RACI charts are a convenient tool in the initial planning process for a project, helping to identify the parties that are Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed (RACI) throughout the project.
To fill out a RACI chart, first you need to determine the functions, decisions, and/or activities that will make up your project. Then, you decide who will be your project's participants. These make up the rows and columns in the chart. To complete the chart, you fill out the grid, identifying how each participant is involved with each function, decision, and/or activity. That is, whether a participant is responsible, accountable, consulted, or informed.
If your organization uses RACI charts to help plan your projects, you may find it helpful to also track RACI designations in your Microsoft Office Project plan.
You can use columns in the Gantt Chart view to track the Responsible and Accountable participants for each task in your project. You may also want to add columns for the Consulted and Informed participants, although these roles are not necessary for every task.
Consider using the Resource Names column to contain the Responsible participants. The Resource Names column lists the resources assigned to each task, so it translates well to the Responsible role in a RACI chart. Also consider using the Contacts column to contain the Accountable participants.
If the Resource Names and Contacts columns are unavailable for you to use for the Responsible and Accountable participants, you can simply add two custom text fields to your view, renaming them accordingly.
The following resources offer guidance on adding columns to a view:
· Hide or show a column (remove or add a column)
· Demo: Add, hide, and show columns in Project
· Watch this: Hide or show a column
Because completing a RACI chart is typically done early in the planning process, you may find it helpful to assign generic resources as the Responsible and Accountable participants.
For more information on assigning and replacing generic resources, see:
· Add resources to your project
· Add resources to the enterprise resource pool
· Substitute resources in a project
You can learn more about using RACI charts in the following articles:
· Inside Microsoft.com: Release Management
· Establish and manage the project stakeholders list
If you want to install Office 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007, or Office Project Server 2007, we have deployment templates to assist:
Go here for more information on Project templates and here to see the latest templates news.
You can use classifications on timesheets to categorize the work being performed in your organization. For example, you can set up classifications for billable and nonbillable work.
To use classifications, first you need to set them up in Project Web Access. On the Quick Launch, click Server Settings, and then click Timesheet Classifications to set up the classifications you want to use in your organization. If the classifications you want to use are already created, make sure that they are set to Active status so that they are available for selection on timesheets. For more information on setting up classifications, see Set up timesheets and task status.
Once you create your classifications and set them to Active status, team members can select a classification when they fill out timesheets. When adding a line to a timesheet, a team member can choose a category of work from the Select a line Classification list. For more information on choosing classifications when adding timesheet lines, see Add or remove a timesheet task (line).
For additional information about timesheet classifications, see:
· Overview of timesheets and task status
· Timesheet classifications
· Timesheet Classifications - what they don't do
Check out the following new help content that was come out over the past month.
Office Online content:
The PWA Role Guides
These role guides present broad overviews of Office Project Web Access functionality from the perspective of the different roles your organization might have.
Available fields
This article lists all the fields available to users of Microsoft Office Project 2007.
Set working times, vacations, and holidays for your project
Creating resource and task calendars article now includes two videos to help with project scheduling.
Project Demo videos:
Watch this: Use lag and lead time
This demo shows how to use lag and lead time to create gaps and overlaps between tasks in a project.
Watch this: Create a project
This demo shows how to create a project, set project properties, and set file properties.
Watch this: Set up a recurring task
This demo shows how to create a task that repeats on a set schedule throughout a project.
Watch this: Split a task
This demo shows how to interrupt a task, creating a gap between two portions of the task. It also shows how to move the entire split task, adjust the length of the gap created by the split, and rejoin the split portions of the task to remove the gap.
Watch this: Insert a task
This demo shows how to insert a new task between two existing tasks in a project.
Watch this: Group tasks or resources
This demo shows how to group tasks, remove the grouping, and create a new resource group using multiple criteria.
Watch this: Create a cross-project link
This demo shows how to create task dependencies across separate Project 2007 files.
Watch this: Link tasks in your project
This demo shows how to create task dependencies within a single project, and how to adjust the link type for the dependency.
TechNet content
Install Project Server 2007 in Windows Server 2008 (single-server installation)
This article discusses the requirements and steps for installing Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 in a stand-alone Windows Server 2008 environment.
Manage Active Directory synchronization in Project Server 2007
These articles describe how to configure and manage Active Directory synchronization of the Enterprise Resource Pool and Project Server security groups in Office Project Server 2007.
Back up Project Server 2007 by using SQL Server tools
Use this procedure to back up the databases associated with Office Project Server 2007.
Migrate Project Server 2007 by using SQL Server tools
Use this procedure to migrate the databases associated with Office Project Server 2007 from one computer to another.
Restore Project Server 2007 by using SQL Server tools
Use this procedure to restore the databases associated with Office Project Server 2007.
Back up Project Server 2007 by using the Stsadm command-line tool
Use these procedures to back up a server farm, Web application, database, site collection, site, or subsite by using the Stsadm command-line tool.
Restore Project Server 2007 by using the Stsadm command-line tool
Use these procedures to restore a server farm, Web application, database, site collection, site, or subsite by using the Stsadm command-line tool.
Portfolio Analyzer Views Migration tool
This article describes how to use the Portfolio Analyzer Views Migration tool. This tool allows Project Server administrators to bulk edit the Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services settings in Data Analysis views.
Project Server Data Populator tool
This article describes how to use the Project Server Data Populator tool. This tool allows Project Server administrators to generate custom field, resource, project, task, and assignment data in bulk using the Project Server interface. Customers planning new or expanding existing Enterprise Project Management (EPM) implementations can use this tool to validate performance and storage-related metrics and determine hardware/architectural requirements.
Project Workspace Site Relinker tool
This article describes how to use the Project Workspace Site Relinker tool. This tool can be used to relink Project Workspace Sites that have become disconnected from Project Server 2007. These sites can become disconnected when a Project Server database is restored.
Server Settings Backup/Restore tool
This article describes how to use the Server Settings Backup/Restore tool. This tool allows Project Server administrators to back up server settings from a selected Project Server instance to an XML file. The tool can be run against another Project Server instance to which you can restore the server settings.
View Effective Rights tool
This article describes how to use the View Effective Rights tool. This tool can be used by Project Server administrators to troubleshoot issues regarding security settings and access control.