Microsoft Office Project 2003 Inside Out

Sending Assignments and Updates to Team Members

After you enter all the e-mail addresses of your project resources, you're ready to start using e-mail workgroup messaging. You start by sending resources their assignments. When you publish an assignment, you're sending the assignment details through e-mail to each assigned resource. The resources can reply to the assignment notice with an acceptance or rejection and add explanatory comments.

As you work through the project, you continue to publish any tasks that have been added or changed so that team members always have the up-to-date assignment information they need.

When you need progress information from the resources, you can use workgroup handling to request updates for assigned tasks. Resources respond with actual progress information such as number of hours worked or percent complete. You can establish a weekly update schedule for your team members to send you e-mail progress reports with their hours worked per task. You can then incorporate this information into the project plan to facilitate your project tracking and monitoring efforts.

Sending Assignments to Team Members

To send all task information to the assigned resources, follow these steps:

1. Click Collaborate, Publish, New And Changed Assignments.

2. If you see a message having to do with saving the project plan (see Figure 19-3), just click OK to proceed.

   Figure 19-3: When you publish assignments, click OK if you see this alert message.

3. The Publish New And Changed Assignments dialog box appears (see Figure 19-4).

   Figure 19-4: Send all project assignments to their assigned resources.

4. In the Publish New And Changed Assignments For list, click Entire Project.

5. Under the task table, select the Resource option next to Show Preview Grouped By.

6. Be sure that the Notify All Affected Resources Via E-Mail check box is selected.

7. Click the Edit Message Text button.

   The Edit Message Text dialog box appears (see Figure 19-5).

   Figure 19-5: Revise the introductory note that accompanies the published assignments.

8. Revise the message as you feel appropriate to explain the process to your team members, and then click OK.

   If necessary, your e-mail program launches and then you'll see a message confirming that the assignment messages have been sent.

After your messages are sent, the Gantt Chart will show Unconfirmed indicators (see Figure 19-6) next to each task that was published. They indicate that an assignment has been published for that task, but that you have not yet received a response from the assigned resource.

Figure 19-6: Unconfirmed indicators mark tasks that have been published and are awaiting acknowledgment by the assigned resources.

Receiving Workgroup Messages from Team Members

When a team member responds to an assignment, you receive an e-mail message from the team member in your e-mail inbox. Depending on the e-mail program you use, the information might be contained in a special e-mail form or in an attachment (see Figure 19-7).

Figure 19-7: You receive assignment confirmations from resources in your e-mail inbox.

To review and incorporate your team members' responses to their assignments, follow these steps:

1. If necessary, open the e-mail attachment. The team member's response to your assignment appears (see Figure 19-8).

   Figure 19-8: The message indicates whether the resource accepts or declines the assignment.

2. To incorporate the team member's response into your project plan, click the Update Project button.

   In your project plan, the Unconfirmed indicator for the assignment disappears.

   Note

   Team members can also send you task updates with changes to task information and progress information with assignment actuals. Open the messages the same way, and either click Update Project to incorporate the information into your project plan or click Reply to have a dialogue with the team member about the information.

Sending Task Updates to Team Members

If you add new tasks or change assigned tasks in any way, you need to publish those specific tasks to the assigned resources. Follow these steps to publish selected tasks to the assigned resources:

1. On the Gantt Chart or other task sheet, click the tasks you want to publish.

2. Click Collaborate, Publish, New And Changed Assignments. If you see the message about saving the project, just click OK.

   The Publish New And Changed Assignments dialog box appears (see Figure 19-9). Since you chose specific tasks, Selected Items is the default selection in the Publish New And Changed Assignments For list.

   Figure 19-9: Use the Publish New and Changed Assignments dialog box to confirm and send assignments to the resources.

3. Confirm the tasks in the list and then click OK.

   Your message is sent to the resources assigned to the selected tasks.

After you publish a message regarding changed assignments, the Gantt Chart shows the Unconfirmed indicators next to the selected tasks. They indicate that an assignment has been published for that task, but that you have not yet received a response from the assigned resource. When you receive the acknowledgment from the resources and select the Update Project button, the Unconfirmed indicators disappear.

Requesting Progress Information

You can quickly send an e-mail to resources requesting information about an assignment. To do this, follow these steps:

1. In your project plan, display the Gantt Chart or another task view.

2. Select the tasks for which you want progress information.

   To select adjacent tasks, drag across them. To select nonadjacent tasks, click the first task, hold down the Ctrl key, and then click all the other tasks you want to select.

3. Click Collaborate, Request Progress Information.

4. In the message that appears, click OK.

   Tip	Quickly request assignment actuals       You can also right-click a task, click Request Progress Information, and then click OK.

After you request progress information, the Gantt Chart shows an indicator specifying that progress information has been requested and not yet received. When you receive workgroup messages containing actuals information from the team members and select the Update Project button, the indicators disappear.

Resending Task Assignments

Sometimes it's necessary to republish task assignments to the team members. This is typically done when there's a problem with the original assignment e-mail. To republish assignments, follow these steps:

1. In the Gantt Chart or other task sheet, select the tasks you want to republish.

2. Click Collaborate, Publish, Republish Assignments.

3. If the message about saving the project plan appears, click OK.

   The Republish Assignments dialog box appears.

4. In the Publish New And Changed Assignments For box, click Selected Items.

   Your e-mail program sends the assignments to the resources assigned to the selected tasks.