conversion on task/assignment cost fields. Resources may have rates in multiple currencies. Reports, Project Center, and data cubes are all in one currency.

Q. What is the Project Server Interface (PSI)?A. The PSI replaces the PDS API. For more information please refer to the FAQ on customization.

Q. What is the Event Model?A. Office Project 2007 includes a well-documented server side event model. Developers can extend the functionality by developing custom event handlers and associating them with events raised by Project Server. An event is a message sent by an object to signal the occurrence of an action, which could be caused by user interaction, such as a mouse click, or triggered by some other program logic.

Q. What is the Server Side Scheduling?A. Now if a third party builds a front end, they no longer have to have winproj.exe on each client as the server contains the scheduling engine. This reduces license needs from Professional to a Client Access License.

Q. What is the Active Cache?A. Project Professional will interact with Project Server through a local cache. It will manage replication of the enterprise global, resource pool information and project updates. Updates to the server will be message based and only use differences between files rather than the whole files.

Q. What is the Queuing Service? A. The server side service queues work requests pending Project Server availability, which provides greater resiliency and use of server resources.

Q. Can multiple Project Servers talk to the same database? A. No, they cannot, although Project Portfolio Server can report across multiple Project Servers.

Q. Can multiple instances that are part of the same Server talk to the same database? A. Yes.

Q. Does Office Project 2007 have Archive functionality in order to exclude archived projects from reporting and other daily interactions?A. Yes. Project Server 2007 enables a Project Center view to be filtered by default so that the view only shows certain projects. You could create all the normal views to filter out projects that had a custom enterprise field renamed Archived set to Yes.

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Category 4: Project Web AccessQ. Has Project Web Access changed?A. Yes. Project Web Access requires Windows SharePoint Services (version 3) with all Project Web Access functions being Web Parts.

Q. What is the new Project Web Access?A. The new Project Web Access features include an enhanced user interface, a recycle bin, list item versioning and history, the ability to track work lists then promote or publish these into full projects, and great access to desktop and administrative functions. Office Project 2007 streamlines the process for provisioning project workspaces.

Q. Will Project Web Access permit changes to the interface?A. Yes. Formatting options will be the same as those for Windows SharePoint Services sites.

Q. Does the display name have to be the domain name when establishing Project Web Access? A. No, it does not.

Q. Regarding Workspace Provisioning, will combined workspaces be supported?A. No, there is no functionality for multiple projects to point at the same workspace.

Q. Where are the templates stored for Project Web Access?A. In the Content database (the same project database as in Project 2003).

Q. The Default Site was always created as “Project Server.” Can users change that name?A. Yes, users can now name this as they want during Project Web Access instance provisioning.

Q. Is there the ability from Project Web Access to print the graphical aspect of a Gantt chart rather than just the HTML printing? A. No. In Office Project 2007, an ActiveX control similar to that in Project 2003 is used. Many investments have been made around Gantt, such as in Windows SharePoint Services, the Project Task List is being introduced. Alternate ways to render a visual representation of the project plan are being considered.

Q. Is it possible to create a Windows SharePoint Services template that can be used each time a new project is created?A. Users can customize the template, but it will affect all sites. The steps to customize default Project Workspace template are:1. Create a project site (test) using Project Workspace template.2. Modify the site to meet the needs.3. Add best practices documents.4. Go to customize columns and settings on Issues and Risks.

Q. Is there an EditSite-like tool for Office Project Server 2007?A. EditSite.exe is deprecated. The functionality of this tool (creating and editing hosted instances of Project Server) is built into the Web-based setup and provisioning experience. 

Q. Is there a way in Office Project Server 2007 to add fields to the default Task View (Timesheet) in Project Web Access? This is possible on a project by project basis (by

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using the Published Fields option in Project Professional), but can users define this globally and by default?A. Yes, Office Project Server 2007 will enable total customization of any view without the need to publish fields. Neither timesheets nor task management will require the publishing of fields to have them display in a given view.Note: This is possible today in Project 2003 on a project by project basis (by using the Published Fields option in Project Professional).

Q. Currently the URL for Project Web Access must be in the trusted site list. Is there another technique that can be used so that these URLs do not have to be identified as a trusted site?A. Trusted site status is a security requirement for Project Web Access.

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System and Technology RequirementsQ. Will the system requirements change for Office Project 2007?A. The plan of record is to try to support the same system requirements for each edition of Project. At this point, Microsoft is aware of several changes: Project Web Access will require Windows SharePoint Services (version 3) and Internet Explorer 6.0 or later; some features will require the .NET Framework version 2.0.

The plan of record is for hardware requirements to remain the same.

Q. What release of SQL Server is required for Office Project Server 2007?A. Microsoft SQL Server 2000, SP3 or later is required for Office Project Server 2007.

Q. How will Office Project 2007 fit with Windows Vista?A. The clients and server for Project are built on top of, and use, the Windows platform and will continue to do so for Windows Vista. Microsoft expects to continue enriching Windows infrastructure investments like XML, ASP.NET, and Web Parts. Customers and developers can develop and deploy Project today, knowing that those investments will be carried forward with additional customer value when Windows Vista comes to market.

Q. Will users need the 2007 release of the Microsoft Office system to use the Outlook integration in Office Project 2007?A. No. Users can also work with Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, but not prior releases.

Q. What software requirements should customers be aware of for Office Project 2007?A. The requirements of Project Server remain Windows Server 2003 or later, and SQL Server 2000 SP3 or later. Project Web Access will require Windows SharePoint Services (version 3). Some functions will require the .NET Framework 2.0.

Q. Will Office Project Server 2007 work on a 64-bit Windows Server?A. Office Project Server 2007 supports 64-bit on AMD and Intel x64 processors. Note that the Intel Itanium architecture is not supported by Office Project Server 2007. It remains to be seen if it will run in 32-bit emulation on 64-bit systems.

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Q. Does Office Project 2007 support 64-bit SQL Server and IA-64 hardware if users want to operate SQL Server 64-bit and Office Project Server 2007 on a single computer? A. Office Project Server 2007 can talk to a 64-bit back end running SQL/Analysis Server.

Q. Will Office Project 2007 take advantage of ASP.NET 2.0 features?A. Yes.

Q. Will Office Project 2007 require the use of ActiveX?A. Yes. ActiveX is still required for Project Web Access Project Center views. However, ActiveX will not be required for the timesheet and time tracking features; this is a change from Project 2003 in which ActiveX is required for these features.

Q. Is the next release of Project Web Access being built on Windows SharePoint Services?A. Yes. Specifics will be shared as release gets closer.

Q. Will Office Project 2007 use a document management solution?A. Project can use Windows SharePoint Services and the 2007 release of Microsoft Office for document management. The Microsoft Office system is investing in an Enterprise Content Life Cycle (ECL). ECL involves managing the content from initial creation through workflow and approval, publishing, archiving, and auditing. However, rich integration for this release is not provided.

Q. Are there specific international or national compliance standards that will be supported, such as PMI, Six Sigma, ISO, CMMI, Prince2, or SOX?A. Customers have given us feedback on the many project management and compliance standards they are required to address today, and in the future. This is more than a technology issue; it is the processes and controls of the organization that need to be certified as compliant. Project offers infrastructure to support this compliance.

In addition to enterprise project templates and the customizable Project Guide, Microsoft is considering specific capabilities (such as auditing and tracking) for the Office Project 2007 release to help organizations become compliant with project management methodologies, regulations, and legislation.

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IntegrationQ. Do Office Outlook 2007 appointments and tasks integrate with Office Project 2007 assignments?A. Yes. A COM add-in enables users to import Project assignments to their calendar. This adds a timesheet tab to the appointment detail window so users can report time and progress directly to Project Server.

Q. Does the new Project Task List in SharePoint Portal Server integrate with Project?A. Yes, with the click of a button these lists can be promoted to full projects for management with Office Project Professional 2007 or “task lists” for management by Project Web Access.

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Q. Will the integration from Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) to Project Professional and the Solution Starter for VSTS and Project Server be updated for Office Project 2007?A. Microsoft will continue to support integration between these applications, including the next release of Project; the timing and details have yet to be determined.

Q. How does Project Server track issues, risks, and documents?A. Project Server uses the SharePoint functionality to deliver these features, as in the previous release.

Q. Can a user report information from Project Server in Microsoft Office system applications?A. Yes. Project includes wizards and a report center to use the rich, new reporting capabilities of Excel and Visio to communicate information on Project. Project continues to support the ability to import task lists from Excel, Outlook integration, as well as exporting reports into Microsoft Office Word and Microsoft Office PowerPoint. The Web interface will require Windows SharePoint Services (version 3); all Project Web Access functions are true Web services. Project uses SharePoint for issues, risks, and document management. The SDK will also provide other example integration as reference implementations.

Q. Does Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 include Project Server?A. No. These programs are not included out of the box nor do they require each other to work.

Q. Will Office Project Server 2007 use the Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF)?A. Yes. Project Server includes a full eventing model and API to facilitate use of WWF. WWF is designed to deliver a consistent workflow experience across the Microsoft platform which includes Project Server. Project intends to offer workflow for project initiation and timesheet approval.

Q. Visual Studio Team creates Project Webs; Project creates Project Webs… Are they compatible? A. There will be a compatible Project Web available in the future. Integration will not happen until Office Project 2007 ships.

Q. Is there any bidirectional functionality or exchange of information from Outlook to Office Project 2007? For example, will a non-project related schedule item show up in Project Web Access if a user wants?A. There is no bidirectional exchange between Outlook and Project Web Access out-of-the-box. Outlook can only send back updates about Project assignments to Project Web Access.

Q. What replaces the Project Data Service (PDS)?A. The Project Server Interface, which offers a much richer API.

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StandardsQ. Why didn’t Project adopt an Open XML Format for the next release?A. Project already saves to and opens from XML. Microsoft also provides a robust API and Web services to access Project functions and data. 

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Q. Will Project move to an XML file format in future releases?A. Future file format changes have not been planned at this time. Microsoft will continue to examine any option to promote consistency with other Microsoft Office system applications as well as support customer access to their data.

Q. Why won’t Office Project 2007 be providing native support for the creation of PDF documents like many of the other applications in the 2007 Microsoft Office release?A. Office Project 2007 did not pursue native support for the creation of PDF documents for a variety of reasons. First, PDF is not especially useful for project-specific report types like a Gantt chart or a network diagram. Second, customers have consistently provided us feedback that reports for Gantt charts need to allow grouping, filtering, and sorting; Office Project 2007 delivers these features in Visual Reports, but they are not available in PDF by design.Instead, Microsoft prioritized connecting well with standard reporting tools used by customers. Through these, Project does offer a compelling solution for those customers who require PDF. From the desktop, Office Project 2007 provides extensive integration with other Microsoft Office system applications, which support saving to PDF1. The new Visual Report features Office Visio Professional 2007 and Office Excel 2007 for reporting. Project indirectly offers a PDF solution to display the data in reports. From the Project Server perspective, there is integration with SQL Server Reporting Services, which also support PDF as an output format.

Q. Does the “Copy Picture to Office” wizard still exist?A. Yes. You can continue to export reports to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

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DeploymentQ. Can Office Project Professional 2007 connect to a Project Server 2003? A. No, it cannot. It cannot connect to the server. However, Project 2003 and Office Project 2007 clients can be run side-by-side on the same computer.

Q. Can customers use Office Project Server 2007 together with a general Windows SharePoint Services system or does it specifically configure Windows SharePoint Services so that a dedicated box is needed?A. A dedicated box is not needed. Customers can install both Project Server and Windows SharePoint Services on the same box if wanted. Customers do, however, need to run the binary setup for Project Server on all boxes in the farm.

Q. Do users need to install SharePoint Servers on the same computer as SQL Server or on its own computer?A. No, though Project and SharePoint Servers use the same SQL Server infrastructure.

Q. If a user wants to copy data between the Project Servers, and he/she has custom fields, how does the user do that?A. Project Resource Kit Tool will enable users to take data from one Project Server and replicate that data on another. There will be much more ability to do this using the Project Server Interface APIs in Office Project 2007.

1 You can save as a PDF or XPS file from a 2007 Microsoft Office system program only after you install an add-in. For more information, see Install and use a PDF or XPS add-in.

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Q. What are the implications for backup and disaster recovery?A. There is backup and restoration of individual project databases as well as specific elements. Within SharePoint Central Administration, users can back up the whole farm and all project bits.

Q. Can customers install Office Project Server 2007 side-by-side on the same hardware as Project Server 2003? A. Yes. Microsoft also supports side-by-side client installations as well. Project Professional 2003 cannot connect to Office Project Server 2007, nor can Office Project Professional 2007 connect to Project Server 2003.

Q. Can Office Project Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services, and SharePoint Portal Server be installed and run on the same physical computer? A. Yes, users can install all of them on the same computer if they like, though this is not the recommended deployment scenario. As for the order, Office Project Server 2007 should be installed last.

Q. Are there any issues with running Office Project Server 2007 on the same computer as the .NET Framework?A. Project Server requires the .NET Framework 2.0. Project Server also requires (and includes) Windows SharePoint Services (version 3), which also requires the .NET Framework 2.0. The .NET Framework is not installed by setup; it must be installed prior to installing Project.

Q. If users have an initial configuration and outgrow it, can they take certain bits from that to a new configuration?A. Yes. Adding additional servers and reconfiguring their roles is designed into how Microsoft supports growing customer needs.

Q. If a customer is currently supporting SQL Server 2000, and goes from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005, do they get more? Going back do they lose anything?A. No, they won’t lose any functionally; it will be better on SQL Server 2005. However, the Report Center (obtained from the full Office SharePoint Server program) has considerable additional functionality such as support for SQL Server 2005 KPI.

Q. Will Office Project 2007 support multisite implementations better than Project 2003 does now?A. Yes, Office Project 2007 will use globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) to identify resources, codes, and projects, and the GUID can be explicitly specified by users when calling the API. Customers can easily roll out common codes across multiple sites.

Q. Can Office Project Server 2007 use Microsoft SQL Desktop Edition (MSDE), or is SQL Server required?A. Office Project Server 2007 won’t block installing on MSDE but it is not recommended. Office Project Server 2007 will also install on all editions of SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005, and SQL Server Express.Note: If you choose to do the one-click installation, then you get SQL Express.

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Upgrade and MigrationQ. Will there be a white paper explaining migration?A. Yes.

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Q. What doesn’t get migrated in the conversion to Office Project 2007 from Project 2003?A. The following:

Status updates (all status updates either accepted or rejected before migrate. Statusing data migrated as part of project data).

Timesheet history (no timesheet history is migrated) Status Report Responses (only status report definitions get migrated) Project versions Status Update Rules Extra tables and fields in the database Project Web Access links

Q. What content gets migrated all at once?A. The following:

Enterprise Global Custom Fields/Look-Up Tables Enterprise Resources All Project Web Access Data

Q. What gets migrated from Project 2003 to Office Project 2007 gradually?A. The following:

Projects The same project can be migrated a second time Protected actuals are migrated Controlled Publish after migrate Project Workspaces (Windows SharePoint Services sites)

Q. If users enter timesheets and then migrate, will they be able to view their timesheets in Office Project 2007?A. In Office Project 2007, timesheets are separate from statusing, whereas in Project 2003 they were one. The Project 2003 migrated projects will show up in the statusing portion of the Office Project 2007 feature set.

Q. Is there a migration path for project plans from beta versions of Office Project 2007 to the production build? A. Yes, upgrade scripts to convert the database schema and upgrade other components will be made available to get from Beta 2 or later to RTM.

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AdministrationQ. Will a Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) Management Pack ship with Office Project Server 2007?A. Yes, this pack plugs into MOM and alerts the administrator when it traps specific events and performance counters to ease system management.

Q. Is the Administrator interface in Project Web Access changing?A. Yes. Project Web Access now offers all the Administrator functions available from the central page rather than having to drill down into multiple levels to locate a feature.

Q. Will Office Project 2007 support multiple administrators and administrator delegation?A. Yes.

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Q. Is the Administrative function set security sensitive?A. Yes. For example, if the user doesn’t have permissions to Manage Users, then that option will not appear for them in the list.

Q. Is the Administrator interface editable as it is in Project Web Access?A. No. The Administrative interface is standard ASPX pages rather than SharePoint pages that host ‘Admin’ Web Parts. Though, if the user has administrative privilege they can change the code from Microsoft Office FrontPage.

Q. Will Office Project Server 2007 include a command-line interface for administration?A. Yes, for a subset of commands including methods for logon, provisioning, backup/restore, user/group/category management, enumerations, and more. The command-line code will communicate with Project Web Access sites to make Web service calls. Following the Windows SharePoint Services standard this URL will be passed through with each command. This ensures there is no requirement to cache the URL.

Q. Does Microsoft plan to release documentation for the error numbers?A. Yes, Office Project 2007 will have comprehensive error documentation.

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SecurityQ. Does Office Project 2007 include any other security structure apart from RBS? A. There are all standard category structures from Project 2003.

Q. Will there be security on the Project Server Interface (PSI) traffic?A. There are no explicit plans for security around calls between the client and server for PSI.

Q. Using categories, can users help secure certain fields with field access control?A. Users can set Access as: No Access, Read Only, Read/Write, or Deny Access.

Q. Regarding development instance and production instance, how do customers move security settings across these two instances? A. Microsoft will provide a tool which will take these security settings and enable customers to move them to other servers. This tool will be available for ship and will be a resource kit tool.

Q. What mode of authentication is required when using Windows SharePoint Services with Project Server 2003: Windows Authentication or Project Server authentication?A. Windows SharePoint Services now supports both Windows Authentication and Forms Authentication (similar to Project Server 2003 Project Server authentication). As Office Project Server 2007 is now built on top of Windows SharePoint Services, Windows and Forms Authentication is also supported. There is no longer support for Project Server authentication, although there is a migration path.

Q. Which type of authentication should be used when attempting to publish a project across a domain?A. Office Project Server 2007 supports both Windows and Forms Authentication. When publishing, there is a communication to the server using a SOAP-based Web Service. That Web Service takes the credentials that the user is running under and validates that they are able to publish the project.

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CustomizationQ. Will Microsoft continue to support third-party customization? A. Yes.

Q. Will Office Project 2007 include support for the Project Data Service (PDS) API? A. No. PDS-based custom applications will have to be migrated to Office Project 2007.

Q. What replaces the Project Data Service (PDS) API in Office Project 2007? A. The Project Service Interface (PSI) is a Web services API. All Project Server clients and components for integration (Project Web Access, Project Professional, and third-party applications) interact with Office Project Server 2007 solely through the PSI. The PSI, along with the Project Server Eventing Service, exposes all of the functionality and data that client applications need to integrate fully with Project Server.

Q. Will Office Project Server 2007 use the Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF)?A. Yes. Project Server includes a full eventing model and API to facilitate use of WWF. WWF is designed to deliver a consistent workflow experience across the Microsoft platform which includes Project Server. Project intends to offer workflow for project initiation and timesheet approval. 

Q. Will Office Project Server 2007 use BizTalk Server for workflow?A. Office Project 2007 enables integration with a wide range of workflow technologies. Out of the box, Office Project 2007 has integration with the Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF), which will ship as part of Windows SharePoint Services (version 3).

Q. Is there anything that can be done on the Web that can’t be done on the client in regards to custom fields? A. No. To improve control and consistency, users are not allowed to edit custom fields from the client anymore. Editing of all the custom fields is from the Web. To move a local custom field to make it an enterprise custom field, there’s a feature that allows users to make it an enterprise custom field if they have the right permissions.

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ReportsQ. Will there be any changes to the existing Project 2003 reports?A. No, they remain unchanged. Office Project 2007 adds substantial new capabilities in addition to these legacy reports, with Visual Reports on the desktop and the Reporting Data Service and Cube Building Service on the Project Server.

Q. Can Office Project 2007 provide data to any reporting engine?A. Yes. Office Project 2007 enables easy end user reporting with common business reporting tools by means of transformation and loading of a true reporting schema, with the Reporting Data Service.

Q. How has Microsoft better defined reporting?A. First in terms of the reporting services reports, these will connect to the fully functional reporting store, versus the operational store and cubes. So it should be

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much easier. Second, the exposed object model enables users to build their own custom reports.

Q. How frequently is the Reporting Database updated?A. Data is being copied into the Reporting Database incrementally as each project gets published.

Q. What does the Cube Building Service (CBS) provide out-of-the-box?A. Office Project 2007 CBS delivers the following cubes:

Assignments Time Phased / Non Time Phased Resource Time Phased / Non Time Phased Task Time Phased / Non Time Phased Project Non Time Phased Portfolio

Further, Office Project 2007 includes additional dimensions of Task and Portfolio.

Q. Will reports work on programs, not just component projects?A. Yes. Programs will be their own container class, have metadata (such as key performance indicators), and be objects for reports.

Q. Regarding the custom templates created for reports, do users store those in the organizer? A. No, the templates are not part of the project files themselves. They are Excel or Visio files which are stored in a folder Project references.

Q. Will the new Visual Reports support previous releases of Excel and Visio Professional? A. It will support Office Excel 2007, Excel 2003, and Excel 2000, and Office Visio Professional 2007.

Q. Will reporting use SQL Reporting Services?A. The desktop reporting engine will not, but Project Server–based reporting will.

Q. Will users be able to report across tasks?A. Yes. There are task cubes, not just for assignments.

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FinancialsQ. Will Office Project 2007 provide more financial control? A. Yes. A set of changes support project finances: predefined project accounting fields, budget tracking, and cost resources.

Q. How does Budget Tracking work?A. This means a manager can define a budget at a high level (program or project) so the project manager can allocate funds and track costs against the budget.

Q. Is “cost” an actual resource type? A. Yes, it is called Cost Resources. It more accurately monitors Project financials by: assigning multiple costs to task, tying costs to account codes, and rolling up costs against budgets. Additionally, the costs are not tied to the work contours, so changing the percent complete or end date of the task will not affect Cost Resources.

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Q. What is the difference between a material resource and cost resource?A. Material resources are expected to tie directly to the work contour. Cost resources should be independent from the work contour. Also, cost resources don’t accrue in the same fashion.

Q. Do the timesheets support fiscal periods?A. Yes. Timesheets support billable/non-billable and fiscal period.

Q. Do the Cost Resources have cost rate tables? A. No, they are not thought of as something that accrues at a rate, but rather as straightforward costs.

^ top Resource ManagementQ. Can users track resource availability including non-project activities? A. Yes. Project has enhanced non-project time tracking.

Q. Can users edit resources in Project Web Access? A. Yes.

Q. Do users have more flexibility using the timesheets for resources? A. Yes. Time can be linked to project tasks or run independently. Users no longer need an assignment and can capture time at different levels, such as against the project or account code level, instead of individual tasks. Full auditing will be available and if enabled an audit log entry will be created for all changes made when the timesheet is saved or submitted.

Q. In Project 2003, users and resources had to be created in different places. Can customers create them in the same place with Office Project 2007? A. Yes.

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Technical ResourcesQ. Where can people find Project documentation?A. Prior to launch people can find documentation at betaplace. After launch, the Microsoft Project Resource Kit includes guides on configuration, security, administration, and more. The Developer Center includes summaries and links to information about planning, developing, and deploying Project–based solutions.

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