Integrating Service Tools with ProjectProject Server Jon Smith

Integrating Service Tools with Project/Project Server Jon Smith, PMP Keane, Inc. April 10, 2007

Agenda u Background n n u Problems facing an IT Shop n n u u u Resource Management Metrics Reporting Integration of Data Software Development for Project n u Types of Projects Characteristics of Deliverable Projects Characteristics of Service Projects ITIL® Methods Tools Training Aids Service / Project Integration Issues Risks of Tool Integration Benefits of Integration Questions/Answers KEANE

Types of Projects u Deliverable u Service u Combo u Why is it important? KEANE

Project Category Stratification u Maintenance Work – Typically 0 -80 hours u Enhancements – Typically 80 -500 hours u Projects – Typically over 500 hours u Hour break points vary slightly by organization u Process, approach, and documentation vary significantly by category KEANE

Characteristics of Deliverablebased Projects Resource management dramatically affects outcome u Attention to critical path is crucial u Comparisons with baseline data u Each project has a separate plan u Formal change management process u Focus is prevention of siphoning resource availability u Outcome is the deliverable u KEANE

Characteristics of a Service. Based Project u u u u Managing to the SLA (Service Level Agreement) commitment (ex: X number of tickets started within X hours) Typically single-resource threaded No baseline to the individual tickets – just to SLA metrics Lots of projects in the same reporting structure Change management process focuses on metrics, not the actual change to an enhancement or ticket Problem – Response Scenario Outcome is the SLA Metric Deliverable is irrelevant unless it is a metric KEANE

ITIL® u u u Information Technology Infrastructure Library www. itil. co. uk Owned by the UK Office of Government Commerce Most widely accepted approach to service management worldwide Consists of “a series of documents used to aid the implementation of a framework for the consistent and comprehensive documentation of best practice for an IT Service Manager” – OGC Consists of eight sets: Service Support, Service Delivery, Service Management, Security Management, Infrastructure Management, Business Perspective, Application Management, Software Asset Management © OGC 2007 KEANE

ITIL® Core Sets u Service Support n n n u Incident Management Problem Management Configuration Management Change Management Release Management Service Desk Service Delivery n n n n Service Level Management IT Financial Management Capacity Management Availability Management IT Service Continuity Management IT Security Management © OGC 2007 KEANE

Problems facing an IT Shop Service work get the priority (squeaky wheel) u Projects (Deliverables) do not get priority u Same staff is mixed between service and deliverable work u Mr. Murphy says the same resource who is pulled to deal with a critical service problem is on the critical path of an important project. . . u With penalties if it is late. . . u You do not know about the impact to the deadline until it is too late u KEANE

Resource Management Service work impacts deliverable schedules and capacity u No overall view of resource effectiveness and capacity between service and deliverable work u Using a split process (ex: 6 hours for projects and 2 hours for services) breaks down with multiple projects and promotes lack of accountability u Lack of accountability – black hole (“Projects are not my top priority”) u KEANE

Metrics Reporting Service tools do not understand a calendar, they understand a queue u Service tools do not understand the resource productivity factor (i. e. Task Units) and how it affects the overall throughput u Deliverable tools are designed to hinder rapid changes to the plan (service work counter productive to the concept of a baseline) u Application Development Life Cycles must be in sync between service and deliverable products u KEANE

Integration of Data u Transfer actual work and remaining work by resource by day u Setup bucket task(s) for storage of service work u Can setup a two-way transfer of hours to tickets of the type “project” KEANE

Integration Alarms Deadlines Overallocations KEANE

Software Development – Client Methods u u u VBA – Visual Basic for Applications – used for macros Project Guide / XML – can create XML content definitions that reference HTML pages OLE DB Provider – can read Project data with ODBC tools – see PJOLEDB. HTM file COM add-in – Component Object Module created by Visual Basic or Visual C# Primary Interop Assembly (PIA) – for use with managed code assemblies developed with VB. NET or any other language that uses the. NET framework KEANE

Software Development – Server Methods Project Data Service (PDS) – API’s (Application Programming Interface) – Preferred Method – PDS is an extensible XML-based API for Project Server u Service for Enterprise Data Maintenance – for higher-level programmatic management of enterprise data via SOAP messages or XML files dropped into share directories u Object Link Provider – API that is the basis of integration with Share. Point u Project Server Web Parts u KEANE

Software Development Aids u u Developing with Project 2003 http: //msdn 2. microsoft. com/enus/library/aa 168347(office. 11). aspx Project SDK (Software Development Kit) http: //msdn 2. microsoft. com/enus/library/aa 295399(office. 11). aspx Project Server 2003 Technical Library http: //www. microsoft. com/technet/prodtechnol/office/project/2003/reskit/ default. mspx Downloads in Download Center n n n WEBERD (Project Server Database Tables) PROJERD (Project Database Tables) PJ 11 WEBPARTS (Project Server 2003 Web Parts) PROJDB (Project 2002 Schema) SVRDB (Project Server 2002 Schema) PJSVRDB (Data Dictionary) KEANE

Training Aids KEANE Many Microsoft training materials for development are contained in MYMPA. ORG

Service / Project Tool Integration Issues u Organizations tend to ignore impact of one on the other Service tools tend to ignore resource calendars Project tools tend to ignore the metrics needed for compliance Tools that capture similar data but use it in different manners Different tools force the same data to be re-entered multiple times Projects usually suffer u Project stores time in minutes u u u KEANE

Integration Tool Risks u Organizations do not treat tool integration as projects u Organizations do not consider the business purpose u Organizations do not consider project and service work overlap u Organizations do not consider impact on resources KEANE

Do you use a tool correctly? u What is the business purpose of a tool? u Do you track only schedule and not effort and cost? u Are you under a mandate of “Do more with less? ” KEANE

Benefits of Tool Integration u Reusability of data – Type Once, Use Many u Eliminate redundancy in applications, which lowers maintenance costs u Allows future applications to make calls to the specific tool sub-service u An object oriented model lowers impact studies significantly KEANE

Questions? Contact Info: Jon_Smith@Keane. Com KEANE