MSP Interface: Best practices on updating MSP with an OFFLINE copy of a Clarity schedule

Products

• Clarity PPM SaaS
• Clarity PPM On Premise

Issue/Introduction

• Looking for documentation/best practices on saving a Microsoft Project (MSP) project that is saved locally on the workstation
• Including how we can prevent issues from occurring in working with Clarity/MSP Interface / Integration?

Environment

Release : All Supported Releases

Component : CA PPM SAAS MICROSOFT PROJECT (MSP)

Resolution

1. To Save the project locally (and ensure the project is still locked within Clarity):
   1. Open the Project from Clarity to MSP
   2. Make any applicable changes
   3. In MSP, click File -> Save As to save the file in another location (
      • Recommended as a precaution over File -> Save which saves the file in your default MSP location.
      • This is recommended to prevent accidentally overwriting of the local copy if you accidentally re-export the project from Clarity without uploading your local changes back to Clarity)
   4. Click the X in the right hand corner of MSP (Either the project or MSP itself) to close the project
   5. Say Yes to the message "Do you wish to retain the lock on <Project ID>?"
      • 
2. When you are ready to upload your offline copy to Clarity:
   1. Navigate to the locally saved copy on the workstation and open the project in MSP
   2. Go to the CA PPM Integration tab
   3. Click File->Save
   4. Log in with one of the below passwords depending on how External Authentication is configured:

• If External Authentication is checked, the application would be looking for the user's password for logging in to the On Demand Portal
• If External Authentication is unchecked, the application would be looking for the Clarity user's password

      Tip: If unsure of the password, the best option is to:

• Close MSP
• Open any other project from Clarity to MSP to create the Clarity connection
• Then proceed to step 3 to save the project back to Clarity

Additional notes/reminders:

1. Use Save and Save As in Microsoft Project (Not the Save/Save As within the CA PPM Integration tab) to save the file locally. 

   1. If you exit Microsoft Project without saving the project locally, you will be asked to save the project.

   2. If you do, the project is saved locally but it is not saved back to Clarity 

   3. Details above based on MSP: Data Exchange with CA Clarity PPM
2. Make sure to keep the project locked in Clarity to avoid other users from updating the project in MSP or Clarity which can cause changes to be overwritten 
   • This provides the following precautions: 
     1. The project will show as locked in Clarity and be only available to open in MSP in read only mode not read/write. 
     2. If the user then opens the project in read mode and does try to save it back to Clarity, they will get an error since the project is locked saying:
        • Unable to save project (Project ID). Another user has already locked this project.
        • The lock will have to be cleared to open this project read/Write or to save to it.
3. Review other best practices, particularly around copy and pasting of tasks if on a version of the MSP Interface prior to 15.7.1 to avoid project data or project opening issues later on:

• • In MSP, what are some Best Practices to prevent Performance Issues?  (Article: 13911)
  • Clarity Best Practices when copying and pasting tasks in MSP (Article: 10395)
  • What are the recommendations for Auto Scheduled versus Manually Scheduled tasks working in Microsoft Project (MSP) with Clarity? (Article: 47612)

Additional Information

• Clarity and MSP integration known defects - Support Technical Document Index (KB: 15956)

• Clarity and MSP integration - List of knowledge documents (KB: 71385)

• See KB: 141061 for tips on how to optimize use of Self Service for Clarity