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Microsoft Project 2007 New Features |
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The Microsoft Office Project 2007 family of products
provides a range of software tools that support a variety of
approaches to work management, levels of process maturity, and
business goals. On one end of the spectrum, Office Project 2007
provides enhanced desktop tools for small teams or individual
contributors tasked with managing projects, but who are not
necessarily project managers. These users or companies are not
positioned to build a Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management
(EPM) competency, or simply lack business justification for
it, yet they still need tools for managing work. The projects
they manage are not complex and the most efficient approach
is to use ad hoc scheduling and tracking processes. In this
case, Office Project 2007 provides simple, intuitive tools that
enable operational control with minimal overhead.
At the other end of the spectrum, Office Project 2007 provides
the tools to build an EPM competency that integrates software
tools and technologies with their people, processes, and organizational
policies and governance. When these elements are developed and
aligned with business objectives, they enable capabilities for
managing work, time, resources, and budget. This form of project
management is critical for executives who want operational efficiency
and standardization for scorecard rollups. Project provides
the visibility, insight, and control to help bridge the strategic
and operational worlds, while leveraging existing software systems.
Office Project 2007 addresses the needs of sophisticated project
management organizations that require centralized and strategic
financial control in addition to support for rigorous project
management methodologies. Microsoft Office Project Server 2007
delivers key performance enhancements for large organizations
that manage complex programs and portfolios with a globally
distributed workforce.
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Office Project 2007 platform
The Office Project 2007 platform includes the Project client
applications, Project Server, the client and server APIs, and
the necessary infrastructure such as Microsoft SQL Server™
and Windows® SharePoint® Services. The Office Project
2007 platform offers redesigned and extended Project 2003 core
client and server applications to take advantage of improvements
in the Windows platform. The core Office Project 2007 platform
is described in the following list.
- Microsoft Office Project Standard 2007 is the desktop application
for stand-alone project management. As with Project Standard
2003, Office Project Standard 2007 cannot be used with Office
Project Server 2007.
- Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 is the desktop
client application for EPM, and is the primary application
for use with Office Project Server 2007.Office Project Professional
2007 includes an active cache on the client side that reduces
the amount of data sent over the network between the client
and the server. Office Project Server 2007 requires Office
Project Professional 2007 as the standard desktop client.
Project Professional 2003 cannot be used with Office Project
Server 2007 because of changes in the platform architecture.
- Office Project Server 2007 is built by using the Microsoft
.NET Framework 2.0 and provides improved functionality, security,
reliability, and extensibility. The Office Project Server
2007 architecture has an efficient multi-tier design that
includes the new Project Server Interface (PSI), Project Web
Access, discrete business objects, server-side events, a common
data access layer (DAL), queuing services, multiple databases,
and close integration with Windows SharePoint Services version
3. In Project 2003, the scheduling engine is available only
in the client. Office Project Server 2007 now also includes
a scheduling engine to enable project updates without requiring
the use of Office Project Professional 2007.
- Project Web Access provides Microsoft ASP.NET applications
that use the Project Server Web services through Microsoft
Internet Explorer and Project Server Web Parts in Microsoft
Windows SharePoint Services (version 3). You can install Project
Web Access front-end components and the Project Server application
tier components on the same or separate hardware; the front-end
and application tiers can be load-balanced for increased scalability
and performance.
- The Project Server Interface (PSI) is the new managed-code
API for Office Project Server 2007. The PSI replaces the Project
Data Service (PDS) in Project 2003 and provides a complete
API for Office Project Server 2007. The PSI also provides
functional parity for the XML-based PDS methods in Project
Server 2003, which enables easier porting of solutions built
with the PDS. Office Project Professional 2007 and Project
Web Access interact with Office Project Server 2007 only through
PSI Web services.
The Office Project 2007 databases can be built on Microsoft
SQL Server 2000 with Service Pack 4 or on SQL Server 2005.
Office Project Server 2007 takes advantage of some of the
new features in SQL Server 2005, such as security enhancements
and improved Analysis Services and Reporting Services.
- Windows SharePoint Services version 3 is more closely integrated
in Office Project Server 2007 than in Project Server 2003.
Windows SharePoint Services version 3 provides the administrative
and user interface framework for Project Web Access, the infrastructure
for user management, single sign-on, team collaboration, and
integration with Office Project Server 2007 reporting features.
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