Microsoft EPM 2010 Functional Review

Microsoft EPM 2010 Functional Review

What is new, what is exiting and what is not?

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Contents

Management summary 3

Project Portfolio management tooling 4

What is Microsoft EPM 2010 all about? 5

What’s new in the EPM 2010 solution ? 8

Conclusion 19


3

While many organizations increasingly getting work done by way of programs and projects at the same time they are looking for ways to optimize management of their project and program portfolios. Many software packages are developed and implemented while stating to do just that, but only a few are on the market that contain all the functionality to support the full arena of project management, resource management, portfolio management and are capable to provide full insight in project (portfolio) data.

Originally coming from a stand-alone pc application Microsoft launched Project Server 2010, Office Project pro 2010 in combination with SharePoint 2010 as a full project portfolio management solution.

In this document the members of the Capgemini EPM Community of Practice state their vision on this product after a thorough investigation of the beta, RC and RTM release of the solution.

Compared to Project Server 2007 much improved in Project Server 2010, especi-ally parts like the full integration of portfolio management functionality, the User Interface across the product which is in line with other Microsoft Office applicati-ons and the workflow enhancements, however some other parts still need impro-vement.The Microsoft EPM 2010 solution is an end-to-end PPM platform which can be used by organizations in a variety of broad industries to automate and support their PPM processes.

Step-by-step implementation of functional areas such as resource capacity management, schedule management or Time and task management – once the envisioning of the near future is established in advance – can be done more easily than with previous versions.

Management summary

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4


The ever-increasing penetration of projects as a way to organize work in many organizations necessitates effective management of multiple projects. This has resulted in a greater interest in the processes of project portfolio management (PPM), with more and more software tools being developed to assist and automate the process.

Today, project and portfolio management helps organizations improve visibility and control across varied portfolios, align spending with strategic priorities, and drive team collaboration to deliver projects on time and within budget. To better serve the business, you need a solution which integrates data sources, providing both a high-end overview for executives and drill-down details for managers.

Capgemini has done many surveys on this subject over the last years, most recently in Sweden1. Based on the observations, consequences and requirements of this study, Capgemini’s overall recommendation is to increase the focus on pro-gram and portfolio management instead of on the individual project.

Last May, Microsoft launched the 2010 version of Office, including SharePoint 2010 and Enterprise Project Management (EPM) 2010. The last suite has improved substantially in the field of Portfolio Management. This caused the Capgemini EPM Community of Practice to review Microsoft EPM 2010.

Project Portfolio management tooling

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1 Capgemini Study: Project and portfolio management Experiences taken from Swedish companies and organizations



According to Microsoft the architectural improvements implemented in Microsoft Office Project 2007 provided a foundation for further improvements in EPM 2010, specifically in the following investment areas, evaluated in the sections below:n unified Project and Portfolio Management;n simple and Intuitive User Experience;n enhanced Collaboration and Reporting;n scalable and Connected Platform.

Figure 1 pictures all the functional areas which are covered by Microsoft EPM 2010. In this document we concentrate more specifically on Portfolio Analytics & Selection, Business Intelligence & Reporting, Scheduling, Time reporting, Collaboration and the enhancements on administration, scalability and extensibili-ty of the solution.

What is Microsoft EPM 2010 all about?

Figure 1: PPM capabilities Microsoft EPM

EPMBusiness Intelligence & Reporting

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Enterprise Project Management

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Basic architecture of Microsoft EPM 2010The EPM 2010 solution is built from/consists of the Microsoft products: SQL server 2008, SharePoint server 2010, Project Server 2010 running on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (all 64 bit) and Office application Project pro 2010. At the client side the solution integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Office. The basic architecture of EPM 2010 is pictured below.

At a high-level, the key requirements for Project Server 2010 are as follows:n the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 or Windows Server

2008 R2;n Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise version;n for a farm deployment, database servers must be the 64-bit version of

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Cumulative Update 2, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, or Microsoft SQL Server 2005 with Service Pack 3 (SP3) ;

n Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 for Microsoft Project Web App user access.

Project Server 2010 is (only) available in a 64-bit version, similar to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 (which is an installation requirement). Project Server 2010’s move towards 64-bit architecture requires the following: n Project Server 2010 must be installed on either 64-bit Windows Server 2008

SP2 or Windows Server 2008 R2;n your database servers for a Project Server 2010 farm deployment must be the

64-bit version of either SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008.

Having a 64–bit architecture for both the server and the database server provides increased performance and scalability. Also, 64-bit architecture provides for increased memory addressability because it is not limited to the 4-GB address space limitation that 32-bit architecture is limited to.

While Windows server, SQL server and SharePoint have their own administration and system management environment with accompanying tooling, which is stan-dard in a Microsoft environment, Project Server (2010) has its own partly techni-cal, partly functional administration environment.

Figure 2: Microsoft EPM (Enterprise project Management) 2010

Project Web app (IE 7)

For all usersExec, Projectmgr, Resmgr, Resources, PSO

Of�ce Project Pro 2010

Projectmanager, Resource manager.

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Project Server 2010

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Built on SharePoint Server 2010Since version 2002, Project Server has been using SharePoint Sites for collabora-tion and document libraries. Since version 2007 the application Project Server itself was built on top of Windows SharePoint Services or Microsoft Office SharePoint Services (MOSS). Next to Risks and Issues management, in EPM 2007 Deliverables were added to SharePoint.

While built on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 it combines all powerful busi-ness collaboration platform services with structured PPM capabilities to provide work management solutions for all types of teams.

In EPM 2010 all SharePoint 2010 features and services are available, for example: n the Business Intelligence platform to easily create reports and powerful

dashboards;n workflow, to control document review and approval; n enterprise search to find people and effectively mine project data (resources,

tasks, documents etc.);n wikis, blogs, discussion forums and My Sites to connect teams and enhance

communication; n creation of custom and project type specific Project Site templates;n configurable webpages using many available SharePoint webparts;n publishing of Project Professional 2010 schedules to SharePoint task lists and

roundtrip synchronization.

The look and feel of SharePoint, with a large and strongly growing user commu-nity, is identical for EPM. This leverages user acceptance and reduces training and support effort. Also Technical knowledge for administration and application man-agement is similar to that for SharePoint.

We believe that SharePoint Server 2010 adds a lot of value to the EPM 2010 solu-tion. As a collaboration platform SharePoint Server 2010 offers many capabilities and also EPM benefits more from this.

Figure 3: Project Server 2010 – Built on SharePoint Server 2010

Project Team collaboration

BI & ReportingDemandManagement

Schedule Management

Portfolio Selection

Project Server 2010

Project Professional 2010Synch to SharePoint

SharePoint Server 2010

Resource Management

Insights

CompositesSites

Search

Communities

Content

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As Microsoft states Project Server 2010 integrates more the functionality of the Project Portfolio management processes within Project Server and SharePoint. In EPM 2007 (strategic) Portfolio management and project management functionality were handled by separate applications. In EPM 2010 the following capabilities are included:n Project Portfolio Management: l Unified PPM techniques l Project Initiation & Business case development l Business strategy prioritization l Portfolio selection, prioritization and optimization l Capacity planning l Single entry mode time reportingn Business Intelligence: l Reporting database l Multiple OLAP cubes support l Excel Server/PerformancePoint server/Secure Store

Throughout the solution the SharePoint user interface (e.g. “Ribbon”) is imple-mented. The Project Server gateway is not needed anymore due to a common data store.

Because Excel Server is also integrated in the SharePoint solution it provides a Business Intelligence platform which allows to create reports and dashboards easi-ly. Through extended workflow capabilities documents can be reviewed and approved.

Project Server 2010 also provides a demand management module to capture all work varying from simple tasks to complex projects and programs which can be managed by governance workflows throughout their lifecycle.

In the following sections some capabilities of the product are reviewed in more detail.

What’s new in the EPM 2010 solution?



Unified Project and portfolio ManagementThis is undoubtedly one of the key improvements that is realized by Microsoft. The portfolio management techniques in Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 are integrated into Project Server 2010, providing a single-server platform with end-to-end PPM capabilities to support strategic planning and project execution.

Figure 4: Unified Project & Portfolio Management

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We believe that the portfolio management process incorporated in EPM 2010 is really a best-in-class solution because it provides all of the following essential capabilities: n centralized proposal capture and project initiation;n support for business unit specific business drivers and for consensus on priorities;n objective prioritization of competing projects from multiple dimensions;n portfolio optimization and what if analysis under varying budgetary constraints;n portfolio optimization based on resource availability and headcount scenarios.

Microsoft has added the Portfolio Management process to EPM 2010, using the following steps:1. Define Business Drivers2. Prioritize Business Drivers3. Verify prioritization Consistency 4. Create the Portfolio of Project Proposals5. Map the Projects to the Business Drivers6. Perform Cost Analysis (based on the “Efficient Frontier” theory)7. Perform Resource Capacity Analysis

During the portfolio management process, it is easy to navigate back and forward, to add or correct information in previous steps. From most of the screens, exports to Excel and prints can be created.

Figure 5: Portfolio Analysis



Demand managementIn business, the term Demand Management is used to describe the proactive man-agement of work initiatives (demand) with business constraints (supply). In the area of EPM - especially in ICT for example - demand sometimes means managing applications or small business changes and the business constraints are - as always - budget and resources.

As Project Server 2010 is based on SharePoint 2010, it can use all its workflow capabilities. Using checkpoints and permissions to authorize specific actions, a workflow may streamline the process and make users more aware and account-able. For example: a proposal can only be approved for execution after the busi-ness case and schedule have been approved by the responsible manager.

As a solution starter Microsoft provides for Project Server 2010 a (fully document-ed) example of a demand management “module” to capture all work varying from simple tasks to complex projects and programs which can be managed by gover-nance workflows throughout their lifecycle. The module consists of a set of defi-ned phases, stages and activities supported by workflow, project detail pages and enterprise project templates for this management area. The governance workflow includes definitions of the life cycle stages through which the project progresses, such as proposal creation and initial approval. The workflow defines what infor-mation is required or locked in each stage. For example, a workflow can lock budget cost after the project is approved. A workflow can include necessary man-ual approval or notification steps and add business logic to update other LOB sys-tems. For example, a workflow can update an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system when the proposal budget is approved.

Figure 6: Example of stages in an end-to-end workflow

Create project for proposal in a private workspace for future develop-ment

Initiate Initiate Checkpoint

Formal evaluation of your proposal based on description & justi�cation

De�ne

Business Case Develop-ment including project schedule, risk evaluation, cost & bene�t assess-ments

Plan

Finalize project & resource Schedule for your project along with resource assign-ments

Manage

Analysis of your project based on reports like project milostone Schedule Variance, forecast for cost & resource

Select Checkpoint

Final evaluation of your proposal based on portfolio optimiza-tion and selection

Final evaluation of project schedule

Plan checkpoint

Project Closure

Final checklist for verifying project stages

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Organizations can use this Workflow, or adjust it, or add a number of customized workflows applicable for different situations. For example: projects like Business/ Financial/IT project; or small/medium/large project, or R&D, Operations, Maintenance project, etc. Each of these may have a different project management process behind it, and thus different workflow steps with different phases, differ-ent data to collect in these phases, different roles for authorization, etc. If useful, this can be automated in a Workflow.

After reviewing this module we conclude that in combination with the functional-ity for strategic planning and project execution the solution now really supports the management of the entire life cycle from the emerging idea until project clo-sure. However organizations must be aware not to “overdress” the solution to be implemented with workflow which has too much subroutines in it .

Simple and Intuitive User ExperienceAs in Office 2007, the Microsoft Office Fluent™ User Interface or “Ribbon”, has been introduced for Project (Pro) 2010, but also for Project Server 2010. As always, for new users it is more convenient, and experienced users need to re-find their way. In MS Project Pro the Ribbon can be customized to a user’s needs.

In some cases in the Project Web App, checking out/checking in projects may be a bit confusing: a user can easily switch to a completely different webpage, leaving the transaction page checked out.

User-controlled SchedulingFor less-experienced users of MS Project, and for high level long-term “rudimen-tary” planning purposes, it may be convenient to use the task setting “Manually Schedule”: this more or less disables the scheduling engine in MS Project.

In an EPM environment the primary focus of the organization is on project progress and resource capacity. The projects with manual scheduled tasks also effect resource demand and availability information. We do not recommend the extensive use of manual scheduling because:n switching back to “Auto Schedule” will kick off the scheduling engine again,

resulting in moving a (large) number of the tasks back or forward;n the need to reduce over allocations will impact the duration.

Time entry via PWA (Timesheet or Task Updates) on manually scheduled tasks is not possible.

Figure 7: Fluent UI (“Ribbon”) in EPM2010 Project Center



Timeline ViewNew and to our opinion useful in MS Project (Pro) 2010 is the Timeline View: a high level (“one bar”) view of the schedule, that can be created, customized (e.g. using colors) and to be maintained by the Project Manager. This Timeline View can easily be copied into reports or emails.

Visual Team PlannerThe Team Planner is a View in Microsoft Project 2010, and that shows graphically which resources are assigned to which tasks and when, and tasks that have not yet been assigned.

Resource names turn red when they get over-assigned. Dependencies are respect-ed, although they do not show in the Team Planner View.

We think this feature is convenient, especially for less-experienced users in small projects and as a check for unassigned or unscheduled tasks. However using the Team Planner may also be risky, because moving a task can accidentally create a constraint date.

Figure 8: Example Timeline View

Figure 9: Visual Team Planner

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Inactive TasksProjects tend to change during execution: additional tasks come and sometimes tasks may go. The new feature “inactive tasks” is convenient, because you can “re-move” a task without actually deleting it. Although visually the task is still there (greyed out), Microsoft Project handles this as if the task (incl. assignments) was deleted. Dependencies of an inactive task do NOT exist anymore, so a planner should be aware to fix this (manually “bridge” this inactive task). Inactive tasks are also very suitable for what-If analysis within a project for example for evalua-ting alternative schedules for a certain subset of tasks.

Web Based Project EditingWith every new version, Microsoft extends more of the scheduling engine ca-pabilities on the Project Server. This is very practical for the recalculation of the tasks status, after (weekly) applying the actual hours; all web based. This was already realized in the EPM 2007 solution.

EPM 2010 indeed enables some scheduling capability in Project Web App, with-out using the client Microsoft Project Pro. However, this scheduling is at such basic level, that one can hardly speak of a real schedule. For example: resources can only be assigned full time. There may also be explainable differences between Project Start Dates in MS Project en in PWA. We think most users feel probably more comfortable in using the client tool to create and manage a real schedule.

Enhanced Collaboration and Reporting: Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) PlatformIn EPM 2010 most reporting has been grouped under “Business Intelligence”. Because Project Server 2010 is built on SharePoint Server 2010, users can take advantage of all the tools included in the Microsoft BI platform, such as Excel Services, PerformancePoint Services, Visio Services, PowerPivot for Excel, SQL Reporting Services, and more.

Project Server 2010 includes a dedicated reporting database that stores project and portfolio data to ensure access to up-to-date information; n PMOs can satisfy LOB reporting requirements by using departmental cubes, so

decision makers can focus on their data, eliminate unnecessary clutter, and ensure faster build times. The improved Business Intelligence Center in Project Server 2010 includes a library of preconfigured best-practice template reports;

Figure 10: EPM Dashboard in BI Center



n nontechnical resources can get started quickly by customizing the templates in a familiar Excel editor and then simply publish the report using Excel Services to be incorporated into dashboard views. PMOs can create intuitive audience-based dashboards to ensure that managers receive relevant and useful informa-tion;

n resources who are more technical can use more sophisticated tools, such as SQL Server Reporting Services, to create complex reports - for example, monthly reporting packs - to meet the organization’s unique requirements.

The SharePoint pages in the BI Center can simultaneously contain reports and dashboards from several sources. The Data Analysis reporting function, based on the OLAP-Cubes of previous versions has not returned in EPM 2010, this is replaced by Excel Pivot Tables.

We find reporting in EPM / SharePoint 2010 very powerful and considerably easier than in many other PPM platforms, including such as e.g. CA Clarity. Often additional tools (for example Business Objects) - and licenses - are needed to generate custom reports and dashboards. This certainly requires more specialized knowledge and more effort.

Time Reporting EnhancementsThe timesheet architecture changed from EPM version 2003 to 2007, allowing different processes and data collection for Timesheeting and Task Status (prog-ress) updates.

In Project Server 2010 time reporting capabilities have been further enhanced by a new Single Entry Mode to unify time and task status updates. It is also possible to submit status updates to project managers in the middle of a timesheet period without submitting an entire timesheet for approval.

Project Server 2010 also provides a new approval center for managing approvals for timesheets, project updates, and administrative approvals. The information captured in the timesheet and task management process can be shared with LOB applications that use time and progress information for processing.

We believe that the single entry timesheet mode and the improved user interface is a great enhancement that will certainly contribute to better user acceptance in comparison with previous EPM versions.

Figure 11: Project Server 2010 – Approval Center view

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Scalable and Connected PlatformThe last of the 4 major investment areas Microsoft speaks about is the platform in terms of administration, scalability & deployment and extensibility. We will discuss these items below.

AdministrationAdministration of EPM 2010 is enhanced by the following features:n centralized administration for both top down portfolio management and bot-

tom up project management;n departmental fields to enable the association of projects, OLAP Cubes, project

types, business drivers, resources and custom fields to a specific organizational department. One limitation is that departments cannot be used in multi-level hierarchy;

n reporting Cube Administration for easier management of cube settings and content per department;

n elimination of ActiveX controls for simplified deployment both initially and in case of updates or hot fixes;

n project permissions to empower project managers to control who can edit or view their projects without having to rely on an EPM administrator for this type of change;

n user Delegation empowers users to easily name colleagues to act as their delega-tion when on vacation or for any other reason without assistance from an EPM administrator.

All of these enhancements are recognized as feedback issues from previous de-ployments we have performed for various customers and are very much welcomed. On the other hand many more requests had been issued by our specialists for example the possibility to empower PMO staff to add users to security groups and at the same time protecting the administrators group.

Scalability & DeploymentThe EPM 2010 Solution further builds on the architectural enhancements, such as Active Cache and the Queuing Service, delivered in Project 2007. The Shared Service Provider (SSP) design (from Project Server 2007) has been updated to a Service Application model that helps to increase scalability by allowing more services to run on the application tier.

Project Server 2010 architecture now requires 64-bit capability across all servers in the farm, which inherently provides additional scalability and performance advantages.

Similar to SharePoint Server 2010, a Project Server 2010 farm deployment can vary in complexity and size. As a three-tier application, Project Server 2010 sup-ports all farm topologies - small, medium, and large. As with Project Server 2007, Project Server 2010 can be deployed on physical servers or on virtual servers. In addition, organizations can configure Project Server 2010 for extranet access if resources outside of the organization need to collaborate on projects.



Project Server 2010 requires SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Edition, both only available in the 64-bit version. This might be a threshold for some organizations, sooner or later all business applications will only be 64-bit. The client Project Pro and the browser, however, can be 64 or 32 bit. Although SharePoint 2010 is accessible from several browsers (like Firefox and Safari), EPM 2010 does require Microsoft Internet Explorer version 7 or higher. The choice in database technol-ogy is limited to one: Microsoft SQL Server ( 64-bit).

A growing number of customers prefer the use of a hosted or cloud based solution in order to proceed faster and have a working system up and running within days instead of weeks or months. We have some good experience with hosted solu-tions however there still are some drawbacks in the field of accessing the report-ing database by an external office data connection. This impacts the flexibility to create new excel based reports.

ExtensibilityThis is a very true statement and we have the experience of implementing EPM for large organizations. Extensibility of the EPM platform was already greatly im-proved with the introduction of the new architecture in EPM 2007.

In EPM 2010 further improvements were made to the Project Server Interface (PSI): n in EPM 2010, the number of Event Handlers and PSI’s webservices has been

further extended, in line with the Portfolio, Workflow and other new capabili-ties; EPM 2010;

n the integration of Project Server 2010 with SharePoint Server 2010 enables eas-ier customization of many pages in Project Web App.

Similar to Project Server 2007, Project Server 2010 has a fully documented report-ing database and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) cubes that administrators can query to build custom reports, dashboards, and key performance indicators using SQL Server Reporting Services and PerformancePoint Services.

Project Server 2010 includes native interoperability with Exchange Server so team members can choose to receive and update their tasks in Outlook. Project Server 2010 tasks are displayed in Outlook as tasks and are grouped by project name. Team members can receive notifications and update percent complete, work done, and remaining work values for tasks, and automatically sync the updates with Project Server 2010. Exchange Server connection means that organizations no longer have to install an Outlook add-in.

“ Often organizations customize their PPM solution to automate their unique requirements or to effectively integrate with third-party or homegrown systems to maintain data integrity. Leading PPM solutions need to provide an open application programming interface (API) in addition to developer tools and resources to support custom development activities.”

Microsoft EPM solution guide

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Financial FeaturesOne area where Microsoft Project Server 2010 is relatively weak is financials. Microsoft Project and Project Server have abundant capabilities to contain costs and budgets. However, as in EPM 2007 – some of the required fields need to be configured manually; they do not show out-of-the-box. As a result, there is not much of a pre-cooked financial process in EPM. EPM 2010 does not provide any chargeback, invoicing and billing functions, nor can the system itself handle multi-currency settings. So we can conclude there are no major improvements here. The financial data are related to tasks and resources, and are primarily costs, not revenue, or selling rates. EPM provides a lower level of connectivity with financial systems than for example CA Clarity does.

For better financial management the following features should be considered:n Definition of cost and benefit structuresn Support for organizational budgetingn Cost center administrationn Time phased cost estimates and benefit forecastsn Capture actual cost and reforecast n Track benefits and compare with original forecasts

All of these features can be used in Microsoft EPM 2010 by using a third party add-on. A very promising (we did not evaluate the product yet) tool is the UMT Project Financial Server 2010. Fully integrated in Microsoft Project Server 2010 this product provides organizations with comprehensive cost and benefit manage-ment capabilities across the project life cycle. For reporting a dedicated financial cube is available as well.

Functional BreadthThe breadth and strength of the Microsoft Sharepoint collaboration platform give the Microsoft EPM platform its greatest competitive advantage. No other PPM product supports the range of solutions that the Microsoft EPM platform can support. In fact it is difficult even to refer to any of the competing products as a “platform”, while there is no question that Microsoft provides a customizable solu-tion platform. This is an important distinction to remember when comparison shopping.


Conclusion 19

In this document we discussed a number of enhancements and new functionality of the latest Microsoft EPM 2010 solution.

There are several Portfolio Management tools in the market. To us it is clear how-ever that having an integrated and workflow enhanced system for Project AND Portfolio Management is a huge advantage, especially on executive level!

The investments on the user interface certainly brought the MS Project client fully in line with other MS Office applications. This was considered a small drawback of Project 2007. Application of the ribbon in PWA is also beneficial from a user point of view. The PWA pages are more flexible and easier to adapt. Other invest-ments like web based scheduling and user controlled scheduling do however have some serious drawbacks. As a whole we will regard this area as improved, but the progress made is not considered very spectacular.

The investments in the area of Collaboration and Reporting certainly pay off for reporting capabilities and flexibility. Excel offers a familiar interface for most users and creation of custom reports and dashboards can easily be realized by PMO personnel with limited technical background. The single entry mode and improved web interface for time writers and approvers will help drive adoption of EPM 2010 as a timesheet system for all types of activities throughout the whole organization. The fact that EPM 2010 is built on SharePoint Server 2010 should be considered as a valuable asset with great possibilities and even more opportu-nities for growth and customization.

The investments in the area of administration, scalability & deployment and ex-tensibility will pay off eventually. Especially the administration improvements are very much welcomed. For the growing popularity of cloud and hosted solutions some additional efforts will be needed to fully benefit from all of the capabilities of the new platform, especially in the field of reporting and business intelligence.

Step-by-step implementation of functional areas such as resource capacity management, schedule management or Time and task management – once the envisioning of the near future is established in advance – can be done more easily than with previous versions. With EPM the customer can gradually replace his current tools by EPM and keep its well running practices in place.

Conclusion

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Microsoft EPM 2010 Functional Review

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