Generic resource are used for role-based placeholders and for planning.  If you are perform top-down planning you would use generic resources.  The most common use for generic resources is in your project schedule templates and looking at Resource Availability by Role. 

Local resources are not able to access your project information; they can not utilize time tracking through Project Web Access; and you are not able to report on local resources. 

To view engagement requests:

• Select the resources you manage in Resource Center
• Select the Resource Requests command on the ribbon

Note: The resource requests in this view are only those requests for the resources selected in Resource Center, not all requests. To add resources to this view, navigate back to Resource Center and select the additional resources.

From the Resource Requests view, select the checkbox next to the Resource Name

• Accept, Reject, Edit, or Delete the engagement
• Use the drop down next to the Resource Name to swap one resource for another

Note: The resources available to replace the requested resource are those previously selected from Resource Center.

The Project Manager will see the updates in the Resource Plan view in Project Pro along with comments you may have added when accepting or rejecting the request.

Agile in Project is available for Project Online Professional and Project Online Premium subscriptions. The feature works with Project standalone .mpp files and with Project Online. It does not work with Project Server 2016—if you open Project connected to Project Server 2016, the agile in Project feature won’t show up. If you open an .mpp file with agile data in a previous version of Project, you won’t see the agile fields, but the agile data won’t be lost.  Contact us with any questions.

Question:  Unable to open project from Project Online/PWA by clicking the project icon in the Indicator column on Project Center.  When the user clicks on the icon, it doesn’t open Project Professional like it should.  The user is on the latest IE and clear their internet cache and they have the correct permissions in Project to Open projects.

You may have two versions of project installed (1. click to run and 2. the version pushed by IT).  Check if user has two versions of Project installed using these steps:

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Click “Uninstall a Program”.
3. Check if you see two versions of Project

Check the Project version number using these steps:

1. Start Microsoft Project
2. Click the File tab in the ribbon
3. Click Account
4. On the right, you should see an About Project button.
5. Click on the About Project Button

Additional Note:  This issue will also occur anytime alternative versions of Office are installed or patched after Project.  The typical solution in this cases is to repair Project, which unfortunately can be an ongoing issue.

If you are seeing the following error message when sorting, grouping or filtering views in Project Center: “The system could not perform the intended actions. Refresh the page and try again. If the problem persists contact your administrator” You will need to changed your security settings in your browser.

• Click on the cog wheel to the right of your browser and select internet options | Security.
• Change the security level from custom to Default level and click OK.
• You will need to close and reopen the browser to apply your settings.

When opening the project in Project Pro, a yellow banner will appear if the engagement was edited by the Resource Manager. Select View Engagements to view the edits in the Resource Plan view.

If the request is approved the Project Manager will see the Engagement Status Field in Project Pro changed from Proposed to Committed.

If the engagement is rejected the Project Manager will see Rejected in the status field.

Click Refresh on the ribbon to see updates to requests. The project does not need to be checked in to see updates.

Comments from the Resource Manager are visible in the indicator column next to the Resource Name.

From Resource Center:

• Select the resources you would like to view in the Heatmap
• Select Capacity Planning on the ribbon
• Change the view drop down to the Capacity and Engagements Heatmap

The view displays the discrepancy between committed engagements and capacity.

Red = Overallocated

Blue = Underallocated

Green = Resources engaged time is equal to their capacity

Use the ribbon to:

• Change the filter to include proposed bookings to view engagements that have not been approved
• Change the threshold for over and underallocated resources

Both Resource Managers and Project Managers can use the Capacity and Engagements Heatmap to agree on which resources are the best choice for the project.

Is the Sync to Outlook button greyed out for you on the ribbon of the tasks list?

SharePoint and Project Online has a built in Outlook Sync feature available. In order to sync your tasks, your Outlook mailbox needs to be hosted on an Exchange 2013 server deployed in the same topology. If you are using Project Online (which is an Office 365 offering), then you need to make sure to use Exchange on Office 365 as well to take advantage of this new feature.

Have you created a project site and made changes to the project site template – and want those changes on your project?  If you have not loaded any data onto the project site then you can Delete and Recreate the project site using the new template.  See below. 

Step 1:  Delete Project Site.

1. Log on to PWA
2. Click on Server Settings >> Connected SharePoint Sites.
3. On the Connected SharePoint Sites page, from the Project Name list, select a project for which you want to delete a project site and then Click on Delete Site. You need to click on the first column to highlight  the entire row.
4. 

1. Click on OK for the below warning message.
2. 
3. The selected Project Site and its content will be deleted permanently

Step 2: Recreate Project Site.

1. On the Connected SharePoint Sites page, from the Project Name list, select a project for which you want to re-create a project site and click on Create Site.
2.  
3. Accept the default setting you will get on below “Create Project Site” window and click on OK.  Your new project site will be created using updated template.
4. 

How do you measure the completeness of your project? If it depends on whether a physical item is completed (rather than elapsed time or an amount of work performed), you might want to set the Default task Earned Value method option to Physical % complete.

Note    Other values are calculated from earned value, so your decision affects the entire earned value analysis.

Change the default % complete setting

This procedure affects all new tasks you add after you change the setting.

1. Click File > Options > Advanced.
2. Scroll down to Earned Value options for this project.
3. Choose an option from the Default task Earned Value method list.
   • % complete can be calculated by Project or entered directly by you, depending on how you track actual work. This is the default setting for new projects.
   • Physical % complete is always entered directly by you.

Change % complete setting for specific tasks

Use this procedure to change the earned value method for specific existing tasks:

1. Select the tasks you want to change.
2. Right-click the task, click Information, then click the Advanced tab.
3. In the Earned value method box, click the calculation method that you want.

Tip    If your project has some tasks that use one type of earned value method and others that use the other type, we recommend adding the Earned Value Method column to the view. This makes it easier to see at a glance which method is being used for each task, and it’s also easier to change the setting for each task if needed. In the column header row, right click where you want to insert the column, then click Insert Column > Earned Value Method.

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More about % complete

Here’s a simple example of how the % complete values may differ, based on the earned value method you use. Say you’re building a stone wall that consists of 100 stones stacked in 5 rows. You lay the first row of 20 stones in 20 minutes. However, the second row takes you 25 minutes because you have to lift the stones up one row higher. The third row takes you 30 minutes, the fourth 35 minutes, and the last row takes 40 minutes, for a total of 150 minutes for the project.

After completing the third row, you could say that the wall was 60 percent physically complete, because you had laid 60 of 100 stones. However, in terms of duration, the project was only 50 percent complete because you had only spent 75 of the required 150 minutes.

Depending on how you get paid for the work—how the value is earned (by the stone or by the hour)—you may choose the percent complete value or the physical percent complete value to properly reflect this in the earned value analysis.

For more detailed information about earned value analysis, see Earned value analysis, for the rest of us.

Usually, you report your project’s progress on a day you set— the status date, to use project management-speak. For example, if you want sales report figures for last month, you set the status date to the last day of that month. Or, if progress reports are due Friday, but were sent in late, you might set the status date back to Friday before reporting on progress information.

The status date is almost never the current date, so you need to set it:

1. Click Project > Status Date.
   
2. Select the new status date.
   To set the status date back to the current date, either enter the current date, or enter NA in the date field.