CA Project and Portfolio Management v14.x: MS Project Integration: Tips, Tricks and What's New for You

Pre-Con Education: CA Project and Portfolio
Management v14.x MS Project Integration
Tips, Tricks and What’s New for You
Kismet Silva-Smith
Agile Management
CA Technologies
Instructor
AMX05E
@TwitterHandle
#CAWorld

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For Informational Purposes Only
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Abstract
The session will show you where and how
Microsoft Project and CA Project and Portfolio
Management (CA PPM) bi-directionally map
data, how to create and manage tasks,
assignments and scheduling, as well as updating
task status and work. It includes a broad
discussion where and when data should be
entered in CA PPM and MS Project, on defining
data elements and how to capture them.
Kismet
Silva-Smith
CA Technologies
Instructor

Results
MS Project and CA PPM bi-directionally maps data, manages tasks, assignments and scheduling as well as
updating task status. The CA PPM project acts as the ‘umbrella’ for PM methodology . The result is a
project that follows Project Management and Scheduling standards.
Summary
MS Project Integration with CA PPM

Agenda
INTEGRATION OVERVIEW
CUSTOM VIEWS AND CREATING A PROJECT
Q AND A
RESOURCES AND MS PROJECT
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
CONTROL THE PROJECT
1
2
3
4
5
6

Integration Overview

Identify the MS Project Integration
2 Lines Max
 Microsoft® Project Interface
– Schedule Connect
 Project Properties
– Settings Page
 Set Scheduler to Microsoft Project
PICK ONE AND STICK WITH IT PER PROJECT

Identify and Install the MSP Interface

Bi-Directional
 New xml file – same location as the .mpp file
 Usually in the My Documents folder
 Supportable – old integration no longer supported by Microsoft
 When you launch a plan from the CA PPM screen,
it exports this plan to your local client system.
 After you complete updating your session from
within Microsoft Project, you will select Save
from the CA PPM Integration toolbar to retain
your updates

Install the MSP Interface Tips

Set Defaults and Options

Set Defaults and OptionsContinued
 Tips
– At a minimum, you must set the File – Project
Option defaults at the application level
– Additionally, you will want to check and modify
these settings on the individual projects that
were created before you adjusted these File –
Project Option defaults
– These projects would have inherited the former
default settings
– Application Level Defaults allow all new projects
to inherit the default settings.
– Setting should also be reset for Legacy projects
that are being brought into CA PPM

Identify Field Mappings

Custom Views and Creating a Project

Custom Views
 Gantt Chart View
̶ Add the Key Task Column
̶ Add the Charge Code Column
– Only if you let Users select
 Task Usage View
̶ actual work
̶ remaining
 Custom View
̶ Combined View
 Gantt Chart on the top
 Task Usage on bottom
Modify Existing Views to Create Custom Views

Create Projects – RULE OF THUMB
 Anything on the Properties Tab and Team Tab
– Enter/Edit/Update in CA PPM
 Anything on the Tasks Tab
– Enter/Edit/Update in MS Project

Resources and MS Project

Resources and MS Project
 Staff a Plan
– Should ALWAYS be done in CA PPM
– Resource Allocation button

The Four (4) As
 Availability
 Allocation
 Assignment
 Actuals

Work Breakdown Structure
There are often misunderstandings about the meanings of the
terms “duration” and “work”
A task has duration amount and work amount, which
may not always be equivalent values

Define Work, Units and Duration
 For a Fixed Units task, Microsoft Project recalculates Duration when you overwrite the Fixed Units
value.
 For a Fixed Duration task, Microsoft Project recalculates Work when you overwrite the Fixed
Duration value.
 For a Fixed Work task, Microsoft Project recalculates Duration when you overwrite the Fixed Work
value.

Identify Task Management Guidelines
Terminology Differences Between CA PPM and Microsoft Project
Microsoft
Project Term CA PPM Term Meaning
Work Usage
Work is the total amount of effort scheduled to be performed on a task in the specified
duration of all assigned resources.
In Microsoft Project:
Work = Remaining Work + Actual Work
In CA PPM:
Usage = ETC + Actuals
Remaining
Work
Estimate to
Complete (ETC)
The estimated remaining hours required to complete the task.
Actual Work Actuals The actual hours reported and posted by the team member(s).
Max Units
Project
Allocation
Units represent the quantity of a resource assigned to a project. Suppose a resource has a
daily availability of 8 hours. If the resource were allocated to a project to 100% or the
resource or the Max Units equals 1, this means the resource will spend their full day on that
particular day.
On the other hand, a Max Units value of 25% means they will spend 2 hours of their total 8
hours per day on that project.

Terminology Differences Between CA PPM and Microsoft Project Continued
Microsoft
Units
Task
Assignment
This is a subset of Max Units. Units represent the quantity of a resource assigned to a task.
Duration Duration
CA PPM Definition: The number of business days as inclusive of the Start Date and Finish
Date regardless of whether a split may/may not be located during the task.
Microsoft Project Definition: Calculates the duration of a task by counting the amount of
active working time between the scheduled start and end of the task. This is generally the
time from task start to finish, not counting time between split tasks.
% Complete % Complete % Complete is a manually entered field in both applications.

Terminology Differences Between CA PPM and Microsoft Project Continued
Microsoft
% Work
Complete
% Expended
These are calculated fields.
CA PPM defines this as: Actuals / Usage.
Microsoft Project defines this as: Actuals / Total Work.
Type
(Task Level)
Variable
(Resource
Availability
driven)
Fixed
Duration
Boolean:
Checked or
Uncheked
The available Type options in Microsoft Project are Fixed Work, Fixed Units, and Fixed
Duration. Keep in mind the Microsoft Project equation: Work = Units * Duration.
In CA PPM, checking the Fixed Duration box prevents the task duration from being changed
by CA PPM regardless of the amount of work on the task.
Split Task Split Task
In CA PPM it’s the same term but a different approach to creating the split.
In Microsoft Project, adding splits to a task does not change the Duration, but will change
the Elapsed Duration.

Determine the Schedule
 Some of the common elements of
Project Management get a bit more
complicated when using CA PPM and
Microsoft Project together
 Status = Complete
– Microsoft Project
 Zero out remaining work for all
resource assignments
– CA PPM
 Zero-out the Estimate to Complete
value, select ‘Completed’ from the
drop-down in the ‘Status’ field
 Remaining Work & Pending Estimate To
Complete
– Entry Precedence
– Work Contour
– Summary Tasks
– Blank Task Names

Control the Project

Baseline the Project
 A Baseline will create a point-in-time capture of your project plan that you
can refer to, and measure against
– Baselines can include either the full or partial project WBS
 Update to existing baselines
– Full baseline
– Update partial (tasks) baseline

Baseline the Project
 CA PPM can only have one Baseline active, but Microsoft Project can view several at a time
 Microsoft Project can store 11 baselines, while CA PPM can store as many as you need
– If there are more than 11 project baselines stored in CA PPM, the latest 11 will download to Microsoft Project when
you open the project
 CA PPM has security rights associated with creating and modifying baselines
– you will still be able to run the baseline functionality in Microsoft Project, but the data will not be saved to CA PPM

Define Track Mode Settings  This setting permits or restricts a
specific project from accepting
actuals from a timesheet and/or
permits the project manager to
enter actuals directly into the
project plan
 The Track Mode is found in two
locations:
– Project level: Properties >
Settings
– Resource level: Properties

Define Track Mode Settings
 The following chart contains rules surrounding the capture of
actuals using CA PPM Timesheets in conjunction with
Microsoft Project
Project A Track Mode Resource X Track Mode Result
PPM PPM Actuals are entered via CA PPM Timesheets only.
PPM None Actuals for Resource X can only be entered via MSP for all
projects. Resource X will not be able to fill in Timesheets in CA
PPM.
None PPM Actuals for Project A will be entered via MSP; its task will
never appear on CA PPM Timesheets. Resource X will track
time for all other projects via CA PPM Timesheets.
None None Actuals for Resource X and Project A can only be entered via
MSP.

Tips
 Resources can be open for time entry at the resource, project and project assignment
level. If a resource is not open for time entry in all three places, they are not able to use
CA PPM timesheets.
 Time periods should be created and status (open or closed) should be managed by an
application administrator
 Timesheets are submitted, approved and posted in CA PPM Timesheets – only posted
timesheets appear as actuals
– Actuals on Timesheets, which have been saved but not yet posted, will appear as Pending Actuals
in Microsoft Project. These can be viewed using MSP mapping
– Do not update Actuals in Microsoft Project if the Track Mode is PPM or Other

Apply Actuals
 Be Vigilant on Timesheets
– When work begins on the project, actuals will begin to be recorded against the
plan
– Impress upon your team members to track their time accurately and on the
appropriate day or your plan‘s finish date may unnecessarily be delayed
 Tasks not reported on a time sheet may change due to the posting of the
assigned resource‘s time sheet. CA PPM assumes that a person's time sheet
is a complete accounting of the project work they completed that week. If a
scheduled task did not appear on the time sheet, it implies no work was
completed by the resource on that task, and must be rescheduled for the
following week or beyond

Pending Actuals
 There are three possible values you may see:
– ‘0’ indicates that you are looking at a Summary task
– ‘-1’ indicates that there are no Pending Actuals entered on the
timesheet as of that day
– A value other than ‘0’ or ‘-1’ indicates that the value you see is the
team member’s cumulative Pending Actuals up through that day in
that time period

Pending Estimates
 There are three possible values you may see:
– ‘0’ indicates that you are looking at a Summary task
– ‘-1’ indicates that a Pending Estimate has not been entered for the task
– A value other than ‘0’ or ‘-1’ indicates that the team member has
entered a Pending Estimate to identify a revision to the remaining
estimate for the task

Q & A

For More Information
To learn more, please visit:
http://cainc.to/Nv2VOe
CA World ’15

CA Project and Portfolio Management v14.x: MS Project Integration: Tips, Tricks and What's New for You

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