Project 2000. New Feature Overview, страница 6

Estimated durations roll up to the highest connected outline level. Tasks can be marked as estimated duration by typing a “?” after the duration or by choosing “Yes” in the new Estimated field.

Enabled by default, you may control whether or not tasks appear with estimated durations from the Schedule tab of the Tools Options dialog box. The two options that control this feature are named “Show that tasks have estimated durations” and “New tasks have estimated durations.”

Material Resources

Microsoft Project 2000 now includes material resources. Material resources allow you to specify consumable resources such as lumber or concrete and assign them to tasks. Material Resources are covered in further detail later in this course.

Task Calendars

Microsoft Project 2000 allows you to assign calendars to specific tasks. This allows you to create schedules that only affect selected tasks. Task calendars are covered in more detail later in this course.

Network Diagram

The Network Diagram is a new view in Microsoft Project 2000 that replaces the Pert Chart. (Correspondingly the Task Pert has been renamed the Relationship Diagram.) In addition to the new name, this view has many new features including filtering and detailed node formatting. The Network Diagram and its features are covered in more detail later in this course.

Microsoft Project Central

Microsoft Project Central is a completely new companion product to Microsoft Project. It takes the Web-based messaging portion of Microsoft Project 98 and greatly increases its functionality. This Web-based workgroup application is based on database (MSDE, SQL, or Oracle), Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) and Active Server Pages (ASP) technology. It integrates with Microsoft Project 2000 and allows users to manage their tasks via a Web browser.

Project Central has five main areas.

Messages

·  Send/receive messages – allows resources and managers to exchange messages.

·  Set up rules to manage messages – allows managers to create automated actions to manage messages.

Tasks

·  Timesheet – allows you to see your assignments, working hours, and non-working time. Its layout is very similar to the Resource Usage view in Microsoft Project 98.

·  Personal Gantt – allows you to see your assignments in a Gantt Chart view.

·  Work Day Change – allows the resource to send a message to the manager indicating a change in available working times.

Views

·  Assignments – allows you to view assignments for multiple resources. The administrator specifies the assignment view. Thus, you can only see the assignments that the administrator allows.

·  Portfolios – allows you to see multiple projects. Once again, the administrator specifies the portfolio view. Thus you can only see the projects that the administrator allows.

Status Reports

·  Submit – allows a resource to submit a status report to the project manager.

·  Request – allows a project manager to request a status report.

Administration

·  Users – allows the administrator to add or delete users of Project Central.

·  Delete Items – allows the administrator to get rid of old tasks, messages, status reports, or even whole projects.

·  Customize – allows the administrator to customize appearance, add links to homepages, and adjust security settings.

·  Manage Views – allows the administrator to create and customize assignment and portfolio views.

System Requirements

Microsoft Project 2000 and Microsoft Project Central are different not only in their feature sets, but also in the way they are designed. As such, each product has its own unique set of system requirements.