EPM Live Workgroup Service Fills the Microsoft Office Project Collaborative Gap

EPM Live Workgroup solutions respond to this need for collaboration and communication tools by offering a lightweight version of Enterprise Project Management functionality to the workgroup level of the company.  The EPM Live Workgroup solutions are a lightweight version of project planning and collaborative tools that have been tried and tested in enterprise level workplaces. This brings high level coordination technology options down into the day-to-day work level of the office workspace.  These tools transform the world’s leading project planning software, Microsoft® Office Project 2007, into a living, working, and interactive landscape.

The EPM Live Workgroup solution works in a three step dynamic methodology:

1. Planning. Develop successful project plans with Microsoft® Office Project 2007. This industry preferred tool brings the right blend of usability, power, and flexibility to create a roadmap to success. Create schedules, tasks, project timelines, and milestones that help teams work together toward important goals. Use industry specific project templates that help jumpstart the project management process.

1. Communication. Collaborate with new or existing plans using the Project Publisher add-on for Microsoft® Office Project 2007 and any Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site or users who don’t own SharePoint can select an online hosted version.  Share responsibilities using the flexible Task or Assignment based publishing. Individual contributors can update and share key information in a collaborative work environment.

1. Tracking and Analyzing. Project managers use reporting tools to guide the project toward a successful outcome from the centralized Workgroup dashboard. Track project-specific information with reports that allow quick access to needed information. Identify risks and issues, formulate course corrections, and instantly communicate project adjustments to the entire team.

This cycle repeats until the project is successful!

EPM Live Workgroup completes this winning cycle linking proven desktop technology to online collaboration functionality.  This “EPM Workgroup” solution empowers individual contributors to take greater responsibility for their roles in the project and enables the project manager and planner to guide the entire team in more collaborative ways than have been possible before. The tools allow the project manager to loop in valuable but hesitant performers, better leverage the strengths of top performers, and improve the workflow of all involved.  By standardizing project information flows, everyone on the team can update the status of their individual contributions, understand key issues and risks, and maintain up to date ownership of their responsibilities so that the project stays on course. 

Leveraging the EPM Live Workgroup solution will help Project Managers plan effectively, communicate the plan with the team, and track and analyze success.  Using this iterative process and the collaborative tools that go with it allows the plan to be adjusted to keep the projects on track to completion.

The EPM Live Workgroup solution is available with two affordable deployment options:

• EPM Live Workgroup SaaS or Software + Service. Organizations looking to combine the power of online services with the richness of their everyday Microsoft® Office Project 2007 application can leverage the EPM Live Workgroup service.  Visit http://www.epmlive.com/ for more information and a 30 day free trial

• EPM Live Workgroup On-premise. Organizations already using Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft® Office Project 2007 can leverage the power of collaboration with the Project Publisher add-on. A quick and easy installation adds a publishing menu to Microsoft Office Project’s menu bar creating a simple one-click step to synchronize .mpp files with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 sites. Visit http://www.projectpublisher.com/ for more information and a 30 day free trial

The New EPM Live List Rollup Web Part

Introducing a List Rollup Web Part that will allow you to roll up any number of Lists and Columns and create as many views as your heart desires.  This type of view is extremely valuable for when you are trying to get a view of all work (Tasks, Issues, Action Items) from a top level site.

 

If you are using a newer EPM Live Site Collection template, your EPM Live List Rollup Web Part is located on your Site Collection.  You can access it by clicking the “All My Work” link in the Quick Launch bar.  If you are working with an older EPM Live Site Collection template and do not see the All My Work link in your Site Collection Quick Launch Bar, please add the “EPM Live Site Collection” Web Part to your site using the following steps:

1.  On the page where you want to add the roll up Web Part, click the Edit Page link from the Site Actions menu.

2.  Click “Add a Web Part” on the orange bar of the section where you want to add your Web Part.

3.  From the “Add Web Parts” screen, select the “EPM Live – My Work Rollup” from the “All Web Parts” section and then click the Add button.

4.  The Web Part should now be displayed on your page and you should see a message:

“This webpart needs to be manually upgraded. Please contact EPM Live support: (866) 391-3700.” 

This message is ok for now.

5.  Assuming you are still in edit mode, click Modify Shared Web Part from the edit dropdown list on the Web Part title bar.

6.  Paste the following XML in the text box:

<Views>

                <View Name=”My Active Work” Default=”True”>

                                <Columns>

                                                <Column Name=”DueDate” DisplayName=”Due Date” Format=”DateOnly”/>

                                                <Column Name=”PercentComplete” DisplayName=”% Complete” Format=”Percent”/>

                                </Columns>

                                <Lists>

                                                <List Name=”Task Center” DisplayName=”Tasks” Scope=”Project”>

                                                                <Query>

                                                                                <![CDATA[<And><Eq><FieldRef Name='AssignedTo'/><Value Type='Integer'><UserID/></Value></Eq><Neq><FieldRef Name='PercentComplete'/><Value Type='Number'>1</Value></Neq></And>]]>

                                                                </Query>

                                                                <OrderBy>

                                                                                <![CDATA[<FieldRef Name="taskorder"/>]]>

                                                                </OrderBy>

                                                </List>

                                                <List Name=”Issues” DisplayName=”Issues” Scope=”Project”>

                                                                <Query>

                                                                                <![CDATA[<And><Eq><FieldRef Name='AssignedTo'/><Value Type='Integer'><UserID/></Value></Eq><Eq><FieldRef Name='Status'/><Value Type='Choice'>Active</Value></Eq></And>]]>

                                                                </Query>

                                                                <Columns>

                                                                                <Notes Map=”V3Comments”/>

                                                                </Columns>

                                                </List>

                                                <List Name=”Action Items” DisplayName=”Action Items” Scope=”Site”>

                                                                <Query><![CDATA[<And><Eq><FieldRef Name='AssignedTo'/><Value Type='Integer'><UserID/></Value></Eq><Eq><FieldRef Name='Status'/><Value Type='Choice'>In Progress</Value></Eq></And>]]></Query>

                                                               

                                                </List>

                                                <List Name=”Risks” DisplayName=”Risks” Scope=”Project”>

                                                                <Query>

                                                                                <![CDATA[<And><Eq><FieldRef Name='Assigned_x0020_To'/><Value Type='Integer'><UserID/></Value></Eq><Eq><FieldRef Name='Status'/><Value Type='Choice'>Active</Value></Eq></And>]]>

                                                                </Query>

                                                                <Columns>

                                                                                <DueDate Map=”Due_x0020_Date”/>

                                                                </Columns>

                                                </List>

                                </Lists>

                </View>

                <View Name=”My Overdue Work”>

                                <Columns>

                                                <Column Name=”DueDate” DisplayName=”Due Date”/>

                                                <Column Name=”PercentComplete” DisplayName=”% Complete”/>     

                                </Columns>

                                <Lists>

                                                <List Name=”Task Center” DisplayName=”Tasks” Scope=”Project”>

                                                                <Query>

                                                                                <![CDATA[<And><Eq><FieldRef Name='AssignedTo'/><Value Type='Integer'><UserID/></Value></Eq><And><Neq><FieldRef Name='PercentComplete'/><Value Type='Number'>1</Value></Neq><Lt><FieldRef Name='DueDate'/><Value Type='Text'><Today/></Value></Lt></And></And>]]>

                                                                </Query>

                                                                <OrderBy>

                                                                                <![CDATA[<OrderBy><FieldRef Name="taskorder"/></OrderBy>]]>

                                                                </OrderBy>

                                                </List>

                                                <List Name=”Issues” DisplayName=”Issues” Scope=”Project”>

                                                                <Query>

                                                                                <![CDATA[<And><Eq><FieldRef Name='AssignedTo'/><Value Type='Integer'><UserID/></Value></Eq><And><Eq><FieldRef Name='Status'/><Value Type='Choice'>Active</Value></Eq><Lt><FieldRef Name='DueDate'/><Value Type='Text'><Today/></Value></Lt></And></And>]]>

                                                                </Query>

                                                                <Columns>

                                                                                <Notes Map=”Comments”/>

                                                                </Columns>

                                                </List>

                                                <List Name=”Risks” DisplayName=”Risks” Scope=”Project”>

                                                                <Query>

                                                                                <![CDATA[<And><Eq><FieldRef Name='Assigned_x0020_To'/><Value Type='Integer'><UserID/></Value></Eq><And><Eq><FieldRef Name='Status'/><Value Type='Choice'>Active</Value></Eq><Lt><FieldRef Name='Due_x0020_Date'/><Value Type='Text'><Today/></Value></Lt></And></And>]]>

                                                                </Query>

                                                                <Columns>

                                                                                <DueDate Map=”Due_x0020_Date”/>

                                                                </Columns>

                                                </List>

                                </Lists>

                </View>

</Views>

7.  Now just click the OK button and then click the “Exit Edit Mode” link in the upper right corner of the page.

The XML specified above will get you set up; however, if you want to customize your queries, views, or columns, you will have to edit the XML to do so.  I will cover this in a later Blog article.  For now, please call EPM Live Support and we will help you configure the views you want.

How to create rollup KPI (Key Performance Indicators) in your EPM Live environment

Key Perfomance Indicators (KPIs), by definition, are financial and non-financial metrics used to help an organization define and measure progress toward organizational goals and define the present state.  History has shown that managing projects in SharePoint has long been problimatic in that it was always difficult to view project status accross multiple sites from one central location.  EPM Live now offers the ability to create KPIs that are based off of rolled up project and task information.  Examples include:

% of Late Tasks, Task Status, Budget Status, Issue Status, Risk Status

Keep reading to learn how you can build KPIs in your EPM Live SharePoint environment.  Click here to learn more about EPM Live.

 

This article builds off of a previously written article that discusses how to add custom columns to your Project Center Rollup list within EPM Live.  You can now create nearly any rollup KPI dashboard imaginable.  Follow the guidelines below to create your KPIs within the Project Center Rollup List.  The new EPM Live templates already include these indicators, so if you already have these indicators in your site but want to change the thresholds, keep reading and you will learn how and of course, if you do not have one of the new templates, this article addresses creating KPIs from scratch as well.

Example:  Task Status Indicator

Indicator Requirement:  Management has asked to see the percentage of late tasks for a given project in the form of a red, yellow and green indicator. 

 % of Late Tasks >= .20 show RED

% of Late Tasks >= .10 show YELLOW

ELSE GREEN

Given that we only want to include tasks that are still active (not 100% complete), the formula for the % of Late Tasks is:

= Active Late Tasks/All Active Tasks

Given this formula, we need to add two columns to our Project Center Rollup list; one for Late Tasks and another for All Tasks.

1.       Create a new column in the Project Center list entitled “Late Tasks”.

2.       Choose the “Total Rollup” column type and enter the following CAML query string in the text box:

 

 

 

 

<And><Lt><FieldRef Name=’DueDate’/><Value Type=’DateTime’><Today /></Value></Lt><Neq><FieldRef Name=’PercentComplete’/><Value Type=’Number’>1</Value></Neq></And>

 

 

 

 

Please refer to another Blog article on writing CAML queries for more info

 

 

 

 

3.       Make sure to uncheck the “Show in Default View” checkbox.

4.       Click the OK button when finished.

5.       Click “Refresh Data” in the Project Center list menu.  Doing this will crawl the appropriate sites using the query you provided in step 2.  The results will be displayed in your newly created column.

Now we need to create the Active Tasks column.

6.       Create a new column in the Project Center list entitled “Active Tasks”.

7.       Choose the “Total Rollup” column type and enter the following CAML query string in the text box:

 

 

 

 

<Neq><FieldRef Name=’PercentComplete’/><Value Type=’Number’>1</Value></Neq>

 

 

 

 

Please refer to another Blog article on writing CAML queries for more info

 

 

 

 

8.       Make sure to uncheck the “Show in Default View” checkbox.

9.       Click the OK button when finished.

10.   Click “Refresh Data” in the Project Center list menu.  Doing this will crawl the appropriate sites using the query you provided in step 2.  The results will be displayed in your newly created column.

Now we are ready to create the % of Late Tasks column that will use the two columns we just created in its formula.

11.   Create a new column in the Project Center list entitled “% of Late Tasks”.

12.   Choose the “Formula” column type and enter the following formula in the text box:

 

 

 

 

=IF([Active Tasks]>0,[ Late Tasks]/[ Active Tasks],0)

Note:  The first IF statement in the formula above is to ensure that we do not divide by zero and cause an error.

 

 

 

 

13.   Click the OK button when finished.

Finally, we will create the actual indicator column that will show the red, yellow, or green KPI.

14.   Create a new column in the Project Center list entitled “Task Status”.

15.   Choose the “Formula” column type and enter the following formula in the text box:

 

 

 

 

= IF([% of Late Tasks]>=20%,”RED.GIF”,IF([% of Late Tasks]>=10%,”YELLOW.GIF”,”GREEN.GIF”))

 

 

 

 

Note:  The formula above outputs a string value that, in the EPM Live environment, will actually display an indicator image as opposed to the actual string.  This is a custom feature that EPM Live offers and is only available in our environment or as a part of our Toolkit.

 

 

 

16.   Click the OK button when finished.

You should now see your KPI column in the Project Center list.

The basics of writing CAML queries

The structure of a simple CAML query is defined as follows:

<[Operator]>
<FieldRef Name=’[FieldTitle]‘/><Value Type=’[FieldType]‘>[Value]</Value>
</[Operator]> 

You can replace the [Operator] placeholder with one of the following operators:

• Eq = equal to
• Neq = not equal to
• BeginsWith = begins with
• Contains = contains
• Lt = less than
• Leq = less than or equal to
• Gt = greater than
• Geq = greater than or equal to
• IsNull = is null
• IsNotNull = is not null

Possible values that can replace [FieldType] are Boolean, Choice, Currency, DateTime, Guid, Integer, Lookup, Note, Text, User.

You can also define a query that contains multiple OR/AND conditions. Here is how you can define a query with two OR conditions, to select all items whose Name field is equal to either “Tony” or “John”:

   <Or>
      <Eq><FieldRef Name=’Name’/><Value Type=’Text’>Tony</Value></Eq>
      <Eq><FieldRef Name=’Name’/><Value Type=’Text’>John</Value></Eq>
   </Or>

A limitation of the <Or> and <And> blocks is that they can contain just two conditions. If you want to have more, you have to define an <Or> / <And> section that contains an inner <Or> / <And> section in place of one of the two conditions. The following examples show how to add a further possible value for the previously described query.

   <Or>
      <Eq><FieldRef Name=’Name’/><Value Type=’Text’>Tony</Value></Eq>
      <Or>
         <Eq><FieldRef Name=’Name’/><Value Type=’Text’>John</Value></Eq>
         <Eq><FieldRef Name=’Name’/><Value Type=’Text’>Mary</Value></Eq>
      </Or>
   </Or>

Configure your EPM Live Project Center Rollup list to roll up any custom columns that you want

Using the new EPM Live Project Center Rollup List, you can configure your columns to roll up matching column information from Project Center lists in sub sites.  Now, you can roll up all of the project information from all of your sub sites and see the status of your projects accross your entire portfolio.

This is pretty simple to configure.  The basic principle is that when you click the “Refresh Data” on the Project Center Rollup List menu, the system will query Project Center sub sites based on the columns you have in your Project Center Rollup list.

For example:  Let’s say that “Department” is a column that exists on all Project Center lists of my sub sites.  If I add a column called Department in my Project Center Rollup List, when I click the “Refresh Data” button, the system will query and pull back all projects in the sub sites along with the “Department” column.  Once again, this is assuming that the Department column exists in all sub site Project Center lists.  If there is a Project Center list in one of the sub sites that doesn’t have the Department column, the Department column will be blank for that project within the Project Center Rollup List.

Let’s first make sure that you have the Project Center Rollup List in your site.  EPM Live Site collections created after 3/6/08 will automatically have this list as a part of the template but if your Site Collection was created prior to 3/6/2008, you will need to perform the following steps.

1.       Browse to your Site Collection.

2.       Choose Site Settings from the Site Actions menu in the upper right corner of your Site Collection.

3.       Click on the Site collection features link under the Site Collection Administration section.

4.       Find the feature titled “EPM Live Project Center Rollup” and make sure that it is “Active”.  If not, click the “Activate” button.

5.       Now, click Create from the Site Actions menu in the upper right corner of the page.

6.       You should now see the EPM Live Project Center Rollup list under the Custom Lists section.  Choose the EPM Live Project Center Rollup List.

7.       Provide a name and description for the list and choose whether you want a link to this list to be created on the Quick Launch bar.

Now that you have your Project Center Rollup list, just add the columns that you want to roll up from sub site Project Center lists.  Next up….creating KPI indicators based off of rolled up information.