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Enterprise Project Management (EPM)
based on
MS Project Server
 
EPM based on MS Project Server is a very powerful tool. You can get what you want to get from this tool. It's up to you. It's generic and can provides wide range of applications some of which are inbult  and others available from third parties or can be developed to meet specific needs of an organozation.
 
RASS Tools can assist you to plan and design the solution, do the implementation part and train your resources to administer and use the tool.  The following gives some details of these area where you can depend on the expertise of RASS Tools.
  • Planning the EPM Solution
  • Develop and Implement the EPM Solution

  • Administer EPM through PWA and MSP

  • Project Professional Extensions using VBA

  • Providing Tools for disconnected use

  • Training Resources

  • Support EPM Setup

 
 The graphics on the left shows a high level conceptual view MS Project Server based EPM environment. It shows various software components and databases connected together. The real implementation may differ from this view depending upon which version of components are used.

 

The following are the critical parts of the MS EPM solution.

  • MS Project Server
  • MS SQL Server / Analysis Services
  • MS SharePoint Services/Server
  • MS Project Professional
  • MS Project Web Access
  • Project Data Services
  • MS Windows Server
  • MS Exchange Server
  • MS Outlook

It must be obvious by now that planning, implementing, using and administering EPM setup involves lots of work. RASS Tools can fill in the gap or take full responsibility depending whatever your needs may be.

 

The following are a little more details to assist you to understand the scope of work involved in putting an EPM solution together. 

 

Planning the EPM Solution

  • Analyze and document Business Requirements
    • Project Management (Schedule Development, Schedule Status update and tracking, Time Sheets, Project Management Processes, Project Artifact / Documents, Risks and Issues, Project Performance Control, Management Reporting)
    • Users and their needs (Physical dispersion of users, Grouping users in terms of roles, Information needs of each user group, Number of users in each group)
    • Security Requirements (Security Considerations for each user group, Managing security)
    • Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery requirements), Technical Criteria for solution delivery
  • Analyze EPM Solution Requirements
    • Existing IT Technical Architecture Compliance
    • Licensing (Client/ Application Servers/ Database Servers)
    • Define Enterprise Global template requirements, calendars, custom fields, outline codes, view tables, RBS code etc
    • Define Resource Pool requirements and strategies for building/maintaining  the same
    • Define Master Project Templates complying organization's Project Management Methodology
    • Strategy / Plan for importing data from offline existing projects into Enterprise Projects database
  • Develop Project plan for Deployment, Development, Testing, Trial, Production and contingency environments

 

Develop and Implement the EPM Solution

  • Develop Enterprise Global template, calendars, tables, views,  custom fields, outline codes, view tables, RBS code etc that meet business requirements
  • Build  Resource Pool and its synchronization with Active directory
  • Create security templates, categories, roles, groups, users, apply security to tables and views
  • Develop Master Project Templates complying organization's Project Management Methodology
  • Import Project Data from Project Professional files

 

Administer EPM through PWA and MSP

  • Users Groups (Roles) and users  Maintenance
  • Security Administration
  • Views Maintenance
  • Menus Extensions
  • SharePoint Sites Maintenance
  • Enterprise Features setup, Customizing Project Web Access
  • Cleaning Up Project Server Data

 

Project Professional Extensions using VBA
  • Extending functionalities of MS Project Professional (MSP)
  •  
    Extracting, Transforming, Analysisng and Reporting Projects' data
  • Manipulate MSP Object model for update and maintenance work
  • Developing Client applications that uses MSP, Excel and Outlook

 

Providing Tools for disconnected use

  • There are situations when you would like to work disconnect and later update the central server. RASS Tools can supply or develop tools for this purpose.

 

Training Resources

  • Preparing Training aid material: Power point presentations, Embedded PWA links into presentation, Excel charts, tables
  • Conducting training for Using: Project Web Access, Project Professional
  • Writing Case studies
  • Documenting Lessons Learned

 

Support EPM Setup

  • Support Project Managers for using EPM, mentor and train them
  • Develop manage Master Plan for Enterprise Projects
  • Create views and reports based on Master Plan
  • Maintain EPM Configuration