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Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management
Customer Solution Case Study
NASA Improves Project Visibility, Reduces
Costs, with Enterprise Solution
Overview “We will see cost savings from deploying EPM WorkEngine by
Country or Region: USA eliminating the need to create copies of schedules. Merging
Industry: National Government Agencies
Office SharePoint Server 2007 with our enterprise project
Customer Profile management solution will also create savings and greater
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is efficiencies for all employees."
managed by the California Institute of
Alberto Ortega, Business Lead for Scheduling, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Technology for National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) and
manages robotic programs for space
exploration. As a part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is responsible for
Business Situation
With numerous large interdependent numerous missions, including explorations of Mars and Jupiter, and
projects running at any time, JPL was employs over 5,000 people. JPL’s project schedulers were using
relying on manual processes to give
project team members visibility into the Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 to manage project
schedule and was unable to create a timelines on their desktops. However this meant that the schedulers
single view of all projects.
were creating copies of schedules for other employees to view. JPL
Solution
also wanted to increase the role of its engineers in managing project
JPL chose to deploy EPM Live’s EPM
WorkEngine, an enterprise project schedules and facilitate greater collaboration within project teams.
management solution that integrates
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 and
JPL decided to deploy EPM WorkEngine from EPM Live, an
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 enterprise project and work management solution that integrates
to provide all employees with access to
project information. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Project
Server 2007 to achieve improved schedule visibility, greater
Benefits
Improved accuracy
collaboration, and to reduce costs.
Increased collaboration
Cost savings
Situation would provide JPL management with a high
As a division of National Aeronautics and level view of the status of all projects and
Space Administration (NASA) in the United when major deliverables were due.
States, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is
the lead United States center for robotic Alberto Ortega, Business Lead for
exploration of the solar system and conducts Scheduling, JPL, says, “Our long term goal
major programs in space-based earth is for everyone to have access to the
sciences. Managed by the California Institute project management system. Assigned
of Technology for NASA, JPL employs over tasks should be open to everybody; the
5,000 people in Pasadena, California. PSAs, engineers and project managers
should have direct access to the schedule
JPL conducts numerous missions including and make changes as required.”
the Mars Exploration Rovers, Juno, an in-
depth study of Jupiter, and the Soil Given the multiple requirements, JPL chose
Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) to work with Microsoft Certified Partner
mission to study soil moisture levels in their LMR Solutions to deploy an enterprise
freeze/thaw state to improve predictions of project management solution to improve
climate and weather. The Laboratory has a visibility of projects for all employees and
large number of projects in progress at any integrate all schedules into a master view.
single time relating to its various missions;
therefore stringent project control is of
great importance. Solution
JPL decided to move to Microsoft Office
The organization was using Microsoft Project Server 2007, a server-based project
Office Project Professional 2007 within the management solution which would give all
laboratory to give project management employees access to project schedules for a
teams access to project schedules. However variety of purposes. At the same time, the
to share the schedules, JPL’s Project laboratory planned to adopt Microsoft
Schedule Analysts (PSAs) needed to create Office SharePoint Server 2007 to simplify
portable document files (PDFs) and then information sharing. The Project Control
place them in a fileshare directory for Office at JPL, which is responsible for
access by project team members. This supplying PSAs to various projects as well
meant that the schedules viewed by team as developing new systems to assist
members were a static image of project employees, decided to leverage the
status at any given point in time, and did planned deployment to create project
not provide any ability to drill down into portals where team members could
items or make changes. When engineers collaborate and view schedule data in
needed to make a change they had to real time.
coordinate with the PSAs, creating
additional work for both roles. The Project Control Office led the
deployment of EPM WorkEngine, a project
JPL was running multiple project systems and work management solution based on
and multiple large, interdependent Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Office
projects, which made it difficult for JPL to Project Server 2007. By selecting EPM
achieve its goal of consolidating all project WorkEngine, JPL would be able to leverage
schedules into a master schedule with key its ongoing Office SharePoint Server 2007
milestones marked. A master schedule deployment as well as the familiarity with
Office Project Professional 2007 to provide user familiarity with the Microsoft
an enterprise project management solution, environment meant that training
which would scale across the entire requirements were minimal. Ortega says,
organization. EPM WorkEngine facilitates “Using Microsoft means we don’t need to
project, program, and product team level schedule extra training for all employees on
collaboration while simplifying the how to use the tools. They are already
management of multiple large projects using the Microsoft Office 2007 system as
and providing all employees with visibility well as Office SharePoint Server 2007. The
into schedules. engineers are familiar with Project
Professional 2007, so it was an easy
The team worked with consultants from transition for us.”
LMR Solutions who provided support
throughout the deployment, including Upon completion of the current phase of
meeting JPL’s requirement to identify implementation, all employees within the
project dependencies. The team is working laboratory will be able to view schedules and
towards incorporating the business process see how their tasks fit within the project.
automation capabilities in Office SharePoint
Server 2007 and adding workflow to work
items and deliverables. Benefits
Various projects are being migrated to the
The JPL Project Control Team needed to roll EPM solution, including plans and
up all projects into a management view, schedules for Juno and the Mars Science
which would highlight milestones across all Laboratory. JPL anticipates multiple
projects and provide reporting and benefits from the deployment of the EPM
performing ‘what if’ scenarios to determine WorkEngine enterprise project
the upcoming workload for the laboratory. management solution and is already
Using out of the box reporting tools in considering future plans to achieve even
Office Project Server 2007 and EPM greater gains.
WorkEngine, LMR Solutions customized the
solution to flag key tasks in the Office Improved Accuracy
SharePoint Server 2007 calendar identified With the EPM WorkEngine solution, project
by the project managers as major schedule visibility has been transformed
milestones. from a static view of the project at a given
time into access for all project teams to
The team had to ensure a high level of user review and provide feedback on schedules.
adoption once the EPM WorkEngine Previously, PSAs were responsible for
solution was deployed. They spent time sharing information and incorporating
working with users and project change requests into the schedule. With
stakeholders through user groups and EPM WorkEngine, the engineers involved in
governance boards to determine what the project are responsible for their
information should be presented to ensure schedules, which results in PSAs reducing
high user buy-in for the final solution. the amount of time spent on administrative
activities.
To ensure that key project staff, such as
PSAs, were comfortable with the new The EPM WorkEngine solution contains up-
solution, LMR Solutions planned to conduct to-date project data and can be viewed
training ahead of the go live date, however from anywhere through Project Web
Access, which means JPL can take current EPM WorkEngine solution enables JPL to
project snapshots and make adjustments to take advantage of all Office SharePoint
mitigate risks before they threaten Server capabilities while managing projects,
milestones in the project. programs and the workforce. JPL is taking
full advantage of Office SharePoint Server
Additionally, JPL anticipates that the and applying it in a way that ensures teams
enterprise environment will provide collaborate together.”
management with an indication of
workloads using the resource capabilities of Ortega adds “The use of lists in Office
Office Project Server 2007, leading to SharePoint Server 2007 allows us to publish
improved accuracy in predicting and information to various lists and summarize
managing project resourcing requirements. that information in a variety of ways. The
ability to drill horizontally across projects is
Increased Collaboration a primary driver for choosing an application
By deploying a project management like EPM Live.”
solution that is integrated with Office
SharePoint Server 2007, JPL uses out of the Cost Savings
box functionality to create project portals As well as benefiting from improved
where teams can access schedules and collaboration and visibility, JPL anticipates
other key project information in a single cost reductions from moving to an
location. This has improved collaboration enterprise project management solution. A
within the teams, as employees can work PSA can create approximately 30 PDFs of
together on documents, calendars, tasks schedules during an update cycle, including
and other items, removing version control the top level schedule and a version for
issues. By using Office SharePoint Server each Cost Account Manager. Using the web
2007, project teams have real-time access view will save PSAs up to half a day’s work
to data, which boosts productivity among each week. JPL will also create cost
employees. The integration EPM efficiencies through improved collaboration
WorkEngine offers with Office Project by integrating its projects.
Server 2007 means that data managed
within Office SharePoint Server 2007 can be Ortega explains, “We will see cost savings
accessed from within the project from deploying EPM WorkEngine by
management solution. eliminating the need to create hard and
soft copies of schedules. Merging Office
By upgrading from Project Professional SharePoint Server 2007 with our enterprise
2007 to Office Project Server 2007, JPL will project management solution will also
enjoy many of the new features now create greater efficiencies for all
available. These include retained task employees.”
highlighting, where users can flag a
particular task so that all employees
viewing the schedule recognize that it is
significant, and use color coding to assign a
status to that task.
Michelle Manimtim, Government Practice
Director, LMR Solutions, comments, “Being
built on top of Office SharePoint Server, the
For More Information Microsoft Office System
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go to:
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For more information about EPM Live
products and services, call +1 866 391
3700 or visit the Web site at:
http://www.epmlive.com/
For more information about NASA Jet
Propulsion Laboratory products and
services, call +1 818 354 4321 or visit the
Web site at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm
Software and Services − Microsoft Office Project Server 2007
Microsoft Office − Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
2007
This case study is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published August 2010
