1. Integrating MSP with Clarity
Best Practices for a Successful Transition

2. Topics CA Clarity PPM Scheduling Options New Functionality
MSP Setup Options
Opening the Project Schedule in MSP
Improving Performance
MSP Prior Start, Prior Finish and Open for Time Entry Fields
Customizing MSP Views and Making them Global
Resource Availability vs. Resource Calendar
Allocation, Max Units and Assignment Units
Auto/Manually Scheduled Tasks and Peak Units – New in MSP 2010
Understanding Task Types
Maintaining the Project Schedule & Why Task Dates Change
Saving the Project Schedule to Clarity

3. Overview
CA Clarity PPM is a centralized project, resource and portfolio management tool that can help you manage, schedule, track and report on projects. When Microsoft Project is integrated with CA Clarity PPM, project managers are no longer working in a stand-alone environment. Consistent processes and accurate data are essential in providing accurate reporting and actionable metrics.

4. CA Clarity PPM Schedule Connect
CA Clarity PPM Schedule Connect provides a full bi-directional connection between CA Clarity PPM and Microsoft Project. Whether you’re working directly in CA Clarity PPM or have opened the project schedule from CA Clarity PPM to MSP, you’re always working with the most up-to-date information. The Schedule Connect interface must be downloaded and installed by each user.

5. CA Clarity PPM Scheduling Options

6. CA Clarity PPM Scheduling Options
Clarity Gantt View – Autoschedule
Microsoft Project – 2013
Open Workbench
NOTE: Using different scheduling options within the same organization is NOT supported. Each option uses a different model to calculate project schedules. Project data will be different when viewing the same project in MSP and OWB.

7. Clarity Gantt View & Autoschedule
Simple Project Schedules can be updated using the
Clarity > Projects > Tasks > Gantt View.
Autoschedule can be used to update the project schedule after making small changes to it. You can review your changes before publishing them as the Plan of Record (POR).
Autoschedule will:
Use availability as early in the project as possible
Set start and finish dates based on task constraints
Minimize the duration of the critical path, which will determine the earliest finish date for the project

8. Open Workbench
Open Workbench will update the project schedule based on the number of hours each resource will work per week to cover the total number of hours on the task.
Algorithm is Resource Driven
Open Source application – no licensing costs
Fully integrated with CA Clarity PPM
Training may be required

9. Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project will update the project schedule based on task duration instead of resource availability.
Algorithm is Date driven
Custom fields will need to be mapped
MSP license required for each user, but many organizations already own the licenses
Additional MSP Training may be required

10. New Functionality

11. New Functionality and Improvements
Clarity Release 12.1 Lookup Values can be mapped between CA Clarity PPM and MSP and are uniquely identified by a hidden key. Lookup values are listed in the order defined in Studio. Inactive values will show an asterisk (*). Clarity Release 13.2 Projects with a Calculation Mode set to “off” can be opened from CA Clarity PPM to MSP without the tasks automatically re-calculating and updating the task dates.

12. New Functionality and Improvements
Clarity Release 13.3
Resource Leveling in MSP is now supported.
Performance Improvements in smaller projects when importing and exporting the project schedules.
Small projects are defined as:
Duration of 3 months or less
200 Tasks or less
50 Resources or less
2 Summary Levels
200 Assignments or less
100 Dependencies or less
1 Baseline

13. New Functionality and Improvements
Clarity Release 13.3 (Cont’d)
Java Runtime is included in the download and is copied to the MSP Interface Installation directory on the workstation’s hard drive. This eliminates all of the issues related to the JRE version incompatibility.
The MSP Interface is installed silently without any user intervention.

14. Robert Newell Adecco CA Clarity PPM & MSP Experience

15. MSP Setup Options

16. MSP Options
From the MSP Tools menu, select File > Options and refer to the following guidelines so MSP and CA Clarity PPM will work effectively together.

17. MSP Options – General
Date Format: The storage of dates and timestamps are not consistent between tables in Clarity. Some dates, like Task Start and Finish Dates, are recorded with specific timestamps. Some dates are recorded as the correct date with a timestamp of midnight. Some dates are recorded as a “plus 1” date, which means that the date stored in the table is one day later with a midnight timestamp. To avoid discrepancies, it is NOT recommended to use a date format with a timestamp.

18. MSP Options – Schedule
Scheduling Options for this Project: This should be set to “All New Projects” in order for the settings to be effective for all new projects and not just the one that is open.
New Tasks Created: Automatic calculation is the preferred setting, but it is not required. If you select Manual Calculation, you must manually calculate the project before saving it to CA Clarity PPM.
Duration is entered in: Duration should be tracked in days since this is the lowest level that CA Clarity PPM is able to track.
Split in-progress tasks: When checked, remaining duration and work is rescheduled when a task slips or reports progress ahead of schedule.
NOTE: CA Clarity PPM owns all “Calendar” data, so any options selected in the “Calendar Options” section will be ignored when saving the project schedule from MSP to CA Clarity PPM. Projects that are created in CA Clarity PPM will inherit the correct defaults in MSP. If new Projects can be created in MSP in your organization, make sure that the “Calendar Options” in this section match the settings in CA Clarity PPM, otherwise, you may see unexpected results when the schedule is opened from CA Clarity PPM to MSP in the future.
Tasks will always honor their constraint dates: Project will schedule tasks based on their constraint dates.

19. MSP Options – Schedule (cont’d)
Calculate Project after each Edit: If “On” is selected, the project will automatically calculate after each edit.
Calculation Options for this Project: This should be set to “All New Projects” in order for the settings to be effective for all new projects and not just the one that is open.
Updating Task status updates Resource Status: If checked, resource actuals, remaining work (ETC) and costs are automatically updated when percent complete, actual duration or remaining duration is updated.
Inserted Projects are calculated like Summary Tasks: If checked on a master project, project will display a single critical path for the Master Project and all of its sub-projects.

20. MSP Options – Save
Save Files in this Format: This option can be changed if you want to save the .mpp file in a format that’s compatible to an older version of MSP.
Default File Location: When saving the .mpp file outside of CA Clarity PPM, you can change the default location where the file gets saved.

21. MSP Options – Advanced (cont’d)
Allow Cell Drag and Drop: If checked, you can move cells by using the “drag and drop” functionality, moving the task ids with the task.

22. MSP Options – Advanced
Show “Links between Projects” dialog box on open: This feature is incompatible with CA Clarity PPM external dependencies, and is ignored when selected.
Calculation Options for this Project: This should be set to “All New Projects” in order for the settings to be effective for all new projects and not just the one that is open.
Edits to Total Task % Complete will be spread to the status date: Unchecked will distribute the task percentage of completion changes to the end of the actual duration of the task.
Calculate Multiple Critical Paths: When checked, late finish dates for tasks without successors or constraints are set to their early finish dates, making these tasks critical.

23. Opening the Project Schedule in MSP

24. Opening the Project Schedule in MSP
From Clarity:
Choose either (Read-Write) or (Read-Only) from the Project > Properties or Tasks tab:
The Clarity “Scheduler Format” in Project > Properties needs to be set to “Microsoft Project”.
From MSP:
Choose “Open” from the CA Clarity PPM Integration menu:
You may be asked to login to Clarity.
Choose the project from the “Open from Clarity” selection box.

25. Opening the Project Schedule in MSP
When opening a project schedule from CA Clarity PPM to MSP, an “.mpp” file is created on the local drive and then:
If the project was previously saved from MSP, that last saved “.mpp” file from the CA Clarity PPM database is downloaded and will overwrite the “.mpp” file on the local drive.
The MSP schedule will be updated with any changes that were made in CA Clarity PPM since the “.mpp” file was last saved.
Actuals Posted from Timesheets
Task Level Updates
Project Team Updates
Resource Assignment Updates

26. Improving Performance

27. Improving Performance
How can you decrease the amount of time it takes to export a project schedule from CA Clarity PPM to MSP?
Set the CA Clarity PPM default loading pattern to “Uniform” - which will map to a “Flat” work contour in MSP.
Select in CA Clarity PPM Administration > Project Management > Settings
Remove unnecessary assignments
Increase the memory on the workstation to at least 512 mg (ideally 1G)

28. MSP Prior Start, Prior Finish and Open for Time Entry Fields

29. Prior Start and Prior Finish Fields
One of the biggest complaints from Project Managers is that CA Clarity PPM changed their MSP task dates in their project schedule.
When many task dates change, it’s difficult for the PM to find the root cause.
By default, Task Start and Finish Dates are already mapped between CA Clarity PPM and MSP. Those dates may change as Actuals are applied to the project schedule.
You can extend the mapping table with the following MSP fields to make it easier:
Start10 Prior Start
Finish10 Prior Finish

30. Prior Start and Prior Finish Fields
The extended mapping should NOT be bi-directional. It should be on “Export from Clarity” only.
When a project schedule is exported from CA Clarity PPM to MSP, the Task Start and Finish Dates will be copied to both the MSP Start and Finish fields as well as the new Start10 and Finish10 fields.
The Actuals are then applied to the schedule which may cause the original Task Start and Finish Dates to change, but not the new Start10 and Finish10 fields.

31. Prior Start and Prior Finish Fields
The Project Manager is now able to compare the following fields to find the first task with a difference. Start >> Prior Start Finish >> Prior Finish You can then look at that task and any predecessors to see what Actuals were applied that caused the dates to change.

32. Open for Time Entry
You can extend the mapping table by adding the “Open for Time Entry” (Flag11) field so Project Managers can better control what tasks are open for time entry from MSP.
This should be a bidirectional mapping so the data flows from CA Clarity PPM to MSP and from MSP to Clarity.
In CA Clarity PPM, the Open for Time Entry field defaults to “Yes” for new tasks and in MSP it defaults to “No” for new tasks.

33. Customizing MSP Views and Making them Global

34. MSP Organizer
When customizing views in MSP by rearranging columns or adding and removing fields, the changes are only visible in the project you’re currently working on.
You can copy your customization to the Global Template so all the changes are available in future projects, as well as projects that were created in the past.
To create a global template, open an empty project or the project that has the customization directly from MSP…
MSP 2007 Tools menu > Organizer
MSP 2010 File > Info > Organizer

35. MSP Organizer
Once the changes are made, you can see the active project’s customizations on the right-side panel of the Organizer.
From the “Views” tab, highlight all of the views from the right-side panel and then click “<<Copy”.
Do the same for the “Tables” tab

36. MSP 2010 Organizer Note
In Microsoft Project 2010, the organizer behaves a bit differently. By default, new views are automatically saved to the global template file and are made available to future projects (as are new tables associated with the view).
To change this setting, on the File tab, click Options, and then click Advanced. Find the setting in the Display section:
Changes to existing view elements are not automatically saved to the Global template with this setting. This only applies to NEW views, tables, filters and groups.

37. Danette Purkis Chubb Group of Insurance Companies CA Clarity PPM & MSP Experience

38. Resource Availability vs. Resource Calendar

39. Base Calendars
The CA Clarity PPM default Base Calendar is the “Standard” calendar. If you have resources in different locations that have different daily availability hours, you can create additional Base Calendars.
Default shifts on the Standard Calendar represent 8 hours per day

40. Base Calendars
To represent a 7 hour work day, create a new calendar and choose the Standard calendar as the Base Calendar.
Set the Shifts to represent the number of hours in the work day

41. Resource Calendar
Select the correct Base Calendar for each resource from the Resource > Calendar page.
The Resource Availability on the Resource > Properties page will automatically update to reflect the working hours from the resource’s Base Calendar.

42. Resource Availability
Do Not change a Resource’s Availability from the Resource > Properties page. This field is calculated based on the resource’s base calendar.
If this is not done properly, you will see an invalid number in the Resource Availability field.

43. Allocation, Max Units and Assignment Units

44. Allocation, Max Units & Assignment Units
Allocation (Clarity) – the expected amount of time that a resource is expected to work on the project. Max Units (MSP) – the maximum percentage of working time that a resource is available to work on project tasks. Assignment Units (MSP) – the percentage of working time that a resource is assigned to work on that one task.

45. Allocation – Based on Percent
Enter the % Allocation on the
Team > Resource > Properties page
As of CA Clarity PPM Release 13.1, the Allocation % is
“Average Allocation %”

46. Allocation – Based on Hours
Enter the number of Allocated Hours by time period
The % Allocation segments are calculated on the Properties page based on the Allocation Hours entered.

47. Max Units
Average Allocation % and Allocation Hours from Clarity Team Page:
MSP Resource Sheet – Max Units:
The 36% comes from the Allocation % Segment that matches the current date. In Clarity, it’s displayed to the hundredths, but is rounded to a whole number in MSP.

48. Assignment Units
When Tasks are created and resources are assigned, the Assignment Units for each resource is defaulted from their Max Units.
The two tasks below were entered with 40 hours of work and then assigned to each resource.
Since Jerry’s Assignment Units is 100% on a 40 Work Hour task, the Task Duration was calculated to be 5 days.
Sine Lisa’s Assignment Units is 36% on a 40 Work Hour task, the Task Duration was calculated to be 14 days.
Note: The Assignment Units for a resource on a task can be changed when assigning the resource to the task. This will not change the Max Units.

49. Back in CA Clarity PPM….
Since MSP rounds Max Units to a whole number, the Allocation % Segments are rounded to a whole number after saving the schedule back to CA Clarity PPM.
Based on those new Allocation % Segments, the Allocation Hours get recalculated.

50. Auto/Manually Scheduled Tasks and Peak Units – New in MSP 2010

51. Auto and Manually Scheduled Tasks
In MSP 2010, project can schedule tasks using two methods:
Auto Scheduled – Task Dates are automatically adjusted based on changes to Task Dependencies, Constraints and Project Calendars.
Manually Scheduled (Default) – Changes to Task Dependencies, Constraints and Project Calendars DO NOT automatically adjust Task Dates. Resource Calendars are ignored.
Project Managers can control the Scheduling Method for specific tasks, as well as for the entire project.

52. Manually Scheduled Tasks
Tasks 1 and 2 are Manually Scheduled. Duration is a text field and the Task Dates are not populated.
Tasks 3 and 4 are Automatically Scheduled. Duration is a numeric field and the Task Dates are automatically populated based on the Project Dates.
Manually Scheduled Tasks cannot be Effort Driven
You can switch scheduling modes on a task, but Project will make decisions when switching from Manual to Automatic. For example, if text is entered for the Duration, Project will set the Duration to a default of 1d.

53. Auto Scheduled To always open MSP in the Auto Scheduled mode:
In MSP, click on File > Options > Schedule Tab:
Select “All New Projects” for “Scheduling Options for this Project” and “Auto Scheduled” for “New Tasks Created”.

54. Manually Scheduled Tasks
Manually Scheduled Tasks are constrained by both their Start and Finish Dates. If a date change occurs on one of their predecessor tasks, there will be NO IMPACT on the manually scheduled task. If you want a Manually Scheduled Task rescheduled based on its predecessor, click on the “Respect Links” icon on the Task Tab. If you want all tasks to always respect date changes on predecessors, change the Task mode to “Auto Scheduled”.

55. Assignment Units vs. Peak Units
In MSP 2010, when initially scheduling or later rescheduling a task, the Assignment Units value is used, but Peak Units is used for resource’s maximum peak units. In previous versions of MSP, if a resource charges more hours than planned in one day on a Fixed Unit task, the Assignment Units would get recalculated. At a later time, if you change the Duration on that task, Work would get recalculated based off of the new Assignment Unit Value, not the one that was originally planned.

56. Assignment Units vs. Peak Units
Example: Resource is assigned to a “Fixed Unit” task at 100% for one day, so MSP will calculate 8 hours of work. Resource works 10 hours on that day… In MSP versions prior to 2010, the Assignment Units would have recalculated to 125%

57. Understanding Task Types

58. Task Types
MSP uses the following scheduling formula when calculating tasks: Work = Duration * Assignment Units Each value of the formula corresponds to a Task Type: Fixed Work Fixed Duration Fixed Units Which task type should be used? It depends on the processes in the organization.

59. Fixed Work
If work hours are used to estimate how long deliverables will take on a project based on resource assignment. All Fixed Work tasks are Effort Driven.
Example:
Team Leads will look at project requirements and provide an estimate in hours for each project deliverable.
Project Managers will estimate how many hours each deliverable will take based on experience or a project sizing tool.

60. Fixed Duration
If Duration (number of days) is used to estimate how many hours deliverables will take to complete based on resource assignment.
Example:
Team Leads will provide the estimated number of days or weeks that deliverables will take to complete.
Project Managers will estimate how many days each deliverable will take based on experience or a project sizing tool.

61. Fixed Unit
If resources are managed and allocated to projects based on a percentage of their time or if projects are estimated based on the number of resources needed in each role, then “Fixed Units” would work.
Example:
“Resource A” is assigned to a project for 100% of their time to work on tasks. It’s the Resource Manager’s responsibility to make sure they are adequately utilized.
Projects are estimated and staffed with one Project Manager, two Business Analysts, four Software Engineers, etc…

62. Task Type Calculations
MSP 2010:
Task Type is:
If you revise Units…
If you revise
Work…
If you revise Duration…
Fixed Units
Duration changes
Duration
changes
Work
Fixed Work
Peak
Fixed Duration
Changes
MSP 2007 and prior:
Task Type
If you revise Units…
If you revise
Work…
If you revise Duration…
Fixed Units
Duration changes
Duration
changes
Work
Fixed Work
Assignment Units
Fixed Duration
Changes

63. Maintaining the Project Schedule & Why Task Dates Change

64. Maintaining the Project Schedule
Once a resource charges time to a project and those hours are posted as Actuals, the Project Manager needs to frequently maintain the project schedule.
Step 1: Open the Project Schedule from CA Clarity PPM to MSP
Step 2: Review new Actual Work Hours to ensure they look accurate

65. Maintaining the Project Schedule
Step 3: For Tasks that are Complete:
Verify that the Remaining Work field is zero (0). If there are hours, enter zero (0), which will reduce the Work field so it matches the Actual Work field.
Enter “100%” in the “% Complete” field
Mark the task as “Not Open for Time Entry”

66. Maintaining the Project Schedule
Step 3 – For Tasks that are Complete - Cont’d
To “Close” this Task:
Work was planned to take 40 hours, but the task was completed with 16 hours:
RIGHT WAY:
Enter “0” for Remaining Work
Enter “100” for % Complete
WRONG WAY:
Enter “100” for % Complete

67. Maintaining the Project Schedule
Step 4: For Tasks that are still in progress:
Adjust any Work hours that need to be increased
Verify that all tasks have values in the Remaining Work field
Reschedule any task with a “Finish Date” in the past
Reschedule any task with a “Start Date” in the past that hasn’t started yet

68. How Actuals affect the Project Schedule
When Actual Work hours are posted to projects via Clarity Timesheets, tasks dates in Microsoft Project may change the next time the project schedule is opened in MSP.

69. Actuals – Same Number of Hours
Resource submitted their timesheet with the same number of hours assigned.
Assigned Hours vs. Actual Hours:
Thu 1/23
Fri 1/24
Mon 1/27
Tue 1/28
Wed 1/29
Thu 1/30
Assigned Hours 8
Hours Entered on Timesheet
Results:

70. Hours Entered on Timesheet
Actuals – Less Hours
Resource submitted their timesheet with FEWER hours than assigned.
Assigned Hours vs. Actual Hours:
Thu 1/23
Fri 1/24
Mon 1/27
Tue 1/28
Wed 1/29
Thu 1/30
Assigned Hours 8
Hours Entered on Timesheet 4
Results:
Since only 4 of the 8 hours that were assigned were recorded, the duration increased by .5 days for both the Fixed Units and Fixed Work Task Types.

71. Actuals – Less Hours (Cont’d)
The Fixed Duration task didn’t change the duration, but distributed the additional 4 hours over the last two days so Work is now 10 hours for Tuesday and Wednesday

72. Hours Entered on Timesheet
Actuals – More Hours
Resource submitted their timesheet with MORE hours than assigned.
Assigned Hours vs. Actual Hours:
Thu 1/23
Fri 1/24
Mon 1/27
Tue 1/28
Wed 1/29
Thu 1/30
Assigned Hours 8
Hours Entered on Timesheet 4 12
Results:
The Fixed Units and Fixed Work task Durations went back down to 5 days since the resource “caught” up.

73. Actuals – More Hours (Cont’d)
The Fixed Duration assigned hours for Wednesday went back down to 8 hours since the resource submitted additional hours the day before.

74. Hours Entered on Timesheet
Actuals – Skipped a Day
Resource skipped the last day of assigned work and then entered less hours on the day after the task was supposed to finish.
Assigned Hours vs. Actual Hours:
Thu 1/23
Fri 1/24
Mon 1/27
Tue 1/28
Wed 1/29
Thu 1/30
Fri 1/31
Assigned Hours 8
Hours Entered on Timesheet 4 12
Results:
Since zero hours were recorded on Wednesday, the task gets split. Fixed Units and Fixed Work task types will calculate Duration without counting the days in between the split. Fixed Duration tasks WILL count the days in the middle of the split.

75. Actuals – Skipped a Day (Cont’d)
The Task Finish Dates all changed to Friday, 1/31 to accommodate the extra 4 hours needed to complete the task.

76. Saving the Project Schedule to Clarity

77. Save to Clarity
To save a project schedule that was opened from CA Clarity PPM to MSP, click on the “Save” button under the “CA Clarity PPM Integration” menu.
When the schedule has been saved back to CA Clarity PPM, you will see a “Project successfully Saved” message flash on the screen.

78. Save As to Clarity
The “Save As” button should only be used to save the existing project schedule as a new project in Clarity or if you want to copy the project schedule to another project in Clarity.

79. Save to your Local Drive
If you would like to work on the project schedule offline or disconnected from Clarity, you can:
Open the Project from Clarity to MSP in the Read/Write mode
From the MSP file menu, click File > Save As and select a location on your local hard drive.
Exit out of MSP
You can now work on the project schedule that was saved to your local drive. Clarity will maintain a lock on the project until it is successfully saved back to Clarity.
When you’re ready to save it back to Clarity, open the file, click on “Save” under the CA Clarity PPM Integration Toolbar. You may need to log back into Clarity.

80. Questions Contact US Email Contact Web Site
For CA Clarity PPM and Microsoft Project Integration questions, training needs or for more information, you can contact:
Rego Consulting
Lisa Olsen
Austin, Texas
Contact US
Contact
Web Site