“Managing Projects on SharePoint”Charlotte Area SharePoint User Group

July 21, 2010

Rich Blankwww.pmpinsights.com

About the Speaker

Rich Blank, MBA, PMP

Managing Consultant, Charlotte, NC• LinkedIn: http://www.richblank.com • Blog: www.pmpinsights.com• Twitter: www.twitter.com/pmpinsights • Facebook: www.facebook.com/pmpinsights

Experience• Strategy & Deployment: Over 15 years consulting, managing projects, & evangelizing collaboration,

knowledge management, ECM, and solutions/information architecture.• Prior Speaking Engagements: most recently 2010 SharePoint Summit and previously related

IT/Business Alignment Conferences• Technology: Microsoft SharePoint, eRoom, Documentum, Lotus Quickr, Connections, Notes among

the many competing portal, collaboration and ECM platforms.• Certifications: MBA, Project Management Professional (PMP), Six Sigma Green Belt.• Past Positions: Previous Sr. Consulting roles at IBM, EMC, KPMG, HP.

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Agenda: Managing Projects On SharePoint 1-2-3

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Level of Complexity

Sco

pe o

f Effo

rt

Low High

Indi

vidu

alE

nter

pris

e

1. Project Managers

2. ProjectTeams

3. Portfolio (& Project)Management

PM 101

PMI 101: Complexity = Need for Structure

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StructuredUnstructured

Project Management by Accident

(Not PMP certified, ad-hoc, email, XLS, Word,

etc…)

Project Management

“Light” (issues, tasks,

charter, requirements, deliverables,

etc...)

Project Management

Formal Methodology

(following a recognized

methodology such as PMI, Six

Sigma, Agile, Waterfall, etc…)

Project Management

Mature Lifecycle

(PMO Project Mgt Office,

Phases, Toll Gates,

Optimization, Earned Value,

ERP integration, etc…)

Project “Categories”

PM 101: Project Management Key Activities

1. Project Initiation

2. Kickoff Meetings

3. Stakeholder Management

4. Status

5. Communications

6. Project Schedule and WBS

7. Issues

8. Risks

9. Change Control

10. Budget/Financials

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PM 101: Current Tools

Email MS Project Excel Word File-shares Vanilla (TB)

SharePoint Sites Project Svr 2007

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Overload

PM 101: Current Challenges Managing Projects

“eMail Jail”: held hostage by our inboxes Methodology: exists but not followed Communication: ineffective, missed, or lack of Time and Distance: across time zones and geography Artifacts: Poor organization of project relation information & artifacts Visibility: Lack of important metrics, issues, discussions, risks, etc… Priorities: Competing priorities (synchronous meetings) Multiple Systems: Duplicate entry across systems/documents, lack of a

unified platform for portfolio, project, and collaborative document management

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PMI 101: Right Tools for the Job

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StructuredUnstructured

Project Management by Accident

Project Management

“Light”

Project Management

Formal Methodology

Project Management

Mature Lifecycle

Microsoft Office Applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Outlook

Out of the box (OOTB) “vanilla” SharePoint sites

MS Project Professional MS SharePoint Server (site templates or customized sites)

MS Project ServerMS Project ProfessionalMS SharePoint Server

How Project Managers can leverage SharePoint?

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Level of Complexity

Sco

pe o

f Effo

rt

Low High

Indi

vidu

alE

nter

pris

e

1. Project Managers

2. ProjectTeams

3. Portfolio (& Project)Management

Tip #1: Manage Lists in SharePoint (not documents)PM Activities Risks Issues Requirements Contacts Communications Tasks Milestones Change Requests Checklists Test Cases

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Sites(intranet pages, wikis, blog, team, document,

meetings)

Sub-Sites

ListsDocument libraries, calendars, discussions,

surveys, custom…

ItemsFolder, Files, events, contact, customer,

image, custom

If you have a table in a Word Document, or are using Excel to manage ANYTHING, consider creating a SharePoint List. If you do use MSWord, reference the URL Link to the SharePoint list inside the Word document.

SharePoint Site Structure

Lists that Belong in SharePointExample: BRD Word Document

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Redundant tables of information filled out in multiple project artifacts.

Lists that Belong in SharePointExample: Risk Matrix as Viewed in Excel

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Factor ID

Risk Factors Initial Risk

Assessment (L, M,

H)

Low Risk Cues Medium Risk Cues High Risk Cues

           

Organization Management & Alignment

1Project Fit to Business Unit (BU) Organization

  directly supports BU mission and/or goals

indirectly impacts one or more BU goals

does not support or relate to BU mission or goals

2Organization Stability   little or no change in management or structure expected

some management change or reorganization expected

management or organization structure is continually or rapidly changing

3Organization Roles and Responsibilities

  individuals throughout the organization understand their own roles and responsibilities and those of others

individuals understand their own roles and responsibilities, but are unsure who is responsible for work outside their immediate group

many in the organization are unsure or unaware of who is responsible for many of the activities of the organization

4Business Policies and Standards

  policies and standards are defined and carefully followed

policies and standards are in place, but are weak or not carefully followed

no policies or standards, or they are ill-defined and unused

Tip #2: Track Status in SharePoint (not Word)

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Think of Word and Excel as FORMSthat easily translate into SharePoint Lists!

Stop filling out MS Word Status Reports!

Tip #3: Organize Project Artifacts (Doc Libraries)

Documents Deliverables Budget Statements of Work

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• Use Versioning, Approval, Checkin/out.• Understand what a content type is and

create them.• Views = Filtering• Folders = Browsing• Use Views vs Folders where possible (and

if you do use folders, only 1-2 levels deep).• Use METADATA! Learn how to create new

columns in a SharePoint document library.• Learn how to create views and display

relevant columns like “checked out to” and version.

Tip #4: Direct Discussions to SP (Away from eMail)

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Make the Issues List a Discussion in SharePoint (vs. a custom list). Threaded discussions in SharePoint provide context around issues and save time digging through your email inbox.

Tip #5: Customize the Quick Links!

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Make it easier for team members to find project artifacts, deliverables, issues, contacts, etc..

Tip #6: Use Project Calendar

Many times meeting agendas and attachments change which create multiple calendar updates via Outlook email.

Instead: Use Outlook to send a URL to the SharePoint Team Calendar event with all the attachments and agenda.

This will force team members to use SharePoint to access information for the meeting.

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Tip #7: Alert Feature & Experiment with Workflows

Use the OOTB SharePoint Alert Feature to notify you immediately, daily, nightly of changes to lists you care about.

Learn the 3 Step OOTB SharePoint workflow or more complex conditional logic workflows with SharePoint Designer.

Automate recurring PM processes.

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Example:Issues List or Change Control List

How do Project Teams better leverage SharePoint?

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Level of Complexity

Sco

pe o

f Effo

rt

Low High

Indi

vidu

alE

nter

pris

e

1. Project Managers

2. ProjectTeams

3. Portfolio (& Project) Management

From Central Repository to Project Dashboard

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Deliverables

Dashboard

ListsShare reports, status, metrics & dashboards, synchronize calendars, team events, consolidated discussions, and assign tasks

Manage project artifacts, documents with metadata, search, check-in/ checkout, and document versioning

Executives

PM

Store Share

Team Members

Track

Track project issues, risks, and project-related

project artifacts

PMO

Project Management Dashboard for Teams

Charts KPIs Red, Yellow, Green Status Milestones Issues & Risk Tracking Financials With Dashboards, generally less busy is better. Think about the ability of the team, corporate culture, and the

audience.

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Example: Milestone Dashboard

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Example: PM Dashboard

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Example: Executive Dashboard

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Third Party Project Management Enhancements

Some dash boarding can be done OOTB (or check codeplex for web parts)

Several vendors offer Project Management Solutions on SharePoint (basic web parts and site templates to enterprise integration with Project Server or “cloud” hosted solutions):

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3. Portfolio & Project Management

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Level of Complexity

Sco

pe o

f Effo

rt

Low High

Indi

vidu

alE

nter

pris

e

1. Project Managers

2. ProjectTeams

3. Portfolio (& Project) Management

Formal or Mature Portfolio & Project Mgt (PPM)

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A Typical Organization: “Mature PMO Lifecycle” Illustrative Example

Communities

Search

Composites

Content

Insights

Sites

Portfolio Selection

Schedule Manageme

nt

BI & Reporting

Resource Manageme

nt

Project Team

Collaboration

Demand Manageme

nt

The Business Collaboration Platform for the Enterprise and the Web

Synch to SharePoint

SharePoint & Project Server 2010: Unified PPM

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MS Project Server 2010 Illustrative Example of Resource Analysis

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MS Project Server 2010 Illustrative Example

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Microsoft Project Professional 2010

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Synch MS Project Pro 2010 to SharePoint

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Project Schedules on MS Project Professional Client can be synched to a SharePoint task list.

Project Resources can enter updates in SharePoint.

Create out of the box charts and dashboards with SP 2010 default web parts.

Project Professional 2010 “TimeLine View”

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Vision for Unified PPM (Portfolio & Project Mgt.)

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Wrap-up: 3 Things to Remember

1. Project Managers – 7 Tips for SharePoint PM

2. Teams – Repository to Dashboards

3. Portfolio & Project Mgt – MS SharePoint Server and MS Project Svr 2010

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APPENDIX: ADDITIONAL REFERENCE SLIDES

Reference Links

MS Project Server Home:

http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/project-server-2010.aspx

MS Project 2010 Blogs:

http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/2010-blogs.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chrisfie/

2010 White Papers:

Demand Mgt: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff686781.aspx

Portfolio Strategy: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff729454.aspx

My SharePointPMP shared bookmarks on Delicious:

http://www.delicious.com/sharepointpmp

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Portfolio & Project Mgt System

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Key Characteristics of a PPM System:• Integrated planning and scheduling• Baseline budget & schedule, and change control• Provides some capability for costing or Earned Value• Frequent communication with the business/customer• Promotes a culture of transparency• Management of resources, control of action items and tasks• Manages project artifacts/documents• Ability to track issues, identify risks early and develop plans to mitigate• Provides analytics & metrics for aggregated reporting and BI• Maintain one computer system for teams to find all information

Benefits of a Unified System that Enables PPM

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Executives

• Extensive portfolio management capabilities• Greater visibility into entire portfolio – from proposals to projects• Real-time web access to dashboard views of financial & project information

Project Managers

• Powerful client capabilities to build and manage complex project plans• Single interface to track time and progress and manage all project

artifacts• Use issues, risks, and project templates to build project • Easier reporting and timesheet tracking for its resources• Management methodology to fit the organizational culture• More visibility and control on day-to-day work• Alignment with organization’s strategy

Internet Explorer IE7/IE8

Excel 2007/2010

Project Professional 2010/2007

Project Server 2010

SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise

SQL Server 2005/2008/R2: Standard or Enterprise

Windows Server 2008/R2: Standard, Enterprise, or Data Center Editions

64-bit

Project Server 2010 Requirements

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MS Project 2010 Comparison

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Comparison of 2010 MS Project Task Synch

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