Business Rules for Microsoft Project Client Integration with xRPM/cProjects 4.5, Portfolio and Project Management 5.0
This note documents a few business rules that apply to the xRPM/cProjects 4.5 and Portfolio and Project Management 5.0 release for Microsoft Project Client Integration.
The following list is not exhaustive and lists certain restrictive approaches in the current Microsoft Project Client integration process:
Schedule Type
* SAP cProjects project schedule type must be bottom up (and not top down) for projects that are to be downloaded or uploaded.
Calendar
* Microsoft Project supports calendar range from January 01, 1984 to December 31, 2049. Integration scenarios must use SAP calendars too that correspond to this timeline, not starting earlier, so that the holidays are well accounted for.
* Task specific calendars are not supported during integration.
Constraints
* Microsoft Project supports either a start or a finish constraint on project start/finish dates. To accommodate this, only the finish constraint is downloaded from SAP cProjects if both project start constraint and project finish constraint are maintained.
* The same holds true for tasks in Microsoft Project. Hence, during download of a cProjects project task, finish constraint takes precedence over the start constraint; that is, if a cProjects project task has both start and finish constraints maintained, only the finish constraint is downloaded. It is therefore recommended to maintain none or only one constraint per task in cProjects project for integration.
* Constraints 'As soon as possible' and 'As late as possible' in Microsoft Project correspond to 'Earliest possible' and 'No constraint' in cProjects. The values uploaded/downloaded are in accordance with this mapping.
Scheduling
* Checklist and checklist items having no child tasks are downloaded with finish to finish relationships to the latest finishing tasks under the same parent in Microsoft Project. This enables the dates to be scheduled as per the application's rules (checklists do not have start/finish, checklist items have only finish dates in cProjects while Microsoft Project does not allow creation of a task without start and finish dates)
* All phases in cProjects are downloaded with a dummy relationship with the previous phase in Microsoft Project, this is because all objects are considered as tasks in MS Project and only custom field are used to differentiate between the various SAP project elements like phases, tasks, checklists, checklist items.
* Tasks under the project header which have corresponding sub tasks defined in Microsoft Project are uploaded under a dummy phase 'task hierarchy' in xRPM/cProjects. This is to keep with the cProjects logic which does not allow sub tasks under a project level task.
* Tasks in cProjects are downloaded as 'fixed units tasks' in Microsoft Project unless automatically rolled out as 'fixed duration tasks' by MS Project in case they have child tasks.
* It is recommended to make changes to the project in only one application at a time. Changes made in parallel might not be reflected from one application to the other once an upload/download is carried out.
* Calendar in cProjects should match the calendar maintained in Microsoft Project for scheduling to correspond between the two applications. The calendar to be used for all upload/import scenarios should be defaulted in the IMG configurations, please refer to section 1.3.7 of note 958210 for further details.
Status Management
* cProjects project elements which may not be modified as per cProjects status management rules during an upload from Microsoft Project are not updated and the process proceeds with other project elements.
* Status of all project elements is set to status 'Created' when importing a simulation or while creating new project elements during import/upload.
Actual Data, Percent Complete
* Actual data (dates, work, remaining work) of tasks are calculated in Microsoft Project while they are user inputs in cProjects. This information is downloaded only for activities (meaning: leaf tasks) but not for summary tasks. Actual data for summary tasks will be calculated in MSP and might differ from the actual data of tasks maintained in cProjects.
* If percentage complete, but no actual dates are maintained in Microsoft Project, actual data (dates, work, remaining work, duration, remaining duration) is created automatically. Percentage complete, on the other hand, is a user input field in cProjects and hence is independent of the actual data. These values are integrated to keep scheduling in line, between the two applications, to the maximum extent possible. It is advisable, however, to maintain the actual values in cProjects whenever percentage complete information is maintained so that integration values correspond to each other during integration.
* No actual data or percent complete is imported into cProjects simulation projects
Roles and Resources
* cProjects roles are downloaded as Microsoft Project resources. Single resources assigned to a cProjects role may be uploaded/downloaded. cProjects role to task assignments are reflected as Microsoft Project resource to task assignments during integration.
* cProjects role to task assignment data, i.e. assignment start, end, work is not integrated.
* Download of resource assignment will affect task work, percentage completion and actuals according to Microsoft Project logic to keep scheduling consistent. Task duration should not be affected.
* cProjects responsible roles and responsible resources are not supported in the current integration.
* Resource leveling in Microsoft Project, which may lead to splitting of tasks, is not supported during integration.
* Resources of type 'work' in Microsoft Project are supported during integration.
Value IDs
* Only IDs for cProjects object types (task/phase/checklist/resource) are downloaded to Microsoft Project. The value list does not include the contextual names for these object types.
* Field value lists in Microsoft Project should not be altered as they may contain essential mapping data for upload.
Order of tasks
* Order of newly inserted tasks in Microsoft Project is maintained during upload to xRPM/cProjects up to three new insertions. The order might vary further depending on the level at which the new task is inserted (under project/phase/checklist).
Work Distribution, Candidates
* Work distribution data is not integrated between Microsoft Project and xRPM/cProjects and neither are cProjects project candidates.
Outline Codes
* Outline codes are supported only during upload from Microsoft Project to xRPM/cProjects.
* Download to outline code fields is not present in the current integration.
Custom fields and formulae
* Custom fields are not available for project header in Microsoft Project client file and hence not available during xRPM/cProjects integration as well.
* Microsoft Project formulae and functions are not supported in the integration process between the two applications.
Baseline Fields
* Baseline fields are not supported for integration between Microsoft Project and xRPM/cProjects.
Change Management
* Log file is not created during download to Microsoft Project from xRPM/cProjects.
Predecessor Link Lags
* Lags expressed in percentage in Microsoft project are not uploaded to xRPM/cProjects.
Cost Integration
* Costs (incl. earned value) in Microsoft Project and cost integration in xRPM/cProjects are not supported during integration between the two applications.