Microsoft Project Server 2010 Project Manager's Guide for Project Web App
Applies to: Project Server 2010
Topic Last Modified: 2012-02-28
Summary: The first article in a series of eight articles about how to use Microsoft Project Web App to work with Microsoft Project Server 2010 data and to perform project management-related tasks.
Applies to: Microsoft Project Server 2010 | Microsoft Project Web App
The content of this guide is available two ways:
As a single, downloadable file (in .docx, .pdf, or .xps format). This version includes many screen shots that accompany the procedures in the book. (File size: approximately 3 MB) The .docx version is editable, for allowing you to customize the book for your own needs.
As a series of eight articles, starting with this one. This version does not include the screen shots that are included in the downloadable file.
Organization of this guide
Introduction
Chapter 1: Navigating Project Web App
Chapter 2: Managing projects in Project Web App
Chapter 3: Managing resources in Project Web App
Chapter 4: Managing task updates in Project Web App
Chapter 5: Managing issues, risks, and documents in Project Web App
Chapter 6: Managing status reports in Project Web App
Chapter 7: Configuring e-mail notifications and reminders in Project Web App
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Introduction
This guide helps project managers in your organization to better understand elements of project management in Microsoft Project Web App (PWA), such as the following:
Projects
Resources
Status updates and approvals
Project issues, risks, and documents
Notifications and alerts sent to project members
Important
Although Microsoft Project Professional 2010 can be used with Project Server 2010 to perform many project management tasks, this guide only covers procedures done through Project Web App.
In Microsoft Project Server 2010, PWA has new functionality that previously had only been available in Microsoft Project Professional. This table compares the Web-based project management capabilities of Project Web App in Project Server 2010 with those same capabilities in Project Professional 2010.
| Project Web App (2010) | Project Professional 2010 | |
|---|---|---|
Multi-resource assignments: Assign more than one resource for a particular task. |
Available |
Available |
Status change updates: Receive updates on status changes that reschedule the project plan. |
Available |
Available |
Keyboard shortcuts: Use keyboard shortcuts for common operations such as indent/insert. |
Available |
Available |
Task hierarchy: Display and render tasks with hierarchical information. |
Available |
Available |
Indent/Outdent: Apply full indenting/outdenting of tasks in a project plan. |
Available |
Available |
Change highlighting: Easily view project changes and all parts of the schedule affected by the change (successor tasks, summary costs, and so on) with change highlighting. |
Available |
Available |
Multi-level undo: Perform what-if analysis and fully understand the effect of changes by reversing and reapplying a whole set of operations, including views, data, and option changes. |
Available |
Available |
Cut/Copy/Paste: Collaborate on schedule development by copying/pasting schedule details between applications. |
Available |
Available |
Flexible views: Move columns to define a specific view. |
Available |
Available |
High fidelity Gantt charts: Create vivid, colorful Gantt charts; customizable Gantt chart styles. |
Available |
Available |
Grouping: Apply multiple grouping rows to a project plan. |
Available |
Available |
Sorting: Sort project plan data by end-users. |
Available |
Available |
Filtering: Ability to filter project plans by any value in the plan. |
Available |
Available |
Automatically scheduled tasks: Indicate tasks (mode) to be scheduled automatically by using the Project scheduling engine. |
Available |
Available |
Manually scheduled tasks: Indicate tasks (mode) to be scheduled manually. |
Available |
Available |
Linking: Create, edit, and delete task dependency relationships. |
Available |
Available |
Zoom in/zoom out: Use zoom controls on the status bar to quickly change the timeline perspective of your project schedules. |
Available |
Available |
Scroll to task: Select a task and then move the task into view on the Gantt chart. |
Available |
Available |
View and edit custom fields: View and edit project metadata by using custom fields. |
Available |
Available |
Project Information: Edit project-level fields and properties. |
Available |
Available |
Edit large projects: No limit to the size of plans that are editable. Note Larger projects may have performance limitations, but no limits are built in. |
Available |
Available |
Import from SharePoint task list: Import data from a SharePoint project task list into a project plan. |
Available |
Available |
Connect to Project Server 2010: Connect to Project Server 2010. |
Available |
Available |
Microsoft Office Fluent™ User Interface: Increase productivity with the ribbon, a tab interface to quickly find and use Project features and controls. |
Available |
Available |
Real-time validation: Mark cell data as invalid while you edit, instead of after you save and validate. |
Available |
Available |
Error handling: Handle invalid data and present data in an easy-to-use interface that helps resolve issues. |
Available |
Available |
Fill down: Drag the bottom-right corner of a cell to repeat data in the cells below. |
Available |
Available |
Percent complete: Mark task progress as a percentage of the assigned work that is completed. |
Available |
Available |
Cost and material resource assignments: Assign Cost Resources or Material Resources to tasks Note Assignments cannot be made through PWA, but previous assignments from Project Professional 2010 are available as Read-Only. |
Limited or Read-Only |
Available |
Inactive tasks: Mark a task as inactive. Note In PWA, tasks marked as inactive in Project Professional 2010 are Read-Only. |
Limited or Read-Only |
Available |
Edit master projects: Edit master projects. Note In PWA, master projects are Read-Only. |
Limited or Read-Only |
Available |
Cross-project links: Create, edit, and delete a dependency relationship with a task in another project. Note In PWA, editing cross-project links is not supported; cross-project links created in Project Professional 2010 are Read-Only. |
Limited or Read-Only |
Available |
Summary task assignment: Create a resource assignment on a summary task. Note In PWA, creating summary task assignments is not supported. Summary task assignments created in Project Professional 2010 are Read-Only in PWA. |
Limited or Read-Only |
Available |
Task calendars: Define a custom calendar associated with a task. Note In PWA, task calendars cannot be used, and project plans created in Project Professional 2010 that contain task calendars are available as Read-Only. |
Limited or Read-Only |
Available |
SharePoint 2010 Project Task Lists: Accept status updates for SharePoint 2010 project task lists. Note In Project Professional 2010, project task list status updates are synchronized/bi-directional with SharePoint Server 2010 after the plan is published. In PWA, project task list status updates are one-way and only occur from the SharePoint project task list to PWA. |
Limited or Read-Only |
Available |
Edit sub-projects: Edit sub-projects inside a master project. Note In PWA, sub-projects cannot be added to a project, and master projects are Read-Only. Sub-projects can be edited separately from a master project. |
Limited or Read-Only |
Available |
Task deadlines: Create deadlines for a task Note In PWA, deadlines are displayed but cannot be created. |
Limited or Read-Only |
Available |
Edit task type: Edit a task type. Note In PWA, task type is not an editable field. |
Limited or Read-Only |
Available |
WBS codes: Define custom Work Breakdown Structure codes. Note In PWA, viewing custom codes is supported, but changing the code definition is not. |
Limited or Read-Only |
Available |
Create baselines: Create a snapshot baseline of the current project plan. Note Baselines created in Project Professional 2010 can be viewed in PWA as Read-Only. |
Limited or Read-Only |
Available |
Time-phased editing: Edit plans and work on a day-by-day basis. Note Time-phased data in manually scheduled tasks can be viewed in PWA as Read-Only. |
Limited or Read-Only Note Project Server 2010 Service Pack 1 allows you to edit time-phased values for manually scheduled tasks in PWA. |
Available |
Fixed work tasks: Define the type of a task as fixed work. Note In PWA, tasks cannot be created as fixed work, and project plans created in Project Professional 2010 that contain fixed work tasks are Read-Only in PWA. |
Limited or Read-Only Note Project Server 2010 Service Pack 1 allows you to edit a project plan with fixed work tasks in PWA. |
Available |
Effort-driven tasks: Edit projects that contain effort-driven tasks. Note In PWA, you cannot edit the effort-driven field. However, a task whose effort-driven field was set in Project Professional will calculate correctly when edited in PWA. |
Limited or Read-Only Note Project Server 2010 Service Pack 1 allows you to edit effort-driven tasks in PWA. |
Available |
Timeline: Build and customize the timeline view to visualize schedule details and communicate with stakeholders. |
Available |
|
Team planner: Drag and drop resources in an interactive resource view to simplify complex resource scenarios. |
Available |
|
Resource leveling: Recognize and correct resource over-allocation scenarios by using various automatic resource-leveling techniques. |
Available |
|
Edit assignment fields: Edit assignment views. |
Available |
|
Paste with task hierarchy: Paste hierarchical information that is included, such as indentations. |
Available |
|
Network diagram view: View, edit, create, and delete tasks in a network diagramming view. |
Available |
|
Task Form View: View, edit, create, and delete tasks in a form view. |
Available |
|
Task Information dialog box: See task details by using a dialog interface. |
Available |
|
Blank (null) Tasks: Create blank rows (blank, or null, tasks) in a project plan. |
Available |
|
Automatic calculation: Schedule the whole project plan, instead of only the current task, without pressing Calculate or F9. |
Available |
|
Text formatting: Modify text formatting by using colors and styles. |
Available |
|
Edit calendars: Edit calendars for your projects. |
Available |
|
Define local custom fields: Define local custom fields by users. Note In PWA, only users who have administrator permissions can define local custom fields. |
Available |
|
Split tasks: Split tasks and show them as split in the Gantt chart. |
Available |
|
Backstage view: Quickly access Project tools, templates, and program options by using the new Microsoft Office Backstage view. |
Available |
|
Assignment units: Change the percentage units for each resource. |
Available |
|
Task Inspector: Get analysis and intuitive guidance to resolve scheduling conflicts, which you can choose whether to act upon. |
Available |
|
Offline editing: Edit project plans when you are not connected to Project Server 2010. |
Available |
For information about PWA functionality improvements in Project Server 2010 Service Pack 1, see the Microsoft Project 2010 blog post, Announcing Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=241595).
For information about how to apply Project Server 2010 Service Pack 1, see Deploy Service Pack 1 for Project Server 2010.
Who should read this book?
This book provides maximum benefits for the following professionals:
Project Managers. Those people in your organization who create and maintain projects and tasks, assign resources to tasks, manage approvals for task status and timesheet updates, and configure notifications for project team members.
Project Management Office (PMO). Those people who help define and maintain project management standards and practices throughout the organization.
Microsoft Project Server 2010 Administrator's Guide
If you are looking for Project Server 2010 administrative guidance in a role-guide format that resembles this guide, we also have available the Microsoft Project Server 2010 Administrator's Guide. That guide describes tasks that are involved with administering Project Server 2010. It provides many step-by-step procedures (and accompanying user-interface screen shots) about how to manage Project Server 2010 through the Project Web App Server Settings page.
You can download the Microsoft Project Server 2010 Administrator's Guide in .docx, .pdf, or .xps format from the Project Server 2010 Administrator's Guide article in this Microsoft TechNet library.