How Can Microsoft Project Work with SharePoint?

In every project management or SharePoint speaking event I participate in, I ALWAYS get asked: "How can Microsoft Project work with SharePoint?". Before I answer the question, let me first explain what Microsoft Project and SharePoint is for those that aren't familiar.

 

Microsoft Project is a project management tool that supports project planning (schedule development, resource definition and task assigments, budget, etc) AND project tracking (schedule, resource, cost, etc). The current version is Microsoft Project 2007 and the next version is Microsoft Project 2010.

 

Before utilizing Microsoft Project, it is pertinent that you:

 - Are familiar with basic project management concepts AND  - Have a project management process that you follow

 

Without these two, it is less likely that you will appreciate Microsoft Project and more likely blame it for causing frustration and heartache. Keep in mind that Microsoft Project is a tool, it won't make your projects on time, on budget and on scope.  Learn more about project management fundamentals and basic steps in utilizing Microsoft Poject by checking out:

 - Manage Your Projects ... Not Just Your Schedule

 - Screencast: Project Planning 101

 - Screencast: Understanding Task Dependencies, Lead and Lag

 - Webcast: 8 Steps to Microsoft Project Success

 - 5 Essential Tools for Project Management

How about SharePoint? It's a collaboration platform from Microsoft that empowers individuals to efficiently share and centralize information. Learn more about the basics of SharePoint by checking out:

 - What is SharePoint?

 - Screencast: SharePoint 101

 

There are two primary reasons why people want to potentially 'share' their Microsoft Project file or also known as a 'Microsoft Project plan' in SharePoint:

 

 - Empower project resources to update their tasks on the Microsoft
  Project plan (how much time they spent on a task, how far along they are,
  etc) without having the project manager doing it and be the bottleneck.

 - To display relevant reports (is the project on schedule? what tasks are
  ahead/behind, resource utilization, etc) to executive stakeholders whenever
  they want it without having to rely on email.

 

So now, let me answer the $1M question: "How Can Microsoft Project Work with SharePoint?". Here are four ways:

 

1. Store the Microsoft Project (.mpp) plan in a SharePoint document library

 

The Microsoft Project plan is uploaded to a SharePoint document library just like any other file. This is the simplest way to store a Microsoft Project plan in a central location and control which relevant stakeholders (resources, executives, customers, etc) are able to access it (write or read access). You can control access privileges by defining appropriate SharePoint permissions.

 

This means that for those that are allowed to update the Microsoft Project plan, they have access to the entire file, individuals are able to manipulate project information other than task updates or reports.

 

That's why it is important that they are familiar of what the project management standards are and the process in updating the file (i.e. how are projects tracked? do you track actual time spent or percentage of work completed?). Or else you'll end up with irrelevant information. As they say "Garbage in, Garbage out".

 

 

2. Export Microsoft Project plan as an Excel spreadsheet and import it to SharePoint as a custom list

 

If you want your project stakeholders have access to a subset of the information in a Microsoft Project plan, storing it in a document library might not work.

 

An option is to export the subset of information (i.e. project tasks) from Microsoft Project to a Microsoft Excel file. Once it's a Microsoft Excel file, you can import the file into SharePoint as a custom list. Once the information is in SharePoint, relevant stakeholders can view/edit the information.

 

If you do this, here's the challenge: How can you take the updated information in the custom list back to Microsoft Project automatically?

 

 

3. Synchronize Microsoft Project plan with SharePoint

 

In a lot of project manager's mind, the holy grail of Microsoft Project and SharePoint integration is the ability for a Microsoft Project plan (the tasks table and gantt chart) to be displayed in a project tasks list in a SharePoint site allowing project resources to update their tasks and in addition, be able to synchronize the updates back to a Microsoft Project plan.

 

Unfortunately, this capablity is not currently available in Microsoft Project. However, this is one of the most anticipated features in the next version, Microsoft Project 2010.

 

So am I saying that synchronizing Microsoft Project and SharePoint is impossible? Heck, no! There are two options available. First, you can leverageMicrosoft Project Server to achieve this. By publishing your Microsoft Project plan to Microsoft Project Server, your project resources are able to update their tasks in Microsoft Project Server, which utilizes SharePoint heavily, and have it synchronize back to the Microsoft Project plan. Apart from this, there are a myriad of other features and capabilities Microsoft Project Server offers.

 

Second, if you don't have Microsoft Project Server in your environment, you can get third-party add-on tools to Microsoft Project like Project Publisherwhich can synchronize relevant Microsoft Project plan information with a SharePoint site.

 

 

4. Create a dashboard with SharePoint web parts from Microsoft Project information

 

Do you want to know the secret in getting promoted at work? Tell management you'll build a 'dashboard' for them. Kidding aside (although I'm convinced it's true), dashboards are visual reporting tools that allow management or customers to efficiently see and analyze key project metrics. If you have Microsoft Project Server, there are a lot of built-in reports and custom reports can be built as well.

 

In SharePoint, as long as the relevant information from Microsoft Project is available  as a custom list, you can create a project management dashboard with KPI web parts that come with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) or even purchase third party dashboard web parts from companies like Bamboo Solutions or Dundas. Here's a great dashboard example on a SharePoint site from the Virginia Department of Transportation. If you want to learn how to create a project management dashboard in SharePoint,watch this recorded webcast I did for O'Reilly Media.