Integrating Service Tools
with Project/Project Server
Jon Smith, PMP
Keane, Inc.
April 10, 2007
Agenda
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Background
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Problems facing an IT Shop
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Resource Management
Metrics Reporting
Integration of Data
Software Development for Project
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Types of Projects
Characteristics of Deliverable Projects
Characteristics of Service Projects
ITIL®
Methods
Tools
Training Aids
Service / Project Integration Issues
Risks of Tool Integration
Benefits of Integration
Questions/Answers
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Types of Projects
 Deliverable
 Service
 Combo
 Why
is it important?
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Project Category Stratification
 Maintenance
Work – Typically 0-80
hours
 Enhancements – Typically 80-500 hours
 Projects – Typically over 500 hours
 Hour break points vary slightly by
organization
 Process, approach, and documentation
vary significantly by category
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Characteristics of Deliverablebased Projects
Resource management dramatically affects
outcome
 Attention to critical path is crucial
 Comparisons with baseline data
 Each project has a separate plan
 Formal change management process
 Focus is prevention of siphoning resource
availability
 Outcome is the deliverable
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Characteristics of a ServiceBased Project
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Managing to the SLA (Service Level Agreement)
commitment (ex: X number of tickets started within X
hours)
Typically single-resource threaded
No baseline to the individual tickets – just to SLA
metrics
Lots of projects in the same reporting structure
Change management process focuses on metrics,
not the actual change to an enhancement or ticket
Problem – Response Scenario
Outcome is the SLA Metric
Deliverable is irrelevant unless it is a metric
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ITIL®
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Information Technology Infrastructure Library
www.itil.co.uk
Owned by the UK Office of Government Commerce
Most widely accepted approach to service
management worldwide
Consists of “a series of documents used to aid the
implementation of a framework for the consistent and
comprehensive documentation of best practice for an
IT Service Manager” – OGC
Consists of eight sets: Service Support, Service
Delivery, Service Management, Security
Management, Infrastructure Management, Business
Perspective, Application Management, Software
Asset Management
© OGC 2007
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ITIL® Core Sets
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Service Support
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Incident Management
Problem Management
Configuration Management
Change Management
Release Management
Service Desk
Service Delivery
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Service Level Management
IT Financial Management
Capacity Management
Availability Management
Capacity Management
Availability Management
IT Service Continuity Management
IT Security Management
© OGC 2007
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Problems facing an IT Shop
Service work get the priority (squeaky wheel)
 Projects (Deliverables) do not get priority
 Same staff is mixed between service and
deliverable work
 Mr. Murphy says the same resource who is
pulled to deal with a critical service problem is
on the critical path of an important project . . .
 With penalties if it is late. . .
 You do not know about the impact to the
deadline until it is too late
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Resource Management
Service work impacts deliverable schedules
and capacity
 No overall view of resource effectiveness and
capacity between service and deliverable
work
 Using a split process (ex: 6 hours for projects
and 2 hours for services) breaks down with
multiple projects and promotes lack of
accountability
 Lack of accountability – black hole (“Projects
are not my top priority”)
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Metrics Reporting
Service tools do not understand a calendar,
they understand a queue
 Service tools do not understand the resource
productivity factor (i.e. Task Units) and how it
affects the overall throughput
 Deliverable tools are designed to hinder rapid
changes to the plan (service work counter
productive to the concept of a baseline)
 Application Development Life Cycles must be
in sync between service and deliverable
products
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Integration of Data
 Transfer
actual work and remaining
work by resource by day
 Setup bucket task(s) for storage of
service work
 Can setup a two-way transfer of
hours to tickets of the type “project”
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Integration Alarms
Deadlines
Overallocations
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Software Development –
Client Methods
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VBA – Visual Basic for Applications – used for
macros
Project Guide / XML – can create XML content
definitions that reference HTML pages
OLE DB Provider – can read Project data with
ODBC tools – see PJOLEDB.HTM file
COM add-in – Component Object Module created
by Visual Basic or Visual C#
Primary Interop Assembly (PIA) – for use with
managed code assemblies developed with VB .NET
or any other language that uses the .NET
framework
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Software Development –
Server Methods
Project Data Service (PDS) – API’s
(Application Programming Interface) –
Preferred Method – PDS is an extensible
XML-based API for Project Server
 Service for Enterprise Data Maintenance –
for higher-level programmatic management
of enterprise data via SOAP messages or
XML files dropped into share directories
 Object Link Provider – API that is the basis of
integration with SharePoint
 Project Server Web Parts
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Software Development Aids
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Developing with Project 2003 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/enus/library/aa168347(office.11).aspx
Project SDK (Software Development Kit)
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa295399(office.11).aspx
Project Server 2003 Technical Library
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/office/project/2003/reskit/
default.mspx
Downloads in Download Center
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WEBERD (Project Server Database Tables)
PROJERD (Project Database Tables)
PJ11WEBPARTS (Project Server 2003 Web Parts)
PROJDB (Project 2002 Schema)
SVRDB (Project Server 2002 Schema)
PJSVRDB (Data Dictionary)
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Training Aids
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Many Microsoft training materials for development are contained in MYMPA.ORG
Service / Project Tool
Integration Issues
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Organizations tend to ignore impact of one on the
other
Service tools tend to ignore resource calendars
Project tools tend to ignore the metrics needed for
compliance
Tools that capture similar data but use it in different
manners
Different tools force the same data to be re-entered
multiple times
Projects usually suffer
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Project stores time in minutes
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Integration Tool Risks
 Organizations
do not treat tool
integration as projects
 Organizations do not consider the
business purpose
 Organizations do not consider project
and service work overlap
 Organizations do not consider impact on
resources
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Do you use a tool correctly?
 What
is the business purpose of a tool?
 Do you track only schedule and not
effort and cost?
you under a mandate of “Do more
with less?”
 Are
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Benefits of Tool Integration
 Reusability
of data – Type Once, Use
Many
 Eliminate redundancy in applications,
which lowers maintenance costs
 Allows future applications to make calls
to the specific tool sub-service
 An object oriented model lowers impact
studies significantly
KEANE
Questions?
Contact Info:
Jon_Smith@Keane.Com
KEANE