Syncronizing Tasks in Project and Outlook

[mbrossar]

Has anyone ever tried to synchronize tasks on a project schedule (in MS Project) with tasks in Outlook? It strikes me as a powerful tool. Since you can associate resources in Project with domain accounts, domain accounts are associated with Exchange accounts and you can assign Outlook tasks to anyone in your Exchange phone book. Is it possible to thread the whole thing together and automatically send Outlook tasks to the appropriate resources as the tasks are assigned in a project schedule? It is all Microsoft products after all, or is that the problem?

 

[Storyteller]

Hello mbrossar,
MS Project already has that capability. It is done via workgroup messaging. To use it you have to install wgsetup.exe (it's on the MSProject CD) on everyone's computers including the Project Manager.

After it has been install you select the task(s) that you want to send to the Resource(s) and then send the task assignments via email. When they accept the Task Assignment it is added to their Outlook Task list.

Please be aware that with the enhanced security features in Outlook this workgroup messaging takes plenty of configuration to work properly.

Good luck,
Michael

 

[SBendBuckeye]

There is a 3rd party product called Outlook Redemption which wraps Extended MAPI up into a very nice .dll file allowing programattic access to outlook without the security dialogs. Check out

http://www.dimastr.com.

There is also an excellent Outlook site called

http://www.OutlookCode.com

which addresses those types of issues as well. Good Luck!

Have a great day!

j2consulting@yahoo.com