Project Management Articles
What Is Microsoft Project Server
By Michael Turner
16 May, 2008 - 10:23:14 AM

MS Project Server allows you to manage projects on your organizations intranet or even more interesting the Internet (which allows for a managed service approach) - and only the project manager or scheduler needs MS Project Professional 2007 installed on their PC. Everyone else on the project the stakeholders and other executives needing information or monitoring abilities can use Project Web Access (PWA), the Web-based product that connects to the Project Server database containing your project data. Project Web Access opens by typing the URL to the Project Server database into Internet Explorer (version 6 or later).

Using Project Web Access instead of Microsoft Project, people can do various things including:

• View a project's (or all the projects and program) Gantt Chart's
• Receive, refuse, and delegate work assignments when added as a team member to a project
• Update assignments with progress and completion information on the projects they are assigned to
• Attach supporting documentation, such as budget estimates or feasibility studies, to a project
• Receive notices about task status
• Send status reports to the project manager
• Submit timesheets
• And other

One of the keys for managing company wide programs and projects is the features such as the access to a company-wide resource pool (called the Enterprise Resource Pool) that tracks resource allocations across projects. If a project manager finds that a specific resource is unavailable, he or she can define the requirements for the job and let Project Server tools search the Enterprise Resource Pool to find another resource with the same skills for more information and assign or change a generic resource, such as Database Specialist for a named person.