TPG PSLink For integration bewteen PWA and SAP

TPG PSLink is a SAP-certified product for a bidirectional data exchange between Microsoft Project and SAP. Its extensive checking mechanisms ensure the complete consistency of all data shared between the two systems at all times. The product is very flexible for use in a range of different scenarios with extensive configuration options, which offer you an unrivaled rapid implementation time – even if the SAP PS module has not been implemented.

A difference analysis shows you the changes in the data before they are written to the other system – and only these changes are transferred. This is what makes TPG PSLink so unique, compared to other solutions.

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If you would like to know more please do not hesitate to contact me.

Andre

Managing Master and Sub Projects, Project Server 2010 (PWA)

This is the second part to managing Master and Sub Projects (You can find the first part he here). In this part we will look at things we could do in PWA and default PWA options as far as Master and Sub Projects are concerned.

So firstly we will navigate to the Project Center and have a look at the options there. The important things to notice here is that by default "Sub Projects" are NOT visible. There are however a new icon showing in the indicators column that shows that the only the Master Schedule is visible.

Note the Indicator

By Clicking on the Programme name it will display more detailed information of  the master project. The Image below shows the 2 Sub Projects already expanded as well as the Gannt Chart chart showing both Critical and Non Critical tasks. It will almost seem like a "Normal" Schedule with Summery Tasks. The distinguishing factor here is the ID column. Have a look and you will see it "Restarts" the numbering once the 2nd Sub Project starts.

If you would like to see the Sub Projects in Project Center there is new Tick Box that "Un-hides" all Sub Projects, thus making them visible to the user in the Project Center. The Tick Box is located in the far right hand corner, of the Projects tab in Project Server.

Show Sub Projects

Once that has been enabled the user will see the Master Project and then the sub projects below the Master with in Project Center.

Now we will be looking at some other options, but take note these options includes custom fields and Views. What i have done as per part 1 , is i have created a "Programme Manager" custom field that uses a look up table that shows all the "Programme Managers" for my organisation as well as a "Programme Name" field that contains the names of all the Programmes currently registered.
I have then Built a Project Center View that shows all Projects Grouped by "Programme Name" but take note that the "Sub Projects" tick box must be enabled for this to work.

You might ask what the difference between the above and just using the Show Sub Projects tick Box? Not much, it is just displayed in a more distinguishing way, with a proper divide between the Programmes.

Another option would be to Group / Filter by Programme Manager Name. That is once again a way to "Show" Items in a nice and organised way.

Also not in above image the Show Sub Project tick box has not been ticked hence only Seeing the Master project, the second item there is only a Project and not a Programme yet and that's why it is displaying.

There are also other thing that could be done with Master and Sub Projects and more specifically with the custom fields like "BI Center Reports " That enables us to have reports with charts etc and group / show / build them based on our custom fields for Programme Management.

I hope that this will help someone out there to better manage Programmes using MS Project Server 2010.

A