Business Rules for Open PS for Microsoft Project

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1. Object Mapping

Project System Object	Microsoft Project Object
Project Definition	Project Information
WBS Element	Summary Task
WBS Milestone	Milestone Task to Summary Task
Activity	Task
Plant/Work Center	Work Resource (Name=Plant/Work Center)
Activity Elements	Work Resource (ID via Personnel Number)
Activity Milestone	Milestone Task to Task
Network Header	Summary Task

2. Views in Open PS for Microsoft Project

a. Open PS

The “OpenPS View” (Table Open PS) displays the following Microsoft Project fields:

§ ID

§ Description

§ Duration

§ Start

§ Finish

§ Resource Names

§ Work

§ Retain in PS

The following Project System fields are also displayed:

§ Network

§ Control Key

§ Object Type

§ MRP Controller

§ Network Type

§ WBS Element

When copying/cutting and pasting tasks, these fields should be cleared manually.

In the Open PS view, the following fields are used for internal processing:

Number 12

Duration after download from the Project System (PS)

When copying/cutting and pasting tasks, these fields should be cleared manually.

b. Open PS Resources

The OpenPS Resources view displays details of the resources. Here, the following fields are used for internal processing:

Text22	Employee Default Activity Type from HR Infotype 0315
Text24	Activity Type Assigned to the Resource in the Project
Text25	Activity Type Information Including Rates
Text26	Activity Type Information Including Description

In the "Task Usage" view, the details of the resource assignment are displayed. Here, the following fields are used for internal processing:

Number11	Work after download from the Project System (PS)
Start6	Start Date After Download from PS
Finish6	Finish Date After Download from PS

When copying/cutting and pasting tasks, these fields should be cleared manually.

After downloading a project with resources, the details can be viewed in the “Task Usage” view and the Open PS Tracking table. This view gives detailed information for each task and its resources. Planned, actual and baseline costs can also be seen in this view.

You can compare values in the Project System with those that have been downloaded to Microsoft Project by selecting OpenPS ® View in Microsoft Project and then choosing View ® Table ® OpenPS Tracking.

c. OpenPS Usage

The Open PS Usage table in Microsoft Project under the Task Usage view has two extra fields in comparison to the Microsoft Project table Usage: 'Text2' (caption 'Element number') and 'Text1' (caption 'Description'). These fields are for the activity element number and description.

You can create new activity element numbers and descriptions, and change existing ones.

If you change an existing activity element number in Microsoft Project, note that when you upload the project to PS, the activity element in PS will be deleted and a new element will be created with the new number.

If a resource in Microsoft Project is a “plant/work center” or “plant/work center/activity type” combination that is assigned to an activity, there is no corresponding activity element and consequently no number and description.

3. Schedule Automatically Indicator

Downloading a project works best if the Schedule Automatically indicator is activated for the network header in PS. This is required because Microsoft Project automatically schedules the task with the constraints and relationships.

4. Schedule from Start

If a project is downloaded to Microsoft Project using "Schedule from Start" (which means "scheduling forwards"), the following field mapping takes place:

PS Fields from Activity/Activity Elements	Microsoft Project Fields (Task)
Earliest Start Date	Start Date
Earliest Finish Date	Finish Date

If the activity does not have a predecessor, then the task in Microsoft Project is assigned a "Start No Earlier Than" constraint, since Microsoft Project would otherwise push the start date of the task to the start date of the project.

The "Start No Earlier Than" constraint is assigned for a milestone, since Microsoft Project would otherwise push the start date of the milestone to the start date of the project.

5. Schedule from Finish

If a project is downloaded to Microsoft Project using "Schedule from Finish" (which means "scheduling backwards") then the following field mapping takes place:

PS Fields from Activity/Activity Elements	Microsoft Project Fields (Task)
Latest Start Date	Start Date
Latest Finish Date	Finish Date

If the activity does not have a successor then the task in Microsoft Project will be set to the "Finish No Later Than" constraint since Microsoft Project would otherwise push the finish date of the task to the finish date of the project.

The "Finish No Later Than" constraint is assigned for a milestone, since Microsoft Project would otherwise push the finish date of the milestone to the finish date of the project.

6. Summary Task/WBS Element

The summary task in Microsoft Project gets the dates, duration and work depending on the dates, duration and work in its subtasks. If you download WBS elements, the summary task is equivalent to WBS elements in PS. If you download network(s), summary tasks are equivalent to the network header.

If a WBS element has basic dates and if any network under the WBS element has dates that are outside the WBS basic date range (this will generate warning or error messages if scheduled in PS), the tasks (activities) are scheduled first and the dates rolled up to the summary task (WBS element) while downloading. In this case, the summary task (WBS element) dates may not match the WBS basic dates in PS. See Scheduling Conflicts in PS.

7. WBS Element

To create a WBS element in Microsoft Project , the column "Object type" in the Open PS view needs to be filled with "WBS-Element".

8. Activity ID

An Activity ID can have a maximum of 4 characters. The WBS Element ID needs to be unique.

9. Milestone

For a milestone, the time assigned is the default finish time set in the Microsoft Project application.

10. Milestones and Links

If a link exists between a task and a milestone, this link is not uploaded to PS since a milestone cannot have a link in PS. If there is a link from a task to a milestone and from the milestone to another task, having a link from the first task to the second task helps maintain the relationship in PS.

11. Uploading a Milestone to the Project System

For a milestone in Microsoft Project:

Ў If the previous task is a summary task (WBS Element), the milestone is uploaded to PS as a WBS milestone.

Ў If the previous task is a non-summary task (network activity), the milestone is uploaded to PS as an activity milestone.

By default, only the scheduled date is uploaded to PS. If the fixed date needs to be uploaded to PS, maintain a "Must Start On" constraint for the milestone in Microsoft Project. If a fixed date is required for a WBS milestone, this constraint should be maintained before uploading to PS. In this case, not maintaining this constraint causes an error while uploading to PS.

Ў If the milestone is set to the beginning of the previous task, the milestone in PS will have "Offset to Finish" unchecked, that is, the milestone would be at the start of the activity or WBS element.

Ў If the milestone is at the end of the previous task, the milestone in PS will have "Offset to Finish" checked, that is, the milestone would be at the end of the Activity or WBS Element.

Ў If the milestone is in the middle of the previous task, the milestone in PS will have "Offset to Finish" checked by default and will be at the end of the activity or WBS element. To avoid this, maintain a "Must Start On" constraint for the milestone in Microsoft Project. This will cause the fixed date to be updated for the milestone in PS.

12. Dates

The project information in Microsoft Project is updated with the information in the project definition in PS. If the start date is not available in the PS project definition, then the start date in Microsoft Project is the start date of the task that gets started first. If the finish date is not available in the PS project definition, the finish date is the finish date of the task that gets completed last in Microsoft Project.

Ў If any task starts before the project start date, the project start date is pushed back to the start date of the task that begins first.

Ў If any task ends after the project end date, the project end date is pushed forwards to the end date of the task that ends last.

13. Actual Dates

All actual data (actual dates, actual work, actual costs) is only downloaded from PS to Microsoft Project. While uploading back to PS, this information is ignored.

14. Costs

All cost information (planned costs and actual costs) is only downloaded from the PS to Microsoft Project. While uploading back to PS, this information is ignored.

15. Baseline Information

When a project is downloaded to Microsoft Project, the baseline information is also saved before assigning actual data to the task or the resources. The following information is baselined:

Microsoft Project Fields	Microsoft Project Baseline Fields
Start Date	Baseline Start
Finish Date	Baseline Finish
Duration	Baseline Duration
Work	Baseline Work
Cost	Baseline Cost

The baseline fields are used to compare the values in Microsoft Project (before assigning the actual data) against the plan values in PS. In Microsoft Project, when the actual data is assigned to the task, there is a chance that the above Microsoft Project fields are automatically recalculated. Microsoft Project baseline fields are, however, not changed. This baselining helps the user to get reports on the variance between plan and the actual as seen in PS.

16. Cost Field

The "Cost" field in Microsoft Project is the plan cost. This task contains the plan cost of a PS network activity. In PS the plan cost could consist of a resource costs and as well as overhead or material costs. In Microsoft Project, the resource cost of a task is calculated automatically by Microsoft Project based on the following formula:

Task Resource Cost = Resource Work in hours * Resource Standard Rate/hour

If there are multiple resources on a task, then the task resource cost is the sum of all resource costs. So the overhead cost, which is called fixed cost in Microsoft Project, is calculated based on the following formula:

Fixed Cost on a task = Plan Cost of the task – Sum of resources’ cost on the task

This fixed cost is calculated by OpenPS4MSP.

17. Forecast Work

While downloading a project from PS to Microsoft Project, if there is a confirmation entered on the activity or activity element, the forecast work is transferred to Microsoft Project as work. The planned work as mentioned before goes into the baseline work.

18. Actual Work

When downloading the actual data, the actual work that has been completed by an activity element on an activity in PS is assigned to the resource of a task in Microsoft Project. Based on the actual start date and the actual finish date in PS, the actual work is evenly distributed against that resource.

For example, if 12 hours of work is done from 01.21.02 to 01.23.02, then 4 hours of work will be assigned for each of the 3 days in Microsoft Project. If there is a forecast finish date in PS, then the remaining work is evenly distributed as the remaining work for that task. If there is no forecast date in PS and the actual finish date is after the plan finish date, then Microsoft Project distributes the remaining work.

That is, if the actual finish is on or after the planned finish and there is work remaining, a forecast finish should be supplied while entering confirmations in PS so that the remaining work is scheduled properly when downloading the project to Microsoft Project.

19. Duration

The actual duration of a task in Microsoft Project is based on the number of days over which the actual work is distributed for all the resources of that task. The duration fields (plan, baseline and actual) in Microsoft Project cannot be defined at resource level; they can only be defined at task-level.

20. Actual Cost

The actual costs are calculated automatically in Microsoft Project based on the actual work. The calculation is based on the following formula:

Resource Actual Cost = Resource Actual Work x Resource Standard Rate/Hour

The actual cost of a task is calculated automatically in Microsoft Project using the following formula:

Actual Cost of a Task = Sum of all resource’s Actual Costs + Prorated Fixed Costs

The prorated fixed cost is calculated based on the percentage of work completed against planned work. For example, if the actual work is 32 hours and the planned work is 40 hours, then the percentage of completion is (32/40) x 100 = 80%. So if there was a fixed cost, then the prorated fixed cost would be 80% of the planned fixed cost.

21. Selective Upload

You can restrict the upload of tasks from Microsoft Project to PS. This enables you to have detailed planning in Microsoft Project and high-level planning in the Project System.

The Retain in PS field on the OpenPS View determines whether or not you want the object to exist in PS. If you set the value to No, it means that you do not want the object to exist in PS and it is not uploaded to PS accordingly. To upload a task you must set the field to Yes.

The selective upload option enables you to ensure that certain tasks in Microsoft Project are never uploaded to PS. It cannot be used to prevent modifications made in Microsoft Project from being updated to existing elements in PS.

To prevent data from being updated to PS, proceed as follows:

i. Select the task for upload (by setting the Retain in PS field to Yes).

ii. On the Synchronize Log screen, which appears during upload to PS, deselect the objects that you do not want to be updated in PS.

The modified information is not updated to PS, but it is retained in Microsoft Project.

If a task has already been uploaded to PS and you deselect the task for upload (by setting the Retain in PS field to No and by selecting the object in the Synchronize Log screen) this will delete the corresponding object in PS.

The following table shows you the different system behavior according to the values in the Retain in PS field and the Synchronize Log screen. For a task <object> that exists in Microsoft Project:

Exists in PS	Retain in PS in Microsoft Project	Synchronize Log Display	Synchronize Log Checked	Effect of Action
Yes	Yes	Update <object>	Yes	Update <object> in PS
Yes	Yes	Update <object>	No	Does not update <object> in PS
Yes	No	Delete <object>	Yes	Deletes <object> in PS
Yes	No	Delete <object>	No	Does not update <object> in PS
No	Yes	Create <object>	Yes	Creates <object> in PS
No	Yes	Create <object>	No	Does not create <object> in PS
No	No	--	--
No	No	--	--

22. Download to Existing Microsoft Project File

You can download a project from the Project System to an existing project in Microsoft Project. If the same project is the active project in Microsoft Project, you have the option of updating the existing file or creating a new file when you download a project.