Configuring e-mail notifications and reminders in Project Web App
Applies to: Project Server 2010
Topic Last Modified: 2012-01-06
Summary: The eighth 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: Project Server 2010 | Project Web App
In this article:
Introduction to configuring e-mail notifications and reminders in Project Web App
Overview of e-mail notifications and reminders
Configuring personal notifications and reminders
Configuring notifications and reminders for your resources
Introduction to configuring e-mail notifications and reminders in Project Web App
You can use e-mail notifications to be alerted to changes to, or actions required for, projects that you or resources that you manage belong to. You can use reminders to be alerted to upcoming or overdue actions that you or resources that you manage are responsible for. Alerts and reminders are triggered by specific events in Microsoft Project Server 2010, and they generate e-mail messages that are sent to the appropriate users’ e-mail accounts. The Manage My Alerts and Reminders and Manage My Resources’ Alerts and Reminders pages allow you to configure how you or resources that you manage are alerted to changes related to your tasks, status reports, or queue job failures. The notifications that you receive can provide hyperlinks to the appropriate pages in Project Web App (PWA) from which the recipients of the notification or reminder can take additional action.
Note
Manage My Alerts and Reminders is configured at the user level; each Project Web App user must subscribe and unsubscribe to their own notifications. In some cases, depending on security settings, a resource manager in Manage My Resources’ Alerts and Reminders can configure e-mail notifications and reminders for the resources that they manage.
The following table lists the Project Server 2010 permissions that are required for Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and Project Web App users to configure e-mail notifications.
Table 7: Required permissions
| Global permission | Description |
|---|---|
Manage Notification and Reminders |
Enables a user to manage the Alerts and Reminders settings in Project Web App Server Settings. |
Manage Personal Notifications |
Enables a user to access the Manage My Alerts and Reminders link in the Personal Settings section of the Project Web App navigation column. |
Manage Resource Notifications |
Enables a user to access the Manage My Resources’ Alerts and Reminders link in the Personal Settings section of the Project Web App navigation column. |
Overview of e-mail notifications and reminders
Notifications are generated by many user-initiated events. These events can be the actions of other team members and project managers. For example,, a project manager sending a new task to a resource can trigger a notification to the team member who is assigned to the task so that that person is aware of and can act upon the new assignment.
The following user actions can generate e-mail notifications:
Publish
Reassign Tasks
Task Updates
New Tasks
Overdue Tasks
Status Report Requests
Status Report Responses
Overdue Status Reports
New Issue is Opened
New Risk is Opened
Issue Assignment
Issue is Modified
Document Changes (New, Delete, Modify
Task List Delegation
Queue Job Failure
By default, the following actions generate e-mail notifications. (Users cannot unsubscribe to these notifications):
Rejected Assignments (by Resource)
Rejected Task Updates (by Manager)
Rejected New Tasks (by Manager)
Rejected Calendar Updates (by Manager)
Rejected Reassign Task Requests (by Manager)
Rejected Remove Task (by Manager)
Removed from a Status Report (by Manager)
Reminders are triggered by timed events. For example, if a task is due to be completed by a resource on a certain date, a reminder is sent to the resource indicating the current status of the task. Project Server 2010 checks for and submits reminders at an interval specified by the user or resource manager/project manager with rights to Manage My Resources’ Alerts and Reminders.
Project Web App users can define when Project Server sends e-mail notifications or reminders to themselves. Project managers and resource managers can define e-mail notifications and reminders for themselves and for their team members. Team members cannot unsubscribe to e-mail notifications or reminders that are configured for them by their project manager or resource manager.
The Project Web App Personal Settings section of the Project Web App navigation column includes the following links that you can use to configure e-mail notifications and reminders:
Manage My Alerts and Reminders. Use this link to configure e-mail notifications for changes to your tasks and status reports. Notifications for tasks and status reports are configured separately.
Manage My Resources’ Alerts and Reminders. Use this link to configure e-mail notifications for changes to your resources’ tasks and status reports.
As a project progresses, you might want to adjust the type and frequency of e-mail notifications and reminders. For example, you might initially set a longer reminder for overdue tasks, such as several days or several weeks, and then shorten it when you are closer to project completion so that the reminders are sent out as soon as a task becomes overdue. You might also want to unsubscribe to notifications.
E-mail notifications and reminders for tasks, projects, resources, status reports, and updates are configured by the Project Server administrator. In addition, e-mail notifications and reminders can be customized.
Configuring personal notifications and reminders
All users of Project Web App can configure the types of e-mail notifications and reminders that they want to receive.
Subscribe to personal e-mail notifications and alerts
You can configure your own personal e-mail notifications and alerts by using the following procedure.
To subscribe to personal e-mail notifications and alerts
On the Project Web App home page, in the Quick Launch, click Personal Settings, and then select Manage My Alerts and Reminders
Note
The e-mail address to which alerts are sent is listed at the top of the Manage My Alerts and Reminders page next to E-mail address.
To configure alerts for tasks, expand the Tasks section, and configure the following:
If you want to receive e-mail immediately upon the occurrence of specified events, in the Alert me immediately when section, select the appropriate check boxes to set e-mail alerts to be sent when you receive new task assignments or when your tasks are modified or updated.
If you want to receive e-mail at set intervals, in the Task Reminders section, select the appropriate check boxes to set e-mail alerts to be sent before tasks start, before tasks are due (and overdue), for incomplete tasks, and for overdue tasks. For each interval, specify the frequency.
To configure alerts for status reports, expand Status Reports section, and configure the following:
If you want to receive e-mail immediately upon the occurrence of specified events, under the Alert me immediately when heading, select the I receive a new status report request check box to set e-mail alerts to be sent when you receive a new status report request.
If you want to receive e-mail at set intervals, under Status Report Reminders, select the appropriate check boxes to set e-mail alerts to be sent when status reports are due, when your status reports are overdue, and when status reports are submitted or have become overdue. For each interval, specify the frequency.
To receive alerts about queue job failures, expand the Queue Job Failure section, and then select or clear the Queue Job Failure Alerts options.
If Multilingual User Interface Packs (MUI Packs) are installed for Project Server 2010, select the language in which you want to receive your e-mails from the Language Settings drop-down list.
Click Save.
Unsubscribe to personal e-mail notifications and alerts
If you no longer want to receive personal e-mail notifications and alerts, follow these steps.
To unsubscribe to personal e-mail notifications and alerts
On the Project Web App home page, in the Quick Launch, click Personal Settings, then select Manage My Alerts and Reminders.
Note
The e-mail address to which alerts are sent is listed on the Alert Me about My Tasks and Status Reports page next to E-mail Address.
To unsubscribe to alerts for tasks, expand the Tasks section and then clear the check box for the specific type of alert and reminder from which you want to unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe to alerts for status reports, expand the Status Report section and clear the I receive a new status report request check box and all check boxes under the Status Report Reminders section.
To unsubscribe to alerts for queue job failures, expand the Queue Job Failures section and clear the Any of my Queue Jobs fails check box.
Click Save.
Configuring notifications and reminders for your resources
Users of Project Web App who manage resources can configure e-mail notifications and reminders to be sent to their resources when specific actions occur.
Subscribe your resources to alerts and e-mail notifications
If you want to configure alerts and notification for resources that you manage, follow these steps.
To subscribe your resources to alerts and e-mail notifications
On the Project Web App home page, in the navigation column, click Personal Settings, then select Manage My Resources’ Alerts and Reminders.
Note
The e-mail address to which alerts are sent is listed on the Manage My Resources’ Alerts and Reminders page next to E-mail address.
To configure alerts for your tasks assigned to your resources, expand My Team Members’ Tasks, and configure the following:
If you want to receive e-mail immediately upon the occurrence of specified events, in the Task Alerts section, select the appropriate check boxes to set e-mail alerts to be sent when your team members submit new tasks and assignments, reassign tasks, and when team members update tasks.
If you want to receive e-mails at set intervals for upcoming tasks, under Task Reminders, select the appropriate option to set e-mail reminders to be sent before tasks are due and have the alerts sent only to you, only to your team members, or both to you and your team members. You can also specify the number of days, weeks, or months in advance of the due date for the upcoming task that the e-mail is sent.
If you want to receive e-mail alerts at set intervals for overdue tasks, in the Task Reminders section, select the appropriate check boxes to set e-mail alerts to be sent when tasks are overdue (and again until the overdue task is completed) and select the appropriate option to set the alerts to be sent only to you, only to your team members, or both to you and your team members. You can also specify the number of days, weeks, or months past the due date for the overdue task at which the alert is sent and the frequency at which reminder e-mails are sent until the task is complete.
If you want to receive e-mail at set intervals for tasks that have been in progress but have no actual work, in the Task Reminders section, select the appropriate options to set e-mail alerts to be sent when a task is started, but has no reported actual work, and have the alerts sent only to you, only to your team members, or both to you and your team members. You can also specify the number of days, weeks, or months after the task has started at which the alert is sent.
To configure reminders for your resource’s status reports, expand My Resources’ Status Reports, Status Report Alerts, and configure the following:
If you want to receive e-mail immediately when your resources send a status report, in the Status Report Alerts section, select the check box to set e-mail alerts to be sent when your resources submit a status report.
If you want to receive e-mail at set intervals for upcoming status reports, in the Status Report Reminders section, select the appropriate option setting e-mail alerts to be sent when a resource’s status report is due and have the alerts sent only to you, only to your resources, or both to you and your resources. You can also specify the number of days, weeks, or months in advance of the due date for the status report at which the alert is sent.
If you want to receive e-mail at set intervals for overdue status reports, in the Status Report Reminders section, select the appropriate options to set e-mail alerts to be sent when a resource’s status report is overdue (and until the status report has been sent) and have the alerts sent only to you, only to your team members, or both to you and your team members. You can also specify the number of days past the due date for the status report at which the alert is sent and the frequency at which reminder e-mails are sent until the status report is submitted.
If Multilingual User Interface Packs (MUI Packs) are installed for Project Server 2010, select the language in which you want to receive your notifications from the Language Settings drop-down list.
Click Save.
Unsubscribe your resources from e-mail notifications
If your resources are currently configured to receive personal e-mail notification and alerts, follow these steps to unsubscribe them.
To unsubscribe your resources from e-mail notifications
On the Project Web App home page, in the navigation column, click Personal Settings, then select Manage My Resources’ Alerts and Reminders.
To unsubscribe from alerts for your resource’s tasks, expand My Team Members’ Tasks and in the Task Alerts section, clear the check box for the specific type of alert from which you want to unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from e-mail notifications sent when your resources send status reports, expand My Resources’ Status Reports and in the Status Report Alerts section clear the Submit a status report check box.
Click Save.
Other chapters
For more information, see the other chapters in this guide: