Microsoft Office Enterprise Project ManagementCustomer Solution Case Study

NASA Improves Project Visibility, Reduces Costs, with Enterprise Solution

OverviewCountry or Region: USAIndustry: National Government Agencies

Customer ProfileThe Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is managed by the California Institute of Technology for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and manages robotic programs for space exploration.

Business SituationWith numerous large interdependent projects running at any time, JPL was relying on manual processes to give project team members visibility into the schedule and was unable to create a single view of all projects.

SolutionJPL chose to deploy EPM Live’s EPM WorkEngine, an enterprise project management solution that integrates Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to provide all employees with access to project information.

Benefits Improved accuracy Increased collaboration Cost savings

“We will see cost savings from deploying EPM WorkEngine by eliminating the need to create copies of schedules. Merging Office SharePoint Server 2007 with our enterprise project management solution will also create savings and greater efficiencies for all employees."

Alberto Ortega, Business Lead for Scheduling, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

As a part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is responsible for numerous missions, including explorations of Mars and Jupiter, and employs over 5,000 people. JPL’s project schedulers were using Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 to manage project timelines on their desktops. However this meant that the schedulers were creating copies of schedules for other employees to view. JPL also wanted to increase the role of its engineers in managing project schedules and facilitate greater collaboration within project teams. JPL decided to deploy EPM WorkEngine from EPM Live, an enterprise project and work management solution that integrates Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 to achieve improved schedule visibility, greater collaboration, and to reduce costs.

SituationAs a division of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is the lead United States center for robotic exploration of the solar system and conducts major programs in space-based earth sciences. Managed by the California Institute of Technology for NASA, JPL employs over 5,000 people in Pasadena, California.

JPL conducts numerous missions including the Mars Exploration Rovers, Juno, an in-depth study of Jupiter, and the Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) mission to study soil moisture levels in their freeze/thaw state to improve predictions of climate and weather. The Laboratory has a large number of projects in progress at any single time relating to its various missions; therefore stringent project control is of great importance.

The organization was using Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 within the laboratory to give project management teams access to project schedules. However to share the schedules, JPL’s Project Schedule Analysts (PSAs) needed to create portable document files (PDFs) and then place them in a fileshare directory for access by project team members. This meant that the schedules viewed by team members were a static image of project status at any given point in time, and did not provide any ability to drill down into items or make changes. When engineers needed to make a change they had to coordinate with the PSAs, creating additional work for both roles.

JPL was running multiple project systems and multiple large, interdependent

projects, which made it difficult for JPL to achieve its goal of consolidating all project schedules into a master schedule with key milestones marked. A master schedule would provide JPL management with a high level view of the status of all projects and when major deliverables were due.

Alberto Ortega, Business Lead for Scheduling, JPL, says, “Our long term goal is for everyone to have access to the project management system. Assigned tasks should be open to everybody; the PSAs, engineers and project managers should have direct access to the schedule and make changes as required.”

Given the multiple requirements, JPL chose to work with Microsoft Certified Partner LMR Solutions to deploy an enterprise project management solution to improve visibility of projects for all employees and integrate all schedules into a master view.

SolutionJPL decided to move to Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, a server-based project management solution which would give all employees access to project schedules for a variety of purposes. At the same time, the laboratory planned to adopt Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to simplify information sharing. The Project Control Office at JPL, which is responsible for supplying PSAs to various projects as well as developing new systems to assist employees, decided to leverage the planned deployment to create project portals where team members could collaborate and view schedule data in real time.

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The Project Control Office led the deployment of EPM WorkEngine, a project and work management solution based on Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Office Project Server 2007. By selecting EPM WorkEngine, JPL would be able to leverage its ongoing Office SharePoint Server 2007 deployment as well as the familiarity with Office Project Professional 2007 to provide an enterprise project management solution, which would scale across the entire organization. EPM WorkEngine facilitates project, program, and product team level collaboration while simplifying the management of multiple large projects and providing all employees with visibility into schedules.

The team worked with consultants from LMR Solutions who provided support throughout the deployment, including meeting JPL’s requirement to identify project dependencies. The team is working towards incorporating the business process automation capabilities in Office SharePoint Server 2007 and adding workflow to work items and deliverables.

The JPL Project Control Team needed to roll up all projects into a management view, which would highlight milestones across all projects and provide reporting and performing ‘what if’ scenarios to determine the upcoming workload for the laboratory. Using out of the box reporting tools in Office Project Server 2007 and EPM WorkEngine, LMR Solutions customized the solution to flag key tasks in the Office SharePoint Server 2007 calendar identified by the project managers as major milestones.

The team had to ensure a high level of user adoption once the EPM WorkEngine solution was deployed. They spent time working with users and project stakeholders through user groups and governance boards to determine what information should be presented to ensure high user buy-in for the final solution.

To ensure that key project staff, such as PSAs, were comfortable with the new solution, LMR Solutions planned to conduct training ahead of the go live date, however user familiarity with the Microsoft environment meant that training requirements were minimal. Ortega says, “Using Microsoft means we don’t need to schedule extra training for all employees on how to use the tools. They are already using the Microsoft Office 2007 system as well as Office SharePoint Server 2007. The engineers are familiar with Project Professional 2007, so it was an easy transition for us.”

Upon completion of the current phase of implementation, all employees within the laboratory will be able to view schedules and see how their tasks fit within the project.

BenefitsVarious projects are being migrated to the EPM solution, including plans and schedules for Juno and the Mars Science Laboratory. JPL anticipates multiple benefits from the deployment of the EPM WorkEngine enterprise project management solution and is already considering future plans to achieve even greater gains.

Improved Accuracy

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With the EPM WorkEngine solution, project schedule visibility has been transformed from a static view of the project at a given time into access for all project teams to review and provide feedback on schedules. Previously, PSAs were responsible for sharing information and incorporating change requests into the schedule. With EPM WorkEngine, the engineers involved in the project are responsible for their schedules, which results in PSAs reducing the amount of time spent on administrative activities.

The EPM WorkEngine solution contains up-to-date project data and can be viewed from anywhere through Project Web Access, which means JPL can take current project snapshots and make adjustments to mitigate risks before they threaten milestones in the project.

Additionally, JPL anticipates that the enterprise environment will provide management with an indication of workloads using the resource capabilities of Office Project Server 2007, leading to improved accuracy in predicting and managing project resourcing requirements.

Increased CollaborationBy deploying a project management solution that is integrated with Office SharePoint Server 2007, JPL uses out of the box functionality to create project portals where teams can access schedules and other key project information in a single location. This has improved collaboration within the teams, as employees can work together on documents, calendars, tasks and other items, removing version control issues. By using Office SharePoint Server 2007, project teams have real-time access

to data, which boosts productivity among employees. The integration EPM WorkEngine offers with Office Project Server 2007 means that data managed within Office SharePoint Server 2007 can be accessed from within the project management solution.

By upgrading from Project Professional 2007 to Office Project Server 2007, JPL will enjoy many of the new features now available. These include retained task highlighting, where users can flag a particular task so that all employees viewing the schedule recognize that it is significant, and use color coding to assign a status to that task.

Michelle Manimtim, Government Practice Director, LMR Solutions, comments, “Being built on top of Office SharePoint Server, the EPM WorkEngine solution enables JPL to take advantage of all Office SharePoint Server capabilities while managing projects, programs and the workforce. JPL is taking full advantage of Office SharePoint Server and applying it in a way that ensures teams collaborate together.”

Ortega adds “The use of lists in Office SharePoint Server 2007 allows us to publish information to various lists and summarize that information in a variety of ways. The ability to drill horizontally across projects is a primary driver for choosing an application like EPM Live.”

Cost SavingsAs well as benefiting from improved collaboration and visibility, JPL anticipates cost reductions from moving to an enterprise project management solution. A PSA can create approximately 30 PDFs of

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schedules during an update cycle, including the top level schedule and a version for each Cost Account Manager. Using the web view will save PSAs up to half a day’s work each week. JPL will also create cost efficiencies through improved collaboration by integrating its projects.

Ortega explains, “We will see cost savings from deploying EPM WorkEngine by eliminating the need to create hard and soft copies of schedules. Merging Office SharePoint Server 2007 with our enterprise project management solution will also create greater efficiencies for all employees.”

Microsoft Office SystemThe Microsoft Office system is the business world’s chosen environment for information work, providing the programs, servers, and services that help you succeed by transforming information into impact.

For more information about the Microsoft Office system, go to: www.microsoft.com/office

For more information about the Microsoft Office EPM Solution, go to: www.office.microsoft.com/epmsolution

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about EPM Live products and services, call +1 866 391 3700 or visit the Web site at: http://www.epmlive.com/

For more information about NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory products and services, call +1 818 354 4321 or visit the Web site at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published August 2010

Software and Services Microsoft Office

− Microsoft Office Project Server 2007− Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

2007