MS Project Integration: Tips, Tricks and What's New for You

ca Intellicenter
MS Project Integration: Tips,
Tricks and What's New for You
Mindy Calderon
Senior Instructor, North America
CA Technologies
ICX17E #CAWorld

Abstract
 Have you scheduled in Microsoft Project (MSP) and are now presented with the "Tasks" to
maintain a schedule in CA Clarity? Is your organization using CA Clarity but still wants to
schedule in MS Project? Have you noticed that the logic in how CA Clarity schedules is different
in MS Project? And most importantly - wouldn't it be awesome to be able to explain why CA
Clarity and MS Project behave differently but ultimately get you the same result? The session
will show you where and how MSP and CA Clarity 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 Clarity and MS Project,
on defining data elements and how to capture them.
Mindy
Calderon
CA Technologies
Senior Instructor
2 © 2014 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Agenda
INTEGRATION OVERVIEW
CUSTOM VIEWS
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
RESOURCES AND MS PROJECT
Q & A

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

Definitions
INTEGRATION – BIDIRECTIONAL DATA FLOW USING NEW XML DRIVER
METHODOLOGY – CONSISTENT AND REPEATABLE SCHEDULING AND MANAGING PROCESSES
*
*
This is NOT a Technical Session: Understand from a Functional Perspective

Identify the MS Project Integration
 Schedule Projects
– Microsoft Project
 Set Scheduler Format attribute
default 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 Clarity 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 Clarity Integration toolbar to retain your
updates

Install the MSP Interface Tips

Set Defaults and Options

Set Defaults and Options Continued
 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 Clarity 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 Clarity
 Anything on the Tasks Tab
– Enter/Edit/Update in MS Project
Anything on the Tasks Tab
Enter/Edit/Update in MS Project

Resources and MS Project
 Staff a Plan
– Should ALWAYS be done in CA Clarity
– Resource Allocation button
Holistic View of Availability
Resource Planning Views

The Four (4) A’s
 Availability
 Allocation
 Assignment
 Actuals
Holistic View of Availability and Allocation
Resource Planning Views

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 Clarity PPM and Microsoft Project

Identify Task Management Guidelines
Terminology Differences Between CA Clarity PPM and Microsoft Project Continued

Determine the Schedule
 Some of the common elements of
Project Management get a bit more
complicated when using CA Clarity and
Microsoft Project together
 Status = Complete
– Microsoft Project
 Zero out remaining work for all
resource assignments
– CA Clarity
 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

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 Clarity PPM can only have one Baseline active, but Microsoft Project can view several at a time
 Microsoft Project can store 11 baselines, while CA Clarity PPM can store as many as you need
– If there are more than 11 project baselines stored in CA Clarity PPM, the latest 11 will download to Microsoft Project
when you open the project
 CA Clarity 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 Clarity
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 >
Schedule
– Resource level: Properties

Define Track Mode Settings
 The following chart contains rules surrounding the capture of
actuals using CA Clarity PPM Timesheets in conjunction with
Microsoft Project

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 Clarity 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 Clarity 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 Clarity 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 Clarity 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

Apply Actuals

% Work Complete vs % Complete
 % Work Complete
– % Work Complete is set to 100% automatically if
Microsoft Project detects the task is complete via
calculations.
 Once the Remaining Work has been reduced to
zero, either manually or by the actuals that
have been booked, the system sets the % Work
Complete to 100%.
 It is calculated based on Actuals and Remaining
Work
 % Complete
– % Complete set by the Project Manager’s actions.
– It is set to 100% when the Project Manager says the
task is complete by manually changing the %.
– CA Clarity PPM automatically sets the value to 1% for
Started Tasks and the Project Manager sets it to 100%
when task is completed.
– It is not calculated based on Actuals
 Summary task % Complete can be calculated by running
the Update % Complete Job

For More Information
Insert appropriate screenshot and text overlay
from following “More Info Graphics” slide here;
Management Cloud
ensure it links to correct page
To learn more about Management Cloud,
please visit:
http://bit.ly/1wEnPhz

For Informational Purposes Only
Terms of this Presentation
© 2014 CA. All rights reserved. All trademarks referenced herein belong to their respective companies.
This presentation provided at CA World 2014 is intended for information purposes only and does not form any type of warranty.
Some of the specific slides with customer references relate to customer's specific use and experience of CA products and solutions so actual
results may vary.

MS Project Integration: Tips, Tricks and What's New for You

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked (12)

Similar to MS Project Integration: Tips, Tricks and What's New for You (20)

More from CA Technologies (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

MS Project Integration: Tips, Tricks and What's New for You