Open Workbench to Microsoft Project File Conversion

Tutorial

OPEN WORKBENCH TO MICROSOFT

PROJECT FILE CONVERSION
By: Rich Guard

Tutorial

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 Open Workbench to Microsoft Project File Conversion
Tutorial

Converting Open Converting an Open Workbench (OWB) project schedule from either a stand-alone
WorkBench – Formatted (.rmp) file format, or an OWB project file that has been stored in a Clarity project
Project Schedule Data repository, to a Microsoft Project (MSP) schedule format at first glance seems like a
to a Clarity MicroSoft simple task. Continue into the file conversion process with this first impression in
place, and soon you will be surprised, very surprised.
Project – Formatted
Schedule “Surprised? What kind of surprises?” Well, when a project manager initially opens a
project from Clarity into MSP, he or she may see that:

 The project finish date has changed, or

 The total hours of work for the project, a phase, activity, or task has increased or
decreased, or
 The task start date or finish date for one or more key tasks is earlier or later, or
 Tasks are now project milestones.

These are a few of the many unanticipated changes that may appear when a project
manager first opens his or her converted project schedule.

Xinify‟s Best Practices Using MSP with Clarity training and mentor-coaching enables
the CIO or PMO Director to minimize the effects of these risks to project data by
focusing the project manager on the key task at hand: Aligning the converted project
schedule with the final revision of the pre-conversion schedule without chasing
answers to endless questions that
typically ask some form of “Why did it do that?” And, in following the suggested
alignment process the project manager will begin to gain more and more insight into
just that question: “Why did it do that?”

See the bottom of the last page of this tutorial for more information on how Xinify can
support and assist you and your organization through the conversion transition.

Overview This article is a brief guide and tutorial to converting an Open Workbench project
schedule to a Clarity Microsoft Project schedule. The article contains the essential
steps needed to convert the project schedule, and align the resulting converted
Microsoft Project schedule with the pre-conversion Open Workbench project
schedule: (a) preparation and file conversion, (b) project data verification, and (c)
aligning the post-conversion project schedule data with the pre-conversion project
schedule data.

Preparing and A project file that was created in Clarity or Open Workbench and then saved to a
Converting Your Open Clarity project repository (database) in the Open Workbench format can be
converted to a Microsoft Project formatted file using Clarity, Schedule Connect and
WorkBench Project File
Clarity Integration, and Microsoft Project. The project data file conversion process is
to MicroSoft Project a ONE-WAY translation process.

Warning: Repeated conversion of the same project file, from Open Workbench to
MSP and then MSP to Open Workbench over many conversion and re-conversion
cycles, risks corrupting the project data file.

The following steps accomplish this one-way conversion. The conversion procedure
is followed by a project manager‟s inspection of the project data as displayed in
MSP, and re-alignment of the project data where needed.

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 Open Workbench to Microsoft Project File Conversion
Tutorial

1. Define a shared file directory on the network in which a single Open

Workbench .rmp file will be saved for each project file to be converted.
2. Create a backup copy of the FINAL revision of your Open Workbench project
plan. For each file to be converted, save a .rmp file of the project file to the
directory in (1).
3. On the Clarity Project Properties: Main - General page, change the Scheduler
Format field from Open Workbench to Microsoft Project and click Save. Notice
that near the top of the portlet the scheduler is displayed as Open in Microsoft
Project. Contact your Clarity Administrator if you do not see “Open in Microsoft
Project”, after changing and saving the scheduler format field on the Clarity
Project Properties: Main - General page.
4. Before you begin working with your project in Microsoft Project, complete the
tasks outlined in the section of the Clarity 7.5.2 Reference Guide titled
“Setting-up Microsoft Project”.
5. On the Clarity Project Properties: Main - General page, verify that the drop-
down to the right of “Open in Microsoft Project” is set to Read/Write, and click
Go. This will launch Microsoft Project and concurrently open the selected MSP
file.
6. Once the project file completely opens and displays in MSP, use the Clarity
Integration Toolbar to Save the converted file back to the Clarity database. The
project file has now been converted to MSP format.
7. Now, open the project in MSP again, and begin the post-conversion data
verification process.

Distinctions Between 1. Before you begin working with Microsoft Project files that are or have been
Using Open stored in a Clarity repository, here are a few Do‟s and Don‟ts to be aware of:
WorkBench and
Microsoft Project with Do‟s in Microsoft Project
Clarity
 Open the plan by launching Microsoft Project from Clarity (via the Project
Overview page), and make on-going changes to the plan.
 Once you open the plan from Clarity and want to save changes, select “Save
to Clarity” from the Integration toolbar.
 To release the lock on a project in Clarity, close the project in Microsoft
Project.
 If more than one person has plan modification rights, retain the lock on the
project to prevent data loss.
 Add a resource/role in the Roster, Staff page and then assign them to tasks in
MS Project. The filter options are better on the Staff page.
 Always use the Open from Clarity and Save to Clarity options when working
online. The Open and Save commands in Microsoft Project do not save to the
repository.
 Use 32 characters or less for Project Titles.

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 Open Workbench to Microsoft Project File Conversion
Tutorial

Distinctions Between Don‟ts in Microsoft Project

Using Open 
WorkBench and  Don‟t change the project calendar. Changes will not be saved to the
Microsoft Project with repository.
Clarity  Don‟t create new resources or change resource profile information.
 Don‟t assign resources to summary tasks.
(continued)  Don‟t create dependencies to summary tasks.
 Don‟t use reserved fields. (See Page 39).
 Don‟t enter a value of more then 99,999,999.99 for any numeric field in the
repository. (Microsoft Project uses a max of 8 digits).
 Don‟t use password protection for the project plans.
 Don’t use the “Save As To Clarity” function (on the Integration Tool Bar
drop down) to create and save a new project from Microsoft Project to
Clarity. All projects have to be created in Clarity first using your
organization’s project creation process.
 Don’t use Recurring Tasks. Recurring Tasks are not supported by the
Clarity Microsoft Project Interface, and should not be used. If they are
used, they would be converted to ordinary tasks, once saved to and
exported from Clarity.

2. And, here are a few Microsoft Project features and/or functions that cannot be
used in conjunction with Clarity.

a) Modifying Project Calendar

i) The project calendar is controlled via Clarity.
ii) You may adjust the project, or a resource‟s calendar to determine
„what-if‟ scenarios. However, any changes you make to calendars will
not be saved back to Clarity.

b) Creating New Resources

i) Any resources that you need should be added to the staff roster of
your project in Clarity.
ii) Do not be tempted to create new resources in Microsoft Project.
iii) When saving the schedule to Clarity, if the system encounters a
resource that doesn‟t exist in Clarity, a warning message will appear
and you will be unable to save your project.

c) Assigning Resources to summary level tasks

i) Clarity does not support resources assigned to summary level.

d) Creating dependencies at summary level

i) Microsoft Project supports dependency links between summary
levels, Clarity does not.
ii) You must create any dependencies at the lowest level of the WBS.

3. In addition to the settings above, Clarity reserves certain fields in Microsoft

Project. These fields must not be modified to ensure that the interface works
properly. For more information about field mappings, please reference the
Clarity.7.5.2 Reference Guide. These major field mappings are as follows:

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 Open Workbench to Microsoft Project File Conversion
Tutorial

Distinctions Between MicroSoft Project Grantt Char Clarity Values

Using Open WorkBench Field
and Microsoft Project Text1 Holds thes during the Clarity External Task ID (WBS#)
with Clarity Text2 Holds the Clarity Guidelines URL to MicroSoft Project from the
Clarity system
(continued) Text3 Clarity unique ID for the task
Text4 Clarity uses this during the load and saving of a schedule
Text5 Used to store the Charge Cose (Cap vs Exp)
Flag1 Used to indicate whether WBS object is a “Key Task” in Clarity
Flag1 Used to indicate whether WBS object is a “Key Task” in Clarity
MircroSoft Project Resource Clarity
Properties
Resource name Maps to the resource name in Clarity
Initials Maps to the Clarity Resource ID for the resource
Text3 Clarity Unique ID for the resource
Email Email
MicroSoft Project Assignment Clarity
Properties
Text3 Maps to the unique ID for this assignment within Clarity
Number1 Maps to the resources task Pending estimate within Clarity
Number2 Maps to the resources task Pending Actuals within Clarity

Additional Considerations and Integration Notes:

 Plan to the level at which you intend to track work. Use tasks that reflect real
work to which resources will track time.
 Clarity does not mark tasks complete if the total hours have been reached or
ETC is manually changed to zero.The Work Complete is then 100%, but the
completed task must be manually changed to 100%.
 Setting task duration to zero will automatically converts it to a milestone.
 Microsoft Project will allow you to save multiple baselines, and while earlier
versions Clarity only supported one (latest) baseline for your project Clarity
version 7.5.2 supports the setting of multiple baselines.
 Remaining Work/ ETC on tasks that were due during timesheet period will be
pushed out to the next period. If those tasks are completed, Project Managers
need to review the Actual Work (Actuals) posted, zero out and remaining work,
change the Finish Date to the date work was completed, and mark task Status
as complete.
 When a task is started (actual hours have been charged to the task), Clarity
automatically sets your % Complete to 1%.
 Do not delete tasks with Actuals posted to them. This will cause the tasks to
return to your plan under the Deleted Tasks summary task.
 If you do delete a task, you can drag and drop the task out from under the
Deleted Tasks summary and put it back into the schedule.
 Clarity does not accept tasks with work and no resource or role. Wait to add the
work estimate until you know a role or resource.
 Do not “Cut and Paste” in Microsoft Project, use Drag and Drop to move tasks
around. Cutting and pasting creates orphan tasks, will add duplicates of the
tasks when you open via Clarity and creates new tasks ID‟s.
 Do not add Predecessors or Resources at the Summary Level.
 Clarity assumes the length of work being done is equal to the length of the task.
If you have a task that covers two months and is Fixed Units, but a task
resource completes (track actuals) for in one week; Clarity will correct the task
length to the dates work was performed.

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 Open Workbench to Microsoft Project File Conversion
Tutorial

1. Modify an MSP Task Usage view to display these columns: Task Name, Type,
Clarity and Microsoft Assignment Units, Work Contour, Work, Remaining Work, Start, Finish, and
Project Data Duration.
Verification
2. Adjust the MSP Task Usage view Timescale array so that the Details column
displays Work and Actual Work, and so that the array displays three tiers: Top:
Month; Middle: Weeks; Bottom: Days.

3. Launch a stand-alone instance (not connected to ANY Clarity database) of Open

Workbench, and open into Open Workbench the project .rmp file that you saved
to your network shared drive earlier.

4. Create a Open Workbench view that displays in the Task Window these
columns: Task Name, Resource Name, Fixed Duration?, Resource Availability
(formatted in Percent), Loading Pattern, Total Usage, Estimate to Complete,
Start Date, Finish Date, Duration, and stack Total Usage over Actual Usage
(formatted with a daily Timescale).

5. The following MSP view columns and Open Workbench view data elements
display project data that is comparable:

MSP Views OWB View

a. Task Name = Task Name
b. Resource = Resource Name
c. Task Type = Fixed Duration?
d. Assignment Units = Resource Availability (formatted in Percent)
e. Work Contour = Loading Pattern
f. Work = Total Usage
g. Work = Assignment Total Usage
h. Actual Work = Actual Usage
i. Actual Work = Assignment Actual Usage
j. Remaining Work = Estimate to Complete
k. Remaining Work = Assignment Estimate to Complete
l. Start = Start date
m. Finish = Finish Date
n. Duration = Duration
o. Work = Assignment Total Usage
(Timescale) (Timescale – stacked format)
p. Actual Work (Timescale) = Assignment Actual Usage
(Timescale – stacked format)

6. Using these two views, inspect the project data column-wise row-by-row to
determine the accuracy of the converted file. Where there are differences, note
the differences only. We will analyze and adjust the data displayed in the MSP
view so that it reflects the data displayed in the Open Workbench view in a future
step.

7. From the Microsoft Project Menu Bar, select Project > Project Information, and
verify:
 Start Date
 Finish Date
 Schedule from = “Project Start Date”

8. Inspect the WBS-levels and names.

9. Inspect the list of resources assigned to MSP tasks.

10. Before beginning to work with the MSP Task Type, read and understand the
material outlined in the section “Understanding Microsoft Project Task Types” of
the Clarity.7.5.2 Reference Guide. Contact a Clarity Implementation Consultant
for assistance, if needed.

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 Open Workbench to Microsoft Project File Conversion
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Clarity and Microsoft 11. When you thoroughly understand the role the MSP Task Type parameter
Project Data plays in generating the MSP schedule, inspect and compare the MSP Task
Verification Type column with the OWB Fixed Duration column, noting differences when
they appear. The recommended Task Type default is Fixed Work.
(continued)
12. Inspect the Assignment Units column. Assignment Units is the MSP task and
schedule parameter that determines how much of a resources availability will
be assigned to the task (i.e., a resource who is Available 8 hours per day
whose Assignment Units value for a task is 25%, is assigned 2 hours of Work
on the task).

13. Inspect the Work Contour column. Work Contour is the MSP task and
schedule parameter that determines how Remaining Work is distributed
across the remaining duration of the task. Open Workbench and Clarity
Loading Patterns are mapped to Microsoft Project Work Contours as:

When opening from Clarity:

 Fixed (Clarity) becomes Contour (msp)
 Uniform (Clarity) becomes Flat (msp)
 Front (Clarity) becomes Front (msp)
 Back (Clarity) becomes Back (msp)
 Contour (Clarity) will map to whatever the Work Contour was in Microsoft
Project when the project was saved (i.e. Turtle, Bell, etc.)

When saving to Clarity:

 Back (msp) becomes Back (Clarity)
 Front (msp) becomes Front (Clarity)
 Flat (msp) becomes Uniform (Clarity)
 Contour (msp) becomes Fixed (Clarity)
 Any other Work Contour becomes Contour (Clarity)

14. Inspect the MSP Work column. Work is the MSP task and schedule parameter
that quantifies and designates the work effort associated with resources
assigned to tasks.

15. Inspect the MSP Actual Work column. Actual Work is the MSP task and
schedule parameter that quantifies and designates the actual work tracked by
resources assigned to tasks.

16. Inspect the MSP Remaining Work column. Remaining Work is the MSP task
and schedule parameter that quantifies and designates the work effort that
remains after Actual Work has been tracked by the resources assigned to
tasks.

17. Inspect the MSP Start column. Start is the MSP task and schedule parameter
that designates the start date of a task.

18. Inspect the MSP Finish column. Finish is the MSP task and schedule
parameter that designates the finish date of a task.

19. Inspect the MSP Duration column. Duration is the MSP task and schedule
parameter that quantifies and designates the length of a task in business days.

20. With the notes that you have listing the differences between your Open
Workbench project schedule and the Clarity MSP Project Schedule, we are
now ready to begin making adjustments to the MSP plan so as to bring it into
alignment with the project schedule.

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 Open Workbench to Microsoft Project File Conversion
Tutorial

Aligning the MicroSoft 1. Column-wise make the changes necessary to bring the Clarity MSP schedule into
Project Schedule with alignment with the Open Workbench schedule. Microsoft Project is a scheduling
the Final revision of the tool. Each time you press the Enter Key, MSP re-evaluates your plan and re-
Open WorkBench calculates the project data. To avoid rework caused by this, think and work in
columns, not rows. In order to take full advantage of the scheduling capabilities, it
Project is important to avoid hard coding any dates. Hard coding dates will mask any
schedule problems you encounter and complicate their resolution. Always use the
following steps in the same order when working with your project plan.
NOTE: None of the steps ask you to enter task-level (or summary-level) Start Date
or Finish Date.

2. Review the tasks in the Work Breakdown Structure. Remove tasks that do not
pertain to your project and add others that do. To remove a task, highlight it and
press the Delete button. To add a task click on the task you want to insert before
and press Insert. Don‟t use “Cut and Paste” to either add tasks from outside of
the Microsoft Project plan, or move tasks within an Activity or to another Phase or
Activity of the plan. Don‟t worry about the default answers for other fields; leave
them alone until later steps. NOTE: DO NOT add meetings as recurring tasks.
One reason not to use a recurring task is because of the number of lines it will
insert into the project plan. If you have 5 people on your project and each month
has 4 weeks, for the Team Meeting alone on a 10-month project you have 40
lines if you don‟t display the resources allocated.

3. Dependency Relationships are important for setting up your project so that

predecessors and successors logically flow from tasks that need to be completed
prior to later ones. There is no need to place a predecessor on all tasks. When
setting up your project plan initially only place predecessors where they make the
project logic flow correctly. Predecessors can be used at other times to adjust
dates. Remember, the object is to avoid hard coding the dates to allow Project to
work properly.

4. Determine the Work Effort for each of the tasks and enter it in the Work column
field. Do this for each task of your project plan. Review for reasonability but do
not fine tune. After all phases have been planned then check to see how close
are you to the approved budget for this project. You may want to adjust some
now but fine tuning the plan will be completed later in this process. If your total
project hour amount is significantly different from the budget, check your scope
and estimating assumptions to make sure you are in alignment.

5. Frequently, Save your Plan to Clarity. The more often you save it, the easier it
will be to recover if you do something you want to back out.

6. Determine each task‟s Duration (the number of business days that each task is
scheduled to take). Keep in mind the 80% productivity rule that says a given
resource is only productive 80% of the time throughout the year. This accounts
for vacation, sick time, holidays, interruptions, etc. and means that for an average
8-hour day, an individual really is only productive 6.4 hours. If you do not take this
into account when developing your project plan and are expecting 8 hours of
work every day for the duration of your project you are setting the project up to be
late. This does not mean that an individual is charging only 6.4 hours each day. It
means that over the course of your project, the resources will average 6.4 hours
per day doing items associated with your project. On most days there will be
interruptions. If you are using resources that perform Production or Customer
Support activities the number of interruptions will increase and the productivity
expectation will decrease. So a 40-hour task should take an individual 6.25 days
to complete, not 1 week. If that individual is working Support the same task may
take 2 weeks duration to complete. For the purposes of this document it is
sufficient to enter duration amounts manually.
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 Open Workbench to Microsoft Project File Conversion
Tutorial

Aligning the MicroSoft 7. When using Clarity, the resources are already defined and you just need to add
Project Schedule with resources to your project. Once you have assigned the defined resources to
the Final revision of the project, open the project plan in MS Project, and assign the resources to
the Open WorkBench tasks. You will not be able to add new people to your plan without downloading
them from Clarity. Continue to assign resources for all of your tasks. If there are
Project tasks that you don‟t have resources for yet, Clarity has resource roles acting as
place holders that specify the type of resource necessary. You will need real
(continued) resources to perform the effort so identify this condition as a risk and escalate
the issue.

8. Once all of your tasks have been assigned to resources we need to ensure that
project resources are not overcommitted. The goal is to distribute the work
and to keep everyone as close to 40 hours a week across all projects. At first
this may seem in conflict with the 80% productivity factor (PF). The 80% PF
adjusts the duration for specific tasks to be performed and takes into account
start and stop times for interruptions across the life of the project. You will still
be scheduling 40 hours of effort each week. One key point to remember is that
many of your resources may be working on multiple projects. It is important to
be aware and address over assignments across projects. When the project is
loaded back into Clarity this is easy to identify using Capacity Planning Reports.
Within individual projects make sure that your team members are
communicating with you about their workload and discuss assignments with
their other project managers.

9. There are several ways to resolve over-assignments and it really depends on

the situation to determine which one or what combination will best fix the issue.
Some of the methods are described below:

 Increase the number of resources. This can add cost to your project but is
usually the quickest means to reduce the workload of over burdened
individuals.
 Increase the availability of the over allocated resource. If a resource is only
allocated to your project part of the time, discuss the possibility of getting
more of their time from other project managers.
 Reduce the workload for the over allocated resource. Giving more of the
task‟s effort to a co-producer can do this.
 Cancel tasks. During the course of the project you may identify tasks that
seemed necessary but are no longer required. Another option would be to
formally remove scope by issuing a Change Request to eliminate or
postpone work to anther release.
 Reassign tasks to other resources.
 Change the predecessors of the tasks that have the over-assignments to
allow them to be accomplished earlier or later. You must keep in mind the
Critical Path when doing this to ensure that the project schedule is not
adversely impacted.

10. The primary constraints to projects are deadlines and calendars. A deadline is
MS Project‟s method of setting a target date for a task or milestone that allows
the application to notify you if the date will be exceeded. This differs from a
constraint date or hard coded finish date because it allows Project to schedule
the tasks and just report on the problem. Constraint dates fix the duration of the
task and stack the hours to complete it against that date. You are only notified
that the date was missed after the fact.

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 Open Workbench to Microsoft Project File Conversion
Tutorial

Aligning the MicroSoft 11. By entering the constraints we have introduced a new set of variables for
Project Schedule with Microsoft Project to schedule. Go back to the resolve over-assignments
the Final revision of the section of this document, and follow the suggestions. Adjust the project plan
Open WorkBench to return the team members to appropriately assigned work weeks.
Project
12. Review the Project Plan, Statement of Work (SOW) and Project Risks with
your team, and the PMO staff. The SOW, Project Plan, and Project Risks
(continued) should be built together and represent the whole project. The SOW will
include a high level summary of the Project Plan, but it is a good idea to
review it with your IT and Business Project Managers to help explain your
basis of estimate and expectations. You should save and make a copy of
your Plan before you baseline if you have not.

13. You are now ready to Baseline your project. Creating a Baseline for your
plan takes a snapshot of the scheduled work and makes it the standard by
which the project will be tracked. Make sure Save Baseline and Entire Project
are selected and click OK.

14. Save to Clarity.

For the Clarity customer who has invested but has yet to realize fully the power
of Clarity, the MSP with Clarity Mentor/Coaching Program is the training and
knowledge transfer solution that ensures Program and Project Managers are
doing the right things and doing those things right. Unlike training course-only
knowledge transfer solutions, the MSP with Clarity Mentor/Coaching Program
combines classroom training led by experienced professional project managers
followed by a series of one-on-one mentor/coaching sessions facilitated by an
experienced mentor coach in which PM principles along with MSP and Clarity
techniques and tips are applied to real-world, enterprise projects.

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