Published: May 12, 2010
This article discusses planning considerations that a SharePoint farm administrator should make when planning to deploy Microsoft Project Server 2010. Project Server 2010 is built on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 architecture and has a big dependency on SharePoint Server 2010 features and services. This article describes the following considerations:
- Microsoft Enterprise Project Management 2010 overview
- Project Server 2010 compatibility with SharePoint Server versions
- Installation considerations
- Service Application requirements for Project Server 2010
- Database considerations
- Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) considerations
- Project Server 2010 language packs
- Web browser considerations
Microsoft EPM Overview
The Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) 2010 Solution is a flexible, end-to-end Project Portfolio Management platform, used by organizations across many industries to automate primary PPM processes. The EPM Solution helps organizations achieve the following business imperatives:
- Intuitively capture all requests in a central repository, and manage them using governance workflow: Demand Management
- Objectively prioritize, optimize, and select project portfolios that best align with the organization’s business strategy:Portfolio Selection and Analytics
- Proactively and reactively manage resources throughout the project life cycle: Resource Management
- Easily create and communicate both simple and complex project schedules:Schedule Management
- Control and measure project and portfolio financial performance:Financial Management
- Simplify the collection of time and task status updates from team members: Time and Task Management
- Better connect different teams to share information and drive collaboration:Team Collaboration
- Identify, reduce, and communicate issues and risks that could adversely affect project success:Issues and Risk Management
- Effectively measure project performance and gain visibility and control across all portfolios:Business Intelligence and Reporting
- Initiate, plan, and deliver strategic programs: Program Management
The Microsoft EPM Solution includes the following products from the Microsoft Project 2010 family, to provide a comprehensive computer- and Web-based PPM solution
- Microsoft Project Server 2010: Project Server 2010 brings together the business collaboration platform services of SharePoint Server 2010 with structured execution capabilities to provide flexible work management solutions. Project Server 2010 unifies project and portfolio management to help organizations align resources and investments with business priorities, gain control across all kinds of work, and visualize performance using powerful dashboards. Project Server 2010 incorporates the best-in-class portfolio management techniques of Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007. This eliminates the need for Project Server Gateway (which was required to push data between Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Project Server 2007), and providing a consistent SharePoint Server Microsoft SharePoint user interface across the solution.
- Microsoft Project Professional 2010: Microsoft Project Professional 2010 delivers powerful, visually improved ways to simplify planning, collaboration, and resource management so managers can successfully tackle all kinds of projects. Connecting Project Professional 2010 with Project Server 2010 ensures that organizations can achieve the added business benefits of unified Project Portfolio Management.
Note:
Project Server 2010 is built on SharePoint Server 2010 to provide true multi-tier architecture by using the new Service Application model. The Project Server architecture includes Project Professional 2010 and Microsoft Project Web App clients in the front-end tier. The front-end applications communicate with the middle tier only through the Project Server Interface (PSI) Web Services, which in turn communicate with the business object layer. Business objects use the databases through the data access layer. Client applications do not directly access the primary databases; Project Server hides business objects and the DAL from clients
Project Server 2010 compatibility with SharePoint Server versions
SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise version is an installation requirement for Project Server 2010. See the following table for Project Server /SharePoint Server compatibility.
Installation Requirement
Will coexist on the same farm with
Will not work with
Project Server 2010:
SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise
SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise
Office SharePoint Server 2007
Project Server 2007:
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Office SharePoint Server 2007
SharePoint Server 2010
Deployment
Similar to SharePoint Server, a Project Server farm deployment can vary in complexity and size, depending on your business requirements. As a three-tier application, Project Server 2010 supports all farm topologies (small, medium and large). Similar to Office Project Server 2007, Project Server 2010 can be deployed on physical servers or virtual servers (Hyper-V) depending on IT requirements. In addition, Project Server 2010 can be configured for extranet access if resources outside your organization have to collaborate on projects. Similar to SharePoint Server, Project Server 2010 supports Windows PowerShell.