Did I hear you ask for more custom fields?

Project Server 2007 makes a major change to the way that enterprise custom fields are handled. Instead of being tied to a limited set of fields (Enterprise Text1, Enterprise Text2, etc.) the new system starts with basically no custom fields and you get to add as may as you want.

The interface allows you to add a new field and that new field has several attributes that include:

• Entity (Project, Task or Resource)
• Type (Cost, Date, Flag, Duration, Number and Text)
• Summary rollup
• Whether the field will use a Lookup Table or a formula or be 'hand entered'
• Assignment 'Roll down'
• If the field will display it's value or Graphical Indicators
• If the field will be required to contain a value

Notice that Type does not include "Outline Code". There will no longer be an field type called outline code. Since any field can have a hierarchical lookup table like Project Server 2003 outline codes essentially in 2007 any enterprise custom field can be an 'outline code'.

Lookup Tables are created independently of the fields themselves which makes sharing them between fields much easier.

This brings us to the question you are likely asking yourself now: if there are no enterprise outline codes then how does the OLAP cube get user defined dimensions? Well I'm glad you asked me that...

Any Project, Resource or Task enterprise custom field can be a dimension! (Yes ANY!) There is a Cube Configuration page that allows you to pick from your defined custom fields and decide which ones should be OLAP Cube dimensions. Ready for part two of that? Any Project, Resource or Task enterprise Cost, Number or Duration field can be a measure in the cube as well. These get defined in a central page and then show up as available for any Data Analysis view (Data Analysis is what Portfolio Analyzer views are called in Project Server 2007).

Oh and all the custom field customizations happen directly in Project Web Access.

Very cool stuff coming.

Tags: project 2007, project server 2007

Comments

[Glen B. Alleman]

Brain,

This approach changes the architecure for multi-project programs in significant ways (for the better). In 2003 you have to build a "combined" file in order to run things like Risk+ or do any Enteprise style planning in a single file. You can of course use the server as the source of data.

But the new approach lets you (I'm speculating from the marketing litertaure) to "pivot" the combined enterprise program into a new view. This is critical to aerospace programs, where the baseline enterprise program plan (ours has 8,000 or so activities and our bigger brothers have 30,000 or so activities) from an IMP/IMS architecure (Program Event based) to a WBS or IPT architecture. This takes place post-award between contract signing and Integrated Baseline Review (IBR) which is usually 9-0 days.

So now the 90 days will be replaced with a few days of rearranging the activities into seperated schedule by "selecting the activities with IPT code == Vendor, resolving the external lonks (which we've figured out how to do) and remaking a project file.

Cool, at least for us...thanks for the update.