Putting ProjectWise Online Part 4 - End Result and Summary

This is final part of a journey into setting up ProjectWise with SharePoint and putting it online for a large project.  See Part 1 for a description of the project.

  • Putting it all together

To successfully manage the project we used 2 systems and then integrated them to access all critical project information.

ProjectWise

Used to manage all project data. ProjectWise Explorer is main interface to interact with all administrative and CAD documents. The client CAD standards and project standards are distributed to the entire project team by using Managed Workspaces.

SharePoint

Main interface to manage all project communication and coordinate all project activities. Allows for automatic notification when project critical items are added or modified.

ProjectWise + SharePoint

Integrated ProjectWise with SharePoint by using ProjectWise Web Parts to create one single source of truth for all project content and project communications.

  • Lessons Learned/Tips

I thought I would throw in some lessons I learned as well as tips that I hope will make your journey successful as mine. 

Use Active Directory to manage all your users.  Since ProjectWise and SharePoint synchronize with AD it only makes sense to use one location to add or change user information.

Make sure you have a good back up plan. Redundancy, Redundancy, Redundancy.

Manage all your project data in one location, ProjectWise. One location makes it easy to backup or restore any project data.

Make sure you plan implementation or upgrades. There is an Active X that is required when accessing ProjectWise from a SharePoint site and some organizations block the Active X install from a website that is not trusted.  Work with your project team organizations to let them know of the requirements.  Communication is key!

Address any training needs up front.  You will no doubt run into a mixed bag of users.  Provide some training or how to guides on how the project document management system is setup as well as how it works.

Learn how to use SharePoint Designer as it will help you customize the project website.

Oh, and of course become very familiar with all of the ProjectWise tools.

  • Summary

ProjectWise and SharePoint facilitate an integrated approach to collaboration of large and small projects.  This approach provides greater insight into project status and progress, provides broad access to all project information in one single location, speeds up information discovery, and allows decisions to be made easier and faster.