What Is Project Server

What is Microsoft Project 2010

Microsoft® Project 2010 is a family of products that provide a range of functionality depending on organizational needs. Project 2010 allows organizations to ease into the correct level of maturity for their work management needs. The Project 2010 family consists of desktop and server products. Microsoft Project Standard 2010 and Microsoft Project Professional 2010 are both desktop editions. The flagship of the Enterprise Project Management solution is Microsoft Project Server 2010. This guide will help you understand the relationship among the various Project editions, their interdependencies, and requirements. The goal of this guide is to help identify the correct technologies to put in place in order to have an effective project management system.

Project 2010—Simple & Intuitive

Project 2010 offers easier and more intuitive experiences to help you select the right resources, collaborate with your team and meet crucial deadlines. Watch this demo to see how Project 2010 can help you effectively manage a wide range of projects and programs.

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Project Server 2010—Unified Project and Portfolio Management

Project Server 2010, built on SharePoint Server 2010, delivers tailored work management solutions for individuals, teams, and the enterprise. Watch this demo to learn how Project Server 2010 can help your business deliver better performance.

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Work Management Solutions for Individuals, Teams, and the Enterprise

For Enterprise Project Management (EPM) solutions to be effective, they need to provide organizations of different sizes and varying EPM maturity levels with the appropriate tools to help ensure that teams can collaborate to deliver projects successfully. A small or mid-size organization may have different EPM requirements as compared to a multinational organization.

Organizations can achieve incremental gains in collaboration capabilities by using products within the Microsoft Project and Microsoft SharePoint® families. Large and small organizations alike can deploy the EPM solution to successfully support project management

EPM Solution Architecture

Project Server 2010 is built on top of SharePoint Server 2010. This architecture enables customers and partners to take advantage of the SharePoint Platform Services coupled with the project management capabilities of the EPM solution to build powerful business solutions such as EPM, innovation process management, investment governance, and others. These solutions have the following features and capabilities:

Consistent server interface: Provide the same experience whether people are within SharePoint Server sites or in Project Web App

Reporting: Quickly create a variety of reports, define key performance indicators (KPIs), and configure powerful dashboards

Governance workflow: Use workflows to better track the completion of key deliverables

Enterprise search: Use improved search to find people, documents, project artifacts, and other project information

Social computing: Enable more effective EPM team collaboration and communication with wikis, blogs, and people and expertise search capabilities

Portals: Create portals to enhance reporting or centralize demand management

Line-of-business integration:
Streamline the use of multiple business applications, systems, and servers for seamless operation and provide a unified view of work management information

Project Server capabilities inherited from SharePoint

Report Center
Excel Services
Advanced charting and KPIs
Workflow components

Benefits to using Project Server in addition to Project Professional

Scorecards for in-depth business insight
Greatly expanded reporting options
Enhanced project and document workflow
Gain leverage from full SharePoint collaboration capabilities

Platform Architecture

Project Server 2010 integrates Project and Portfolio Management features and depends on Microsoft Windows Server® 2008 (or 2008 R2) x64 editions, Microsoft SQL Server® 2005 (or 2008) x64 editions, and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. There are many opportunities to take advantage of the Microsoft platform architecture for Project Server 2010.

In SharePoint Server 2010, use application features such as Excel Services, Report Center, workflow, task lists, and team sites.

Design, build, and modify existing workflows through Microsoft Visual Studio®. Model additional orkflows from those delivered with Project Server 2010.

Use project and portfolio performance data from Project Server 2010 as a source for performance reporting and dashboard content.

In Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, synchronize project tasks with Project Server 2010 tasks.

Enable integration with line-of-business systems with the Project Server interface and system management platforms such as Microsoft System Center.

Roles in an EPM Implementation

Roles	Responsibilities	Suggested Client Interfaces
Team Member	Perform day-to-day activities such as work on tasks, timesheet submissions, status communication, and participation in project collaboration processes. Team Member is the default role for everyone in the resource pool.	Project Web App
Project Manager	Create and maintain project plans, schedule tasks, manage resources, track and analyze progress, and communicate project status.	Project Standard 2010 or Project Professional 2010 with Project Web App
Resource Manager	View resource capacity and utilization information, and allocate resources based on different criteria.	Project Professional 2010 with Project Web App
Executives	View the collective status of projects and portfolios with dashboards, drill-through reports, and KPIs.	Project Web App
Project Management Office (PMO)	Manage workflows, templates, permissions, and other settings (with access to all Project Manager, Resource Manager, and Executive capabilities).	Project Professional 2010 with Project Web App
Portfolio Analyst	Help build, select, and manage projects that align with business objectives.	Project Web App
Administrator	Deploy, configure, and maintain the EPM solution (with access to all EPM capabilities).	Project Web App and Project Professional 2010

Capabilities by Product Types

The following table shows the main capabilities enabled by different product types.

Capability	Project Standard 2010	Project Professional 2010	Project Server 2010
Simple navigation: Make every action easier with graphical menus and an intuitive experience
Timeline: Create timelines more easily with a clear view of tasks, milestones, and phases
Flexible scheduling: Reduce the complexity of viewing and updating schedules with the ability to choose the level of detail
Resource management: Create the right mix of resources visually by using drag-and-drop editing
Business Intelligence: Make project information available to more people by creating reports and powerful dashboards
Document management: Control document review And approval through workflow
Project and resource collaboration: Create stronger team connections by using Microsoft Project Server 2010 for Enterprise Project Management
Enterprise search: Find people and locate relevant project data more easily
Web-based project editing and calculations: Build schedules online and conveniently update basic project data from virtually anywhere
Time and task progress: Save time and unify task status updates and timesheet submissions by enabling single-entry mode
Unified project and portfolio management (PPM): Provide a single server with end-to-end PPM capabilities
Portfolio selection: Select project portfolios that align with business strategy

Solution Environment

Servers and Clients in the EPM Solution

The EPM solution has two client front ends: Project Web Access and Project Professional. All roles can use Project Web Access. Project Managers also use Project Professional for detailed project planning and tracking, and to publish updates to Project Server. For licensing purposes, everyone who uses either front end needs a Project Server Client Access License (CAL). Project Professional includes a Project Server CAL.

Dependencies

The EPM solution provides work management capabilities on top of the Microsoft core infrastructure, which many organizations already have in place. The core infrastructure consists of Windows Server 2008 (or 2008 R2) x64 editions, SQL Server 2005 (or 2008) x64 editions, and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

Enhanced Tools

Microsoft Project Server 2010 is built on top of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, which in combination enable powerful business collaboration platform services and structured execution capabilities to provide flexible work management solutions such as the following:

Enterprise search
My Sites and social computing
Portals
Business intelligence and reporting
Customizable business processes and forms
Enterprise content management
Line-of-business systems integration

These features enable easier access to colleagues, enhance collaboration, and reduce time needed to find information.

Hosted Scenarios

Today, customers can choose to deploy the EPM solution on premises or by using BeMo hosted software-plus-services offerings to effectively manage their project portfolios and drive team collaboration.

Hosted EPM services allow your organization to roll out solutions faster with high reliability, performance, and security. Hosted solutions can be cost effective, retain flexibility, and provide secure channels to protect sensitive data, while allowing a service provider to manage the environment and its configuration.

Conclusions

Microsoft Project 2010 builds the foundation for EPM with flexible work management solutions and the right collaboration tools for occasional and professional project managers. Project 2010 includes a pathway to more advanced Project and Portfolio Management capabilities as business needs evolve. The Microsoft Project family of products consists of Microsoft Project Standard 2010, Microsoft Project Professional 2010, and Microsoft Project Server 2010. Project 2010 offers significant functionality in these four areas:

Unified Project and Portfolio Management
Simple and intuitive user experience
Enhanced collaboration and reporting
Scalable and connected platform

Project Server derives significant functionality from SharePoint Server and SQL Server, and therefore requires licensing of those technologies in addition to the Project Server and desktop components. In doing so, organizations receive significant benefits from their Project and Portfolio Management investments.

For more information about Project 2010, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/project.