The History and Evolution of Microsoft Project and Project Server

MS Project Server 2003 to MS Project Server 2007

Since its less-than-user-friendly inception in 2003, Project Server has undergone some major and positive transformations, starting with the highly serviceable Project Server 2007 and the inception of Microsoft’s Enterprise Project Management (EPM) suite that introduced SharePoint as a key “baked-in” element.  

Organizations already familiar and comfortable with SharePoint embraced Project Web App (PWA) as a usable Web-based view into the project portfolios, as well other positive features like Excel Services that enabled easy publication of basic Excel workbooks and charts into SharePoint dashboards.  One knock on Excel Services in 2007 was that it was finicky about certain characters, objects, and codes that had to be stripped out of workbooks before they could be published up to SharePoint.  

All in all, EPM 2007 proved itself a worthy, and easier to use, contender against competitors like CA Clarity and HP’s PPM solution.  Microsoft’s secret weapon is, of course, its omnipresent Office Suite and its continually improving integration with SharePoint.  The ability to status MS Project tasks in Outlook’s task manager (even in mobile devices) and email documents directly into SharePoint Document libraries are just two of the features that helped EPM 2007 gain a solid foothold in the PPM portal market.

MS Project Server 2007 to Project Server 2010 (MS Project Server EPM)

Project Server 2010, with its tighter SharePoint integration, built and improved upon many of these features and has provided strong momentum for organizations looking toward a more professional and standards-based approach to program, project, and portfolio management.  Microsoft’s biggest improvement with the 2010 version was in the ease and reliability of its OLAP data cubes, which were hardly usable in 2007.  In 2010, the cubes refresh reliably against all Project Server data fields.  

The smartest move Microsoft made was in automatically generating more than a dozen typical sample reports in Excel pivot tables that cover a wide range of standard reporting needs in terms of activity status, burn-rates, budgets, and resource management.  These auto-refreshing reports form a huge reservoir for all kinds of users with moderate capabilities (and familiarity with pivots) to tailor and generate an unlimited range of tabular and graphical reports that make use of Project Server and other external data in ways that were unimaginable prior to Project Server 2010.  The OLAP cubes and familiar Excel interface are putting project teams and business support functions in touch with their data as never before.

Microsoft also ironed some of the bugs out of Excel Services in 2010 and introduced some improved features in the SharePoint Business Intelligence suite like Visio Services that enables easy connection of Visio objects to external data sources for low-cost, low-effort animation of SharePoint dashboard pages.  SQL Server Reporting Services has also opened up more advanced report design possibilities for users with little or no SQL scripting skills.

Finally, the Portfolio Management module, now integrated into EPM  product rather than an add-on, has been overhauled from its earlier incarnation as Portfolio Server and provides an excellent and easily used portfolio planning, management and optimization solution that can be quickly and easily employed by an organization ready with the groundwork needed to implement a portfolio management system (i.e. business drivers and prioritization).

MS Project Server 2013

The jury is still out on the impact of MS Project and Project Server 2013 on the rapidly shifting PPM terrain.  Its move into the Cloud and integration with Office 365 provides natural synergies with the Cloud-based Exchange and Office suite.  

Microsoft has introduced a new reporting utility for its Project Online offering, an adaptation of its OLAP cubes into a new, but still Excel-based reporting tool that employs the Open Data (OData) protocol.  It provides similar capabilities as in Project Server 2010 to design and run pivot table and pivot chart reports in Excel 2013 (only).  SSRS is not available as a reporting tool in Project Online but is still part of server-based installations of EPM.  The biggest change in Project Server 2013 from an architectural standpoint is that all project data is contained in one database rather than four in the 2010 instance.  This should improve performance, especially on larger implementations.

Pinnacle has been working with MS Project and Project Server since these products were introduced.  

We have led our clients through establishing the business requirements that reduce costs, time to market, and resource optimization.  We go way beyond simply configuring and implementing Project Server. We are experts in driving business improvements with our solutions and implementations.  

If you would like to discuss how Pinnacle can help you realize bottom line improvements in your business using MS Project Server, Give Us a Call or .