Microsoft Office Project 2003 Inside Out

When the project plan is developed and tasks are assigned to resources, the project manager saves, or publishes , the project plan to the project server. Then when you log on to Project Web Access, you see the tasks that have been specifically assigned to you.

When working with your assignments, you can do the following:

• Review new assignments as they come in.

• Reject the assignment of a new task.

• Review new updates to your existing assignments.

• Add new tasks to the project plan and assign yourself to them.

• Assign yourself to existing tasks in the project plan.

Accepting New and Changed Assignments

As soon as you log on to Project Web Access, your Home page lists any new notifications that require your attention. Notifications come from new or changed assignments or progress requests published to the project server for you by the project manager. The following are examples of notifications you might see in the Project Web Access Home page:

• New tasks have been assigned to you.

• Task information on an existing assignment has changed.

• The project manager is requesting a progress update on your assignments.

• A status report is coming due.

When you want to see more details about one of the notifications, simply click the notification link. The page containing the details of the notification appears.

One of the first notifications you'll see is that new tasks have been assigned to you. Click the notification link, and the Tasks page appears (see Figure 23-3).

Figure 23-3: New assignments are posted on the Home page.

Look at the blue navigation bar, and you'll see that you are now in the Tasks area. Look at the side pane and the page title, and you'll see that you're in the View My Tasks page. The side pane also shows that you're viewing all tasks for the current time period in the Timesheet view.

The Timesheet view shows your list of tasks along with the fields appropriate to the progress tracking method that has been chosen for this project by the project server administrator and your project manager. Typical fields might include the amount of scheduled work for each assignment, scheduled start date, scheduled finish date, percent complete, and so on. These fields are also customizable by your project manager.

When you receive new task assignments, they are marked with the new assignment icon in the indicators column. You don't need to take any further action to accept your new assignments.

If it's necessary for you to reject an assignment, follow these steps:

1. In the Timesheet view or Gantt Chart, click the assignment in the table.

2. Above the table, click Insert Notes.

   Although this isn't required to reject an assignment, it's a good idea to explain to the project manager your reason for rejecting the assignment.

3. In the Assignment Notes dialog box, enter your explanation and then click OK.

4. Above the table, click Reject and then click Yes.

   The assignment is removed from your Tasks list, and an update is submitted for the project manager. The project manager will then review the rejection . If the project manager accepts the rejected assignment, your name is removed as an assigned resource on this task in the project plan.

During the course of a project, task information often changes. Maybe new tasks have been added or the duration on a task has doubled , and the dependencies on these tasks affect several other assignments. When this happens, the project manager publishes changed assignments, which then update your tasks list.

When you receive notification of an update to one of your existing assignments, that assignment is marked with a black exclamation point icon in the indicators column. Rest your mouse pointer over the indicator to get more information about the change.

If a note icon appears next to a task, the project manager has added a comment about the task. Double-click the icon to read the comment.

Creating New Tasks

Suppose you're performing significant work that doesn't fit the definition of any of your assigned tasks, yet is necessary to the completion of the project and should be tracked. To keep your project manager informed and to ensure that your work on the project is accounted for, you can create and submit a new task to the project manager.

To create and submit a new task, do the following:

1. In the side pane of the Tasks page, click Create A New Task.

   The Create A New Task page appears (see Figure 23-4).

   Figure 23-4: Define your new task.

2. In the Project box, select the project to which the new task belongs.

3. Under What Outline Level, specify where the task should be placed in the project task structure.

4. Under Task Information, specify the new task name, any comment, the task start date, and the work estimate.

5. Click Save New Tasks at the bottom of the page.

   The new task is added to your Tasks list, and is also submitted to the project server. When the project manager for the selected project reviews your update and accepts it, the new task is added to the project plan, with you assigned to it.

   Note	Creating and self-assigning new tasks is a permission granted according to the user profile set up by your project server administrator.

Assigning Yourself to Existing Tasks

Your project manager might have published project information without assigning tasks to resources. Team members can assign themselves to tasks in a published project. To do this, follow these steps:

1. In the side pane of the Tasks page, click Assign Myself To An Existing Task (see Figure 23-5).

   Figure 23-5: Sign up for tasks in a project.

2. In the Project box, select the project to which the task belongs.

   All tasks are grouped by all published projects in which you are listed as a resource, whether or not you're assigned to any tasks.

3. Under Task Information, specify the work estimate and any comment.

4. Click Assign Me To Task.

   Your new assignment is added to your Tasks list, and is also submitted to the project server. When the project manager for the selected project reviews and accepts your update, your name is added as assigned to the task in the project plan.

In the course of carrying out your assignments, you might have a number of smaller activities that aren't big enough to be tasks. You can create a to-do list for yourself to keep track of these kinds of tasks.

On the navigation bar, click Project. In the side pane, click Create A New Personal Or Shared To-Do List. Click Next to start creating a To-Do List (see Figure 23-6).

Figure 23-6: Set up a to-do list for yourself.

Your to-do lists are stored only in your own Microsoft Project Web Access site, and are not included in the overall project plan.