Forum Discussion

Copper Contributor

Jan 27, 2022

Why do projects disappear from the Project Center when added to a Master Schedule?

We have a requirement to perform reporting both at the program / portfolio and individual project levels. We wanted to use the Project Center (PWA) for portfolio reports while also pulling those proj...

Dale_HowardMVP
Jan 27, 2022
JL Gregory --

What you are describing is a new feature that was added to the Project Center page in PWA some years ago. To my regret, I believe the new feature has caused people a bit too much confusion and heartache. By default, the Project Center is now configured to display only single projects and master projects, but NOT to display subprojects in a master project. To display the subprojects of a master project in the Project Center page, first expand the Projects ribbon. Then all you need to do is to click the Subprojects checkbox in the Show/Hide section of the Project ribbon. Voila! The subprojects will magically appear. Hope this helps.

Dale_HowardMVP

MVP

JL Gregory --

What you are describing is a new feature that was added to the Project Center page in PWA some years ago. To my regret, I believe the new feature has caused people a bit too much confusion and heartache. By default, the Project Center is now configured to display only single projects and master projects, but NOT to display subprojects in a master project. To display the subprojects of a master project in the Project Center page, first expand the Projects ribbon. Then all you need to do is to click the Subprojects checkbox in the Show/Hide section of the Project ribbon. Voila! The subprojects will magically appear. Hope this helps.

JLGregoryIBM

Copper Contributor

Jan 28, 2022

Such a simple solution! We were not aware of this feature change, and it most certainly resolves the issue. A somewhat unrelated but relevant question: now that subprojects are showing up in the Project Center, is there any way to roll-up milestones in that view similar to Project Professional. We would like to be able to generate a milestone report without having to open the master schedule in MSP Pro, which takes 15-20 minutes to load and update.

Dale_HowardMVP
MVP
Jan 28, 2022
JL --

I think your best bet for milestone reporting would be to create a Power BI report for milestones in each of the subprojects. Hope this helps.
- JLGregoryIBM
  Copper Contributor
  Feb 07, 2022
  Dale_HowardMVP, we followed through with your suggestion and looked into Power BI for Project Server reporting, however paying $50k / user per year is untenable, even for larger organizations --- if you have encountered any BI tools that are reasonably priced that are compatible with Project Server / SharePoint, please let me know. None of the out-of-the-box reports that come with Project Server are relevant to modern PM practices.
  
  As you are probably aware, Project Server was designed without the input of industry leaders or program management SMEs, and even with the UMT acquisition, external reporting solutions are still mandatory. Clearly, Power BI Premium is not that solution for the majority of companies, from what I have heard at the conferences (due to the large function / price gap).
  
  I'll be interested from hearing from other power EPM users regarding their experience with advanced portfolio reporting using Project Server. Hopefully, we will be able to find a viable solution with Excel Reporting Services, though I am doubtful it will be viable without extensive custom dev.