Microsoft Project

[BertRoot]

I want to set up MS Project 2003 on a Windows server to host a big feck off plan that can alert people what they need to do and allow them to update percentage completion of tasks. The idea is that the plan will be a constantly evolving beast updated regularly by team members to give an overview of capability.

Is this possible? How do I do it? Any pitfalls?

I haven't got the manuals but I have an Exchange server to use to drive the tasks to the punks doing the work.

[Shotgunjim]

If you are running a 'micro$oft environment' then you should be able to run this easy enough. You can assign Tasks to members of the team and then it will auto add them to their Outlook.

TBH it may be more hassle than it is worth depending on the scale and duration of the project (trust me, being a PM I know!) and if you plan to use it again.

[BertRoot]

Its an ongoing project plan to manage a year at a time with a lot of work flying in and out to manage a very large Integration capability so it will be of use if we can get it off the ground but I am unsure as to how easy it will be to get off the ground. We looked at integrating MSP with SAP a year or so ago and decided that wasn't worth the trouble but this is a little easier I hope.

Have you done this then Jim? If so how did you go about it. We are currently in an enormous partnership with MS but the contact points aren't there yet.

[Shotgunjim]

We went throught the motions of doing this when I worked for Nortel Networks which ran a complete M$ environment. If you are going to have lots of people amending GANT charts, timescales, costs etc then it may prove to be more problematic especially if you want to track all changes (change management etc, product control).

If it is going to be controlled by a set number of people and simply used as a data store for others to look at then it should be easy. It is when you try to grant different access to users when it can get nasty.

I would suggest that you set up a simple chart and then try it. If you can get it to do what you want for a basic chart/project then you will find that it is no different for a larger one. TBH our projects never exceded 6 months (if they did, they went to Program Level).