Share point 2010 for project management

SECOND EDITION

SharePoint 2010 for ProjectManagement

Dux Raymond Sy

Beijing • Cambridge • Farnham • Köln • Sebastopol • Tokyo

SharePoint 2010 for Project Management, Second Editionby Dux Raymond Sy

Copyright © 2012 Innovative-e, Inc. All rights reserved.Printed in the United States of America.

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October 2008: First Edition. February 2012: Second Edition.

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ISBN: 978-1-449-30637-3

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Table of Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

1. Project Kickoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1What Is a PMIS? 4Deciding to Use a PMIS 4What Is SharePoint? 5Other Options 8Our Case Study: SharePoint Dojo, Inc. 8Best Practices Checklist 9Summary 9

2. Setting Up the PMIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11How Will You Organize Your PMIS? 12Using Site Templates 14Creating a SharePoint 2010 Site 14Workshop 2.1: Establishing the SharePoint 2010 PMIS Foundation 15

Part 1: Creating the PMIS 16Part 2: Customizing the Site Theme 17Part 3: Adding an Announcement List 18Part 4: Displaying Announcements on the Home Page 20

Workshop 2.1 Debriefing 22Customizing the PMIS 22Workshop 2.2: Updating Your Site’s Regional Settings 25Workshop 2.2 Debriefing 25Best Practices Checklist 26Summary 26

3. Adding PMIS Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Using SharePoint Lists 28Creating SharePoint Lists 34Workshop 3.1: Creating and Populating Lists 35

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Part 1: Creating and Populating a Calendar List 36Part 2: Creating and Populating a Contacts List 38Part 3: Creating a Risks List 40Part 4: Creating a Project Tasks List 41Part 5: Creating and Populating a Custom Resource List 41Part 6: Displaying the New Lists on the Home Page 46

Workshop 3.1 Debriefing 48Using Libraries 49Creating a Document Library (a How-To) 52Populating a Document Library 55Workshop 3.2: Creating and Populating a Document Library 55

Part 1: Creating a Document Library 55Part 2: Populating a Document Library 57

Workshop 3.2 Debriefing 60Organizing Project Information 60Best Practices Checklist 61Summary 61

4. Adding Stakeholders to the PMIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Project Communications Plan 64Site Access in SharePoint 65Creating SharePoint Groups 65Adding Site Members 66Enabling the Access Request Feature 69Customizing Permissions 70Workshop 4.1: Adding Site Members 73

Part 1: Adding Site Members 74Part 2: Customizing List Permissions 75

Workshop 4.1 Debriefing 77Best Practices Checklist 79Summary 79

5. Supporting Team Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Enabling Document Management Solutions 82Overview of Check-Out/Check-In 83Overview of Version History 85Overview of Content Approval 87Workshop 5.1: Updating a Project Document 89

Part 1: Requiring Check-Out 89Part 2: Checking Out and Editing a Document from the DocumentLibrary 91Part 3: Viewing All the Changes Made to the Document 93

Workshop 5.1 Debriefing 96

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Facilitating Team Collaboration 96Wikis 97Discussion Boards 98Document Workspaces 99

Creating a Document Workspace 100Best Practices Checklist 102Summary 102

6. Project Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Tracking Project Tasks 104Tracking Risks 107Workshop 6.1: Updating the Schedule and Tracking Risks 110

Part 1: Updating the Project Tasks List 110Part 2: Populating and Updating the Project Tasks List 112Part 3: Documenting Risks 115

Workshop 6.1 Debriefing 119Controlling Changes with Workflow 119Workshop 6.2: Creating a Change Control System withThree-State Workflow 122

Part 1: Creating a Custom List 123Part 2: Customizing the Three-State Workflow 124Part 3: Testing the Workflow 130


7. Project Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137Custom Views 137Workshop 7.1: Creating a Custom View 141Workshop 7.1 Debriefing 145Using Web Parts for Interactive Reporting 145Workshop 7.2: Maximizing Project Reporting with Web Parts 150

Part 1: Updating Web Parts on Your PMIS Home Page 150Part 2: Creating a Project Dashboard 153Part 3: Finalizing the Dashboard 160

Workshop 7.2 Debriefing 163Subscribing to Alerts 163Using Meeting Workspaces 166Workshop 7.3: Creating a Meeting Workspace 169Workshop 7.3 Debriefing 171Best Practices Checklist 172Summary 172

Table of Contents | v

8. Integrating PM Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173Integrating Microsoft Project into SharePoint 174Workshop 8.1: Using Microsoft Project 176Workshop 8.1 Debriefing 178Using Microsoft Excel and SharePoint 178Creating a Custom List from an Existing Excel Spreadsheet 179Exporting an Excel Spreadsheet to SharePoint As a Custom List 180Synchronizing Excel Tables with a SharePoint List 182Workshop 8.2: Synchronizing Excel with SharePoint 185

Part 1: Creating an Excel Table 185Part 2: Synchronizing the SharePoint List with Excel 188


9. Project Closing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191Overview of Creating a PMIS Template 192Overview of Archiving the PMIS 194Workshop 9.1: Creating a PMIS Site Template 195Workshop 9.1 Debriefing 198Ensuring Stakeholder Buy-In 198

1. Leverage and Prove the Value of SharePoint as a PMIS on a Pilot Project 1982. Provide User Support in Learning and Utilizing SharePoint 1993. Measure and Broadcast Success 1994. Gather Feedback 200

Best Practices Checklist 201Summary 201

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

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Preface

Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinangalinganay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.

(He who does not know how to look back at wherehe came from will never get to his destination.)

—Dr. José P. Rizal, Philippine national hero

Do you find yourself asking for more time whenever you work on a project? Do youever get the extra time you asked for? Well, if you’re like me, you rarely get the extratime you need from your customers. This got me thinking about how I can buy moretime for my projects.

I decided to find out if I could gain more time by reducing inefficiencies within theproject team (which also includes myself). In a recent project, I monitored and analyzeda few individuals for a week and was amazed at what I discovered.

During an average eight-hour workday, each individual spent about 45 minutes lookingfor information. For example, when asked by a client to retrieve a specific status report,the project coordinator had to look for it on the network share, in her email inbox, inthe project folder of her computer, and she even had to call up another colleague tohelp her find it. This typical mode of searching took up time that could have been spenton something more productive. In addition, project resources were unproductive dueto poor document management practices, inefficient project communication stand-ards, and ineffective project collaboration tools. According to a May 31, 2007, NewYork Times article, “Time Wasted? Perhaps It’s Well Spent” (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/31/fashion/31work.html), a Microsoft study found that American workers, onaverage, spend 45 hours a week at work, with 16 of these hours described as“unproductive.”

Although 45 minutes may not sound like a lot, when you look at the bigger picture, itessentially means that a team of 20 people wastes 900 minutes a day. In a three-monthproject, that is 54,000 minutes, or roughly 38 personal days—more than one-third ofthe project!

vii

Other than time, how much does this cost the project and the organization? Well,depending on who you’re considering, 45 minutes might cost $50 for a project coor-dinator or $250 for a technical contractor, each day.

Bottom line: time and money are not well spent. What if my team could regain just 20of those 45 minutes wasted each day?

With SharePoint, we achieved this and more. Apart from increasing productivity, wewere able to:

• Automate status reporting for stakeholders

• Use collaboration to generate real-time project lessons learned that were easilyaccessible by a globally dispersed team

• Synchronize standard project information such as calendars, contacts, anddocuments

• Document and track project risks and issues

• Maintain a quality log

• Integrate existing project management tools such as email, Microsoft Word, Excel,and Project into SharePoint

• Create and manage a change control system

For me, the best part of using SharePoint was that once the IT/IS department performedthe installation and initial configuration, I didn’t have to burden anybody to set up andfurther configure this unique Project Management Information System (PMIS)—I didit all myself. In addition, I was still able to better use existing tools like Microsoft Officealong with SharePoint.

That’s what this book is all about. By clearly mapping the relationships between projectmanagement processes and project stakeholders, and by leveraging tools like Share-Point, you will learn how to apply common and practical project management techni-ques using SharePoint. More importantly, with this book you will quickly masterSharePoint so you can build a PMIS that can help you efficiently coordinate commu-nication and collaboration throughout your project team.

Who Should Read This BookThis book will be most valuable to individuals working on projects who want to adaptSharePoint for project management, including:

Project managersBy managing a project officially or unofficially, project managers are involved fromthe project’s inception to its closure. Their responsibilities include project plan-ning, executing, monitoring, controlling, and closing. In addition, they lead aproject team and are the project liaison with key stakeholders.

viii | Preface

Project team membersMembers of the team work in a project environment that requires participating incollaborative activities, such as project planning, status updates, risk monitoring,tracking, requesting changes, and maintaining critical project information.

Program managersProgram managers seek a standard, consistent, and best-practices approach to im-plementing a PMIS across projects in the organization.

IT/IS directorsDirectors want to learn how SharePoint can meet the needs of project managers inthe organization.

SharePoint consultantsSharePoint consultants can help you to leverage your SharePoint technical skillsby offering a focused approach in implementing SharePoint as a PMIS.

What You Need to Best Use This BookTo maximize the benefits of this book, familiarity with basic project management con-cepts and terminologies is assumed. This book is intended for individuals with a projectmanagement background who are interested in leveraging SharePoint on their projects.

Furthermore, it is ideal that you have an existing SharePoint environment (SharePointFoundation or SharePoint Server) where you can practice and apply the techniques thatyou will learn. If you are not sure about this, ask your IT/IS department these twoquestions:

• Am I a member of an existing SharePoint site?

• Am I allowed to create SharePoint subsites?

If the answer to both questions is yes, you are in good shape. If the answer to either orboth questions is no, I suggest you ask for appropriate SharePoint access or rely onexternal SharePoint hosting vendors such as Office 365.

Even better, you can leverage a fully functioning SharePoint environment, designed forthis book from Cloudshare, that you can use FREE for 14 days. Visit http://innovative-e.com/sp4pmlab for more details.

Finally, apart from having a SharePoint environment to work in, your computer mustbe running Windows (XP or above versions), and it must have Internet Explorer 8 andMicrosoft Office installed. Certain sections of this book showcase the integration ofMicrosoft Office products with SharePoint. All of the examples in the book were createdusing Microsoft Office 2010.

Preface | ix

My Assumptions in Writing This BookMy assumptions are that you:

Have some sort of project management experienceYou have managed projects formally or informally and are familiar with funda-mental project management concepts and practices.

Are new to SharePointYou may have heard of SharePoint or have been told to use SharePoint to manageyour projects. If you have used SharePoint before, you will gain practical knowledgein applying SharePoint for project management.

Are using SharePoint for project management purposesThis book is focused on helping you leverage SharePoint for project management,regardless of what industry you are in. The concepts and techniques in this bookapply to IT, construction, government, education, finance, and healthcare projects.If you are interested in using SharePoint to deploy a corporate portal, create anecommerce website, or develop a proprietary SharePoint application, this is notthe book for you.

Are not interested in the nitty-gritty technical details of SharePointI am not inclined to write yet another technical book about SharePoint. Though Iam a certified SharePoint geek, there are tons of other books available that do agreat job of discussing advanced technical topics. The level of technical detail I willcover is just enough for you to get your PMIS up and running.

Are comfortable using Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, and a web browserThe technical background required to fully utilize SharePoint is minimal. As longas you are familiar with basic computing concepts—such as creating and savingdocuments, copying files, logging in and logging out, using passwords, surfing theWeb, clicking on links on a web page, downloading and uploading, and distin-guishing files versus folders—you are in good shape.

Are willing to change and try something newRemember, to benefit from this book, you have to consciously decide that howyou manage project information, facilitate team collaboration, and enable projectcommunication must change for the better.

Additional ResourcesWebsites:

• Project Management Institute (http://www.pmi.org)

• PRINCE2 (http://www.prince2.com/)

• Max Wideman’s Project Management Wisdom (http://www.maxwideman.com)

• All the Top SharePoint News (http://sharepoint.alltop.com)

x | Preface

• Microsoft Project for the Masses: FREE Resource Management Solution (http://spgur.us/MSPFM)

Books:

• Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management by Scott Berkun (O’Reilly,2008)

• Applied Project Management: Best Practices on Implementation by Harold Kerzner(Wiley, 1999)

• Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Plain & Simple by Jonathan Lightfoot and Chris Beckett(Microsoft Press, 2010)

Contents of This BookThis book includes hands-on workshops, which will help you leverage a SharePointPMIS just as you would in a typical project environment. And using each chapter’sdetailed, step-by-step logical processes, you will integrate project management bestpractices and standards to fully reap the benefits of a SharePoint PMIS.

Chapter 1, Project KickoffChapter 2, Setting Up the PMISChapter 3, Adding PMIS ComponentsChapter 4, Adding Stakeholders to the PMISChapter 5, Supporting Team CollaborationChapter 6, Project TrackingChapter 7, Project ReportingChapter 8, Integrating PM ToolsChapter 9, Project Closing

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Preface | xi

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AcknowledgmentsIt’s been an amazing ride since the first edition of SharePoint for Project Managementwas published. SharePoint has exploded in the enterprise; in a recent report from AIIM,project management is the top use of SharePoint today (http://www.aiim.org/Research/Industry-Watch/SharePoint-2011).

With this second edition, I would like to thank the following for their unwaveringsupport, trust, and patience:

• The Lord God for the awesome plan He has for me, as promised in Jeremiah 29:11

• My wonderful wife, Ramona, and amazing children, Johannes and Danika, formaking all this worthwhile

• Team Innovative-e for all the help and insights

• The O’Reilly Media crew for being top-notch as always

Preface | xiii

• The global SharePoint community for the kindness and hospitality you’ve shownme

• My good friend Dave Murphy for jumping in at the last minute to review

Off You GoThe last thing I want is for you to think of SharePoint as a burden or a necessary evil,simply because your boss is making you use it for your projects.

My hope is that, after reading this book, you will be able to use SharePoint to effectivelymanage your projects, make them less complicated, and make your team more efficient.Should you have any questions, comments, and/or feedback, feel free to visit http://www.spforpm.com or contact me at [email protected].

Enjoy!

xiv | Preface

CHAPTER 1

Project Kickoff

It must be considered that there is nothing more difficultto carry out nor more doubtful of success nor more dan-gerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things.

—Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian philosopher

As most of you would agree, the definition of a project varies greatly—it can be buildingthe next space shuttle, upgrading the production line of your manufacturing facility,or just creating a new website for a customer. One common factor that holds true acrossthese varying project types is that all of them involve multiple people interacting witha wide array of project information.

This information can include templates, emails, schedules, proposals, forms, budgets,contact information, status reports, regulatory compliance, and even ad hoc docu-ments. In spite of our best attempts to effectively manage project information, we allseem to fall short at times. We rely on inconsistent and inefficient tools that are typicallya combination of three things:

Local/personal storageIf project information is stored in an individual’s personal computer, email, orportable storage device, can important information—such as a project schedule—be made available to relevant stakeholders in a timely manner? If the computer orportable storage device breaks down, how is the information restored?

Network-based storageIf you are using central storage through a file-sharing network or web-based envi-ronment, how do you prevent files from being overwritten? What are the standardsfor maintaining versions? Can you easily define who can access what information?

Mixed bag of project management toolsSome common tools used in project environments are Microsoft Word, MicrosoftExcel, and possibly Microsoft Project. In certain cases, complex enterprise toolssuch as Microsoft Project Server and Primavera are also made available.

1

Checklist: Essential Project Management ActivitiesWhen I formally started managing projects more than 15 years ago, I had the wrongimpression that the very first step to take was to fire up a scheduling tool (such asMicrosoft Project) and start cranking out the project tasks, defining the task duration,and establishing the task dependencies. It never really worked out well for me. Onlylater did I realize that there are other crucial steps I failed to do.

Here’s my essential list of project management activities that every project managershould be doing throughout the life of a project:

• Create guidelines for how your projects will be initiated

• Run a kickoff meeting to define project objectives

• Identify your stakeholders

• Identify project information taxonomy

• Plan your projects with your team, including creating the work breakdown struc-ture (WBS), creating the network diagram, identifying the critical path, and opti-mizing the project schedule

• Define the probability and impact of project risks

• Create a change control process for scope changes

• Define quantifiable project-tracking processes

• Facilitate a lessons-learned meeting

To improve these inefficiencies, three things are necessary:

Apply a standard set of project management processes from the start of the project untilthe end

While I won’t go into detailed discussions on project management concepts andtheories, I will say that to make SharePoint work to your advantage, you have toemploy sound project management techniques and practices.

If you don’t have one, the best way to develop a project management methodologyis to review best practices from the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) ProjectManagement Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide and the Projects in ControlledEnvironments (PRINCE2) road map.

Consider this example: I have no cooking experience, so if I were to compete in acooking contest against the best chef in the world (à la Iron Chef), I would definitelylose. This is because even if, by chance, I cooked really well, there’s no method tomy madness—I dislike reading recipe books, so it’s hit or miss. I am certain that aveteran chef would have proven processes in place, from how to chop the vegeta-bles to how long okra should simmer. Not only do veteran chefs document thesesteps, they also constantly tweak their processes for improvement. Guess what?The same thing applies to project management.

2 | Chapter 1: Project Kickoff

Use a Project Management Information System (PMIS) to support your project manage-ment processes

As any experienced project manager would validate, having an easy-to-use,accessible, reliable, and scalable collaborative platform can contribute greatly to aproject’s success. That’s the crux of what you will learn in this book: using Share-Point as your PMIS.

Educate and update your project team with project management best practicesHaving an incremental approach to continuous process improvement will enablethe project team to make better use of the PMIS.

Dux Quax: Is It Changeworthy?Listen, before you go gung-ho and start implementing formalized project managementprocesses in your organization, slow down, my good friend. I guarantee that it won’twork if you change the rules overnight. People, by nature, are averse to change (as youmight already know). As the old adage goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

So, what should you do? How can you convince your team that it’s necessary to im-plement project management processes? Taking baby steps is key:

Make the case that having sound project management processes will greatly improve howprojects are run in the organization

A good exercise is to examine a previous project that didn’t turn out too well—itmight have been delayed or gone over budget. Assess whether you had soundplanning processes. Could you have done a better job defining the work and draw-ing up a more realistic schedule and budget?

Implement new processes one at a timeInitially, focus on the planning aspects of project management. Perhaps come upwith a standard on defining project goals, identifying stakeholders, prioritizingrequirements, generating work breakdown, assigning work, developing a projectschedule, and documenting a risk management plan.

Involve the teamAllow the team to provide feedback on the processes that will be implemented.Ask if they’re relevant. If not, how can they be improved? Is there anything missing?What kind of support is necessary to ensure that these processes are adopted?

Remember, people can change as long as they perceive it as worthwhile. They are morelikely to make changes that will bring about benefits at a personal level than at theorganizational level.

To get you started in developing your project management process, go to http://www.spforpm.com for a step-by-step guide, complete with supporting templates, docu-ments, and references.

Project Kickoff | 3

What Is a PMIS?As defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI; see http://www.pmi.org), aProject Management Information System (PMIS) is a standardized set of automatedproject management tools available within an organization and integrated into a sys-tem. Although the PMI does not specify which tools or technologies to use as a PMIS,SharePoint can be customized as one.

Checklist: Essential PMIS CapabilitiesA reliable PMIS should support most, if not all, of the communication and collaborationneeds of a project environment. Here is a list of essential PMIS capabilities:

• Supports the generation of a project charter, schedule, and budget

• Facilitates communication and feedback

• Monitors project activities

• Controls project changes

• Analyzes and forecasts project performance

• Disseminates project status to relevant stakeholders

• Provides real-time information essential for initiating, planning, executing, con-trolling, and closing a project

Deciding to Use a PMISNo matter how small or large a project is, being able to efficiently manage projectinformation whenever, wherever, and however can greatly contribute to project suc-cess. A key requirement for making this possible is leveraging a PMIS.

Here are five telltale signs that you need to begin using a PMIS:

No standardized system for integrating project goalsProject schedule, cost, and quality objectives are individual silos. For example,financial information in Excel is not automatically recalculated anytime the projectschedule is adjusted using scheduling tools such as Microsoft Project. Makingmanual updates takes time away from other project activities.

Inefficient document managementProject documents are not stored in a central location. Tracking, undoing changes,and the ability to roll back to prior versions are limited. Additionally, varying levelsof access permissions are unavailable. IT/IS can only do so much in supportinginformation access requirements.

Lack of appropriate tools to facilitate team collaborationProject information is not accessible anytime, anywhere. In addition, the team isincapable of developing or working with information at the same time.


Inability to report accurate and timely status of the projectProject status information is available only when the project manager makes itavailable. How do you deal with project sponsors who want to view real-timeproject status data?

Not achieving organizational strategic goalsLacking a standardized tool to facilitate consistent project management processesthroughout an organization can limit the ability to effectively support strategicgoals.

As a project manager, these five issues can more than justify the need for any organi-zation to invest in a reliable, effective, customizable, and easy-to-implement PMIS.

Today, multiple PMIS solutions are available. However, in addition to being costly,they can require specialized skills to implement, customize, and maintain. That’s whya lot of these initiatives have achieved only limited adoption. This is how SharePointsets itself apart.

What Is SharePoint?How do people describe SharePoint? In my experience, the definition always gets lostsomewhere between collaboration and document management. Here’s a concise andstraightforward description of SharePoint:

SharePoint allows individuals in an organization to easily create and manage their owncollaborative solutions.

It sounds simple, but let me dissect what it truly means:

IndividualsDoes this word specify that SharePoint users have to be technically savvy? No. Infact, as long as users have familiarity with Windows, Microsoft Office, and surfingthe Web, they will be in good shape.

OrganizationThis term implies that SharePoint can be used by a limited number of people be-longing to the same group. It also means that there will be varying levels of authorityand privileges within the group. As a result, you don’t have to rely on the IT/ ISdepartment to set up permissions in SharePoint—you are empowered to defineand manage access to specific information. You will learn more about permissionsin Chapter 4.

EasilyInstead of contacting IT/IS, any individual can create, customize, and manage thiscollaborative tool. Although IT/IS will not be totally out of the picture, SharePointempowers users to develop a customized automated solution that can appropri-ately support their needs in a timely manner.

What Is SharePoint? | 5

CollaborativeThe intent of SharePoint is to support collaborative activities (formal or informal)in which groups engage.

SharePoint has been around since 2001. It has evolved from a simple website manage-ment tool to an empowering collaboration platform that integrates seamlessly with theWeb, Microsoft Windows, and Microsoft Office. Since it is a foundational Microsofttechnology, various organizations—including government institutions, airlines, banks,construction companies, and retail industries—have benefited from its tools and fea-ture sets.

SharePoint does not refer to a specific product or technology. Using the phrase “Mi-crosoft SharePoint” is like using the phrase “Microsoft Office.” It refers to several as-pects of collaborative solutions. The key components are SharePoint Foundation(SF) and SharePoint Server (SS).

To distinguish SF and SS, an analogy that I often use is to compare SharePoint to a car.What’s the main purpose of a car? To take you from point A to point B, agreed? Whichcomponent of a car is required to do this? The engine, of course.

The main purpose of SharePoint is to empower users with document management andteam collaboration tools. SF fulfills this purpose. It is the core “engine” of SharePoint.Without SF, there is no SharePoint. SF (shown in Figure 1-1) is available with Windows2008 Server or later.

Figure 1-1. A SharePoint site using a SF site template

SS provides extended capabilities to SF. Going back to the car analogy, we can equipour vehicles with accessories such as GPS, a DVD system, voice command, etc. How-ever, these extended features are not required to run a car (taking us from point A topoint B). If these accessories are not installed, the car will still work. It’s just that havinga GPS might enable us to reach our destination faster without getting lost. SS extended


features include Enterprise Search, Personalization, Enterprise Content Management,etc. Unlike SF, SS (shown in Figure 1-2) has separate licensing. Licensing can vary andbecome quite costly. For more information about licensing, visit Microsoft’s SharePointwebsite at http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint.

Figure 1-2. A SharePoint site using SS features

Since SharePoint can be considered a platform for improving document managementand collaboration, it can be adopted as a tool to assist most project environments.

In this book, I will show you how to build a SharePoint PMIS primarily using SF. Thismeans that the techniques you will learn can be applied regardless of whether you haveSF or SS in your organization.

Dux Quax: Is SharePoint the Only Game in Town?Don’t get me wrong here. There are a lot of other great products that can be used as a PMIS. There are full-featured enterprise-level products, such as Microsoft ProjectServer, Clarity, and Primavera; and even open source, web-based products, such asGoogle Apps and Basecamp.

The challenge with rolling out complex enterprise PMIS toolsets is that it assumes yourorganization already has a certain level of project management maturity. By “maturity”I mean that you have a Project Management Office (PMO) in place; project processesare being applied, embraced, and continuously improved upon by all project teams;and project artifacts such as plans, reports, templates, and communication mechanismsare well defined and structured. The reason for such a stringent requirement is thatthese tools must be customized to adapt the processes you currently have in place. Alot of clients I have worked with assumed that implementing such comprehensive toolswould make projects run better overnight. Yeah, right. Without sound processes inplace, a complex tool is quite a beast to leverage.

What Is SharePoint? | 7

As depicted in Figure 1-3, project management maturity should have the people, pro-cess, and technology in lockstep.

Figure 1-3. Project management maturity

Other OptionsHow about free, web-based, open source products such as Google Sites, Dux? Well,they can serve as a relatively good PMIS to a certain extent. My issue with these toolsis their lack of integration with existing project management tools that I use. The lastthing I want to do is enter the same set of information 10 times in 10 different places.

So, how is SharePoint different? If you are coming from an environment where youdon’t really have an established project management process and are mostly using Mi-crosoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and maybe Microsoft Project to manage your projects,using SharePoint is taking a baby step ahead. Remember that people are often averseto change. Well, stepping up to SharePoint is not as drastic a change as learning howto use other, more complex PMIS tools.

Also, I really like the integration between SharePoint and the Microsoft Office productsthat I use day in and day out. For example, I can enter project schedule information inmy Outlook calendar and it will show up in SharePoint, and vice versa. Additionally,an Excel spreadsheet can synchronize milestone tracking with SharePoint, so if my teamleads enter milestone completion dates in SharePoint, those dates show up in the Excelspreadsheet sitting on my computer. Isn’t that amazing? See “Using Microsoft Exceland SharePoint” on page 178 in Chapter 8 for more on this.

Our Case Study: SharePoint Dojo, Inc.To better reinforce what you will learn, you will practice key concepts and techniquesby managing a project for SharePoint Dojo, Inc., a fictional company that we will usethroughout this book.

SharePoint Dojo is a premier martial arts training facility with more than 200 studiosin North America. Established in 1976, it has trained 700,000 students and producedmany world-class athletes.


As history has proven, SharePoint Dojo provides first-rate instruction in the art of taekwon do, led by a staff of certified masters who have at least eight years of teachingexperience and who have competed in international events. In 2008, the company wascited as one of the fastest-growing businesses in the United States.

To continue its explosive growth, SharePoint Dojo is expanding internationally, open-ing company-owned martial arts training studios in major cities. Multiple project teamshave been assembled, and each team will be responsible for managing the opening ofeach respective studio.

As the project manager, you will be personally responsible for integrating SharePointDojo into the local culture and community of the city to which you have been assigned.The challenges will be significant. You will be required to select the site and furbish thestudio, comply with local laws and regulations, set up distribution and logistics, de-velop IT infrastructure and regional reporting initiatives, integrate with existing systemsand processes, identify which programs will sell the best in your region, and highlightlocal opportunities. You will have to handle local contractors, employ staff locally, andcarry out local marketing and advertising. The whole time you will have to stay focusedon the SharePoint Dojo brand and the SharePoint Dojo experience—this is more thana series of local initiatives to make some money; it is about global expansion.

As identified by senior management, there are two areas that are crucial to your overallsuccess. The first is having correct project governance in place. It is critical that existingproject management standards and processes be followed. Second, a PMIS must beestablished for each project team, enabling all the teams to share and collaborate ondetailed project information, risks, and lessons learned in real time.

To accomplish all of these goals, SharePoint Dojo has adopted PMI standards forproject governance and implemented a PMIS using Microsoft SharePoint. You will needto set up your own SharePoint PMIS for your project.

Best Practices Checklist• Establish or be familiar with your project management processes.

• Establish a PMIS for your project.

• Centralize project documents.

• Streamline project communication.

• Become familiar with your SharePoint environment.

Summary• Successful projects result from sound project management practices, standards,

and processes.

• You can increase project productivity by decreasing project inefficiencies.

Summary | 9

• SharePoint’s main purpose is to improve how we manage information and facilitatecollaboration. It can be used as a PMIS.

• SharePoint can empower project managers because it is easier to learn, has betterintegration with existing project management tools, and requires less assistancefrom the IT/IS department than many other PMIS solutions.


CHAPTER 2

Setting Up the PMIS

Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember;involve me and I’ll understand.

—Chinese proverb

The first step in taking advantage of SharePoint 2010 in a PMIS is to familiarize yourselfwith the structure of SharePoint 2010 sites. SharePoint 2010 sites are collaborativewebsites that are organized in a hierarchy. They are composed of top-level sites andsubsites, as shown in Figure 2-1.

Figure 2-1. SharePoint site hierarchy

A top-level site is created upon installation of SharePoint 2010 (SharePoint Foundation2010 or SharePoint Server 2010). It will never have a parent or higher-level site, and itmay or may not have child sites or subsites. It is sometimes referred to as a root web-site. By default, additional top-level sites can only be created by the SharePoint 2010administrator—essentially, the IT/IS folks responsible for SharePoint 2010—or anyoneelse given the permission to do so. (SharePoint 2010 permissions are discussed in moredetail in Chapter 4.) Subsites are sites that are created beneath an existing SharePointsite. They will always have a parent site and may or may not have their own subsites.

11

A site collection is an aggregation of a top-level site and its subsites. Site collections areindependent of one another. A top-level site without subsites can also be considered asite collection. So, in short, a top-level site is synonymous with a site collection.

A PMIS can be created as a top-level site or a subsite. Keep in mind that, by definition,projects are temporary—they have a start date and an end date. This means that aSharePoint PMIS is a temporary site, unlike other SharePoint sites created for perma-nent purposes, such as departmental sites, product sites, customer support sites, etc.You have to think about what will happen to the PMIS once the project is completed.SharePoint 2010 does not automatically remove inactive sites.

How Will You Organize Your PMIS?Organizations typically have more than one project utilizing SharePoint as a PMIS. Itis critical that you plan and assess how these project-focused sites will be organizedand structured for your environment.

Involve key decision-makers from IT/IS and your Project Management Office (PMO),if you have one, when choosing one of the three high-level PMIS hierarchy options:

Single-site collectionIncludes a top-level PMO site. All project sites are subsites (Figure 2-2).

Multiple-site collectionsEach PMIS is a top-level site (Figure 2-3).

Multiple-site collections created for a specific department, business unit, product line, etc.The PMIS is created as a group of subsites within these top-level sites (Figure 2-4).

Figure 2-2. Single-site collection

Figure 2-3. Multiple-site collections

12 | Chapter 2: Setting Up the PMIS

Figure 2-4. PMIS created as subsites

Your decision should be based upon the following three organizational criteria:

IT/IS involvement in creating a site that spans the three collectionsIf each PMIS is a top-level site, IT/IS will likely be responsible for creating the siteand defining its site members. However, if each PMIS is a subsite, IT/IS is less likelyto be involved, and either the project manager or someone on the project team willcreate the site.

Technical considerationsSF has search limitations. By default, SF can only search within a single site col-lection. For example, if somebody in senior management is interested in lookingfor a specific document contained within the various project sites, she will have togo to each individual site to run a search if every PMIS is a top-level site. This isnot the case if the entire PMIS is grouped as a single site collection. Note that thislimitation can be resolved if you have SS instead of SF, because SS comes with anEnterprise Search capability.

If IT/IS decides to enable Automated Site Collection Deletion, a feature thatautomatically deletes an inactive site collection, the deletion will only work if eachPMIS is a top-level site, since the feature deletes an entire site collection. If multiplePMISes are grouped in a single site collection, the site collection probably won’tbe automatically deleted because the likelihood of the entire site collection beinginactive is minimal.

Decision-making and reporting structureAs well as deciding whether the PMIS should be structured as individual top-levelsites or grouped as a site collection, it is also important to consider your organi-zational structure. For example, are there scenarios where you would group projectsites based on business units, product lines, portfolios, or regional operating units?

The key to having a successful implementation of SharePoint as a PMIS is to initiallyplan the organization of sites so they can support the growth of SharePoint adop-tion in your organization. Microsoft has many great resources that can assist youin organizing SharePoint sites, including the SharePoint deployment planning guide (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ee263917).

How Will You Organize Your PMIS? | 13

Dux Quax: Permanent Versus Temporary SitesI typically advise my clients that they should have a site collection for permanent sites.These sites would be specific to departments, business units, products, and anythingthat could be used for permanent collaboration. Additionally, a site collection shouldbe created for temporary sites such as a PMIS or a meeting-centric SharePoint siteknown as a meeting workspace (see the section “Using Meeting Workspa-ces” on page 166 in Chapter 7).

What typically happens is that there are more temporary SharePoint sites created thanpermanent ones. Once a temporary site is no longer needed, it is easier to maintain andaudit if it was in a separate site collection.

Using Site TemplatesSharePoint 2010 comes with site templates for convenient site creation. Common sitetemplates are listed in Table 2-1.

Table 2-1. Default site templates

Site template name Description

Team Site A site used for collaboration

Blank Site A blank site with no predefined features

Document Workspace A site that allows collaboration on one or more specific documents

Wiki Site A site that can be quickly edited to record information and then linked through keywords

Blog A site for a person or team to post ideas, observations, and expertise that also allows site visitors toleave comments

The template determines the default site functionality, layout, menus, etc. (see Fig-ure 2-5). You can also create custom site templates (see “Overview of Creating a PMISTemplate” on page 192 in Chapter 9). Typically, organizations would have customtemplates created and made available.

Creating a SharePoint 2010 SiteAfter selecting your PMIS structure, you are ready to create the PMIS. In my experience,most PMISes built in SharePoint will be subsites, so this will be the approach used forour case study. To create a subsite, you must have the appropriate permissions in yourSharePoint 2010 environment. Specifically, you must have at least the Contribute per-mission. Check with your IT/IS department to clarify and confirm. See “CustomizingPermissions” on page 70 in Chapter 4 for more information.


These are the basic steps in creating a SharePoint 2010 subsite from an existing Share-Point 2010 site:

1. Click Site Actions→New Site.

2. Select the desired template.

3. Enter the appropriate information for the Title and “URL name”. You need onlyput the name of the subsite in the URL form, rather than rewriting the entire URL.

4. Click Create.

5. On the “Set Up Groups for this Site” page, define your site members and theirpermissions, and then click OK.

Dux Quax: When Do I Start Building a PMIS?Ideally, you should start building your PMIS as soon as you get the project assignment,or ASAP. Prior to getting involved with the initial phase of project planning, make surethat all of the necessary components and tools that you need in the PMIS are alreadyin place to support project activities from the beginning until the end.

Workshop 2.1: Establishing the SharePoint 2010 PMISFoundationIn this workshop, you will create a SharePoint 2010 PMIS for the case study project.You are tasked with building a PMIS for managing the opening of a SharePoint Dojoin the city of Cebu, in the Philippines. Feel free to use any city you want as you followalong.

Figure 2-5. SharePoint 2010 site using the Team Site template

Workshop 2.1: Establishing the SharePoint 2010 PMIS Foundation | 15

For fields and settings that aren’t mentioned in the workshop steps, accept the defaultsettings.

Part 1: Creating the PMISFollow these steps to set up your PMIS:

1. Using Internet Explorer, access any existing SharePoint 2010 site of which you area member. Make sure that you have the permission to create a subsite.

2. Click Site Actions→New Site.

3. Click the Browse All tab.

4. In the “Select a Template” section, select Blank Site.

5. Click More Options. A page similar to the one shown in Figure 2-6 will bedisplayed.

Figure 2-6. Update site information

6. Enter the Title, Description, and “URL name”.

7. In the User Permissions section, select the “Use unique permissions” option.

8. In the “Use the top link bar from the parent site?” section, select No.

9. Click Create.

10. The “Set Up Groups for this Site” page will be displayed. Click OK. Once the sitehas been created, the home page will be displayed.

For now, we will bypass the process of adding site members, but we will address it indetail in the section “Adding Site Members” on page 66 in Chapter 4.


Part 2: Customizing the Site ThemeOnce your site has been created, you can update your basic site settings using the SiteSettings page. You can access this page by clicking Site Actions→Settings on your homepage. The Site Actions menu is only visible to users who have site administration per-missions (primarily the site owners). We will discuss site customizations in detail afterthis workshop. For now, let’s look at some of the basic customizations that you canapply:

1. On your newly created site, click Site Actions→Site Settings. The Site Settings pagewill be displayed.

2. In the “Look and Feel” section, click Site Theme. The Site Theme page will bedisplayed (see Figure 2-7).

Figure 2-7. The Site Theme page

3. Select a site theme and click Apply. The color palette may change depending onwhich theme you choose.


4. Click the home tab (in Figure 2-7, the home tab is “Cebu Project PMIS” in theupper-left corner of the page; yours will show the name of your project title) toreturn to your home page with the new theme applied.

There are several ways to navigate back to your home page: using thehome tab, using breadcrumb navigation, and using the Navigate Upbutton. All three navigation options are located in the upper-left cornerof the page and are visible in Figure 2-8. In Figure 2-8, you see the hometab, entitled “Cebu Project PMIS” in the upper left. You may also nav-igate back to your home page using the breadcrumb, which is the click-able link also entitled “Cebu Project PMIS” above the home tab. Oneadditional way to navigate back to home is to click the Navigate Upbutton (the icon with the up arrow and the folder), which will providea drop-down box enabling you to navigate to the portion of the site youwould like to find.

Part 3: Adding an Announcement ListIn Parts 1 and 2, you created the foundation of a SharePoint 2010 PMIS. You will nowadd basic site components, which are known as SharePoint lists. Lists are used to storeand organize information in SharePoint (for more information, see the section “UsingSharePoint Lists” on page 28 in Chapter 3). In this section, you will add an An-nouncements list that can be used to provide relevant project announcements:

1. On the home page, click Lists, and then click Create (Figure 2-8).

Figure 2-8. The Site Actions menu


2. The Create page will be displayed. In the Lists section, click Announcements.

3. Click More Options.

4. In both the Name and Description fields, enter the text Project Announcements,and in the “Display this list on the Quick Launch?” section, select Yes (see Fig-ure 2-9). Yes is the default selection. See “Customizing the PMIS” on page 22 formore about the Quick Launch.

Figure 2-9. Creating an Announcements list

5. Click Create. You have just created a Project Announcements list. The purpose ofan Announcements list is to store relevant information that you would like to an-nounce or broadcast to site members.

6. To add an announcement to your Project Announcements list, click “Add newannouncement”. Enter the Title, Body, and expiration date (Figure 2-10). Notethat there are a number of features available for formatting the text, similar to whatyou’d find in Microsoft Word.

7. To navigate back to your home page, click the home tab (as in Part 2, Step 4). Foradditional methods of navigating to your home page, see the note on page 18 orrefer to “Customizing the PMIS” on page 22 to learn more about SharePoint 2010navigation.


Figure 2-10. Creating a new announcement

8. After creating the announcement, click Save. You will now see the new announce-ment on the Project Announcements page, but you will not see the announcementon the site’s home page.

Part 4: Displaying Announcements on the Home PageNow that we have a Project Announcements list in our PMIS, we would like to displaythe most recent announcements on the home page. This is done by adding the ProjectAnnouncements list web part to the home page. Web parts are small programs orwidgets that are primarily used to display snippets of information from existing lists(see the section “Using Web Parts for Interactive Reporting” on page 145 in Chap-ter 7). Every time a SharePoint list is created, a corresponding web part is created aswell. For now, you will embed the Project Announcements list web part onto the homepage to display the latest and greatest project announcements. In a PMIS, web partscan also be used to create project dashboards and provide high-level reportingcapabilities:


1. On the home page, click Site Actions→Edit Page. Your site will now be in Editmode. Edit mode allows you to add, remove, and update web parts and theirsettings.

2. In the Main section, click “Add a Web Part”. All available web parts will be dis-played (Figure 2-11).

Figure 2-11. Adding web parts

3. Select “Lists and Libraries” from the menu on the left.

4. Select Project Announcements and click Add. The announcement you created ear-lier will be displayed (see Figure 2-12).

5. Click Stop Editing, which is located at the top left of the screen below Site Actions.The announcement you created earlier will now be displayed on the home page.

6. To return to your home page, use the home tab, the Navigate Up button, or nav-igate by breadcrumb. See “Customizing the PMIS” on page 22 for a refresher onnavigation.

Congratulations! You have successfully created a SharePoint 2010 PMIS. How did youfind the process of creating a SharePoint 2010 site? Quite easy, isn’t it? Did you knowthat if a similar site was created from scratch (using manual coding), it would take atleast two weeks to build?


Workshop 2.1 DebriefingIn Part 1 of the workshop, you selected a blank template in order to build the PMISfrom the ground up. This will allow you to later define each component and feature ofthe site, as well as its access restrictions and other custom functionalities, helping youto fully experience and work with various aspects of SharePoint 2010. Instead of al-lowing existing users from the parent site to access the site, you selected the “Use uniquepermissions” option under user inheritance. As a result, you are responsible for definingwho can access your PMIS.

In Part 2, you updated the basic look of the site with a predefined theme. To add acustom theme (to conform to your organization’s branding scheme, for example), youmust have the IT/IS department create the theme and make it available as a selection.

In Part 3, you added the built-in Announcements list and called it Project Announce-ments. You will use this list later to store and display project announcements. In thesection “Creating SharePoint Lists” on page 34 in Chapter 3, you will learn how tocreate additional lists for your PMIS.

Finally, in Part 4, you used Edit mode to add the Project Announcements list web partto your home page so that visitors to your PMIS can see the latest project announce-ments. You will learn more about web parts in the section “Using Web Parts for Inter-active Reporting” on page 145 in Chapter 7.

Customizing the PMISOnce you have created your SharePoint 2010 site, the next step is to customize thePMIS. Customization can be done in four key areas:

Figure 2-12. Project Announcements web part in Edit mode


BrandingIt is important to determine whether you have to apply corporate branding stand-ards to your PMIS. You will have to check with IT/IS to see if there are any customsite templates or themes that have your corporate colors and logo. These customtemplates or themes must be developed by somebody who is familiar with toolssuch as SharePoint Designer or, in some cases, Visual Studio .NET.

In a project environment, a consistent look and feel throughout various projectswill minimize your stakeholders’ learning curve as they start using the PMIS.Wouldn’t it be frustrating to have a PMIS that looks different every time you begina new project within your organization?

UsabilityTwo things come to mind when we look at site usability:

• Site navigation: In SharePoint 2010, three mechanisms are used for site naviga-tion: breadcrumb navigation, the top link bar, and the Quick Launch (see Fig-ure 2-13).

Figure 2-13. Site navigation options

Breadcrumb navigation is used to navigate between top-level sites and subsites.Typically, when you initially create a site, SharePoint 2010 enables the top linkbar and Quick Launch, and it is up to you to customize and update them. Bydefault, the top link bar and Quick Launch are prepopulated with links to com-mon site sections. Essentially, you can define which links appear both in the toplink bar and the Quick Launch, and you can customize them on the Site Settingspage. In a project environment, it is essential to have the most commonly ac-cessed site sections—such as project documents, the calendar, and the risklog—available in your site navigation.

• Site access from a mobile device: Will anyone on the project team need access tothe PMIS using a portable mobile device, such as a BlackBerry, iPhone, or iPad?Obviously, there are screen limitations with a portable device compared to aPC. You can take advantage of SharePoint’s built-in mobile browsing capability

Customizing the PMIS | 23

by accessing the mobile version of the PMIS. The mobile version is optimizedfor mobile devices. It limits unnecessary visuals and, more importantly, it stillkeeps most of the PMIS functionalities, such as logging in, posting, and updatinginformation, as well as deleting entries from existing sets of project information.The mobile version is available by default. All you have to do is enter /m at theend of the PMIS address (for example, http://sp.sharepointdojo.com/cebu/m),and you’re good to go.

Additionally, there are apps available for various mobile devices that providemore features and functionalities to better interact with your SharePoint-basedPMIS (for example, http://www.shareplusapp.com/).

ComplianceAre there any standards or regulatory compliance issues you have to address foryour PMIS? For example, if you have to subscribe to Section 508, SOX, PRINCE2,CMMI, ISO, or PMI standards, how long do you have to archive project informa-tion? What are the stipulations on information access or privacy? You should setthis up as early as possible.

Project-specific needsDo you have a global project team? If so, on which regional setting will your PMISbe based? Will project information be displayed in multiple languages? Is there aneed to monitor and audit PMIS usage and traffic? All of this can be configured onthe Site Settings page of your PMIS, which we’ll cover next.

Dux Quax: How Can I Get There?I always hear complaints that SharePoint is bad. However, if I can rephrase that state-ment, it should be, “The implementation of SharePoint is bad.” You see, nothing iswrong with SharePoint. In fact, I think SharePoint is brilliant for its purpose. It is notfair to compare SharePoint with existing tools and products out there, because most ofthe time you are comparing apples and oranges.

The typical problem people run into is that when SharePoint is being implemented, IT/IS fails to engage the needs of the greater population. Who are the users? What kind oftechnical backgrounds do they have? How can they leverage SharePoint?

A key area that causes frustration for end users is navigation. Users get confused aboutwhat to click; consequently, they fail to get to the information that they are looking for.I live and breathe by the mantra, “Less is more.” Do not overwhelm your users withvarious navigational options. Keep it simple. Personally, I do not recommend using thetop link bar because it can contain only a limited number of links. For a PMIS, I suggestkeeping the Quick Launch as the navigational tool. For great insights in usability andnavigation, check out http://www.useit.com/.


Workshop 2.2: Updating Your Site’s Regional SettingsIn this workshop, you will update the regional settings, such as time zone, calendar,and time format, for the SharePoint 2010 PMIS you created in Workshop 2.1.


1. Click Site Actions→Site Settings.

2. In the Site Administration column, click Regional Settings.

3. A page similar to the one shown in Figure 2-14 will be displayed. Update the desiredfields, and then click OK.

Figure 2-14. The Regional Settings page

Congratulations! You have updated the Regional Settings for your SharePoint 2010PMIS.

Workshop 2.2 DebriefingCustomizing the navigational mechanism of a PMIS is critical but often overlooked.Remember, most of your PMIS’ users will not be reading a book like this, so you haveto make it easy for them to get to the information they need without spending too muchtime trying to figure out which link to click.

Workshop 2.2 Debriefing | 25

Best Practices Checklist• Decide how to structure SharePoint 2010 sites.

• Make all sites top-level sites or a single site collection with multiple subsites.

• Group sites by department, project, or customer product.

• Perform necessary customizations early on.

Summary• SharePoint 2010 sites are organized in a hierarchy. A site collection is composed

of top-level sites that may or may not include subsites.

• When creating a PMIS, it is important to know which corporate standards have tobe applied for branding, usability, compliance, and any other project-specificrequirements.

• Be sure to customize the navigational elements of the PMIS effectively to allowstakeholders to easily access project information.


CHAPTER 3

Adding PMIS Components

Virtually every company will be going out and empow-ering their workers with a certain set of tools, and thebig difference in how much value is received from that

will be how much the company steps back and reallythinks through their business processes.

—Bill Gates, philanthropist

Now that our SharePoint site has been created and customized, the next step is to decidewhich features are necessary for our PMIS. At a basic level, PMIS components shouldallow the project team to:

Centralize project informationProject information includes project contacts, calendars, documents, templates,forms, and checklists. In addition to storing project information, the PMIS shouldmaintain a history and define who has access to the information.

Facilitate project communication and collaborationCollaborative project activities include scheduling meetings, jointly developingproposals, and informally brainstorming project strategies. The PMIS should sup-port all activities of this type.

Automate project processesAutomating project processes, such as change control, should be available in thePMIS. The PMIS can automate the submission of change request forms by sendingthe form to the appropriate members of the change control board, recording thedecision, and routing to the appropriate stakeholder the necessary actions to betaken.

In this chapter, you will use SharePoint lists and libraries to create essential PMIS com-ponents for the case study; see Table 3-1.

27

Table 3-1. Essential PMIS components

PMIS component Purpose

Project Calendar Stores common project events such as meetings, deadlines, and resource availability

Project Tasks Stores project task information, assignments, and status

Project Risks Stores project risk information, priority, and status

Project Contacts Stores common project contacts

Project Resources Stores project resource information, skill sets, and rates

Project Documents Stores relevant project documents, templates, checklists, and reports

Change request system Stores change request information, decisions, and actions

Project Announcements Stores relevant project announcements

Project Milestones Stores project milestone information with baseline dates and actual dates

With a SharePoint PMIS, critical project information is centrally stored in a securedlocation, where document management features such as version control, check-in/check-out, and content approval can be enabled. It can be accessed from a web browserand from most Microsoft Office applications.

Dux Quax: No More Double EntryOne of the goals of using a PMIS is to minimize or completely eradicate the need toenter project information twice. Don’t you love it when you have to enter project mile-stone dates into some system and then have to do it again in your copy of MicrosoftOutlook? How about when a resource emails you a timesheet and you have to enter itinto some funky timesheet software and then also in your copy of Microsoft Project orExcel?

With SharePoint, you can say bye-bye to many of these redundancies through the useof its two fundamental information storage and management capabilities: lists andlibraries.

Using SharePoint ListsIn SharePoint, information is organized and stored in lists. A list is a collection of sharedinformation in a SharePoint site. Anyone who has access to the site will be able to viewthe lists. However, as you will learn in Chapter 4, you can also limit who can add, edit,and view lists by updating access permissions.

Viewing a list is comparable to viewing information in a spreadsheet—the data is dis-played in a tabular format (see Figure 3-1).

28 | Chapter 3: Adding PMIS Components

Figure 3-1. A SharePoint list

SharePoint comes with ready-made lists, but also allows you to create custom lists. Thefollowing are some standard PMIS lists (these standard lists can be renamed to fit yourneeds; for example, the “Issues” list can be renamed “Project Risks”):

Project Calendar listEvents associated with meetings, schedules, milestones, and other project activities(Figure 3-2). This information can be synchronized with Microsoft Outlook 2007or 2010.

Figure 3-2. Project Calendar list

Using SharePoint Lists | 29

Project Contacts listUsed to store common project contacts (Figure 3-3). This list can be synchronizedwith Microsoft Outlook 2007 or 2010.

Figure 3-3. Project Contacts list

Project Tasks listThis list is a to-do list for the team (Figure 3-4); tasks can be assigned to teammembers. This list can be synchronized with Microsoft Outlook 2007 or 2010.

Figure 3-4. Tasks list


Issues listThis list is useful for tracking project risks or issues (Figure 3-5). Items on the listcan be tracked based on priority and status.

Figure 3-5. Issue tracking list

Project Resources (custom) listThis list is used to store project-specific information with customized columns suchas resource information, budget, earned value, etc. (see Figure 3-6).

Figure 3-6. Project Resources (custom) list


Lists are composed of two key sections, the List ribbon and the Items ribbon, whichare organized in separate ribbons under List Tools. The List Tools, List ribbon (seeFigure 3-7) is used to manage the list.

Figure 3-7. List Tools, List ribbon

Dux Quax: Unleash the Power of Custom ListsTo me, the custom list is one of the features that makes SharePoint flexible and pow-erful. Not only can I replicate existing Excel spreadsheets, Word-based forms, and evenAccess databases and have them available in SharePoint, I can also fully use documentmanagement capabilities, permissions-based access, and browser-based availability.Heck, how can I beat that?

While some project information should not be shared, you should look at existingproject artifacts that require collaboration and consider converting them into customlists.

Common menu items for the List Tools, Items ribbon include:

New ItemCreates and defines new items in the list (Figure 3-8).

Figure 3-8. New Item

Alert MeSends automated alerts to specified project stakeholders based on specific criteria(Figure 3-9).


Figure 3-9. Alerts

List SettingsDefines list settings such as columns, list permissions, and views (Figure 3-10).

Figure 3-10. List Settings

Modify ViewSpecifies how list items will be displayed (Figure 3-11). Every list comes with adefault All Items view, and some lists have special views. For example, a Calendarlist has views for viewing events in a calendar format. You can also create customviews.

Figure 3-11. Modify View

Below the List Tools ribbons you will find the list Items, which are organized in a tabularformat by default (see Figure 3-12). You can perform specific list item actions by se-lecting the desired action from the item’s action drop-down menu.

Figure 3-12. List Items menu


The actions include:

View ItemDisplays details about the item, including when it was last modified.

Edit ItemAllows you to modify the item’s information.

Manage PermissionsAllows you to modify the item’s permissions.

Delete ItemRemoves the item from the list.

Special ActionsIncludes special item-level actions, such as Export Contact for the Contacts list.This action exports the contact information to Microsoft Outlook.

Compliance DetailsDisplays details to determine what retention stage an item is in. You can also takeaction to keep this item in compliance with organizational policy.

Alert MeNotifies you when changes are made to the item.

Creating SharePoint ListsThere are two types of lists: standard, out-of-the-box SharePoint lists, and custom lists.The process of creating these lists is similar, but when creating custom lists, you mustdefine the specific columns. Before you create any type of list, make sure you have theappropriate permissions to do so. By default, if you have the permissions required tocreate a SharePoint site (as you did in Chapter 2), you should have the permissionsrequired to create lists.

Here are the basic steps to create a SharePoint list:

1. From an existing SharePoint site, click Site Actions→More Options.

2. Select List from the “Filter By:” types list in the left sidebar, and then select thetype of list you would like to create (for example, Announcements, Calendar,Contacts, or Custom). If you select Custom, you will need to click the More Op-tions button to configure your custom list.

3. Once created, if necessary, specify custom settings for:

Custom ColumnsIn the List Tools, List ribbon, select Create Column.

Custom ViewsIn the List Tools, List ribbon, select Create View.


4. To update list settings, in the List Tools, List ribbon, select List Settings (see Fig-ure 3-13).

Figure 3-13. A List Settings page

Workshop 3.1: Creating and Populating ListsIn this workshop, you will continue building your PMIS by creating and populating acalendar list, contacts list, risks list, tasks list, and a custom resource list.


Workshop 3.1: Creating and Populating Lists | 35

Part 1: Creating and Populating a Calendar ListUse the following steps to create a calendar list and populate it with information:

1. Access your PMIS and click Site Actions→More Options.

2. In the Tracking category, click Calendar and click More Options.

3. The New page will be displayed. Enter the following information:

Name: Project CalendarDescription: <city> Dojo Project Calendar

4. Click Create.

5. The Project Calendar list will be displayed. Click Calendar Tools→Events→NewEvent.

6. The New Item page will be displayed (see Figure 3-14). In the Recurrence section,enable the option to make this a repeating event.

7. Enter the following information:

Title: Status MeetingLocation: Conference CallStart Time: 8:30 A.M.End Time: 9:00 A.M.Description: Weekly project status meeting

8. In the Recurrence section, select the Weekly option, and enter the followinginformation:

WeeklyRecur 1 week(s) on: Tuesday (de-select the day of the week that is selected bydefault if it is a day other than Tuesday; the default is the same day of the weekthat you are performing the exercise)Start Date: <Today’s date>End after: 20 occurrence(s)

9. Click Save.

10. The calendar will be displayed. Verify that the new status meetings were added tothe calendar (see Figure 3-15).


Figure 3-14. New calendar entry


Figure 3-15. Status meetings in the Project Calendar

Part 2: Creating and Populating a Contacts ListUse the following steps to create a list of contacts and add contact information:

1. Click Site Actions→More Options.

2. In the Communications category, click Contacts and click More Options.

3. The New page will be displayed. Enter the following information:

Name: Project ContactsDescription: A listing of project contacts

4. Click Create.

You have just created a contacts list. You will now populate it:

5. On the List Tools ribbon, click Items→New Item. A page similar to the one shownin Figure 3-16 will be displayed.

6. Enter your own contact information in the available fields.

7. Click Save.

Repeat these steps to make another contact record.


Figure 3-16. New contacts list item


As you can see, Last Name is the only required field. However, it isrecommended that you add all pertinent information to maximize theusefulness of the Project Contacts list.

You can view the new contact information on the Project Contacts page (Figure 3-17).

Figure 3-17. Contacts added to the Project Contacts list

Part 3: Creating a Risks ListSharePoint comes with an issue-tracking list, and this is what you will use to create arisks list. I’m calling it a risks list because, as part of the project management processthat I follow, risk assessment is a fundamental component of the project. An importantaspect of this process is documenting any risks that have been identified.

Use the following steps to create a risks list:


2. In the Tracking category, click Issue Tracking and click More Options.

3. A new page will be displayed. Enter the following information:

Name: Project RisksDescription: Identify and track project risksDisplay this list on the Quick Launch? Yes (Yes is the default; see “Customizingthe PMIS” on page 22 for more about the Quick Launch)

4. Click Create. The new Project Risks list will be displayed.


Part 4: Creating a Project Tasks ListUse the following steps to create a Project Tasks list:


2. In the Tracking category, click Project Tasks and click More Options.


Name: Project TasksDescription: Identify and track project tasksDisplay this list on the Quick Launch? Yes

To have the tasks list send automated email messages, make sureyour IT/IS department has enabled this capability on the Share-Point server. The default is to not send emails.

4. Click Create. The Project Tasks page will be displayed (Figure 3-18).

Figure 3-18. Project Tasks list

Part 5: Creating and Populating a Custom Resource ListUse the following steps to create and add information to a custom resource list:


2. In the Blank & Custom category, click Custom List and click More Options.


Name: Project ResourcesDescription: List of project resourcesDisplay this list on the Quick Launch? Yes


4. Click Create. The Project Resources page will be displayed.

Use the following steps to configure the columns for the Project Resources list:

5. On the Project Resources page, access the List Tools, List on the ribbon, then clickthe List Settings button near the right side of the ribbon.

6. Under Columns, click Title (Figure 3-19).

Figure 3-19. The settings page for the Project Resources list

7. A page similar to the one shown in Figure 3-20 will be displayed once you’ve clickedTitle. Enter the following information:

Column name: Resource nameType: Single line of text (this is the default, and you may not change it)Require that this column contains information: Yes

8. Click OK.

9. Click Create Column.

10. A page similar to the one shown in Figure 3-20 will be displayed once you’ve clickedCreate Column.

Column name: Cost (per hour)Type: CurrencyRequire that this column contains information: Yes (this is not the default here)

The number of choices here can be dizzying, but trust me; I’llexplain how the selections work as they come up.

11. Click OK.

12. Using these steps, create a column with the following values (shown in Fig-ure 3-21):

Column name: NotesType: Multiple lines of textRequire that this column contains information: No


13. Click OK.

Figure 3-20. Create Column page

Figure 3-21. Creating the Notes column


14. Using similar steps to the above, create another column with the following values(shown in Figure 3-22):

Column name: RoleType: ChoiceRequire that this column contains information: YesIn the Type each choice on a separate line section, enter Analyst, Electri-cian, Engineer, IT, and Plumber on separate lines.

15. Click OK.

Figure 3-22. Creating the Role column

16. Once the custom columns have been created, return to the Project Resources listby clicking the Project Resources link in the breadcrumb navigation. You may alsonavigate to the Project Resources list by clicking on it in the Quick Launch to theleft of the page.

You have just defined columns for the newly created custom list Project Resources. Youwill now populate the custom list:


1. On the Project Resources page, click New Item in List Tools, Item ribbon. Youmay also click the “Add new item link” with the green plus sign beside it.

2. The Project Resources: New Item page will be displayed (Figure 3-23). Enter thefollowing information:

Resource Name: Elaine BenesCost (per hour): 125Notes: Great resourceRole: Analyst

Figure 3-23. Adding a new resource

3. Click Save. This will populate your Project Resources list, shown in Figure 3-24.

Use these steps to add the three additional resources you created in Step 14 of theprevious section.

Figure 3-24. Populated Project Resources list


Part 6: Displaying the New Lists on the Home PageCurrently, only the Project Announcements web part is displayed on the home page.We will now display the new lists you have made using the corresponding list web parts.

1. Access your home page and click Site Actions→Edit Page. This will launch Editmode (Figure 3-25).

Figure 3-25. Edit mode

2. In the Left section, click “Add a Web Part”.

3. Under Categories, select “Lists and Libraries” if it’s not already selected. Next,select Project Calendar and click Add (Figure 3-26).

Figure 3-26. Adding web parts

4. Click “Add a Web Part” (located above the calendar web part you just created).


5. Under Categories, select “Lists and Libraries”, if it’s not already selected. SelectProject Risks and click Add.

6. You may reposition the web parts you have created by clicking and dragging eachpart to the desired location on the page (Figure 3-27). A red line will denote wherethe selected web part will be positioned on the page.

Figure 3-27. Repositioning web parts

7. Click Stop Editing. The home page will be displayed, and it will include the ProjectCalendar and Project Risks (Figure 3-28).


Figure 3-28. Home page displaying new lists

Congratulations! You have successfully created and populated predefined lists and acustom list.

Workshop 3.1 DebriefingIn the earlier sections of the workshop, you created multiple lists to store commonproject information. How did you find the process? Straightforward, isn’t it? WithoutSharePoint, could you have created this as easily? Again, this is one of those things thatwe can build without the IT/IS department’s help.

In Part 5 of the workshop, you created a custom list displaying resource information.You then defined the columns and the types of information in the list. These customcolumns are quite flexible; apart from regular text, numbers, currencies, and dates, youcan also create columns that can do mathematical calculations. In a project scenario,


you could create, for example, a custom list with a column that automatically calculatesthe variance between the baseline duration and actual duration.

In Part 6 of the workshop, you added the Project Calendar and Project Risks web partsto display the most recent updates of these lists on the home page.

Using LibrariesProject artifacts typically consist of electronic files with varying formats such as Word,Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF. In SharePoint, these files can be centrally stored in a library.At the very basic level, storing files in a library is comparable to storing files in a Win-dows folder, but that’s where the comparison ends. You see, SharePoint libraries pro-vide better document management capabilities than tools we currently rely on.

Just like a SharePoint list that is used to store and organize information, a library is aninformation repository used to store and manage documents. Basic features and func-tionalities in a list are also available to document libraries. Apart from document stor-age, a library also has the capability to control access to the documents, track versionhistories, maintain document integrity with check-ins/check-outs, and enable contentapproval every time a document is submitted.

A SharePoint PMIS uses a number of common libraries, such as:

Document libraryDocument libraries are used to centrally store common project-related files suchas project charters, requirements documents, budget spreadsheets, status meetingreports, and travel reimbursement forms. By default, most site templates come witha predefined document library called Shared Documents. A document library isshown in Figure 3-29.

Figure 3-29. A document library

Using Libraries | 49

Picture libraryThis type of library is used to store and manage digital images. Picture librarieshave special features to view, edit, and maintain graphical content. In a projectenvironment, this is rarely used unless you have project-related digital images thatyou need to store and maintain. Figure 3-30 shows a picture library.

Built-in editing capabilities will only work if Microsoft PictureManager is installed. Unfortunately, you cannot integrate the pic-ture library with Photoshop.

Figure 3-30. A picture library

Form libraryForm libraries are used to store eXtensible Markup Language (XML)-based formscreated in Microsoft InfoPath. This type of library is used in a PMIS only if infor-mation has to be stored in an XML format or if the form requires a predefinedlayout. A benefit of using XML-based forms in SharePoint is that the informationcan be easily retrieved and manipulated by other tools, even if they are not basedon Microsoft technologies. A form library is shown in Figure 3-31.

Wiki page libraryThis type of library (shown in Figure 3-32) is used to store wiki pages. A wikipage is a web page that allows PMIS members to easily add, remove, and otherwiseedit and change available content (see Figure 3-33). The ease of interaction andoperation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring. In aPMIS, wiki pages can be used among stakeholders to share lessons learned. An-other potential use of a wiki in a project environment is for offline brainstormingwhen defining the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). To learn more about projectplanning and WBS, visit http://bit.ly/m9ZJZO.


Figure 3-32. A wiki page library

Figure 3-33. A wiki page

Figure 3-31. A form library

Using Libraries | 51

Dux Quax: Do I Really Need to Use InfoPath to Create Forms?Microsoft InfoPath allows for the easy creation and use of forms. It enhances the ca-pability of an organization to collect, manage, and share information because it reducesrepetitive data entry. With InfoPath, the method of data entry can be different from themethod of storage. Form information can be stored in flat files, databases, and evenSharePoint. InfoPath is typically used for both creating and filling out forms.

There is an unspoken assumption that anytime a form has to be used alongside Share-Point, there’s no other way to create that form except by using InfoPath. In myexperience with clients, I have found that you don’t actually have to use InfoPath. Forexample, when project teams start using SharePoint as a PMIS, a typical task is to makea Word-based form (such as a travel request form) browser-accessible using SharePoint.Many people would use InfoPath to do this. There is nothing wrong with doing it thisway except that it will only be accessible in SharePoint if:

• Your SharePoint server is running SF, and the individual filling out the form hasInfoPath installed on his computer. What if somebody wants to fill out the formfrom a mobile device that doesn’t have InfoPath installed?

• Your SharePoint server is running SS, and Forms Services are enabled.

If the two points I have raised are not an issue, go ahead with InfoPath. If these twopoints are an issue for you, the straightforward alternative is to create a custom listinstead (such as the one shown in Figure 3-34).

What’s to stop you from replicating the columns in your Word-based form as a listcolumn? Obviously, there are layout limitations when you use a custom list versusInfoPath. However, custom lists are much less complicated and more easily accessibleto everybody using your PMIS. For more information and examples of publishingInfoPath forms to SharePoint, visit http://www.spforpm.com.

Creating a Document Library (a How-To)Document libraries are widely used in a PMIS. Here are the basic steps for creating adocument library:

1. From an existing SharePoint site, click Site Actions→More Options.

2. In the Library category, click Document Library and More Options (Figure 3-35).


Figure 3-34. A Travel Request form

Figure 3-35. Creating a document library

Creating a Document Library (a How-To) | 53

3. Enter the appropriate information:

Name: Document Library <your_project_name>Description: Document Library <your_document_library_description>Navigation: Display link from Quick LaunchDocument Version History: Create a version each time you edit a file in thisdocument library: YesDocument Template: Document <type of new documents> (the default isMicrosoft Word document, but your document template may be an Excel file,a PowerPoint presentation, or other)

4. Click Create.

5. If desired, specify custom columns by clicking the Create Column button on the Library Tools, Library ribbon.

6. If desired, specify custom views by clicking the Create View button on the LibraryTools, Library ribbon.

7. To update list settings, click the Library Settings button to the right of the LibraryTools, Library ribbon, and the Document Library Settings page will be displayed(Figure 3-36).

Figure 3-36. The document library settings are displayed on the Document Library Settings page


Populating a Document LibraryThere are many ways of storing files in a document library. The most common way isby uploading the file(s) directly from an existing document library. This is done byclicking “Add document” on the document library page (see Figure 3-37).

Figure 3-37. Uploading a document

Another method is to simply use Windows Explorer to add a document library as anetwork location in Windows. The benefit of using this method is that it provides youwith the ability to copy files to a document library as if it is any other shared networklocation. When using this method, however, SharePoint’s document managementfeatures (such as version history, check-in/check-out, and content approval) are notavailable.

Finally, you can use any Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 product to save a file directlyto a document library by specifying the location of the document library.

Workshop 3.2: Creating and Populating a Document LibraryIn this workshop, you will create and populate a document library for the case studyproject. Your project team has a lot of shared files that are currently stored in a localfolder. You will now put these files in a document library to centralize storage.


Part 1: Creating a Document LibraryUse the following steps to create a document library:

1. On your PMIS home page, click Site Actions→More Options.

2. In the Library category, click Document Library and More Options (see Fig-ure 3-38).

Workshop 3 2: Creating and Populating a Document Library | 55

3. A page similar to the one shown in Figure 3-39 will be displayed. Enter the followinginformation:

Name: Project DocumentsDescription: Our project's shared documentsDisplay this document library on the Quick Launch?: YesCreate a version each time you edit a file in this document library?: YesDocument Template: Microsoft Office Word document

Figure 3-39. Creating a document library

Figure 3-38. Accessing the Document Library


4. Click Create. The new document library will be displayed (see Figure 3-40).

Figure 3-40. Document library

Part 2: Populating a Document LibraryUse the following steps to populate the library with documents and edit documentproperties:

1. Open a new Internet Explorer window and go to http://www.spforpm.com/dl/spdojofiles.zip or http://oreilly.com/catalog/0636920020387 to download the projectfiles.

2. After downloading, extract the file to your computer’s My Documents folder.

3. Return to the document library that you just created in your PMIS.

4. Click “Add document”.

5. Click Browse (Figure 3-41).

6. In the Choose File dialog box, make sure you are looking in My Documents, thendouble-click the folder Project Files.

7. Select the Word document Expense Reporting Procedure, and click OK.

8. The document you have just added will be either checked out and editable, or itwill be checked in. You can tell your document’s status by hovering over its linkuntil a drop-down arrow appears. Click the arrow and look at the choicesthat appear in the drop-down menu. If your document is checked out, Check Inappears as an option. If your document is checked in, you may select Check Outas an option. If your document is checked out, click Check In (see Figure 3-42).


Figure 3-42. Checking in a newly uploaded document

Check-in is a document management feature in SharePoint that maintains documentintegrity. This is discussed in the section“Enabling Document Management Solu-tions” on page 82 in Chapter 5.

Figure 3-41. Uploading a document to the Document Library


You have just uploaded a Word document to a document library. To update the docu-ment properties:

1. Place the mouse over the Word document Expense Reporting Procedure.

2. Access the drop-down menu and click Edit Properties (see Figure 3-43).

3. If the dialog box shown in Figure 3-44 appears, click OK.

Figure 3-43. Edit a document’s properties

Figure 3-44. Check-out dialog box

4. A page similar to the one shown in Figure 3-45 will be displayed. Update the fol-lowing properties:

Name: <city> Expense Reporting ProcedureTitle: <city> Project Expense Reporting Procedure

5. Click Save. You have just updated the document’s Name and Title.

6. To upload the Excel file My Documents\Project Files\Expense Report.xls to thedocument library, repeat the process.

7. Update the filename and title of the newly uploaded Excel file to reflect your projectteam name.

8. Return to your PMIS home page.

Congratulations! You have successfully created and utilized a document library.


Figure 3-45. Updating the document properties

Workshop 3.2 DebriefingIn Part 1 of the workshop, you defined and created a document library for the casestudy PMIS. The process is similar to creating other types of libraries, such as picturelibraries, form libraries, or even wiki page libraries.

In Part 2, you uploaded existing Project Documents to the Document Library.Typically, common project files used by the team are stored in a document library. InChapter 4, we will discuss how we can limit people’s access to specific projectdocuments.

Organizing Project InformationNow that you have learned how project information is stored in a SharePoint PMIS, itis important to consider how you would organize or structure the project information.The principles for structuring project information are derived from organizationalstandards, information purpose, and flow.

Our case study is organized simply. Would it apply to your project environment? Orwould you structure information based on:

• Project phases: requirements, design, planning, execution, closing

• Information purpose: forms, policies, invoices, budget

A well-organized PMIS will allow for structured content, leading to improved infor-mation access, and will also allow for a great deal of flexibility as the project progresses.More importantly, the project team will be less likely to be confused.


Dux Quax: Start with What You HaveIf you want it done right, coming up with information taxonomy is one of the mostchallenging activities in creating a PMIS. To get you started on the right track, thinkabout how you currently organize project information on your computer or the networkshare. Ask colleagues how they organize their project information. If you have a PMO,see how they do it.

Once you have decided how project information will be structured in your PMIS, teachyour project team about why it is structured that way and which types of project in-formation should go where.

Best Practices Checklist• Create a standard set of lists that would apply to your sites, such as:

— Project Contacts

— Project Calendar

— Project Tasks

• Consider developing a standard document library structure for your PMIS, such as:

— Procedure and policies

— Project templates and forms

Summary• SharePoint lists are used to store information. Several predefined lists are available

out of the box.

• Document libraries are used to store and manage documents.

• It is important to define the information structure of the PMIS before creating thenecessary lists and libraries.

Summary | 61

CHAPTER 4

Adding Stakeholders to the PMIS

Poor communication is probably the single mostsignificant contributor to project failure.

—Lois Zells, Managing Software Projects(Wiley, 1990)

Good two-way communication between all project stakeholders is key to project suc-cess. Solid project communication forestalls surprises, prevents duplication of efforts,and helps the project manager and the team reveal omissions and misallocation ofresources early enough to permit corrections.

The question is, as a project manager, how can you ensure that only relevant projectinformation goes out to the appropriate stakeholders?

If members of the executive management team on your project don’t care about detailedproject information, but they are interested in having updates about milestone-levelproject status, high-level budget information, and overall project health, how do youensure they receive that information in a timely fashion? On the other end of the spec-trum, the project team is more likely to be interested in the project details specific towhat they are working on, as well as what affects them. Again, how do you ensure theyreceive timely and relevant project information?

63

Project Communications PlanCreating the project communications plan is an important step in sound project plan-ning. This plan facilitates effective and efficient communications with all project stake-holders, describing how project communications will occur while project work is beingdone. A good communications plan generally includes the following elements:

• Communication objectives

• Targeted project stakeholders

• Key communications format and content

• Communication methods and frequency

Checklist: Considerations for Project Communications Plan• How many people are involved with the project? Where are they located?

• Are all internal and external communications needs defined for the project?

• Is all pertinent stakeholder information available?

• Have we defined project roles and responsibilities?

• What communications technologies will be used?

• What is the availability of technology on this project?

• Is there an electronic project information repository?

• Are all required deliverable formats defined and available?

• Is the communications plan aligned with the project size and complexity?

Why is having a project communications plan necessary? Because part of setting up aPMIS is defining who has access to that PMIS and the level of access that they can have.Table 4-1 summarizes the communication needs of the SharePoint Dojo project.

Table 4-1. SharePoint Dojo project communications requirements

Stakeholder Project information requirements

Chief executive officer Regular email updates on project milestones and risks

Chief financial officer Access to project budget information, and the ability to review and update any change to projectfinances

Chief compliance officer Ability to monitor project process compliance, as well as to review and update project risks

Program manager Ability to review project tasks, milestones, and risks

Other project managers Ability to review and update project information from other teams to share lessons learned andsatisfy continuous improvement process

64 | Chapter 4: Adding Stakeholders to the PMIS

Knowing which pieces of information are required by different stakeholders will helpyou create appropriate levels of information access and appropriate methods of deliv-ery. For example, you wouldn’t expect the CEO to regularly check the PMIS for up-dates; he wants the updates sent via email on a regularly scheduled basis. You canconfigure the PMIS to send the relevant updates automatically. Wouldn’t that be ben-eficial? Instead of manually emailing status data to the CEO, you can focus on moreimportant aspects of your project. To learn how to set up automated alerts, see thesection “Subscribing to Alerts” on page 163 in Chapter 7.

Site Access in SharePointUnlike typical websites, you can’t just go to any SharePoint site, register, create anaccount, and become a site member. It is the responsibility of the site owner to definewho the PMIS site members are and to either provide or deny site access to users whorequest it.

In addition, through site permissions, the site owner specifies the type of access thatsite members have, including which content site members can view and which actionsthey can perform within the site. SharePoint comes with default site permission levels:

Full controlBy default, the site owner has this permission. Any user with full control can add,update, and delete site components, site members, and list content.

DesignThis permission level allows users to customize pages, as well as to add, update,and delete list and library content.

ContributeThis is the most common type of permission granted to project stakeholders. Userswith this permission level can add, update, and delete list and library content.

ReadThis level grants read-only access to the site.

Creating SharePoint GroupsBy default, whenever a site is created in SharePoint, SharePoint groups are automati-cally created. SharePoint groups are a way to easily organize a specific set of users withthe same set of site permissions (see Figure 4-1). These are the three default SharePointgroup types:

Site ownersThis group has full control permissions. The site owner is assigned to this group.

Creating SharePoint Groups | 65

Site membersThis group has contribute permissions. Most of the site members will be assignedto this group.

Site visitorsThis group is intended for site visitors who can only have read-only permissions.

Adding Site MembersBefore you can add project stakeholders as members of your PMIS, you have to befamiliar with how your SharePoint environment is set up. This is a good opportunityto contact your IT/IS department and ask how users are added to SharePoint sites. Ifyou are using a Microsoft environment, users are usually identified in SharePoint bytheir respective Windows accounts.

Figure 4-1. SharePoint groups

Once you know how user accounts are set up in your SharePoint environment, you areready to add site members to your PMIS. Site members can be added to SharePointeither manually (adding them yourself) or by requesting site access (users request thatthey be added as site members to the PMIS).

Adding members manually assumes that the site owner has identified the stakeholderswho will access the site and already knows their associated SharePoint usernames. Ifyou don’t have this information, ask the IT/IS department to assist you in identifyingthe usernames.


These are the basic steps for manually adding site members:

1. Click Site Actions→Site Settings (Figure 4-2).

Figure 4-2. Site Settings page

2. In the “Users and Permissions” column, click “Site permissions”.

3. Click the Grant Permissions button on the Permission Tools ribbon (see Fig-ure 4-3).

Figure 4-3. Grant Permissions

4. The Grant Permissions page will be displayed (Figure 4-4). Complete the followingfields:

Select UsersEnter the Windows username (typically, you will use existing Windows ac-counts to add users in SharePoint).

Grant PermissionsAssign the user to a SharePoint group with a predefined permission set, ordefine permission level directly.

Adding Site Members | 67

Send E-MailSpecify whether a confirmation email will be sent to the user and, if so, enterthe message that will be sent. (Remember, sending email only works if the IT/IS department has enabled this feature on the SharePoint server.)

Figure 4-4. Grant Permissions page

5. Click OK to finish adding the member.

The second method for adding site members is to have the stakeholder access the PMISand request access. Anytime a user tries to access a SharePoint site that he doesn’t havepermission to access, an error page (see Figure 4-5) will be displayed containing a linkto request access (if the access request feature is enabled). If the access request featureis not enabled, the only way for an individual to gain access to a PMIS is by having thesite owner add the site member manually. Access requests from users will be sent viaemail to the site owner, who can grant or deny access.


Figure 4-5. Access Denied page

Enabling the Access Request FeatureUse the following steps to enable the access request feature:

1. Access the Site Settings page.

2. In the “Users and Permissions” column, click “Site permissions”.

3. Click the Manage Access Requests button on the Permission Tools ribbon (seeFigure 4-6).

Figure 4-6. Access requests

4. Enable the “Allow requests for access” feature, and specify the email address of thesite owner (see Figure 4-7).

Enabling the Access Request Feature | 69

Figure 4-7. Manage Access Requests page

Dux Quax: What About External Project Stakeholders?In most situations, your project stakeholders will be comprised of people from withinyour organization. Typically, this means that it should be easy to add them into yourSharePoint site because you are all part of the same Windows environment.

What about people external to your organization, such as contractors or customers? Achallenge with giving them access to the PMIS is that they do not have a Windowsaccount in your environment. In many organizations, having the IT/IS department setup a new Windows account for external stakeholders might not be possible due tosecurity reasons. What should you do?

Claims-Based Authentication is a new feature in SharePoint 2010 that allows non-Windows account users to gain access to SharePoint sites. For this to work, your IT/IS department has to enable this capability on the SharePoint server.

Instructions on how to enable Claims-Based Authentication can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff953202.aspx.

Customizing PermissionsDefining permissions in SharePoint can be done at the site level. Permissions can alsobe customized for a list, a library, a list item, or a specific document. Defining site accessrequires you to consider which site members require what level of access to the con-tents. For example, suppose that a stakeholder already has the contribute permissionfor the entire site, but you want to limit her access to the document library to read-only.You can do this by updating the list permission of the document library. To update thispermission for the library or for a list, you:


1. Access the appropriate document library.

2. In the Library Tools, Library ribbon, click the Library Settings button. This willopen the Document Library Settings page (see Figure 4-8).

Figure 4-8. Document Library Settings page

3. In the “Permissions and Management” section, click “Permissions for this docu-ment library”.

If the document library inherits permission from the parent, you have to stopinheriting permissions to customize permissions. Click on the Stop Inheriting Per-missions button.

4. Enable the checkbox of each SharePoint group or site member that you wish toassign to this document library (Figure 4-9).

Figure 4-9. Document library permissions

5. Click on the Edit User Permissions button on the Permission Tools ribbon.

Customizing Permissions | 71

6. Update the Permission Settings (Figure 4-10).

7. Click OK.

Figure 4-10. Editing document library permissions

You can further refine access restrictions by setting permissions for individual items inthe library:

1. Access the appropriate document library.

2. Hover the mouse over the desired document and click the drop-down menu (Fig-ure 4-11).

3. Click Manage Permissions.

Stop inheriting permissions from the parent by clicking on the Stop InheritingPermissions button on the Permission Tools ribbon.

4. Select the site member(s) or group(s) that will have access to this library item.

Click on the Edit User Permissions button on the Permission Tools ribbon.


5. Select the desired permission level.

Dux Quax: With Great Power Comes Great ResponsibilityBeing able to customize various levels of access permissions in SharePoint is quitepowerful. However, it can be challenging to keep it current and to maintain it if youhave many stakeholders. Be warned: never, ever get overly excited about tweakingpermissions for every single person and for every single scenario.

In SharePoint, there is no central view that shows you who has what kind of permissionon the entire site. For example, let’s say you’ve defined that the CEO has read-onlyaccess to the entire site, contributor access in the Shared Documents document library,and full control access to the Announcements list. If you forget his permissions, theonly way you will find them is to go to the permissions settings page of the site, thedocument library, and the Announcements list individually. Imagine if you had to dothis for every single user of your PMIS.

There are third-party tools that can help you manage user permissions in SharePoint.I have used the User Management Solution Accelerator from Bamboo Solutions (seehttp://www.bamboosolutions.com), and it works quite well. Your IT/IS department willhave to install this tool onto your SharePoint server.

Workshop 4.1: Adding Site MembersIn this workshop, you will add members to your PMIS and customize their accessprivileges. To complete this workshop, you will have to add at least two existing Share-Point users into your PMIS. You might have to coordinate with your IT/IS departmentand confirm whether the users you would like to add are already part of your SharePointenvironment.


Figure 4-11. Document library item-level menu

Workshop 4.1: Adding Site Members | 73

Part 1: Adding Site MembersIn this part, you will add site members and grant permissions directly to them, ratherthan associating them with SharePoint groups. Later, you will change their permissionsat the document library level:

1. Access your SharePoint PMIS. Click Site Actions→Site Settings.

2. In the “Users and Permissions” column, click Site Permissions.

3. In the Permission Tools ribbon, click Grant Permissions. The Grant Permissionspage will be displayed (Figure 4-12).

Figure 4-12. Grant Permissions page


4. Use one of the following methods to add two users from your organization as sitemembers of your PMIS (the users should already be valid users in your SharePointenvironment):

• Click the address book icon in the Users/Groups field to search for and selectthe desired users.

• Type the usernames of each member, separated by a semicolon, in the spaceprovided in the Users/Groups section, then click the checkmark icon to verifythat these are recognized usernames in the system.

5. In the Grant Permissions section, select “Grant users permission directly”, and thenenable Contribute.

6. In the Send E-Mail section, enable the “Send welcome e-mail to the new users”feature, and enter the Subject and Personal Message.

7. Click OK. The Permissions page will be displayed, including the two new sitemembers (Figure 4-13).

Figure 4-13. Permissions page, including newly added site members

Part 2: Customizing List PermissionsSharePoint does a great job of allowing project managers to restrict access to projectinformation with its capability to customize permissions at the list, library, list item, orlibrary item level. In order to do this, perform the following steps:

1. On the Quick Launch, click Project Documents (see Figure 4-14).

2. In the Library Tools, Library ribbon, click the Library Settings button (Figure 4-15).

Workshop 4.1: Adding Site Members | 75

Figure 4-14. Quick Launch

Figure 4-15. Document Library Settings

3. In the “Permissions and Management” section, click “Permissions for this docu-ment library” (see Figure 4-16).

Figure 4-16. Accessing permissions for this document library


4. Stop inheriting permissions from the parent by clicking the Stop Inheriting Per-missions button on the Permission Tools ribbon.

5. Select one of the site members you added in the previous part, and in the PermissionTools ribbon, click Edit User Permissions (Figure 4-17).

6. The Edit Permissions page will be displayed (Figure 4-18). In the Permissions sec-tion, enable Read and disable Contribute.

7. Click OK.

Figure 4-17. Edit User Permissions

You have now restricted one of the site members to have read-only access to the ProjectDocuments document library of your PMIS. This change will be reflected on the Per-missions page.

Congratulations! You have successfully added and customized access privileges for yoursite members.

Workshop 4.1 DebriefingIn the first section of the workshop, you added two site members and gave them Con-tribute permissions, which will allow them to contribute to any of the lists in your PMIS.In Part 2, you modified the permission of a specific site member to have read-only accessto the Project Documents document library. This means that even if the site memberhas Contribute permissions throughout the site, she can only look at documents in thedocument library.


Dux Quax: Communications Plan Is the KeyI was really excited the first time I was able to add stakeholders and customize theiraccess permissions to the PMIS. Prior to SharePoint, I used a regular website as a PMIS,where people registered and gained access to the entire site. However, customizingaccess to specific project information was not possible, so I ended up having to keeprestricted project documents elsewhere, which totally defeated the purpose of havinga PMIS!

However, SharePoint’s power can also be its weakness if you don’t plan well. Withouta documented communications plan for your project, you end up aimlessly definingand redefining permissions. In addition, a communications plan gives you a referenceon what kinds of access privileges stakeholders require on your PMIS since you (ideally)planned it before you configured it. And you can always ask the stakeholders whichlevels of permission are appropriate for their needs, right?

If you are interested, I have a communications plan template that you can downloadfrom http://www.spforpm.com.

Figure 4-18. New permissions settings


Best Practices Checklist• Coordinate with your IT/IS department to make SharePoint accounts available for

your project stakeholders.

• Most stakeholders will only require contribute permissions.

• Be very careful in customizing permissions at the list, library, list item, or libraryitem levels.

Summary• SharePoint users typically come from the existing Windows user environment.

However, even non-Windows users can access SharePoint environments throughalternative authentication providers. To learn more about authentication provid-ers, visit http://bit.ly/tp1N7q.

• SharePoint comes with default permission levels that can be customized.

• SharePoint groups are a convenient way to manage users.

Summary | 79

CHAPTER 5

Supporting Team Collaboration

Great discoveries and improvements invariably involvethe cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit

for having blazed the trail, but when I look at thesubsequent developments, I feel the credit is due to

others rather than to myself.

—Alexander Graham Bell, inventor

Back in 1999, when working with an offshore project team, I encountered several com-mon stumbling blocks that are very typical of any project. These challenges encom-passed the three aspects of collaboration that every project team encounters:

Real-time collaborationThe version history for our project documentation was poorly maintained. Ourtool of choice, just like everyone else’s, was email. We came up with a namingconvention for version numbering; however, when it came to reviewing past ver-sions of documents, scouring through all of the email messages was quite cum-bersome. Real-time collaboration entails the concurrent development or use ofinformation by multiple members of a group. How many times have you beenworking on a project document at the same time that your colleague is editing thesame document without your knowledge? This can be anything from updating aproject schedule, to revising the requirements document, to finalizing the projectcharter. Overwriting files and not maintaining a version history are among thecommon problems.

Offline collaborationOur offline communication tools were limited. The project team relied heavily onemail and voicemail messages due to the 12-hour time difference between the off-shore team and the project manager (me). Our communications were neither doc-umented thoroughly nor auditable by relevant project stakeholders. Whenevercollaboration is necessary for geographically dispersed teams, there is often a needfor a reliable asynchronous or offline feedback mechanism.

81

Access to project informationOur project artifacts were not easily accessible. We did a good job of centralizingproject artifacts using a common network share, but it was only accessible throughthe company’s internal network. So, if I needed to review specific documents on aSunday afternoon, I couldn’t, because my computer at home could not access thecompany’s internal network. In addition, project information coming from con-tractors could only be sent via email, since they did not have access to the networkshare.

As a project manager, there are several access-related items to consider. Can theproject information be accessed regardless of who the stakeholder is (i.e., internalteam or contractors)? What type of device will be used (i.e., computer or portabledevices, Mac or Windows) and how will the site be accessed (i.e., from within thecompany or remotely)?

SharePoint comes with various collaboration tools that address these challenges.

Enabling Document Management SolutionsAs you know, lists and document libraries in SharePoint allow us to centrally storeproject information. In addition, lists and document libraries provide document man-agement features such as check-out/check-in, version history, and content approval.

In a typical scenario, when a project charter is initially created, the project manager cansave it to a document library. While it’s still a work in progress, the project sponsorcan check out the project charter so that nobody else can edit it while the sponsor isupdating the charter. Once it is updated, the sponsor can check it back into the docu-ment library. As the customer reviews the project charter, he can track the evolutionof the document by reviewing the version history. Further, he can retrieve prior versionsif necessary. Finally, once the project charter is complete and ready to be published,the project manager can approve the document to make it available to the projectstakeholders who have access to the PMIS.

Let’s take a look at these features in detail.

82 | Chapter 5: Supporting Team Collaboration

Overview of Check-Out/Check-InMaintaining document integrity is critical on a project. What happens when you updateyour project charter and your colleague opens the same document and updates it at thesame time? Do you play the game of she who saves last wins?

In Chapter 3, you saw a glimpse of the check-out/check-in feature when you uploadeda document to the document library. Recall that you had to check the document inbefore it was made available in the library. With the check-out/check-in feature (Fig-ure 5-1), a document can be checked out from a document library, thus preventing anychanges by other users until the document is checked back in.

Figure 5-1. Checking out a document from a document library

Once a document is checked out, it can still be viewed, but it can’t be edited by otherusers. Once changes are made, the user may check the document back into the docu-ment library directly or from within any Microsoft Office product (see Figure 5-2).Another benefit of this feature is that it gives you the option of viewing a previousversion of the document while still keeping a different copy checked out for furtherediting. That way, if you totally hose your document for some reason after checking inyour initial changes, you can revert to the earlier version and try again.

Overview of Check-Out/Check-In | 83

Figure 5-2. Checking a document in from Microsoft Word 2010

To ensure team members use the check-out/check-in feature for document manage-ment, you can configure it as a required feature:

1. From a document library or list library, click the Library Settings button in theLibrary Tools, Library ribbon.

2. In the General Settings section, click “Versioning settings”.

3. In the Require Check Out section, select Yes (Figure 5-3).

4. Click OK.

Figure 5-3. Require Check Out


Overview of Version HistoryBy default, a file that is stored in a document library will automatically be replaced bya newer version of the file when it is updated. If you wish to maintain multiple versionsof a document in the document library, you must enable the version history.

This feature allows you to access any previous version of a document for tracking orrecovery purposes (see Figure 5-4).

Figure 5-4. Enabling Version History

Dux Quax: Version History Is a LifesaverWhenever I educate my project team on using SharePoint as a PMIS, I make sure tostress how beneficial the Version History feature is. It can be used to recover priorversions of project documents, and to track who updated a specific project documentand when it was updated. In certain cases, I don’t even mention this feature to certainpeople, since it might go over their heads. However, I make sure that it is enabled justin case I need to review past versions.

Overview of Version History | 85

With the Version History feature enabled, a new version of a document will be createdwhen:

• A list item or file is first created or uploaded. If file check-out is required, the filemust first be checked in in order to create the first version.

• An uploaded file has the same name as an existing file, and the “Add as a newversion to existing files” option is selected.

• The properties of a list item or file are changed.

• A file is checked out, changed, and then checked back in. If you or another userdiscards the checked-out version, no new version is created.

Use the following steps to enable version control for your PMIS:



3. A page similar to the one shown in Figure 5-5 will be displayed. Select the “Createmajor versions” option.

Figure 5-5. Enabling document version control

You may set up your project library with simple versioning, which tracks only majorversions. However, if many people in the project work on files together and usuallycreate several versions, you may want to set up the library to track both major andminor versions.

Providing two types of versioning can help your team better manage its documents anddeliverables. For example, a major version is usually one that is available for all membersand stakeholders to view, whereas a minor version is typically a draft that someone isstill working on and is only available to a selected few.


Dux Quax: Major and Minor VersionsTracking both major and minor versions also helps to make the version history moremeaningful. A major version is more likely to represent a milestone in the file’s devel-opment, such as when the file was submitted for review or distributed to others. Aminor version is typically used as a routine increment, such as a version that you saveor check in while you are still writing the content, or a version in which you correctsome minor errors. When you want to view the version history of a file, the majorversions may help you to identify the stages of the file’s development and make thehistory easier to browse through.

In a project environment, it is often very beneficial to leverage this feature during thedevelopment of key documents, such as the project charter, user requirements docu-ment, and project schedule.

When major and minor versions are tracked, versions are stored by default as minorversions, unless you specifically designate them as major versions. To designate a fileas a major version, you must publish the file using either the library’s commands orany Microsoft Office 2010 product.

If you have permission to delete versions, you can overwrite a minor version with an-other minor version. For example, you may want to overwrite a version if you knowthat the previous version contains an error and you don’t need to keep it.

Overview of Content ApprovalThe Content Approval feature prevents users (other than the content contributor) fromviewing documents until those documents have been approved by an approver (typi-cally the site owner; see Figure 5-6). The content contributor will be notified as towhether the submission was approved or rejected.

Figure 5-6. A pending document waiting to be approved

Overview of Content Approval | 87

This feature has nothing to do with human- or process-based workflows; it simplyallows you to manage which content is displayed in the document library or list.

By default, this feature is not enabled in SharePoint. Use the following steps to enablethe Content Approval feature:



3. For Content Approval, select Yes.

4. Click OK.

Once the feature is enabled, the site owner will be alerted when any content is addedto the document library or list. The site owner (or any site member with Approverpermissions) then reviews the document and either approves it, rejects it, or leaves itas pending (see Figure 5-7). In a project environment, content approval is ideal if a lotof stakeholders are contributing various forms of project information; it acts as a cau-tionary safeguard to help you ensure that the content in the PMIS is appropriate andhas been validated.

Figure 5-7. A document being approved


Workshop 5.1: Updating a Project DocumentIn this workshop, you will utilize SharePoint document management features for up-dating a project document for the case study project. You may have already practicedsome of these steps in the overview sections of this chapter.


Part 1: Requiring Check-Out1. From your SharePoint PMIS, access the Project Documents document library

(Figure 5-8).

Figure 5-8. Project Documents document library

2. In the Library Tools, Library ribbon, click the Library Settings button (Figure 5-9).

Workshop 5.1: Updating a Project Document | 89

Figure 5-9. Accessing Document Library Settings

3. The Document Library Settings page will be displayed (Figure 5-10). In the GeneralSettings section, click “Versioning settings”.

Figure 5-10. Accessing “Versioning settings”

4. Select Yes for Require Check Out (Figure 5-11).

5. Click OK.

Figure 5-11. Check-out required


Part 2: Checking Out and Editing a Document from the Document LibraryNow that you have required check-out in your document library, let’s test this featureand edit a document.

1. Return to your Project Documents document library.

2. Select the Word document Expense Reporting Procedure by hovering over thedocument name and clicking the drop-down menu. (Clicking on the link to thedocument will open the document within SharePoint, rather than providing accessto the drop-down menu.)

3. Select “Edit in Microsoft Word” (Figure 5-12).

Figure 5-12. “Edit in Microsoft Word” option

4. Click OK. You have now checked out the Word document. Nobody else can editthis document until it is checked back in.

5. In the third paragraph, change the text Federal Bureau of Taxation (FBT) toNational Taxation Agency (NTA).

6. In Microsoft Word 2010, click the File menu, and then click Info→Check In(Figure 5-13).


Figure 5-13. Checking in from Microsoft Word

7. In the Check In, Version Comments dialog box, enter this text: Updatedthe new name for the FBT (see Figure 5-14).

Figure 5-14. Adding version comments


The “Keep the document checked out after checking in this ver-sion” feature allows you to create a new version with your changesto date, and then keep the document checked out for furtherediting.

8. Click OK.

9. Checking in the document will save it automatically.

10. Close the document and exit Microsoft Word.

11. Return to the Project Documents document library.

It is possible that you may need to refresh the page or navigate elsewhere in your siteand back to your Project Documents document library to remove the Checked Out icon.

Part 3: Viewing All the Changes Made to the DocumentYou can view a document’s version history to accurately track the changes that havebeen made:

1. Select the Word document Expense Reporting Procedure by hovering over the nameand clicking the drop-down menu.

2. Click Version History (Figure 5-15).

Figure 5-15. Accessing Version History


3. You should see two versions. If you practiced the exercise in “Overview of ContentApproval” on page 87, you will see that the Approval Status of your latest versionis Pending rather than Approved (see Figure 5-16). If you have turned on ContentApproval, you must approve the document before it will be viewable by anyonebut the document contributor and the site owner.

Figure 5-16. Pending approval status

4. Select the Word document Expense Reporting Procedure by hovering over the nameand clicking the drop-down menu.

5. Select Check In (Figure 5-17).

Figure 5-17. Checking in from SharePoint

6. Do not retain your check-out after checking in. Add any comments you wish andthen click OK.


7. Once your document has been checked in, accessing the drop-down box by hov-ering over the document name will show you a menu with the option to Approve/Reject (see Figure 5-18). Click that option.

Figure 5-18. Accessing the Approve/Reject dialog

8. Click the radio button to approve the document. If you wish to add a comment,you may. Click OK (Figure 5-19).

Figure 5-19. Approving or rejecting a document

9. Once you have approved the item, the page will refresh, and the Approval Statusof the document will change from Pending to Approved (Figure 5-20).


Figure 5-20. Approval status change

10. Return to your Project Documents document library.

Congratulations! You have successfully utilized the document management features ofSharePoint 2010.

Workshop 5.1 DebriefingIn the first section of the workshop, you enabled the capability to require check-outs.This is important, because without this feature, anyone belonging to the PMIS can editany document at any time, regardless of whether another user is already makingchanges to that document.

In Part 2, you checked out a document and modified it. After that, you checked itdirectly into the document library from Microsoft Word 2010, which automaticallysaved your changes.

In Part 3, you were able to view the different versions of a document. The version controlfeature was enabled earlier when you created the document library.

Facilitating Team CollaborationIn a project environment, collaborative activities can be ad hoc, offline, or remote innature. Common collaborative activities include:

• Brainstorming

• Sharing lessons learned

• Continuous process improvement

What kinds of tools are necessary to support this type of collaboration? In a SharePointPMIS, teams can use wikis, discussion boards, and document workspaces in variouscollaborative scenarios.


WikisA wiki (Figure 5-21) is a website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add,remove, and otherwise edit and change available content. Ease of interaction andoperation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring. A wiki is alsobeneficial for sharing and documenting lessons learned, and it can be used for infor-mally brainstorming project tasks to help you create the Work Breakdown Structure(WBS).

Figure 5-21. A SharePoint wiki site

Use the following steps to create a SharePoint wiki site:

1. From an existing SharePoint site, click Site Actions→New Site.

2. In the Create window, click the Browse All tab.

3. Select Enterprise Wiki, and then click the More Options button.

4. Enter the Title, Description, and URL for the wiki site, and set the User Permissionsto “Use unique permissions”. Set Navigation Inheritance to No.

5. Click Create.


Wikis | 97

7. From Site Actions, select View All Site Content.

8. Click Create.

9. When filtering by types, select Library, and then click Wiki Page Library and MoreOptions.

10. Enter the Name and Description for the wiki site. Then set the User Permissionsto “Use unique permissions”. Set Navigation Inheritance to No.

11. Click Create.


Discussion BoardsSharePoint provides discussion board capability (Figure 5-22) to enable asynchronousor offline communications (where the communication doesn’t happen in real time).This is similar to online message boards you may have seen on the Web. It is a verysimple discussion board tool compared with other web-based discussion boards, butit provides threaded discussion capabilities, and participants can reply to any messagein the discussion.

Figure 5-22. A SharePoint discussion board


Dux Quax: Getting Feedback with a Discussion BoardIn a PMIS, a discussion board can be used for getting detailed feedback or comments.For example, after creating the project charter in Microsoft Word and storing it in adocument library, I typically create a discussion called “What do you think of theproject charter?”

Key resources can review the project charter and provide their feedback and commentsabout the document. Before I discovered discussion boards, I relied heavily on email,which is not the most efficient method.

Use the following steps to create a SharePoint discussion board:

1. From Site Actions, select View All Site Content.

2. Click Create.

3. Select Discussion Board, and click More Options.

4. Enter the Name and Description of the discussion board.

5. Specify whether you want a discussion board link to appear in the Quick Launch.

6. Click Create.

Document WorkspacesHave you developed a project charter from scratch? Did you involve other people indoing so? What are the different types of information needed to support the completionof the project charter? If you want to see some examples of project charters, feel free todownload them from http://www.spforpm.com.

In my experience, creating the project charter is an inefficient activity in almost anyproject environment. Typically, any major collaborative document consists of manyseparate reference files, templates, whitepapers, forms, and pieces of content. Whatusually ends up happening is that when trying to complete the document, the team hasemail messages flying back and forth.

So, how should a PMIS facilitate the collaborative development of such a document?

Ideally, there should be a facility in which a limited number of people can work on theproject charter, while keeping the greater stakeholder majority from accessing thedocument.

In SharePoint, document workspaces do just that; they are sites that allow you to specifywho has access to a single document. Document workspaces can be created from withinan Office product or from an existing SharePoint site.

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Document workspaces are SharePoint sites that can include lists, document libraries,and any other feature that a SharePoint site can have (Figure 5-23). Document work-spaces are meant to be temporary—once the project charter is complete, there is nolonger a need for the document workspace.

Figure 5-23. A document workspace

Creating a Document WorkspaceDocument workspaces can be created in two ways. Each technique is intended for aspecific project scenario.

Technique 1: Create the document workspace from an existing SharePoint site

Use this technique if you know that the document will be developed by a number ofdifferent people and the document does not exist yet. You are being proactive in pro-visioning the document workspace, defining its members, and configuring the neces-sary site components.

For example, suppose you were informed that you will be heading a new project inthree weeks. In addition to being a project manager, you will also assume the role ofthe business analyst. Based on your experience, you know that you will need assistancefrom subject matter experts (SMEs) to help you create the requirements document oncethe project is underway. Even if you have not started to gather the requirements andcreate the requirements documents, you should go ahead and create the documentworkspace in anticipation of this collaborative work.


Here are the steps to create the document workspace from an existing SharePoint site:

1. From an existing SharePoint site, from Site Actions, select View All Site Content.

2. Click Create.

3. Select Document Workspace, and click More Options.

4. Enter the Title, Description, and URL of the Document Workspace.

5. Select “Use unique permissions”, and set Navigation Inheritance to No.

6. Click Create.

7. On the “Set Up Group for this Site” page, define your site members and theirpermissions, and then click OK.

Technique 2: Create a document workspace from an existing document library

Use this technique if you have an existing document in a document library that has tobe drastically updated using the collaborative efforts of many people. For example,suppose that instead of creating a requirements document from scratch, you decidedto use one from a previous project as the basis for your new requirements document.To do this, simply access the PMIS of the previous project, access the document librarythat contains the desired requirements document, and spawn off a new documentworkspace.

Here are the steps to create a document workspace from an existing document in adocument library:

1. Select the desired document in the desired library, and click the list item drop-down menu.

2. Select Send To, and then click Create Document Workspace.

3. Click OK to confirm.

Dux Quax: Being an Agent of Change Is No Easy TaskI know what you’re thinking after reading this chapter: “Dux, this is good stuff, butthere is no way that my project stakeholders will embrace and use all of these featuresin SharePoint!” I hear you. In fact, I do not suggest you introduce all these capabilitiesat one time. I have two words for you: baby steps. At the very least, start by enablingVersion History in your lists and document libraries (unless you are storing massivefiles). Users don’t even have to know that Version History is enabled. Once they arecomfortable with SharePoint basics, introduce discussion boards and/or wikis forbrainstorming or collaboration. Match the needs of your stakeholders to what Share-Point can do. If there’s no need to use document workspaces, don’t. Again, the lastthing you want is to overwhelm your users and turn them off of SharePoint. In this case,first impressions will definitely last.

Document Workspaces | 101

Best Practices Checklist• Establish a policy on how to edit documents.

• Require document check-out.

• Once an edit is complete, make sure users check the document back in.

• Identify collaboration tools that suit your environment.

• Wikis and discussion boards are ideal for offline collaboration.

• Version control and check-out/check-in benefit real-time collaboration.

• Establish a policy on how to utilize workspaces.

• Decide whether there will be a separate site collection for document workspaces.

• Determine who is allowed to create document workspaces.

Summary• Lists and document libraries can be enabled to provide version control, check-out/

check-in, and content approval.

• Multiple tools are available to support a project team in performing real-time,remote, and offline collaboration.

• Document workspaces are intended to be temporary collaborative sites.


CHAPTER 6

Project Tracking

The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor;he took my measurement anew every time he saw me,while all the rest went on with their old measurements

and expected them to fit me.

—George Bernard Shaw, essayist and Nobel Laureate

Making time to gather intelligence about the project’s progress is a top priority for anyproject manager. What critical project elements do you typically track? In my case, Itrack the following:

ScheduleThis is what every project manager is concerned with—making sure that the projectis not running behind, and that the expected end date is still possible given whathas been happening on the project to date. To ensure a project is on schedule, Imeasure the progress of my projects by frequently comparing the planned scheduleto what is actually happening.

RisksIt’s unfortunate that project managers do not often include risk management as apart of their project management process. Risk management is a rather simpleprocess that is not overly burdensome or complex, and it provides great valueduring project planning and execution. How do I track risks? I monitor the riskswe have identified during project planning. If any identified risks occur, I try todetermine whether our planned risk response was effective. In addition, the wholeteam keeps an eye out for new potential risks, their relative severity, and our plan-ned responses to them should they occur.

ChangeCustomers change the project scope. The project budget has been cut. These thingsnever happen to you on your projects, right? How do you manage and track changesin your project? Or don’t you? I track changes by establishing a change controlprocess for my projects. Any type of change that comes in goes through a changerequest, which is then evaluated by a change control board. After a decision

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regarding the requested change has been made, the change will be scheduled forimplementation (or it may not be implemented at all).

By customizing existing lists and using built-in workflows, you can configure yourSharePoint PMIS to track project schedules, risks, and changes. Let’s take a look at howit’s done.

Tracking Project TasksA common tool used in project management is the Gantt chart, which is made up of atable and a calendar. The table has a listing of project tasks and information about thosetasks. The calendar displays the schedule of the task, symbolizing the task durationacross the calendar using a bar. In addition, the Gantt chart is used to monitor actualtask progress.

SharePoint comes with a Project Tasks list (see Figure 6-1). By default, this list displaysa Gantt chart and a customized table view. SharePoint’s Project Tasks list (in the Listssection of the Quick Launch in the sidebar) allows you to:

• Define project tasks, assignments, start date, and due date

• Specify task priority

• Indicate task status

• Track percentage complete

• Display project task information in a Gantt chart view

Figure 6-1. A SharePoint Project Tasks list

The Project Tasks list is a very simple task-tracking tool. It can only use manual sched-uling and does not allow you to:

104 | Chapter 6: Project Tracking

• Define task dependencies (F-S, S-S, F-F, S-F)

• Save a schedule baseline

• Reschedule a slipped task automatically

• Track anything besides % complete (by default), but you may configure it to trackactuals (this is covered in greater depth in Chapter 8).

• Synchronize with other project management tools, such as Microsoft Project 2010(we will discuss this in Chapter 8)

Taking full advantage of the Project Tasks list requires you to add custom columns tomeet your project task-tracking needs. For example, I typically add custom columnsto the list, which allow my project resources to update their task statuses based on theactual time spent working on them.

Use the following steps to create a Project Tasks list:

1. Access an existing SharePoint site, and click Site Actions→More Options.

2. In the Tracking category, select Project Tasks (see Figure 6-2), and click MoreOptions.

Figure 6-2. Accessing Project Tasks on the Create page

3. A page similar to the one shown in Figure 6-3 will be displayed. Enter a name anddescription for the Project Tasks list. You must give it a unique name not alreadyused in your project tasks. There is already a default Project Tasks list that camewith SharePoint.

4. Specify whether you want a link to this list to appear in the Quick Launch.

5. Click Create.

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Figure 6-3. Creating a Project Tasks list

Dux Quax: It’s All Relative, Isn’t It?One of my project management pet peeves is tracking task progress with percentage.You know what I am talking about, don’t you? It’s a situation where you ask, “Joey,how far along are you with that task you’re working on?”, and Joey responds, “It’s 90%complete.” Two weeks later, you ask Joey the same question and he says, “It’s 90%complete” yet again. My problem with using percentage complete is that it doesn’t tellme anything relevant. Ninety percent of what? Ninety percent of the work performed?Ninety percent of the time allocated? Unless the project team specifically defines (whichis quite rare in project teams) what these percentages mean, 90% can be anything.Unfortunately, project tasks often seem to be 90% complete until the day they are due,and then magically they are not even close to being done!

Personally, I require project progress to be reported using actual time spent. This en-courages project accountability by logging how much time team members have spentworking on their tasks. Conversely, if percentages are used for status updates, teammembers will often just blurt out some number without really considering the detailsof how much time or effort has actually been spent.

Even though SharePoint has a built-in Project Tasks list, I end up customizing it heavilyto suit the tracking needs of my project team. We will step through customizing anexisting Project Tasks list later in this chapter.


Tracking RisksIn a project environment, risks are uncertain events that might negatively affect theoutcome of the project. Managing risks in any project environment entails:

Risk identificationIdentifying risks based on the nature of the project, how the project is currentlyplanned, and other risk factors outside of the project scope. For example, if yourproject involves using newly released software, you might want to consider the riskof the software not properly integrating with your existing systems.

Risk assessmentAfter a list of risks has been compiled, evaluate the likelihood or probability of eachrisk actually happening, and then evaluate its potential impact. Probability andimpact can be measured in many ways, so it is important for the project team toset a standard for quantifying them.

Risk prioritizationBased on the risk assessment, you will then prioritize for which risks you will definea risk response. Practically speaking, you will not have enough resources to addressevery risk you have identified—you will need to define your risk tolerance. Forexample, you may determine that you will only define risk response strategies forrisks having at least 60% probability and a project impact of medium or higher.

Risk responseWhen specifying risk responses, you must define the action items required to mit-igate the risk, as well as which individuals will be responsible either for addressingthe risk, eradicating the risk, minimizing its likelihood of occurring, or minimizingits impact. Identifying a risk response will likely require you to add new projecttasks, and it may affect the project schedule.

Risk management should be performed during project planning and execution. Oncethe project is running, these risks should be constantly monitored. For more informa-tion about risk management, visit http://www.spforpm.com.

SharePoint provides a Project Issues tracking list (see Figure 6-4). This list can be easilyused for tracking project risks as well as issues. The Issue Tracking list allows you todefine issues along with their priorities, statuses, due dates, responsible parties, andidentified solutions.

In your environment, you might choose to treat risks and requested changes as issues;the Issue Tracking list allows you to process risks, issues, and even requested changeswithin the same list.

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Figure 6-4. A SharePoint Project Issues tracking list

Use the following steps to create an Issue Tracking list:

1. Access an existing SharePoint site, then click Site Actions→More Options.

2. In the Tracking category, select Issue Tracking (Figure 6-5) and click MoreOptions.

Figure 6-5. Accessing Issue Tracking on the Create page


3. A page similar to the one shown in Figure 6-6 will be displayed. Enter a Name andDescription for the Issue Tracking list.

Figure 6-6. Creating a new Issue Tracking list

4. Specify whether you want a link for this list to appear in the Quick Launch.

5. Click Create.

Dux Quax: The Relevance of Risk ManagementThere is a belief that good project managers can put out fires or deal with a projectcrisis anytime one arises. I don’t agree. I believe that a good project manager shouldanticipate fires and possible crises even before they occur. Having a project risk man-agement plan and process in place makes this possible. The purpose of the risk plan isto identify, evaluate, prioritize, and generate responses for project risks. This is a keypart of any project culture where everyone in the project is proactively involved in riskmanagement.

Having a project risk list in your PMIS is crucial. By allowing the project team to beinvolved in risk identification and monitoring, the likelihood of a fire coming up mightbe minimized, if not totally eliminated.

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Workshop 6.1: Updating the Schedule and Tracking RisksIn Chapter 3, you created a Project Tasks list and a Project Risks list. In this workshop,you will update, customize, and populate both of these lists with data.


Part 1: Updating the Project Tasks ListIn this part, you will update the Project Tasks list you created earlier by adding newcolumns and configuring its view:

1. From your SharePoint PMIS, access the Project Tasks list.

2. Applying what you learned in Chapter 3, create the custom columns using the datagiven in Table 6-1.

Table 6-1. Custom columns

Column name Type Required

Duration Number No

Baseline Start Date and Time No

Baseline Finish Date and Time No

3. Rename the Due Date field. Enter the text: Finish Date.

4. On the List Settings page, under Columns, click “Column ordering”. If you do notsee the “Column ordering” link, click List in the List Tools tab on the ribbon, accessthe drop-down menu under Modify View, and select Modify View. The page thatloads will let you order the columns by number using drop-down menus. Whenyou have ordered the columns, click OK in either the upper- or lower-right part ofthe page to save your work.

5. Select the following “Position from Top” values:

Title: 1Duration: 2Start Date: 3Finish Date: 4Baseline Start: 5Baseline Finish: 6Assigned To: 7Task Status: 8% Complete: 9Description: 10Priority: 11


Make sure the tick boxes beside each column name you wish to display are checked,and ensure that any column names you don’t want displayed are unchecked.

6. Click OK.

7. On the Project Tasks List Settings page (select Project Tasks List→List Tools→List→List Settings), click View Project Tasks near the bottom of the page (seeFigure 6-7).

Figure 6-7. Accessing Project Tasks

8. A screen similar to the one shown in Figure 6-8 will be displayed. Select the fol-lowing values to update the “Position from Left” settings of each column:

Title: 1Duration: 2Start Date: 3Finish Date: 4Baseline Start: 5Baseline Finish: 6Assigned To: 7% Complete: 8

9. Click OK.

Figure 6-8. Updating column positions

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Part 2: Populating and Updating the Project Tasks ListNow it’s time to populate the Project Tasks list. Instead of typing the tasks in one byone, you will copy a list of tasks from Excel 2007:

1. Minimize Internet Explorer.

2. Open the file My Documents\Project Files\Project tasks.xlsx. This is from the .zipfile that you downloaded earlier from http://www.spforpm.com/dl/spdojofiles.zip.

3. Highlight columns A, B, C, D, E, and F from cells 2 to 22 (see Figure 6-9).

Figure 6-9. Columns highlighted in Excel 2010

4. Select Edit→Copy.

5. Minimize Excel and restore Internet Explorer.

6. On the List Tools, List ribbon, click Datasheet View (Figure 6-10).

Figure 6-10. Edit Project Tasks in a datasheet

7. Place the cursor in the first cell below the Title column. Paste in the data that youcopied from Excel (Figure 6-11).


Figure 6-11. Data copied from Microsoft Excel to Project Tasks

8. Assign the Write Project Charter item to yourself by entering your name in theAssigned To cell for that item.

9. Assign the “Conduct initial risk assessment” and “Secure site” items to yourself.

10. From the List Tools, List ribbon, click Standard View. A page similar to the oneshown in Figure 6-12 will be displayed.

Figure 6-12. Standard View


You will now update several project tasks; these updates will be available to all teammembers. Let’s start with the Write Project Charter task:

11. Update Write Project Charter item with the following values:

Duration: 6Start: 3/12/2009Finish: 3/18/2009Task Status: Completed% Complete: 100

12. Use the same process to update the “Conduct initial risk assessment” item withthe following values:

Duration: 2Start: 3/14/2009Finish: 3/16/2009Task Status: Completed% Complete: 100

13. Update the “Secure site” item with the following values:

Duration: 2Start: 3/15/2009Finish: 4/17/2009Task Status: In Progress% Complete: 50

The Gantt chart has been updated to reflect the new values. Note that the bar indicatesstart and end dates, and the highlight on the bar indicates task progress (% complete).

For example, Figure 6-13 shows that the Write Project Charter item is 100% complete,whereas the “Secure site” item is only partially complete.

Figure 6-13. Updated Project Tasks page


Part 3: Documenting RisksIn this part, you will document a project risk in the Project Risks list. The risk will beassigned to a project team member, who will be responsible for responding to the riskwith the appropriate solution:

1. Access your Project Risks list.

2. Click List Tools, Items→New Item (Figure 6-14).

Figure 6-14. Adding a new item

3. A New Item page will be displayed (Figure 6-15). Enter the following information:

Title: Employee Security ClearanceAssigned to: <Another person in the project team>Issue Status: ActivePriority: (1) HighDescription:<City> employment laws require that foreign nationals working in <Country>submit a security clearance from their respective home countries.I have to present this security clearance before I can do any work in <City>.Kindly send my security clearance on file.Due Date: <next Tuesday> 8 A.M.The person assigned to address the risk will be alerted via email.

4. Click Save.

Ideally, the person you assigned to the risk will come up with a solution or contingencyplan and close out the risk. You will now simulate this by responding to the riskassigned:

5. In the Project Risks list, click Employee Security Clearance.

6. In the View ribbon, click Edit Item (Figure 6-16).


Figure 6-15. Entering a project risk


Figure 6-16. Project risk details

7. A page similar to the one shown in Figure 6-17 will be displayed. Update the fol-lowing information:

Assigned to: <username of the project manager who documented the issue>(in this case, this would be yourself)Status: ClosedComments:Attached is your security clearance document. Kindly forward to the <Country>Department of Labor.

Notice that the Related Issues section displays the name of the risk that you areresponding to. This is a default behavior in SharePoint.

8. Click Attach File.

9. Click Browse to search for, select, and open the file My Documents\Project Files\Security Clearance.pdf.

10. Click OK to attach the selected file.

11. Click Save in the Project Risks editing page to confirm your changes.


Figure 6-17. Editing a risk item

Congratulations! You have successfully utilized a Project Tasks list and an issue/risktracking list.


Workshop 6.1 DebriefingIn the first part of the workshop, you customized the Project Tasks list by adding customcolumns that capture baseline and actual start and finish dates for a number of tasks.

What is the value in doing this?

How would you handle a complex project that cannot be supported by a Project Taskslist in SharePoint? As you have seen, the Project Tasks list is somewhat limited; if youneed to track task dependencies, take advantage of more sophisticated tools such asMicrosoft Project. We will discuss this further in Chapter 8.

The Issue Tracking list is quite effective in allowing a project team to document andtrack project risks.

If properly configured, email messages will be sent out whenever a task or issue isassigned and/or updated.

Controlling Changes with WorkflowDo you have customers who change their minds halfway through the project and decideto add more to the project scope? How about a key resource who decides to apply adifferent solution than the one specified? How do you handle such changes?

Change control refers to a set of procedures defining the steps on how project changesare requested, evaluated, and addressed. These changes typically relate to project scope,budget, or schedule. This procedure is based on effective processes, and the human-based interactions are known as workflows. Automating workflows among the peoplewho participate in a process can improve how that process functions, thereby increasingits efficiency and lowering its error rate.

Having a change control process in place allows the project manager to better controlchanges that take place. This process can be as simple as requiring that change requestsbe made by stakeholders and decision approval (or denial) be made by reviewers.

SharePoint comes with the capability to automate human-based processes. In a PMIS,the built-in three-state workflow in SharePoint can be leveraged to automate the changecontrol process. It enables collaboration by automating the movement of documentsor list items through a specific sequence of actions. Three-state workflow is availableto both SF and SS. In SS, additional workflows are available.

A three-state workflow can be applied to any list or document library. It requires, atthe most, three states to enable the workflow. For example, the three states can beinitiate, review, and approve. For each state, a task will be assigned to a user, and oncethe user completes the task, the workflow will automatically proceed to the next state.The workflow ends on the final state automatically. Optionally, you can enable an emailmessaging feature to alert relevant individuals about pending tasks.

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Implementing a three-state workflow requires the following steps:

1. Access an existing Project Issues list, and click List Tools, List→List Settings (seeFigure 6-18).

Figure 6-18. List Settings

2. In the “Permissions and Management” section, click Workflow Settings (see Fig-ure 6-19).

Figure 6-19. Accessing Workflow Settings

3. The “Change a Workflow” page will be displayed (Figure 6-20). If clicking theWorkflow Settings link does not bring you to a page like that pictured in Fig-ure 6-20, click Add Workflow on the page that does load. Then update thefollowing:

Workflow: Three-StateName: <name of the workflow>Task List: Use an existing task list or create a new task list. If you have notalready associated a task list with this workflow, you will create a new one.


The three-state workflow requires that you create a corresponding task list. Once aworkflow is initiated, tasks are assigned to the appropriate individuals. You can use thedefault Tasks list or you can create a new one. If you use the default Tasks list, workflowparticipants will be able to find and view their workflow tasks easily by using the MyTasks view of the Tasks list.

You should create a new task list if the tasks for this workflow will reveal sensitive orconfidential data that you want to keep separate from the general Tasks list. You shouldalso create a new task list if your organization will have numerous workflows or ifworkflows will involve numerous tasks. In these cases, you might want to create tasklists for each workflow.

History ListSelect a History list for the workflow. The history list displays all of the events thatoccur during each instance of the workflow.

Start OptionsSelect how you would like the workflow to start. Typically, you would select “Startthis workflow when a new item is created” to allow the workflow to be initiatedautomatically.

Figure 6-20. Defining workflow properties

4. Click Next.

5. Select the desired workflow settings (see Figure 6-21). Click OK.

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Figure 6-21. Customizing Workflow Settings

Dux Quax: Why Managing Change Is CriticalWhen I first got involved with project management, I thought that once the projectbegan, nothing should change. The schedule, budget, and scope should be managedby the book, strictly according to how it was planned. A good project manager wouldnot let anything deviate from that project plan (you know, the one chiseled in stone!).

In reality, change is a normal aspect of every project. The question for the project man-ager and the team is: how will you manage it? Ideally, as a part of project planning,project managers should develop and communicate how change will be managed inthe project. More importantly, the project manager should inform the customer aboutthe change policy, since most of the changes will come from the customer.

Providing a change control system in your PMIS is one of the most effective ways tohave the stakeholders easily follow your change control process.

Workshop 6.2: Creating a Change Control System withThree-State WorkflowIn this workshop, you will create a change control system for the case study project inyour PMIS. The change control system will have three states: proposed, in review, andapproved. When a change request is submitted, the initial state of the request will beset to Proposed. A task will be assigned to the appropriate person(s) to review the


request. The reviewer will then go to the task list and approve it by setting its status toCompleted. Once this is done, the workflow for the change request will automaticallybe updated to In Review. A task assignment will automatically be made to the individualresponsible for taking action on the second state. This is where the workshop ends. Ina real situation, however, once the individual responsible for the second state updateshis task list to Completed, the workflow of the change request will automatically enterthe third state, Approved.


Part 1: Creating a Custom List1. Access your PMIS, and click Site Actions→More Options.

2. In the Lists section, select Custom List and click More Options.

3. A page similar to Figure 6-22 will be displayed. Enter the following values:

Name: Change RequestDescription: Change Request ListDisplay this list on the Quick Launch: Yes

Figure 6-22. Creating a Custom List

4. Click Create.

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5. Based on what you learned in Chapter 3, create four new columns by clicking“Create column” under the Columns category of the Custom List Settings pageusing the values given in Table 6-2. “Required” means that the column is requiredto contain information and should be marked as such when creating the column.

Table 6-2. New column data

Column name Type Required Additional settings/values

Description of Change Multiple Lines of Text Yes

Affected Task Lookup Yes Get information from:

Project Tasks

In this column: Title

CR Status Choice Yes Proposed

In Review

Approved

Due Date Date and Time Yes Date Only

6. Applying what you learned in Chapter 3, change the name of the Title column toCR Title (see Figure 6-23).

Figure 6-23. Custom list columns

7. Enable version control.

Part 2: Customizing the Three-State WorkflowNow that you have created the change request custom list, let’s automate the changerequest process by adding the three-state workflow:

1. Access the Change Request list, and select List Tools, List→List Settings.

2. In the “Permissions and Management” column, select Workflow Settings (seeFigure 6-24).


Figure 6-24. Accessing Workflow Settings

3. Click the “Add a Workflow” link.

4. The “Add a Workflow” page will be displayed (Figure 6-25). Select “Three-state”as the workflow template. In the Name field, enter Change Request Process.

Figure 6-25. Adding a workflow

5. In the Start Options section, ensure that the only enabled option is “Start thisworkflow when a new item is created”.

6. Click Next.

7. You will now be prompted to configure the workflow states (see Figure 6-26). Makethe following field selections in the “Workflow states” section:

Select a ‘Choice’ field: CR StatusInitial state: ProposedMiddle state: In ReviewFinal state: Approved


Figure 6-26. Configuring workflow states

The next steps require changing in the section, “Specify what you want to happen whena workflow is initiated” (see Figure 6-27).

8. Enter the following information in the Task Details, Task Title section:

Custom message: CR InitiatedInclude list field: select CR Title

Figure 6-27. Workflow initiation details

9. Enter the following information in the Task Description section:

Custom message: A change has been proposed.Include list field: select CR TitleInsert link to List item: Enabled

10. For the Task Due Date section:

Include list field: select Due Date

11. In the Task Assigned To section, enable the Custom option and enter yourSharePoint username.


In a real deployment, the Task Assigned To field will refer to theperson to whom the change request will initially be sent. For thepurposes of this workshop, you will list yourself so that you cansee what the message looks like.

12. Enter the following in the E-mail Message Details section:

To: <your email address>Subject: Change RequestBody: A change request has been submitted. Kindly review.

The next steps require changing properties in the section “Specify what you want tohappen when a workflow changes to its middle state” (see Figure 6-28).

13. Enter the following in the Task Details, Task Title section:

Custom message: Approved CRInclude list field: Enabled, select CR Title

Figure 6-28. Workflow middle state details

14. Enter the following in the Task Description section:

Custom message: The CR has been reviewed and approvedInclude list field: Enabled, select CR TitleInsert link to List item: Enabled

15. In the Task Due Date section, enable the “Include list field” feature and select DueDate.


16. In the Task Assigned To section, select the Custom option and enter yourSharePoint username.

17. Enter the following in the E-mail Message Details section:

To: <your email address>Subject: Change Request has been approvedBody: The change request has been reviewed and approved

18. Click OK to save the workflow.

The workflow has been defined. When a change request is submitted, a task assignmentand an email message will automatically be sent to you for review. Once you receivethe assignment and message, the idea is that you review the change request and markthe task assigned to you as Completed. The change request will then automaticallyenter the middle state, in which an additional task will be assigned to you. Once youmark this task as Completed, the change request has essentially been approved.

What you will do next is customize the task list that you just created when you definedthe workflow:

19. Return to the Change Request list, and click the Lists heading on the Quick Launch.

20. Scroll down and click Tasks (Figure 6-29).

Figure 6-29. Accessing the Tasks list item

21. Click List Tools, List→List Settings (Figure 6-30).


Figure 6-30. List Tools, List→List Settings

22. In the General Settings section, click “Title, description and navigation” (see Fig-ure 6-31).

Figure 6-31. Accessing “Title, description and navigation”

23. A page similar to the one shown in Figure 6-32 will be displayed. Rename Tasksto Change Request Tasks.

Figure 6-32. Renaming the Tasks list

24. In the Navigation section, select Yes to have this list displayed on the QuickLaunch.

25. Click Save.

26. Return to the Change Request list.


Part 3: Testing the WorkflowTo test the workflow you have just created, you will submit, review, and approve thechange request yourself:

1. Enter and submit a new Change Request (see Figure 6-33).

Figure 6-33. Entering a new Change Request

2. Access the Change Request Tasks list to view the assignment (see Figure 6-34).

Figure 6-34. Change Request Tasks list


3. View the new task by clicking the task title. The details of the task will be displayed(Figure 6-35). The idea is that you should review the change request before youapprove it.

Figure 6-35. Viewing a change request task

4. To set the change request from the initial state (Proposed) to the middle state (InReview), click Edit Item and set the Status to In Progress (see Figure 6-36). It’s OKif your view is not populated exactly as the one in the figure.

5. Click Save.


Figure 6-36. Setting the Status to In Progress


6. Return to the Change Request list. The change request workflow should have au-tomatically updated the status to In Progress (see Figure 6-37).

Figure 6-37. Workflow status has been updated to In Progress

At this point, the workflow has assigned another task to the person responsible fordealing with the middle state (which, in this case, is you):

7. Return to the Change Request Tasks list. A new task has been created and assigned(Figure 6-38).

Figure 6-38. New tasks in the Change Request Tasks list

8. To set the change request from the middle state (In Progress) to the final state(Completed), select the new task to view its details, click Edit Item, and set theStatus to Completed (Figure 6-39).

9. Click Save.

10. Return to the Change Request list. The change request workflow should have au-tomatically updated the status to Approved (Figure 6-40).

Congratulations! You’ve leveraged the three-state workflow for a change controlsystem.


Figure 6-39. Setting the Status of the new task to Completed

Figure 6-40. Workflow completed


Workshop 6.2 DebriefingIn Part 1, you created a custom list that is specific to the change request informationthat SharePoint Dojo would like to capture. You defined columns with varying columntypes. In your own project environment, you have to assess what type of informationyou would like to capture, and create the custom list with the appropriate columnsdefined.

In Part 2, you defined the settings for the three-state workflow, specifying who will betasked to address the specific states of the change request.

As you can see, the three-state workflow can be used to create a simple change controlsystem. If your change control process is more complex, you can leverage anotherproduct called Microsoft SharePoint Designer to build custom workflows.

Best Practices Checklist• Establish standards for tracking project progress and performance:

— How often should task status be updated?

— What types of updates are expected?

• Make risk management an integral part of your project management process.

• Educate your project stakeholders about the value of having an automated changecontrol system.

Summary• Monitor and update a Project Tasks list in SharePoint.

• Monitor and update risks in SharePoint.

• Utilize the three-state workflow to control project changes.

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CHAPTER 7

Project Reporting

If you can interpret project status data in severaldifferent ways, only the most painful interpretation

will be correct.

—Anonymous project manager

In the previous chapter, you learned that consistently gathering project status infor-mation in the areas of schedule, risks, and changes allows you to understand where theproject is compared to where it was planned to be. Once we have all this statusinformation, how do we make sense of it? Can the customer review key project statusindicators anytime without going through every single status update? What if uppermanagement just wants to see a summary of the project schedule or budget?

Reporting on the project status and performance is a key responsibility of every projectmanager. SharePoint can automatically generate project reports—each time the projectstatus is updated by a project resource, a graph or indicator will be automatically gen-erated, and the project sponsor can be alerted to review it. Sweet, isn’t it?

With a SharePoint PMIS, we can enable these capabilities through the use of:

• Custom views

• Project management-related web parts

• Alerts

In addition to these topics, we will discuss how to leverage meeting workspaces togreatly improve and enhance project meetings.

Custom ViewsA view specifies how list items will be displayed in a list or document library. For moreabout views, see the section “Using SharePoint Lists” on page 28 in Chapter 3. Inaddition to built-in views like the All Items view, custom views can be created to matchuser or group interests when viewing a list or a document library. For example, as a

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project manager, you might be interested to view project documents that were modifiedby the sponsor during project initiation (see Figure 7-1). It would be tedious to scrolldown through the list of project documents in the document library and check to seewhether each individual document has been modified by the project sponsor. By cre-ating a custom view, you can easily define custom rules or criteria that specify whatyou will see in a list or document library.

Figure 7-1. Custom view displaying documents modified by the project sponsor

The project manager must be able to access or view information from different per-spectives. Often, the standard SharePoint views don’t allow this flexibility. For exam-ple, in a Project Tasks list, you might want to display tasks that:

• Are behind schedule

• Should have started already

• Are over budget

When creating custom views, you have to specify the type of view. There are four typesof views available:

Standard ViewDisplays list items in a standard tabular format (see Figure 7-2). The list items areedited individually. The Standard View page is refreshed when sorting or filteringis applied. In a PMIS, this view is useful for listing common project information,such as project risks, documents, announcements, contacts, and change requests.

Figure 7-2. Standard View

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Calendar ViewUsed for lists that contain a date field. List items are displayed on a calendar(Figure 7-3). In a PMIS, this view can be used for displaying the project calendarthat stores schedules, milestones, deadlines, and other relevant project events.

Figure 7-3. Calendar View

Datasheet ViewList items are displayed in a spreadsheet format. This view provides the ability toedit multiple list items at once (see Figure 7-4). It allows you to change sorting and/or filtering while viewing data. This view only works if Internet Explorer and eitherMicrosoft Excel 2007 or 2010 are installed on the user’s or project stakeholder’smachine. This view is rarely used in a PMIS.

Figure 7-4. Datasheet View

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Gantt ViewUsed for tracking project tasks. This view displays a graphical representation ofhow a team’s tasks relate over time (see Figure 7-5).

Figure 7-5. Gantt View

Here are the basic steps to create a custom view:

1. From an existing list or document library, click Create View from the Library Tools,Library ribbon (Figure 7-6).

Figure 7-6. Create view

2. Select the desired view format (see Figure 7-7).

Figure 7-7. Selecting a view format

3. Define the appropriate settings (see Figure 7-8).

4. Click OK.


Figure 7-8. Defining view settings

Dux Quax: Special ViewsCertain views come with SharePoint out of the box and cannot be replicated as customviews. The two most commonly used special views are:

Explorer ViewThis view is available in document libraries that are intended to display files in amanner similar to Windows Explorer. A benefit of this view is the capability toupload files by dragging and dropping them directly to Internet Explorer.

My TasksThis is a special view in the Tasks list that only displays tasks assigned to the personviewing the Tasks list.

Workshop 7.1: Creating a Custom ViewIn this workshop, you will create a custom view for the SharePoint Dojo Project Re-sources custom list. This view will display contractors costing less than $125/hour.

For fields and settings that aren’t mentioned in the workshop steps, accept the defaultsettings. Here are the basic steps to create a custom view:

1. Access your PMIS.

2. From the Quick Launch on your home page, click Project Resources (seeFigure 7-9).

Workshop 7.1: Creating a Custom View | 141

Figure 7-9. Accessing Project Resources

3. In the List Tools, List ribbon, select Create View (see Figure 7-10). The StandardView button on the left is highlighted by default when you access the List Tools,List ribbon. When you hover over the Create View button, it will be highlightedas well. Click the Create View button.

Figure 7-10. Create View


4. Click Standard View on the page that loads when you’ve clicked the Create Viewbutton. This is a different Standard View than the Standard View in the List Tools,List ribbon.

5. In the Name section, set the View Name to “$125 or Less Contractors”, and setthe View Audience radio button to “Create a Public View”.

6. In the Columns section, ensure that the only enabled columns are: Resource Name,Cost (per hour), Notes, and Role (see Figure 7-11).

Figure 7-11. Enabling columns

7. In the Sort section (Figure 7-12), set “First sort by the column” to “Cost (per hour)”.

Figure 7-12. Setting the sort options

Workshop 7.1: Creating a Custom View | 143

8. In the Filter section (Figure 7-13), select the “Show Items only when the followingis true” option.

Figure 7-13. Filter selection

9. Click OK.

The new view has been created and is currently being displayed for the Project Re-sources list. How many resources are displayed? You should see an empty list in thisnew view unless you have the word “contractor” in the Notes section of resources thatcost $125 or less.

10. In the Project Resources list, click New Item from the List Tools, Items ribbon.

11. A new page will be displayed. Add a new resource with the following details:

Resource Name: David PuddyCost (per hour): 115Notes: He is a government contractorRole: IT

12. Click Save.

13. In the View list, display the $125 or less Contractors that you just created.

Can you see the most recent resource? Why?

14. To verify that the new resource was added, from List Tools, List ribbon, access theCurrent View drop-down and select “$125 or less”.

15. Return to the home page.


Congratulations! You have successfully created a new view.

As a good practice, you have to consider what other custom views should be createdfor your PMIS. The best way to do this is to refer back to your project communicationsplan and understand the communications needs of your stakeholders. For example, acustom view on high-priority risks will be relevant to the chief compliance officer of SharePoint Dojo.

Workshop 7.1 DebriefingIn this workshop, you created a custom public view for an existing list that displayedresource information. In addition to public views, you can also create personalviews; these are quite useful for project managers, should there be various projectmanagement-specific reports that have to be generated on a regular basis.

Using Web Parts for Interactive ReportingManagement dashboard—don’t you love those two words? Management does. A dash-board provides an interactive summary that consolidates, aggregates, and arrangesproject measurements, such as schedule and budget tracking. The dashboard is dis-played on a single screen so that information can be monitored at a glance.

In a SharePoint PMIS, dashboards are created using web parts, which (as described in“Part 3: Adding an Announcement List” on page 18) are customizable software com-ponents that are added onto a page without any programming. In a PMIS, web partscan perform various functions, such as:

• Displaying graphical or chart-based representations of high-level projectinformation

• Allowing external information from other systems or websites to be displayed orto interact with existing PMIS information

Web parts are similar to customizable web pages that are available on the Web. Forexample, do you have an iGoogle or My Yahoo! account? If you do, you know that youcan easily customize these web pages by specifying which components or widgets youwould like to have on the page, such as news, weather, sports statistics, stock quotes,and so on (see Figure 7-14).

Using Web Parts for Interactive Reporting | 145

Figure 7-14. A customized My Yahoo! web page

Web parts are created in a Microsoft development environment and are displayed in web part pages (see Figure 7-15).

Figure 7-15. Web part page


A web part page can contain a variety of different web parts, which are inserted in webpart zones (see Figure 7-16).

Figure 7-16. Web part zones

Web part zones are containers for web parts. They group and organize web parts in aweb part page. Referring back to Figure 7-15, notice that there are two web parts in theLeft web part zone: Project Announcements and Project Calendar.

Each web part page is divided into several zones. Each zone on the page can containone or more web parts.

How are web part zones created on a page? Web part zones are defined based on whichsite template was used. Remember when you first created your SharePoint site inChapter 1? One of the first steps was to pick a site template. New web part zones canbe added using advanced tools like Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 or MicrosoftVisual Studio .NET.

OK, good stuff about web parts, Dux, but why am I learning this again? Remember ourdiscussion about creating management dashboards? You see, utilizing web parts re-duces the complexity of integrating new site functionality for nonprogrammers. Webparts can be easily added and updated from a SharePoint site by anyone who has theappropriate level of permissions. This means that you can easily create and define thePMIS management dashboard without IT/IS intervention.

In addition to the web parts that come with SharePoint, specialized web parts areavailable from Microsoft and other third-party providers. Web parts can also be createdin Microsoft Visual Studio .NET by experienced programmers. Apart from creatingmanagement dashboards, web parts can be used in a PMIS to display snippets of in-formation from “Lists and Libraries” on the PMIS home page. In earlier workshops,you added web parts to the home page to display information from the existing lists(see Figure 7-17). These web parts are known as list web parts. Every time a list or libraryis created, SharePoint creates a corresponding web part for the list so that it can be usedto display the list elsewhere in the site.


Figure 7-17. Web parts created from existing lists and libraries

Dux Quax: Don’t Reinvent the WheelWith the help of web parts, you can easily interface with other systems and tools thatyou currently have in your organization. Keep in mind that before you decide to builda custom web part, you should check to see if there are commercial web parts availablethat serve the same purpose. Many third-party web parts are being given away to inte-grate other tools with SharePoint.

To add web parts, make sure you are viewing a web part page. To find out if you areviewing a web part page, click Site Actions. If you see the menu selection Edit Page,that means you are on a web part page.

Here is an overview of the basic steps to add a web part:

1. From a web part page, click Site Actions→Edit Page (see Figure 7-18).

2. Select the appropriate web part zone, and click “Add a Web Part” (see Figure 7-19).


Figure 7-18. Editing a web part page

Figure 7-19. Adding a web part to a web part zone

3. Select the web part you would like to add (see Figure 7-20).

4. Click Add.


Figure 7-20. Adding a web part

Workshop 7.2: Maximizing Project Reporting with Web PartsIn this workshop, you will add web parts to the PMIS home page, and you will use webparts to create a project dashboard for the case study project. The project dashboardwill provide a graphical display of the baseline and actual schedule of projectmilestones.


Part 1: Updating Web Parts on Your PMIS Home PageIn this part, you will add web parts on your PMIS home page. Here are the steps:

1. Access your PMIS.

2. From the home page, click Site Actions→Edit Page.

3. In the Right section, click “Add a Web Part” (Figure 7-21).


Figure 7-21. Adding a web part

4. In the Add Web Parts page, in the “Lists and Libraries” category, select the ProjectTasks web part. (Figure 7-22).

Figure 7-22. Selecting a web part to add

5. Click Add.

6. In the Project Tasks web part, hover over Project Tasks to access the drop-downmenu. In that menu, click Edit Web Part (see Figure 7-23).

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Figure 7-23. Editing a web part

7. In the Web Part tool pane, under List Views, open the Selected View drop-downmenu and select My Tasks (Figure 7-24). Depending on the layout of your pageand the size of your monitor, you may have to scroll to the right to see the tool pane.

Figure 7-24. Updating a web part property

8. Click OK to dismiss the warning.

9. Click OK to change the Selected View to My Tasks.


What benefit does the Project Tasks web part provide with the My Tasks view appliedto it? Well, it allows site members to view tasks assigned to them as soon as they get tothe PMIS (see Figure 7-25).

Figure 7-25. Project Tasks web part

Part 2: Creating a Project DashboardThe dashboard allows you to display project milestone variances using a bar chartrepresentation. To create the dashboard, we first create a milestones list and then createa web part page displaying the chart.

1. Applying what you learned in Chapter 3, use the settings in Table 7-1 to create acustom list called Project Milestones.

Table 7-1. Project Milestones custom list settings

Column name Type Required

WBS Number No

Baseline Finish Date and Time No

Actual Finish Date and Time No

2. Create a new column called Variance with the following settings:

a. Column Type: Calculated

b. Formula: [Actual Finish] − [Baseline Finish]

c. The data type returned from this formula is: Number

3. Rename the Title column to Milestone.

4. Return to the Project Milestones list (see Figure 7-26).


Figure 7-26. Project Milestones list

You will now populate the list. Instead of typing the milestones manually, you will copya list of milestones from Excel:

1. In Windows, select Start → All Programs →Microsoft Office→Microsoft Excel 2010.

2. Open the file My Documents\Project Files\Project Milestones.xlsx.

3. Highlight columns A, B, and C from cells 2 to 8.

4. Right-click the selected cells and click Copy.

5. Minimize Excel and restore Internet Explorer.

6. From the Project Milestones list, select Datasheet View from the List Tools, Listribbon (see Figure 7-27).

Figure 7-27. Editing in Datasheet View

7. Place the cursor in the first cell beneath the Milestone column, and paste in thedata you copied from Excel.


8. Update the Actual Finish dates for the following milestones (see Figure 7-28):

Project Initialized: 3/22/2009Location Identified: 3/18/2009Suppliers Identified: 4/20/2009Marketing Initiative Started: 4/22/2009Recruitment Completed: 3/25/2009IT Systems Integrated: 3/18/2009Dojo Opens: 11/5/2009

Figure 7-28. Entering Actual Finish dates

9. From the Project Milestones list, select Standard View from the List Tools, Listribbon (see Figure 7-29).

Figure 7-29. Accessing Standard View


You will now create a web parts page for the dashboard.


11. In the Page section, click Web Part Page.

12. A page similar to the one shown in Figure 7-30 will be displayed. Set the Name toMilestones. For the layout, select “Header, Left Column, Body”. For the savelocation, put the file in the Project Documents document library. You should havecreated this library in Workshop 3.2.

13. Click Create.

Figure 7-30. Creating a new web part page

14. In the new Milestones web part page, click “Add a Web Part” in the Left Columnsection (see Figure 7-31).


Figure 7-31. Adding a web part to the left web part zone

15. Under Categories, select Business Data, Chart Web Part, and click Add (Fig-ure 7-32).

16. From the Chart Web Part, click Data & Appearance to access the Data Connection& Chart Appearance Wizard (see Figure 7-33).

17. Click Connect Chart To Data.

18. In the “Step 1: Choose a Data Source” page, click “Connect to a List” and clickNext.

19. In the “Step 2: Connect to a List” page, under List Connection, click the List drop-down menu and select Project Milestones, and click Next.

20. In the “Step 3: Retrieve and Filter Data” page, review the data and make sure it iscorrect. Then click Next (see Figure 7-34).


Figure 7-32. Selecting Chart Web Part to add

Figure 7-33. Data Connection & Chart Appearance Wizard

Figure 7-34. The “Step 3: Retrieve and Filter Data” page


21. In the “Step 4: Bind Chart to Data” page, update the following properties (seeFigure 7-35):

Y Field: VarianceX Field: WBS

Figure 7-35. Updating the chart configuration

22. Click Finish.

As you can see, it is difficult to identify which milestone the WBS numbers pertain to(see Figure 7-36). Displaying the milestones beside the chart will clarify the WBS numbers.

Figure 7-36. Project dashboard


Part 3: Finalizing the DashboardYou will now create a limited view of the milestones list to be displayed on thedashboard:

1. Return to your Project Milestones list.

2. In the Project Milestones List Tools, click List→Create View (see Figure 7-37). InView Format, click Standard View.

Figure 7-37. Creating a view

3. Enter Dashboard in the View Name field, and enable the “Milestone (linked toitem with edit menu)”, WBS, Baseline Finish, and Actual Finish columns (seeFigure 7-38). You will have to uncheck the Variance and Attachment columns.

Figure 7-38. Column selections

4. Click OK.

5. Click Project Documents in the Quick Launch.

6. In the Project Documents document library, click Milestones (see Figure 7-39).

Figure 7-39. Accessing the Milestones web part page


7. In the Milestones web part page, click Site Actions→Edit Page.

8. In the Body web part zone, click “Add a Web Part” (see Figure 7-40).

Figure 7-40. Adding a web part to the Body

9. In the “Lists and Libraries” section, select Project Milestones and click Add (seeFigure 7-41).

Figure 7-41. Adding the Project Milestones web part

10. Select the Project Milestones web part, click the drop-down menu on the rightsection, and then click Edit Web Part (see Figure 7-42).


Figure 7-42. Edit Web Part

11. Use the Selected View drop-down menu to select Dashboard (see Figure 7-43).

Figure 7-43. Selecting Dashboard view

12. Click OK to dismiss the warning.

13. Click OK.

14. Click Stop Editing.

You should now see the variance chart and Project Milestones list on one page (Fig-ure 7-44).

Figure 7-44. Project Milestones dashboard


Congratulations! You have successfully maximized project reporting with web parts.

How does SharePoint add value in the project communication process? With the abilityto generate high-level project information without manual intervention, it saves a lotof time and effort on the project manager’s behalf. Additionally, management, cus-tomers, and sponsors are empowered to view real-time information without seekingassistance from anyone on the project team.

In what ways would the ability to create dashboards in SharePoint affect your com-munications planning? Knowing that SharePoint has the capability to generate dash-boards, it is critical to identify what types of project information will be required by aspecific stakeholder. So if a customer requires high-level schedule or budget informa-tion, you want to make sure that you have the appropriate lists in SharePoint that canbe used as the information source of the dashboard.

Workshop 7.2 DebriefingIn Part 1 of the workshop, you updated the home page and removed nonessential webparts from the home page.

In Part 2 of the workshop, you created a custom list that displays the baseline and actualdates of project milestones. In addition, you added the Chart Web Part to display theProject Milestones list in a graphical format.

Finally, you added the Project Milestones list web part to the project milestones dash-board page, and you changed the web part view to display the dashboard custom viewthat you defined.

Subscribing to AlertsRemember what the CEO of SharePoint Dojo said in Chapter 4 about getting projectinformation? She wants to be emailed. In SharePoint, alerts can do just that. Alerts areautomated reminders that can be enabled from a list or list item. Once enabled, emailnotifications will be sent when list items are added or updated. These notifications canbe sent right away, or as a daily or weekly summary. To take advantage of this feature,your IT department should configure and enable your SharePoint environment to sendemail messages.

To enable alerts from a library, from the Library Tools, Library ribbon, click AlertMe→“Set alert on this library” (see Figure 7-45).

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Figure 7-45. Enabling alerts from a list

A list alert can be configured based on numerous criteria, as shown in Figure 7-46.

Figure 7-46. List alert settings


To enable alerts from a list item, hover the mouse over the list item, access the drop-down menu, and click Alert Me (see Figure 7-47).

Figure 7-47. Enabling alerts from a library item

Like library alerts, library item alerts can be configured based on numerous criteria, asshown in Figure 7-48.

List item alerts are very beneficial to you, as the project manager, since you can haveautomated alerts sent to you whenever a resource updates the Project Tasks list, modi-fies a document, or defines a new risk.

Be careful when enabling alerts in multiple lists. If the PMIS becomes busy and active,the last thing you want is to get barraged with email notifications. If this is the case,you can configure the alert so that less critical information is sent daily; an alert willonly be sent out immediately if it involves critical information.

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Figure 7-48. Configuring library item alerts

Using Meeting WorkspacesHow often do you have meetings for your project? Don’t you love meetings—especiallythe meeting about planning for the next meeting? NOT! Let’s step through the typicalmeeting process, looking at the normal meeting lifecycle, and determining how closelyit resembles meetings that you conduct or attend in your world:

1. A meeting invitation is sent via email to 10 meeting participants with 5 projectdocuments attached.


2. The meeting takes place. During the meeting, we discover that people did not readthe documents before the meeting; instead, they read them in the meeting.

3. At the end of the meeting, action items are listed and assigned.

4. A few days later, email messages start to fly back and forth with various attacheddocuments to update the assigned action items. These messages are sent to allparticipants in the meeting, even if most of them have no involvement with thespecific action item.

5. In addition, we discover that no one can agree as to which action items were as-signed to which attendees.

What’s wrong with this picture? We live it every single day. If only you didn’t have toget tons of email messages with attachments that have nothing to do with you…thinkabout how much storage is wasted with all these files being sent back and forth. Evenworse, how is document history tracked? What if the customer wants a copy of thestatus report that was edited two days after the status meeting? Can it be retrievedeasily? Who has that version? Where is it stored?

SharePoint uses meeting workspaces (Figure 7-49) to address all of the meeting ineffi-ciencies described in the above scenario.

Meeting workspaces are SharePoint sites that provide a single repository for projectmeeting artifacts. In a SharePoint PMIS, they are created as a subsite of the PMIS.Meeting workspaces can contain meeting agendas, lists of meeting participants, docu-ments for the meeting, and assigned lists of tasks.

Figure 7-49. A meeting workspace

Meeting workspaces can be created in two ways:

Using the Site Creation Wizard in the web browserThis method is similar to that used for creating any other SharePoint site. From anexisting SharePoint site, create a subsite using one of the meeting workspacetemplates.

Using Microsoft Outlook 2010The meeting workspace can be created during the creation of a meeting invitation.After the invitation is sent, meeting attendees are added to the meeting workspace

Using Meeting Workspaces | 167

as site members. The body of the meeting invitation contains a link to the meetingworkspace, which can be accessed before, during, or after the meeting. This capa-bility is also available in Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007.

The meeting workspace icon is not a default button. To add it to your Outlook2010 Quick Access Toolbar, right-click on any menu item in the meeting request,select Customize Quick Access Toolbar, select the Meeting Workspace icon in thelist on the left, and click Add to add it to the toolbar. Click OK.

Use the following basic steps to create a meeting workspace using Outlook 2010:

1. In Microsoft Outlook 2010, create a meeting invitation by clicking NewItems→Meeting (Figure 7-50).

Figure 7-50. Creating a meeting invitation in Outlook 2010

2. Enter the appropriate meeting information.

3. In the toolbar, click Meeting Workspace (see Figure 7-51).

Figure 7-51. Creating a meeting workspace in Outlook 2010


4. In the Meeting Workspace pane, click “Change settings” and enter the desiredmeeting workspace settings (see Figure 7-52).

5. Click Create.

Figure 7-52. Meeting Workspace pane

Workshop 7.3: Creating a Meeting WorkspaceIn this workshop, you will create a meeting workspace for project status meetings using Microsoft Outlook 2010.


1. Open Microsoft Outlook 2010.

2. Select Calendar→My Calendars→Calendar. A screen similar to the one shown inFigure 7-53 will be displayed.

3. Click New Meeting in the Home ribbon (see Figure 7-54).

4. Enter the following information:

To: <username of a colleague who can access your SharePoint environment>Subject: Project Status MeetingLocation: VirtualStart Time: (2 days from now) 8:00 A.M.End Time: (2 days from now) 12:00 P.M.

Workshop 7.3: Creating a Meeting Workspace | 169

Figure 7-53. Outlook 2010 Calendar

Figure 7-54. Creating a new Meeting Request in Outlook 2010

5. In the toolbar, click Meeting Workspace.

6. In the Meeting Workspace pane on the right, click Change Settings.

7. Use the “Select a location” drop-down menu to enter your PMIS URL (Figure 7-55).


Figure 7-55. Setting up the Meeting Workspace

8. Click OK.

9. In the Meeting Workspace pane on the right, click Create.

10. Click Send to send the meeting invitation.

11. In your Outlook calendar, access the date for which you scheduled the meeting.

12. Double-click the meeting you just scheduled.

13. Click the link to the meeting workspace you just created. The workspace will bedisplayed in your web browser.

14. In the Objectives section, click “Add new item” and enter this text:Discuss the current status of rolling out SharePoint Dojo.

15. Click the Attendees list.

Who is listed as part of the meeting? Are they added as site members? What kinds ofpermissions do they have?

Congratulations! You have successfully created a meeting workspace.

Workshop 7.3 DebriefingIn this workshop, you created a meeting workspace from Microsoft Outlook 2010 bydefining it through a meeting invitation. This capability is also available in MicrosoftOutlook 2003 and 2007. Keep in mind that the meeting attendees that you invited donot necessarily need to have Microsoft Outlook to participate in the meeting work-space. When they receive the invitation, there will be a link to the newly created meetingworkspace.


Dux Quax: Optimize Your MeetingsWhat meeting problems are prevented, solved, or minimized by using a meeting work-space in a SharePoint PMIS? For starters, it is not necessary to send multiple attach-ments via email to multiple recipients, since all the meeting information is stored in themeeting workspace. This saves a lot of storage space and network bandwidth. Second,the meeting workspace makes it much easier to manage changes to documents—youdon’t have to worry about who edited it last and where it was stored.

Third, using a meeting workspace provides better security than email alone. With allthe meeting information and pertinent documents stored in a meeting workspace, onlypeople who are a part of the workspace can access this information. How does utilizinga meeting workspace compare with the methods you currently use to prepare for andsupport project meetings?

Best Practices Checklist• Make sure you use web parts that are essential to your community of users.

• Be careful when you download third-party web parts:

— Some free web parts are not as robust

— Security issues

• Leverage meeting workspaces for:

— Efficient document management

— Security

Summary• Utilizing custom views to create personalized reports is a powerful way to empower

project stakeholders to access relevant project information on their own, anytime.

• Web parts can facilitate the generation of project dashboards and key performanceindicators (KPIs).

• Alerts provide a convenient way to send email notifications about project infor-mation status based on specific criteria and frequency.

• Meeting workspaces are SharePoint sites that are focused on facilitating meetingcollaboration requirements.


CHAPTER 8

Integrating PM Tools

Don’t reinvent the wheel, just realign it.

—Anthony J. D’Angelo, writer

As project managers in the 21st century, when most of us have smartphones, drive GPS-enabled cars, use DVRs to record our favorite shows, and carry Macs as our notebookof choice, you would think we would be as sophisticated in leveraging the latest andgreatest tools to support us in managing projects. Guess again.

In my experience, most project managers and project teams rely on Microsoft Word,Excel, Project, and even PowerPoint as project management tools. The good news isthat you don’t have to give up these tools! You can continue to reap the benefits ofusing these tools on your projects and complement their use with your SharePointPMIS.

So far, you have learned to leverage SharePoint’s document management capabilitiesand to customize access to the documents created with these project management tools.This chapter focuses on maximizing your use of Microsoft Project and Excel withSharePoint.

173

Dux Quax: The Infamous Microsoft ProjectForgive me, but let me stand on my soapbox. I need to get this off my chest. First ofall, Microsoft Project is a great tool that assists in generating a project schedule, a resource management plan, and a basic project budget. However, it does not generatethe entire project plan. A project plan is made up of a lot more than just what MicrosoftProject generates. Minimally, a project plan is made up of various subsidiary plans,such as:

• Project charter

• Project schedule

• Risk management plan

• Quality management plan

• Configuration management plan

• Resource plan

• Project budget

• Project scope management

Send me an email at [email protected] if you want details about a project plan.

Second, if you use Microsoft Project to generate a fancy project schedule with a beautifulGantt chart (like the one in Figure 8-1), then print it out and hand it to every singleperson in your project, this doesn’t mean you’ll never use Microsoft Project again. Ifthis is the case, then don’t waste your time using the tool. You are not using MicrosoftProject to its full potential, and you are not gaining all its benefits if you don’t use it forproject-tracking purposes after the project has been planned and the actual work isunderway.

Finally, for the sake of all project managers out there, remember that Microsoft Projectis just a scheduling tool. You don’t crank it up as soon as you get your project assign-ment. Please, please go through sound project management planning even before youstart. The software doesn’t run the project—you do.

Integrating Microsoft Project into SharePointProper use of Microsoft Project can be leveraged with SharePoint. Project managers canuse Microsoft Project to create project schedules, generate staffing plans, and trackproject progress. Microsoft Project comes in two editions: Microsoft Project Standardand Microsoft Project Professional. The key difference is that Microsoft Project Pro-fessional interacts with Microsoft Project Server.

174 | Chapter 8: Integrating PM Tools

Using Microsoft Project 2010 with SharePoint allows you to:

Store Microsoft Project files in a document libraryAs with any other document type, you can benefit from applying the version con-trol, check-in/check-out, and content approval capabilities of a document libraryto your Microsoft Project files. I have found that using version control is a greatway to keep track of project baseline information in Microsoft Project, should therebe a change in scope or schedule (see Figure 8-2).

Figure 8-2. Version History of a Microsoft Project file

Figure 8-1. Tracking Gantt View in Microsoft Project

Integrating Microsoft Project into SharePoint | 175

Synchronize tasks updated from a SharePoint 2010 project task list to the MicrosoftProject 2010 task table

Earlier, you used a Project Tasks list in SharePoint to enable project resources toupdate their tasks (see Figure 8-3). As you’ve seen, the Project Tasks list is quitebasic and lacks a lot of the key features that come with Microsoft Project.

With Microsoft Project 2010, you can synchronize a project schedule and a Share-Point 2010 Project Tasks list. This is HUGE! This means that a project managercan publish a project schedule to a SharePoint Project Tasks list and have resourcesupdate their tasks on the Project Tasks list in SharePoint. The project manager canthen have the information synchronized back to Microsoft Project 2010.

This feature didn’t exist in the prior version of Microsoft Project and SharePoint.

Figure 8-3. Microsoft Project and Project Tasks list

To learn more about synchronizing Microsoft Project 2010 and SharePoint 2010, seehttp://spgur.us/ProjectSP2010.

Workshop 8.1: Using Microsoft ProjectIn this workshop, you will update a Microsoft Project file and store it in a documentlibrary. You will need to use Microsoft Project Standard or Professional 2010.

For fields and settings that aren’t mentioned in the workshop steps, accept the defaultsettings. Here are the steps:

1. Launch Microsoft Project.

2. Select File→Open.

3. Open the file My Documents\Project Files\Project Dojo.mpp.


As the project manager, you will be tracking the project schedule using the MicrosoftProject schedule that you have created. Your resources will be entering their statusupdates from the Project Tasks list we created earlier.

4. Select task 2, then click Task→Mark on Track→Update Tasks.

5. In the % Complete field, enter 100% and click OK.

Notice that the Actual Start and Actual Finish columns are populated (Figure 8-4).

Figure 8-4. Actual Start and Actual Finish columns are populated in Standard View

6. Click File→Save & Send→“Sync with Tasks List”. Enter the URL of your PMIS andselect Project Tasks (Figure 8-5).

Figure 8-5. Sync with Tasks List in Microsoft Project 2010

7. Click Sync.

8. Click OK to all dialog boxes until synchronization is completed.

Workshop 8.1: Using Microsoft Project | 177

9. From your browser, go to the Project Tasks list in SharePoint and update any tasksfields.

10. Return to the project schedule in Microsoft Project.

11. Click File→Save & Send→Sync.

12. You should see the tasks updates that was entered from SharePoint.

Congratulations! You have updated Microsoft Project to match your Project Tasks listand synchronized it with SharePoint.

Workshop 8.1 DebriefingWhat benefits do you get from using Microsoft Project alongside SharePoint?

As a project manager, I find that one of SharePoint’s most powerful features is that itallows project resources to update the status of their tasks. This allows me to focus oncore project management duties rather than having to sort through their emailed up-dates and manually enter them into Microsoft Project. Using Microsoft Project withSharePoint also provides transparency to the project stakeholders. If someone on theproject team wants to see the detailed status of the project schedule, she can simplyview it on the Project Tasks list.

Keep in mind that the Project Tasks list is not a replacement for Microsoft Project. Inaddition, should you have more complex needs around resource management, demandmanagement, and portfolio management, I highly recommend that you take advantageof Microsoft Project Server.

Using Microsoft Excel and SharePointOK, c’mon, ’fess up—you still use Microsoft Excel for tracking your project scheduleactivities and their statuses, right? That’s OK. If it gets the job done, why not? Well,you can do better, my friend. Now that you are using SharePoint as a PMIS, I urge youto reconsider using Excel as a scheduling tool. In the grand scheme of things, you andI know that this is not the best use of Excel and, more importantly, not the best use ofyour time as a project manager. You see, what will happen if you continue along thispath is that you will waste a lot of your precious time in manually changing the projectschedule whenever you get status updates. Let Microsoft Project or even a SharePointProject Tasks list do that.

Excel’s value in a project environment can be leveraged in dealing with project budgets.Apart from its capability to perform complex number crunching, it is a very powerfultool for analysis and reporting.


Coupled with the collaborative capabilities of SharePoint, as long as you have MicrosoftExcel 2003, 2007, and 2010, there are three Excel-specific functionalities that you cantake advantage of:

• Create a SharePoint custom list from an Excel spreadsheet

• Export an Excel spreadsheet to a SharePoint custom list

• Synchronize an Excel table with a SharePoint custom list

Let’s look at these three Excel-specific functionalities in SharePoint.

Creating a Custom List from an Existing Excel SpreadsheetIf you have existing Excel files with project-related information, you don’t have torecreate them in SharePoint. You can take an existing Excel spreadsheet and import itto SharePoint as a custom list.

To do this, click Site Actions→More Options. Under List, click Import Spreadsheet andclick Create (see Figure 8-6), then fill in the Name and Description of the spreadsheet,and browse for the file you’d like to import.

Figure 8-6. Importing an Excel spreadsheet as a custom list

The beauty of doing this is that instead of emailing or sharing an Excel file, the projectteam can work on it collaboratively in SharePoint. This means that the user doesn’teven need Microsoft Excel in order to interact with the project information.

Creating a Custom List from an Existing Excel Spreadsheet | 179

Exporting an Excel Spreadsheet to SharePoint As a Custom ListThis feature is beneficial if you have an Excel workbook with multiple tabs or spread-sheets, yet you only want to share a single spreadsheet. Let’s say you have an Excel filewith project budget information separated in multiple spreadsheets. You only want topublish the Expenses spreadsheet every week to make it available to the whole team(see Figure 8-7).

Figure 8-7. Excel spreadsheet exported to a SharePoint list

To export a spreadsheet from Microsoft Excel 2010:

1. From an existing Microsoft Excel file, highlight the cells that you wish to exportto a SharePoint list (see Figure 8-8).

Figure 8-8. Cell selection in Microsoft Excel 2010


2. Click Insert→Table (see Figure 8-9).

Figure 8-9. Inserting a table

3. The Create Table dialog box will be displayed (Figure 8-10). Ensure that the “Mytable has headers” feature is enabled, and click OK.

Figure 8-10. Create Table dialog box

4. On the Design tab, click Export→“Export Table to SharePoint List” (Figure 8-11).

Figure 8-11. “Export Table to SharePoint List”

Exporting an Excel Spreadsheet to SharePoint As a Custom List | 181

5. A window similar to the one shown in Figure 8-12 will be displayed. Enter theappropriate information.

Figure 8-12. “Export Table to SharePoint List” wizard

6. Click Next, then Finish.

Synchronizing Excel Tables with a SharePoint ListNow this feature is really cool. It’s similar to exporting an Excel spreadsheet to Share-Point, but this feature takes it further by allowing bidirectional updates between theExcel spreadsheet and SharePoint list (see Figure 8-13).

This feature is available out of the box in Excel 2003. However, in Excel 2010, a specialadd-in called “Excel 2007 Add-in: Synchronizing Tables with SharePoint Lists” has tobe downloaded and installed. You can access the download at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=25836E52-1892-4E17-AC08-5DF13CFC5295&displaylang=en.

Once downloaded, the add-in has to be installed and configured:

1. Install the “Excel 2007 Synchronizing Tables with SharePoint Lists” add-in.

2. Start Microsoft Excel 2010.

3. Click File, and then click Options and access the Add-Ins tab.

4. Select Excel Add-Ins in the Manage drop-down menu, and click Go.

5. In the Add-Ins dialog box, click Browse, navigate to the Excel 2007 SharePoint ListSynchronizing Add-In, and then click OK.

6. In the Add-Ins dialog box, verify that the SynchronizeWSSandExcel option isselected, and then click OK.


Figure 8-13. Excel spreadsheet synchronized with a SharePoint list

Using the add-in is simple when you take the following steps:

1. From an existing Excel file with an Excel table, save the workbook in the Excel 97–2003 (BIFF8) file format by clicking File, pointing to Save As, and then clickingExcel 97–2003 Workbook.

2. Specify a filename and click Save.

3. To publish the table to a SharePoint list, highlight the table.

4. Click the Design tab in Table Tools.

5. In the SharePoint section, click “Publish and allow Sync” (see Figure 8-14).

Synchronizing Excel Tables with a SharePoint List | 183

Figure 8-14. “Publish and allow Sync”

6. The “Export Table to SharePoint R/W List” dialog box will be displayed. In theAddress text box, enter the page address on the SharePoint site where you want topublish the list.

7. In the Name text box, enter the name of the list and, optionally, enter a descriptionfor the list.

8. Click Publish. Navigate to the page that you specified earlier on your SharePointsite and verify that the list was published. If you’re having trouble locating yourtable, go to Site Actions→View All Site Content. From there, you should be able tosee all the lists, tables, libraries, and other content you’ve added to your PMIS. Formore information, complete Workshop 8.2.

9. To update the SharePoint list, simply make changes in the table. With the pointerin the table, right-click, point to Table, and click “Synchronize with SharePoint”(see Figure 8-15). In the browser, refresh the list and observe that the list reflectsthe changes.

Figure 8-15. Synchronizing with SharePoint


Workshop 8.2: Synchronizing Excel with SharePointIn this workshop, you will synchronize an Excel 2010 table with a SharePoint list forthe case study project.


Part 1: Creating an Excel TableIn this section of the workshop, you will create an Excel table, which is required inorder to synchronize an Excel spreadsheet with a SharePoint list:

1. Using the method described earlier, download and install “Excel 2007 Add-In:Synchronizing Tables with SharePoint Lists”.

2. Open Microsoft Excel 2010.

3. Click File and select Open (Figure 8-16).

4. Open the file My Documents\Project Files\Dojo Locations.xslx.

Figure 8-16. Microsoft Excel 2010: Open

5. If not already selected, select rows 1 to 4 within columns A and B (see Figure 8-17).

Figure 8-17. Data selection

Workshop 8.2: Synchronizing Excel with SharePoint | 185

6. Click Insert→Table (Figure 8-18).

Figure 8-18. Inserting a table

7. The Create Table dialog box will be displayed. Ensure that the “My table hasheaders” option is selected. Click OK (see Figure 8-19).

Figure 8-19. “My table has headers” option

You have just created an Excel table.

8. Click File and select Save As→Excel 97–2003 Workbook.

9. Click Save.

10. Click Continue.

11. Place the cursor within the Excel table.

12. In the Design tab, click “Publish and allow Sync” (see Figure 8-20).


Figure 8-20. Publishing a spreadsheet

13. The “Export Table to R/W SharePoint List” dialog box will be displayed (Fig-ure 8-21). Enter the following information:

Address: <address of your SharePoint site>Name: Dojo LocationsDescription: A list of dojo locations worldwide

14. Click Publish.

Figure 8-21. Exporting a table to SharePoint

The Excel table is now published to your SharePoint site.

Workshop 8.2: Synchronizing Excel with SharePoint | 187

Part 2: Synchronizing the SharePoint List with ExcelIn this section, you will update the newly created SharePoint list and synchronize itwith Excel:

1. Using Internet Explorer, access your SharePoint PMIS.

2. In the Quick Launch menu, click Lists.

3. Click Dojo Locations (see Figure 8-22).

Figure 8-22. Accessing the new Excel table in SharePoint

4. Enter a new entry.

5. Restore Microsoft Excel 2010.

6. Right-click the Excel table and select Table→“Synchronize with SharePoint” (Fig-ure 8-23). You should see the new entry you added from the SharePoint list.

Figure 8-23. Synchronizing the table with SharePoint


7. Enter a new City and Country in Excel.

8. Right-click the Excel table and select Table→“Synchronize with SharePoint”.

9. Using Internet Explorer, return to the Dojo Locations list. You should see the newentry that you added in Excel.

Congratulations! You have successfully synchronized an Excel spreadsheet with a SharePoint list.

Workshop 8.2 DebriefingIn the first part of the workshop, you created an Excel table from an existing Excel fileand published it to a SharePoint list. Microsoft Excel automatically created the newSharePoint list and, as you may have noticed, it did not create a Quick Launch shortcutfor it.

Next, from the newly created SharePoint list, you added more information, and fromExcel, you were able to synchronize the information from SharePoint with the Exceltable. Synchronization takes place in Excel, and there is no way to automatically syn-chronize the information; it has to be manually synchronized by the user from Excel.

Dux Quax: How Can I Best Use Excel and SharePoint Synchronization?In a project environment, Excel and SharePoint synchronization can be beneficial forbudget tracking. Let’s say the PMO in your organization has a master Excel file trackingproject expenses throughout the organization. In that file, there is a spreadsheet specificto your project, along with other spreadsheets pertaining to other projects. With syn-chronization enabled, the spreadsheet can be published as a list in your PMIS, and thenanytime a new expense is entered into the Expense list in the PMIS, the PMO will seeit on his spreadsheet. Conversely, if the PMO decides to enter new information intothe spreadsheet, it will show up on the Expense list in your PMIS.

Best Practices Checklist• Use the Project Tasks list to make sure project status information in Microsoft

Project is made available in SharePoint.

• It is best to store an Excel file in a document library unless:

— Only a limited set of information has to be made available

— The information has to be in a SharePoint list

Best Practices Checklist | 189

Summary• Leverage existing PM tools by utilizing SharePoint’s central storage, document

management, and secured access capabilities.

• Acquire a third-party add-in for Microsoft Project to allow synchronization with aProject Tasks list in SharePoint.

• Convert Excel spreadsheets to SharePoint lists for effective collaboration.


CHAPTER 9

Project Closing

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate thevision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly

drive it to completion.

—Thomas Hardy, novelist

Uncle Eric works seven days a week running a conglomerate of furniture-related busi-nesses that include furniture imports, retail furniture stores, and a sofa manufacturingfacility; he shuttles back and forth among various countries in Asia and the U.S. everyother month. His is a classic rags-to-riches story—he had a few hundred dollars whenhe first moved to the U.S., and his passionate drive and impeccable work ethic havebrought him tremendous success in spite of his humble beginnings.

I spent a few years working with Uncle Eric in the late ’90s and discovered his threeessential elements for success: (1) make sure you completely finish anything that youstart; (2) put your best foot forward in any endeavor you pursue from the beginninguntil the end; (3) take notes and keep track of what worked and what didn’t, so thenext time around you will make a better effort based on what you learned last time.

Project managers often fall short as the project lifecycle progresses. We are excited whena project gets started, but as the project progresses, our zeal and motivation slowlydissipate. Once we think that the project is finished, we move on to the next projectwithout closing the current project appropriately.

Analyzing how a project went and considering the lessons learned should be the lastessential step in your project management process. This step allows the project teamto assess how the project actually went compared to what was planned. You can alsoevaluate how effective your PMIS was by looking at the following:

• How well did the PMIS facilitate project communications and collaboration?

• Which components in the PMIS provided great benefit? Anything missing?

• How well was the PMIS adopted and used by the stakeholders?

• Can a similar PMIS be utilized for future projects?

191

At the close of a project, there are two key areas that every project manager shouldconsider regarding a SharePoint PMIS:

• Creating a PMIS template

• Archiving your PMIS

Dux Quax: Limiting Site TemplatesSF and SS come with a wide variety of site templates. In addition, more site templateswill be thrown into the mix after you create and save SharePoint PMIS templates foryour organization. I recommend that you have a discussion with IT/IS, to see whetherit’s possible to limit the number of site templates that are available, and remove anyout-of-the-box site templates that will not be used. This helps prevent confusion whencreating new SharePoint sites; users can be more easily directed toward the custom sitetemplates that are appropriate for your organization and your projects.

Overview of Creating a PMIS TemplateYou’ve put a lot of work into building, tweaking, and using your SharePoint PMIS.Would you want to build one for every project? Of course not! Why reinvent the wheel?Take your existing SharePoint PMIS and save it as a site template. All the lists, libraries,views, and web parts that were used will be stored. If desired, you can store the contentof the PMIS as well. Once saved, the site template can be used as a basis for the creationof your next PMIS. In addition, saving a PMIS site template will allow standardizationthroughout your organization.

Carry out these tasks in preparation for saving your SharePoint site as a template:

1. Customize the look and feel of the site.

2. Identify all of the required functionalities:

a. Lists

b. Document libraries

c. Web parts

3. Add the necessary lists and/or web parts.

4. Address navigational requirements:

a. Quick Launch

b. Top link bar

c. Hyperlinks

5. To save the site as a site template, click Site Actions→Site Settings. In the Site Ac-tions section, click “Save site as template” (see Figure 9-1). In order to do so, yourpermission level should be that of a site collection administrator. If you can’t doit, your site collection administrator should be able to.

192 | Chapter 9: Project Closing

Figure 9-1. Saving a site as a site template

Once the site is saved as a template, it will be available as a site template selection whena new site is created under the Blank & Custom category (see Figure 9-2).

Figure 9-2. New site template is now available when creating a new SharePoint site

Overview of Creating a PMIS Template | 193

Overview of Archiving the PMISIt is a good practice to archive your SharePoint PMIS once the project is finished. Acommon way to archive a PMIS is simply to back up your SharePoint site by runninga backup command on the SharePoint server, or by using SharePoint Designer. Youmay need your IT department to do this for you.

Another practical way of backing up your PMIS is to save it as a site template andinclude all the content by enabling the Include Content feature during the save process(see Figure 9-3). Once this is done, you can download a copy of your PMIS for yourarchives.

Figure 9-3. Saving a site template, including all content

To download a copy of an archived PMIS:

1. Access the top-level SharePoint site of your SharePoint PMIS (this assumes thatyour PMIS is a subsite). For example, I will go to http://sp.sharepointdojo.com/,since my PMIS is http://sp.sharepointdojo.com/cebu.

2. Click Site Actions→Site Settings.

3. In the Galleries section, click Solution. To download an archived PMS, your per-mission level should be that of a site collection administrator. If you can’t do it,your site collection administrator should be able to.

4. Click the name of your site template. The File Download pop up will be displayed(Figure 9-4).

5. Click Save.


Figure 9-4. Downloading a site template

Workshop 9.1: Creating a PMIS Site TemplateIn this workshop, you will save your case study PMIS as a site template as part of yourproject closure activities.

For fields and settings that aren’t mentioned in the workshop steps, accept the defaultsettings. Here are the steps to create a site template:

1. Open Internet Explorer and access your PMIS.

2. Click Site Actions→Site Settings (Figure 9-5).

3. In the Site Actions column, click “Save site as template”, if you are a site collectionadministrator (Figure 9-6).

4. The “Save site as template” page will be displayed (Figure 9-7). Enter the followinginformation:

File name: <city>.stp (.stp is the file extension of site templates)Template name: <city> PMIS TemplateTemplate description: This is the PMIS template used for new SharePointDojo projects.Include Content: Disabled

Workshop 9.1: Creating a PMIS Site Template | 195

Figure 9-6. Saving a site as a template

Figure 9-5. Accessing Site Settings


Figure 9-7. Updating site template information

5. Click OK and then OK again.

6. A page similar to the one shown in Figure 9-8 will be displayed. Applying whatyou learned in Chapter 2, use the following settings to create a subsite from yourexisting PMIS using the site template you just saved:

a. Title: test

b. URL name: http://sp.sharepointdojo.com/<city>/test

c. Permissions: Unique

d. Navigation Inheritance: No

Figure 9-8. Creating a test site from a saved template

Workshop 9.1: Creating a PMIS Site Template | 197

7. Test to determine whether the following PMIS components are available:

a. Project Documents

b. Project Risks

c. Change Request

d. Project Calendar

e. Project Contacts

f. Project Tasks

g. Project Resources

h. Project Milestones

Congratulations! You have created and utilized a site template.

Workshop 9.1 DebriefingA PMIS should be updated to fit your organization’s project management processesand to reflect the needs of the project itself. You might consider creating multiple sitetemplates with varying site components for your PMIS, such as site templates specificto:

• Software development projects

• Process-related projects

• Short-term projects

• Internal projects

• External projects

Ensuring Stakeholder Buy-InThe most critical aspect of leveraging SharePoint as a PMIS is getting your projectstakeholders to use it and then to love it! Getting people to learn something new willbe a big hurdle. The following are four practical steps to ensure stakeholder buy-in forusing SharePoint as a PMIS.

1. Leverage and Prove the Value of SharePoint as a PMIS on a Pilot ProjectBefore you mandate and implement SharePoint as a standard PMIS, take a test driveand use it with a core group of people on a pilot project. Present the value of usingSharePoint to your stakeholders by comparing and contrasting its benefits relative tothe existing tools and processes that you have in place for your projects.


Involve your project team and customers, from the initial steps of defining projectcommunications requirements, to mapping those requirements to the essential com-ponents of the PMIS, all the way to determining how it should be used throughout theproject lifecycle.

Have the pilot group assist you in defining and documenting project management pro-cesses, as well as how to best customize SharePoint as it applies to your project envi-ronment. For example, customize your SharePoint PMIS to adhere to your changecontrol process.

2. Provide User Support in Learning and Utilizing SharePointUsing SharePoint is quite different from using existing tools, so the last thing you wantto do is build a SharePoint PMIS and not introduce the tool properly to its users. Providetraining to everyone who will be using the PMIS, even if it is just a short session intro-ducing key concepts, the purpose, and its major components. Avoid asking your stake-holders to read a SharePoint book or technical manual.

Make sure you provide a self-help mechanism where users can easily find snippets ofinformation about SharePoint and the PMIS. For example, you can create a list ordocument library with basic how-to guides that cover key topics such as:

• How to check out/check in a document

• How to create a meeting workspace

• How to save a document to a document library from Microsoft Word

• How to update a project task

If you want to provide a good reference for “how-to” videos for your users, have themcheck out http://iusesharepoint.com.

3. Measure and Broadcast SuccessFor the pilot and early projects that use SharePoint as a PMIS, document and measurehow SharePoint was beneficial to project planning, communications, collaboration,reporting, status updating, and risk management. For example, you can gauge howmuch time and effort was saved by being able to track document version histories inSharePoint versus the old way of doing things.

Having these positive results and actual numbers will be a great tool to convince peoplethat they can benefit from using SharePoint.

Ensuring Stakeholder Buy-In | 199

4. Gather FeedbackProvide a way for your users to give feedback about the PMIS. Allow them to providecomments on the usefulness of the PMIS, components that could be enhanced or re-moved, or anything missing.

A good way to do this is to create a custom list in the PMIS that allows users to enter feedback.

Dux Quax: Auf Wiedersehen Vielleicht Bis MorgenI spent three months at Hochschule Harz in Wernigerode, Germany, in the summer of1998 on an academic project with an international team. Wernigerode is a picturesquecity with rich heritage, culture, and traditions.

What does this have to do with leveraging SharePoint as a PMIS? When I first got toWernigerode, everything was new to me: the language, the culture, the food, and theday-to-day routine. This is just like using SharePoint as a PMIS for the first time.

After two weeks of living in Wernigerode, I appreciated the little things that let meinteract with people and get things done as part of my new daily routine: riding a bikeand cutting through the morning traffic; stopping by the bakery where the ownerhanded me bread, cheese, and coffee without having to ask what I wanted; and meetingwith my colleagues face-to-face to hash out project issues. With SharePoint, I feel asimilar type of appreciation in being able to fully benefit from the efficient collaborationand improved communications tools that it provides: setting up a site, defining com-ponents, adding project stakeholders, streamlining project communications, and sim-plifying project reporting without the IT/IS department’s intervention.

It’s been nearly 15 years since I left Germany, and to this day I still keep in touch withfriends there, cultivate my fondness for microbrew, and maintain the efficient teamcollaboration habits that I developed there. Apart from myself, you will find manypeople who have found great benefits in using SharePoint to improve their day-to-daycollaborative activities.

I hope that after you apply what you have learned from this book, SharePoint willcontribute to positive changes in your own projects. Also, I suggest that you visit http://nothingbutsharepoint.com to keep up with the latest and greatest about SharePoint.Finally, don’t be a stranger; I would love to hear from you. Feel free to contact me viaany of the following:

• Email: [email protected]

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/Meetdux

• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/meetdux

• Blog: http://www.meetdux.com

All the best!


Best Practices Checklist• Develop a standard PMIS site template.

• Archive and save a copy of your PMIS, including its content, once the project iscomplete.

• Involve and train your project stakeholders in the proper use of the PMIS.

Summary• Custom site templates can be created from existing SharePoint sites.

• Site templates can be downloaded from the Site Template gallery on the Site Set-tings page of a top-level site.

• Site templates have an .stp file extension.

• Taking proper steps to promote SharePoint adoption is critical.

Summary | 201

Index

Aaccess control

mobile devices and, 23permission levels, 65PMIS considerations, 22, 24

Access Requests button, 69accountability, project, 106Add Web Parts page, 151alerts, subscribing to, 163Announcement list

adding announcements to, 19creating, 18–20

announcementsadding to Announcement list, 19displaying on home page, 20PMIS considerations, 28

archiving PMIS, 194authentication, claims-based, 70Automated Site Collection Deletion feature,

13

BBamboo Solutions, 73Bell, Alexander Graham, 81best practices

process improvement and, 3project closing, 201project kickoff, 9project management, 189project reporting, 172project tracking, 135SharePoint lists, 61SharePoint sites, 26stakeholders, 79

team collaboration, 102Blank Site site template, 14Blog site template, 14branding standards, 23breadcrumb navigation

defined, 18usage considerations, 23

Ccalendar list

about, 28, 29creating, 36populating, 36

Calendar View, 139case study (see SharePoint Dojo case study)Change a Workflow page, 120change control system

about, 119controlling changes with workflow, 119–

121creating with three-state workflow, 122–

135importance of, 122PMIS considerations, 28tracking considerations, 103

check-out/check-in featureabout, 83requiring, 89

Choose File dialog box, 57Claims-Based Authentication, 70collaboration, team (see team collaboration)contacts list

about, 28, 30creating, 38populating, 38

We’d like to hear your suggestions for improving our indexes. Send email to [email protected].

203

Content Approval feature, 87contribute permission, 65, 66Create Column button, 54Create page, 19Create Table dialog box, 181, 186Create View button, 142custom lists

about, 31, 32creating, 41–45, 123Excel spreadsheets and, 179, 180populating, 41–45

custom viewsabout, 137–140creating, 141–145types of, 138

customizing site theme, 17

DD’Angelo, Anthony J., 173dashboards

about, 145creating, 145, 153–159creating web part pages for, 156finalizing, 160–163permissions and, 147

Datasheet View, 139design permission, 65discussion boards, 98–99document libraries

about, 49check-out/check-in feature, 83, 89–93Content Approval feature, 87creating, 52, 55creating document workspaces from

existing, 101custom views, 137editing documents from, 91enabling document management solutions,

82populating, 55, 57–59storing Microsoft Project files in, 175version history feature, 85–87, 93

Document Library Settings page, 90document management

check-out/check-in feature, 83, 89–93Content Approval feature, 87enabling solutions for, 82libraries and, 49–50PMIS considerations, 28

SharePoint support, 6version history feature, 85–87, 93

Document Workspace site template, 14document workspaces, 99–101

EEdit mode, 21Edit Permissions page, 77Edit User Permissions button, 71Excel (Microsoft)

custom lists and, 179, 180SharePoint support, 178synchronizing with SharePoint, 182, 185–

189Excel 2007 Synchronizing Tables with

SharePoint Lists add-in, 182, 185Explorer View, 141Export Table to R/W SharePoint List dialog

box, 187exporting Excel spreadsheets as custom lists,

180eXtensible Markup Language (XML), 50

Fform libraries, 50full control permission, 65

GGantt charts, 104, 174Gantt View, 140Gates, Bill, 27Grant Permissions button, 67Grant Permissions page, 67, 74groups (SharePoint), 65

HHardy, Thomas, 191home page

adding web parts to, 147displaying announcements on, 20displaying SharePoint lists, 46navigating back to, 18updating web parts on, 150

IInfoPath (Microsoft), 50, 52issue-tracking list, 31, 40, 107

204 | Index

Items ribbon (List Tools)about, 32Alert Me feature, 32List Settings option, 33Modify View option, 33New Item option, 32, 144

Llibraries

commonly used, 49–50defined, 49enabling alerts from, 163web parts and, 147

library alerts, 165library item alerts, 165Library Settings button, 54, 71, 75Library Tools, Library ribbon

Create Column button, 54enabling alerts from libraries, 163Library Settings button, 54, 71, 75

licensing SharePoint, 7list item alerts, 165List Settings page, 110List Tools

Items ribbon, 32, 33, 144List ribbon, 32

list web parts, 147lists (see SharePoint lists)

MMachiavelli, Niccolò, 1management dashboards (see dashboards)meeting workspaces

creating, 167, 169defined, 167optimizing meetings, 172usage considerations, 166–169

Microsoft Excelcustom lists and, 179, 180SharePoint support, 178synchronizing with SharePoint, 182, 185–

189Microsoft InfoPath, 50, 52Microsoft Outlook 2010, 167, 169Microsoft Picture Manager, 50Microsoft Project

integrating into SharePoint, 174usage considerations, 174, 176

Microsoft SharePoint (see SharePoint 2010)Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010, 147Microsoft study on productivity, viiMicrosoft Visual Studio .NET, 147mobile devices, site access from, 23multiple-site collections, 12My Tasks view (Tasks list), 121, 141

NNavigate Up button, 18navigation

back to home page, 18breadcrumb, 18, 23

New Event page, 36

OOutlook 2010 (Microsoft), 167, 169

Ppermission levels

customizing, 70–73, 75for site access, 65for site owners, 65inheriting, 71web part considerations, 147

Permission Tools ribbon, 67Access Requests button, 69Edit User Permissions button, 71Stop Inheriting Permissions button, 72, 77

Permissions page, 75picture libraries, 50Picture Manager (Microsoft), 50PMBOK (Project Management Body of

Knowledge) Guide, 2PMIS (Project Management Information

System), 14(see also SharePoint sites)adding components, 27–28alternative products, 7, 8archiving, 194best practices checklist, 9compliance considerations, 24controlling access, 22, 24creating sites, 16creating templates, 192customizing, 22–24decision-making structure, 13defined, 4

Index | 205

essential capabilities checklist, 4establishing foundation, 15–22organizing, 12–13site considerations, 12usage considerations, 3, 4–5when to start building, 15

PMO (Project Management Office), 7PRINCE2 (Projects in Controlled

Environments) road map, 2process improvement, best practices and, 3productivity, Microsoft study on, viiProject Announcements list web part, 20Project Announcements page, 20project charters

collaborating on, 82, 99examples of, 99soliciting feedback on, 99version history feature, 87

project closingabout, 191archiving PMIS, 194best practices checklist, 201creating PMIS templates, 192, 195ensuring stakeholder buy-in, 198–200

project communications planchecklist for, 64creating, 64

project informationaccessing, 82organizing, 60

project kickoffbest practices checklist, 9essential list of activities, 2improving inefficiencies in, 2PMIS considerations, 4–5SharePoint considerations, 5–8tool considerations, 1

project managementbest practices checklist, 189developing processes for, 3essential list of activities, 2improving inefficiencies in, 2integrating Microsoft Project into

SharePoint, 174Microsoft Excel usage considerations, 178–

189Microsoft Project usage considerations,

176SharePoint usage considerations, 178–189

tool considerations, 1, 173Project Management Body of Knowledge

(PMBOK) Guide, 2Project Management Information System (see

PMIS)Project Management Office (PMO), 7project milestones

displaying variances, 153–159PMIS considerations, 28

project plans, 174project reporting

about, 137best practices checklist, 172custom views, 137–145interactive, 145–149maximizing with web parts, 150meeting workspaces and, 166–169PMIS considerations, 13subscribing to alerts, 163

Project Resources page, 42project schedules (see scheduling projects)Project Tasks list

about, 28, 30, 104–105creating, 41My Tasks view, 121, 141populating, 112–114synchronizing tasks updated from, 176updating, 110–114

Project Tasks List Settings page, 111Project Tasks page, 41Project Tasks web part, 151project tracking

best practices checklist, 135controlling changes with workflow, 119–

121creating change control system, 122–135critical elements in, 103issue-tracking list, 31, 40, 107tracking change requests, 103tracking risks, 103, 107, 115–117tracking schedules, 103, 110–114tracking task progress, 104–105

Projects in Controlled Environments(PRINCE2) road map, 2

QQuick Launch, 23, 24

206 | Index

Rread permission, 65, 66reporting, project (see project reporting)resource list

about, 28creating, 41–45populating, 41–45

resource management, 174risk assessment, 107risk identification, 107risk management

about, 103, 107documenting risks, 115–117relevance of, 109

risk prioritization, 107risk response, 107risks list, 28, 40Rizal, José P., viiroot websites, 11

SSave site as template page, 195scheduling projects

Microsoft Project tool, 174Project Tasks list and, 104, 110–114tracking schedules, 103

Set Up Groups for this Site page, 97SF (SharePoint Foundation)

about, 6limiting site templates, 192search limitations, 13three-state workflow and, 119

SharePoint 2010about, 5–8exporting Excel as custom lists, 180integrating Microsoft Project into, 174licensing considerations, 7synchronizing Excel and, 185–189usage considerations, 178

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Microsoft), 147SharePoint Dojo case study

about, 8adding site members, 73–77creating and populating document libraries,

55–60creating and populating lists, 35–49creating change control system, 122–135creating custom views, 141–145

creating meeting workspaces, 169creating PMIS site template, 195establishing SharePoint PMIS foundation,

15–22maximizing project reporting, 150Microsoft Project usage considerations,

176project communication requirements, 64synchronizing Excel with SharePoint, 185–

189tracking risks, 110updating project documents, 89–96updating project schedule, 110updating regional site settings, 25

SharePoint Foundation (SF)about, 6limiting site templates, 192search limitations, 13three-state workflow and, 119

SharePoint groups, 65SharePoint lists

adding, 18–20best practices checklist, 61creating, 34–45custom views, 137customizing permissions, 75defined, 18displaying on home page, 46enabling alerts from, 165populating, 35–45synchronizing with Excel, 182, 188usage considerations, 28–34web parts and, 147

SharePoint Server (SS)about, 6extended features, 6limiting site templates, 192three-state workflow, 119

SharePoint sitesabout, 11access considerations, 65best practices checklist, 26branding standards, 23creating, 14creating document workspaces from

existing, 100customizing site theme, 17establishing foundation, 15–22hierarchy in, 11

Index | 207

navigating, 23, 24permanent versus temporary, 14SharePoint groups and, 65site templates, 14updating regional settings, 25usability considerations, 23

Shaw, George Bernard, 103single-site collections, 12Site Actions menu, 17site collections

defined, 12deleting, 13permanent versus temporary, 14PMIS options, 12

Site Creation Wizard, 167site members

adding, 66–68, 74permission levels for, 66

site owners, permission levels for, 65Site Settings page, 17, 23site templates

corporate branding standards, 23creating PMIS, 192default, 14limiting, 192

Site Theme page, 17site visitors, permission levels for, 66sites, SharePoint (see SharePoint sites)SMEs (subject matter experts), 100SS (SharePoint Server)

about, 6extended features, 6limiting site templates, 192three-state workflow, 119

stakeholdersadding site members, 66–68, 74best practices checklist, 79change control system and, 122creating SharePoint groups, 65customizing permissions, 70–73, 75ensuring buy-in, 198–200external to organization, 70project communications plan, 64site access for, 65

Standard View, 138Standard View button, 142Stop Inheriting Permissions button, 72, 77subject matter experts (SMEs), 100subscribing to alerts, 163

subsitesbreadcrumb navigation and, 23creating, 14defined, 11

synchronizingMicrosoft Excel and SharePoint, 179, 182,

185–189Microsoft Project and SharePoint, 176

Tteam collaboration

best practices checklist, 102check-out/check-in feature, 83, 89–93common stumbling blocks, 81Content Approval feature, 87enabling document management solutions,

82facilitating, 96SharePoint support, 6tool considerations, 97–101version history feature, 85–87, 93

Team Site site template, 14templates (see site templates)testing workflows, 130–133three-state workflow

about, 119–121creating change control system with, 122–

135customizing, 124–129implementing, 120testing, 130–133

Top Link bar, 23, 24tracking, project (see project tracking)

UUser Management Solution Accelerator, 73

Vversion history feature, 85–87, 93views

custom, 137–145defined, 137

Visual Studio .NET (Microsoft), 147

WWBS (Work Breakdown Structure), 50, 97web part pages

208 | Index

creating for dashboards, 156displaying web parts in, 146dividing into zones, 147

web part zonescreating on pages, 147defined, 147

web partsadding to pages, 46, 147, 148availability of, 147, 148creating, 146defined, 20interactive reporting and, 145–149maximizing project reporting, 150permissions and, 147repositioning, 47sample functions, 145updating, 150

websites, SharePoint (see SharePoint sites)wiki page libraries, 50Wiki Site site template, 14wikis and wiki pages

creating, 97defined, 50, 97

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), 50, 97workflow process

automating, 119controlling changes with, 119–121creating change control system with, 122–

135customizing, 124–129testing, 130–133

workspacesdocument, 99–101meeting, 166–171

XXML (eXtensible Markup Language), 50

ZZells, Lois, 63

Index | 209

About the AuthorWith more than 15 years of experience in Information Technology, Dux RaymondSy has earned a reputation as one of the leading experts in leveraging technology toenhance project management. He is currently a managing partner of Innovative-e, Inc.As a thought leader in maximizing project team collaboration, he is focused on em-powering organizations on how to leverage the benefits of collaborative tools withquantifiable goals, such as increasing productivity and efficiency, decreasing collabo-ration redundancies, and streamlining electronic communications. A sought-aftertrainer, he has developed and facilitated management and technology training for gov-ernment organizations; Fortune 500 companies; and nonprofit institutions in theUnited States, the Bahamas, Barbados, China, the United Kingdom, and the Philip-pines. He regularly writes about project management, SharePoint, and globalization athttp://www.meetdux.com.

ColophonThe animal on the cover of SharePoint 2010 for Project Management is a black foxsquirrel (Sciurus niger). Also known as the cat squirrel, the stump-eared squirrel, andthe monkey-faced squirrel, it is the largest species of tree squirrel native to NorthAmerica. Fox squirrels are widely distributed and are considered the most variablycolored of any animal in the United States; 10 subspecies are recognized, based oncolor. They are usually brownish gray or reddish tan, but black-coated communitiescan be found in many southeastern states, particularly Florida, South Carolina, andGeorgia. The black color comes from a condition known as melanism. Melanism occursin other species of squirrel, such as the common gray squirrel, but the melanistic foxsquirrel can be distinguished by its white ears and nose, whereas other melanisticsquirrels are uniformly black.

The fox squirrel is also distinctive because it is so large: it has a body length of 15 to 30inches, including an 8- to 13-inch tail, and weighs one to three pounds. Fox squirrelsare solitary and spend more time on the ground than most other tree squirrels, althoughthey are agile climbers. They prefer an open habitat and are most often found in smallforests or tree-filled neighborhoods, wherever oak, hickory, walnut, and pine trees areplentiful. This squirrel makes its home in tree hollows or leaf nests and spends most ofits day eating, gathering, and storing food. Its diet largely consists of acorns, walnuts,fruits, seeds, and insects. The fox squirrel’s natural predators are hawks, owls, andsnakes, and it is also a popular game animal. It has a conservation status of “nearthreatened” in many areas of North America.

The cover image is from Cassell’s Popular Natural History. The cover font is AdobeITC Garamond. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe MyriadCondensed; and the code font is LucasFont’s TheSansMonoCondensed.

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Share point 2010 for project management