Project Operations vs Project Service Automation, A Seamless Comparison to Read
We know that PSA is now known as Project Operations. Well, it’s not just a name change but also some significant improvements that Microsoft has brought in. The following blog will take you through the differences between PSA and Project Operations. The upgrade from Project Service Automation to Project Operations is going to be delivered in three phases. Below are the major changes which will be seen after the upgrade is complete. In this phase, the dependency on WBS has been cut off for projects. With all the modifications from phase 1, we even have WBS that is a part of the project operations limits that are currently supported In addition to the enhancements from phase 2, WBS also includes support for the Project desktop client and extends beyond the present scope of Project Operations. Let’s delve deep in feature wise comparison between PSA and Project Operations. 1] Project Templates: They help you generate the WBS structure from an already pre-defined WBS structure in the form of a template. Project Service Automation: ✔️ Included You can create a project template as shown in below image in PSA: After saving this record, you can add the record while creating a new project as shown in the below image. You can also select ‘Is Template’ field to save the current project as a project template. Project Operations: Not included This feature is not included in Project Operations, but the same functionality can be done with the ribbon button on the Project form named ‘Copy Project’. With this all the task information and the project properties get copied in a new draft project. 2] Project work breakdown structure (WBS) integration with desktop client: A project management tool with automated scheduling, resource management, and built-in reporting is Microsoft Project Online desktop client. Project Service Automation: ✔️ Included This feature is very essential in PSA as with the capabilities of desktop client, Task management can be done efficiently. There is a ribbon button to integrate the system as shown: Project Operations: Not included This feature is not there in Project Operations as it has OOB integration with Project for the web. 3] Constraints – Start no earlier than, finish no later than: When you add a constraint on the tasks it forces you to start or end on that date even if the schedule is changed. Constraint is very useful, but one needs to be careful about the dates Project Service Automation: Not included This is not available in Project Service Automation and is possible if integrated with Project Desktop Client. Project Operations: ✔️ Included This feature restricts the resource to complete the task start and finish the task in the given time. When a constraint is set your calendar icon gets a cross sign stating that it is restricted. Example: If you select Constraint type as ‘Finish No Later Than’ and the Finish date is set as 3rd February 2023. The task then needs to be completed by the specified date. 4] Milestones – Tasks with zero duration: Milestones are key points in the project timeline and serve as markers to indicate that certain objectives have been met and provide an opportunity to review and assess progress. Milestones are typically used to track the progress of a project, to communicate with stakeholders, and to help manage risks. Project Service Automation: Not Included This feature is not available in PSA and is exclusively available in Project Operations Only. Project Operations: ✔️ Included Adding a milestone task with zero duration is now possible in Project Operations unlike PSA. Just add ‘0’ in the duration field and set same start and finish date as shown below: And now the milestone symbol can be seen as shown in the below image: 5] Resource driven tasks will respect the availability of assigned resources Resource-driven tasks are scheduled based on the availability of the resources assigned to them. This means that the start and end dates of a task are determined by the availability of the necessary human, equipment, or material resources. This helps ensure that tasks are completed efficiently and within the given time frame. Project Service Automation: Not Included This feature is not available in Project Service Automation. Project Operations: ✔️ Included The system considers the availability of resources when scheduling tasks and adjusts task dates accordingly. This helps ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget, and that resources are utilized efficiently. It takes into consideration the work hour template of the assigned resources and changes the Start and Finish date according to the availability. 6] Time-phased editing – Edit plans and work on a day-by-day basis This feature provides a detailed view of the project schedule, with tasks and their associated work broken down into daily increments. This level of granularity enables project managers to adjust the project schedule based on daily progress and to account for changes in resource availability or task dependencies. Project Service Automation: ✔️ Included With the help of this feature, we can change the efforts on the resource assignments grid on a day-by-day basics and even by week or month. This makes work easy as changes can be done on the grid itself. Project Operations: Not Included This feature is not yet added in the Project Operations, but we can expect this update in later phases. 7] Automatic/manual scheduling – Use the Project scheduling engine to schedule tasks automatically or manually Project Service Automation: ✔️included The scheduling of tasks for leaf nodes is determined by the task mode. Every activity supported by PSA has two task modes: automatic scheduling and manual scheduling. Automatic Scheduling: Scheduling engine uses the rules on task attributes to determine the schedule for the task. Manual Scheduling: It stops the engine from calculating the values of other scheduling attributes. Project Operations: Not Included This feature is not available in Project Operations. 8] Edit large projects directly in the user interface: There is no limit to the size of plans that are editable Project Service
Advances and Retainers in Project Operations
Problem Definition: Earlier, milestones were used for advance payments which was not the actual purpose of it. But with the introduction of Advances and Retainers, milestones will only be used for their real purpose on fixed price lines. What are Advances and Retainers? The feature Advances and Retainers are seen on the Project Contract form. Advance payment or the retainer fees both means the same. It is used for an advance payment from the customer/client. This feature can be applied on fixed price as well as on time and material contract lines. Solution: Conclusion: This feature is helpful for an organization delivering the project. Because it provides margin to recover the costs incurred due to any increase in scope that a fixed price contract would not have allowed. Thank you, Sankalp for your valuable imputs.
Upgrade to Dynamics 365 Project Operations from Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation
Some exciting news for the users who are planning to upgrade from Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation (PSA) to Dynamics 365 Project Operations (PO). Its been a long awaited news Dynamics community and PSA/PO fans are waiting for. Well Microsoft has pulled up the curtain on how the release will happen. First news before we look in to how the upgrade will work is that it will work for Dynamics 365 Project Operations Lite Deployment customers only. It will be released with 2021 release wave 2. The release will happen in 3 stages: Stage 1: December 2021 Microsoft is targeting the customers that do not have any dependencies on WBS Structure or any of the related entities to WBS. Stage 2: In April wave, Microsoft intends to support the customers who have less than 500 tasks in WBS Stage 3: Post April wave, customers who have bigger projects or more than 500 tasks will be taken up. Conclusion: Transformation has begun and is soon going to be available. Customers can slowly start to migrate based on where they actually stand with the project size and needs.
Quick Tip: How to apply non-working hours from Calendar Template in PSA / Project Operations
Problem Definition: It is generally thought by Project Operations / PSA (PO/PSA) users that the non-working hour cannot be copied via 1 Template resource to another resource when the Calendar Template is assigned. It is only assumed that the working shifts and the weekends marked are the only ones that gets copied. But that is not the case. There is a minor catch in how we do it. Following tip will help you make the non-working hours copy when a Calendar template is applied to a resource that contains a template resource which has the non-Working hours in the Work hours. Solution: Perform the following steps to get to the required solution mentioned in the Problem Definition. Step 1: Add a non-working hour in the template of the resource by following the screenshots below: Step 2: Click on the Template Resource and add a non-working hour as shown below in the Screenshot. Step 3: Select the Date range that you want to mark as non-working days. Mark them as all day. In my case, I have selected 12-July as the non-working day. The Calendar gets marked with a non-working day as shown below. Step 4: Navigate to the Calendar Template again and Remove the Calendar Tempalte Resource and Save the Calendar Template as shown in the below screenshot. Step 5: Re-add the same Calendar Template Resource again and Save the Template. Step 6: Navigate to the Resource entity and select the resources whom you want to apply the Calendar Template and apply as shown in the below screenshot. Step 7: Final step to validate if the resource which was applied with the Calendar Template is having those non-working hours as the Calendar Template resource had. This blog reflects my personal findings and based solely on my experience of using PSA/PO for last 4 years. For those who are looking for a platform that can track and manage the entire procedures of sales and project managements, I would highly recommend them to try Microsoft dynamics 365 for project service automation. This helps in keeping all the ONLY ACTIVE projects in the view and the ones that needs our action and attention.
How to enable new URS Board (Schedule Board) in Project Operations
The new schedule board in Project Operations is much more powerful than before. Its performance is far more superior than the previous version of schedule board, in a way that: Loading the schedule board is much faster than before Tab switching is faster Dragging and dropping the work orders is much improved Rescheduling the bookings is much improved Well, before we get into the new features of the URS (Which I will cover in my next blog), I would like to inform you guys about how to enable the new URS board in your Project Operations environment. PN: The new URS at the moment is in preview mode and will be in GA in OCT’ 2021. Please follow the steps to enable the new URS Board: Open the app in the designer mode as shown in the image below: When the App Designer is opened, click on the Site Map as shown below: On the right pane of the Site Map Settings, update the URL to “/main.aspx?pagetype=entitylist&etn=msdyn_scheduleboardsetting” as shown in the image below: Open the Project Service App now and navigate to Schedule Board, you will see a toggle button to open the new URS Board. You are now ready to play around with the new URS Board. PN: The above blog is w.r.t the best of the information tried and tested by myself. In case of any issues or discrepancies, do not hesitate to write back to me on kgupta@d365feeds.com
5 Best Power BI Reports that helps organization take decisions with Dynamics 365 CRM
Reports in any organization are prime to provide valuable information about various things that happen. Be it w.r.t hiring, cash outflow, cash inflow, etc. If we do not take a look at the data timely and do not provide importance to it, our emotions might take us in a random direction. Power BI has a beautiful way of providing insight about the data visually. Its features like drill down help us play with the report unlike the traditional SSRS reports which are usually static. We @CloudFronts use below 5 reports primarily amongst many other Power BI reports that help us taking precise decision all the time and gives direction wile being in the management meeting as well. Let’s take a look at how an where each report help us in the decision making. Allocation Report: This report provides us with the utmost important information from the organization, that is the allocation of resources on the project. It provides a very vital information as to which resource is booked on which project, how many hours and on which days. Depending on the hours of allocation the color coding is decided. Let’s assume if the working hours of the resource is defined as 8 hours in the Work Hour Template (a feature in PSA) and he/she is allocated for more than 80% it is GREEN. If it is below 80% and above 30% is YELLOW else RED. GREEN indicates that the health of the company is good and needs hiring. Subsequently, HR Dept. can be intimated for hiring requisition in the required department. The report has 4 sub reports to it as you can see it in the screenshot below: Billable Allocation Billable & Non-Billable Allocation Report Billable & Proposed Allocation Billable & Non-Billable Client Work Each of them, by their names are self-explanatory. Below is the screenshot of the report and the Drilled Down report of Allocation Report. The Report shows the following information: to which the resource belong. The Resource Weekly Allocation of the entire year (52 weeks) Allocation Report: Drill Down of the same: Project Overview Report: This report gives the over all heath information of all the Active projects running in the company. For a better visibility and bifurcation, we prefer mentioning the priority of the project to be of High, Medium and Low priority. We created views in PSA based on these priorities and hence created Power BI Report filters based on it as well. The report gives the overview for the following crucial information like: Estimated Hours: These are the hours that are derived after the project WBS is ready and are the sum of all the Main tasks. Actual Hours: These are the sum of all the hours that are approved by Project Manager on the time entries done by the team members. Forecasted Hours: These are the hours that are the allocations done by the Resource Manager against the project for future. So the sum of all the future allocations are shown up here. Estimated Revenue: This is calculated on the basis of Estimated hours multiplied by the per hour rate from the pricelist of the project. So it gives the over all estimate revenue for the project. Forecasted Revenue: This is the current forecast of the expected revenue and is calculated on the basis of the no of hours allocated multiplied by the per hour rate from the pricelist of the project. During the weekly meetings with the management, they answer important question as to why is the forecast looking week, in case it is? How much of the estimated hours are balance on the project and in case we need more looking at the current state of the project? When is the project ending? Start Date gives us an understanding of since how long is the project running. Project Overview report screenshot: AR Report: This report by the name itself gives the information about the Accounts Receivable information against the invoice raised in PSA for the customers. The report helps in maintaining the cashflow of the organization and helps in keeping the tab of which customers invoice is overdue since when and needs a follow up. The report is bifurcated into buckets: 90 Days and above overdue 31 to 60 Days overdue 1-30 Days overdue Current invoices. They by there name of the buckets helps you understand, what information might be available in each one of them. There is a link also provided in the report to navigate it directly to the invoice created in PSA to review any additional information in case needed. Screenshot of the AR Report: 4. Support Metrics Report This is one of the beautiful reports that gives an overall view of how many no of cases are open in our support module against each customer, including internal tickets. The bar chart on the report when clicked opens up all the support tickets for that customer, which has the link to open the report in the D365 CRM. It also provides lots of vital information about the cases like: Case Created on Case Name Case No Follow up date Owner Customer This report answers the important questions like, when was the case created and when is the next follow up on the case? Is it been too long that the case is opened by the customer? Support Metrics Screenshot Billing Report: This is an important report for project Manager and Accounting department both in terms of billing standpoint. Project Manager get the information as to, whether the billing report shows the exact figure as the allocation report shows. If yes, then it is good else he/she can get it corrected by the respective project team member of the project, before approving the time entries. Accounting team on the contrary can drill down these reports and extract the hour wise billing report that the client demands and send it with the invoice in case needed. The report can be filtered by, Week, Month, Year. Screenshot of the Billing