When we embarked on this endeavor, we knew that the tools that made up Microsoft’s Enterprise Project Management (EPM) solution were large and complex. Writing a book on the topic was going to require a significant amount of work and focus. We are grateful to have been selected to add this book to the McGraw-Hill Complete Reference series. Writing a technical book where the title includes the word “complete” is a somewhat daunting task, however, especially for people who have never written anything so large. Actually, the really complete version would probably require thousands of pages. We did what we thought was best to cover the spectrum of topics. In some cases, we made judgment calls about features and how likely they were to provide value. Although we skipped lower-value features in some areas, we delved deeper in others.

We chose to spend a good portion of effort on configuration and data flow of the systems. Note that throughout the book, we make recommendations and discuss “best practices.” We stand behind each of them based on our experiences, our discussions with other consultants, information we learned at seminars and trade shows, and so on. Keep in mind, however, that not every one of our recommendations will be the right solution for you and your organization. To succeed, make sure you identify stakeholders, analyze (with the stakeholders) your organization’s needs, and make the decisions that best suit those needs. The flow of the book follows the general process of what it takes to actually succeed with an implementation of Project Server 2007, starting with value of planning. It was written for a blended audience, from the EPM novice on one end of the spectrum, to the experienced EPM professional. Finally, we hope this can truly be a “reference” in that after your system is up and running, you may go back to a single chapter for specific and useful (through possibly obscure) information.