Delegation provides the ability of working in behalf of another person. It is usually used because someone is out on vacation or just not available at the time when something needs to happen. It's a critical tool that facilities project server processes and data is moving in a timely fashion and ensures that PMO is running smoothly. For example, suppose timesheets are due first thing Monday morning at 10:00, so the contractors can get paid on Thursday. Timesheets have to be approved and moved thru the cycle, but if resource forgets to submit his timesheet, then there is a good chance he may not get paid in a timely manner. Or perhaps the timesheet needs to be approved and the timesheet manager is out on vacation. The process of getting the timesheets approve must still continue.

Delegation ensures that processes continue in a timely manager. Delegation is the grease that keeps are the PMO wheels turning. Another example, is the Project Manager is out for vacation. In the previous versions of project server, the project schedule owner had to be changed and the temporary manager could update the schedule and republish. It worked but it was not clean, because the project schedule may have update the status managers for the task and then the project manager returned and ownership had to change back. Sometimes it created a bigger mess, so delegation made this process of working in behalf of some very easy.

It's good feature for troubleshooting issues with project server. When a user is having a problem the technical support can work in behalf of the person and reproduce the problem. Often, problems are very difficult to understand and by using delegation I can better understand what the issue is and how to fix it. When the problem gets fixed, delegation can be used to verify that the problem is fixed.

Another useful function of delegation is that sending timesheets and submitting task updates for work resources who do not have access to project server. It's usually best for individuals to enter their own time, but there are situations where a person may need to put the updates on paper and then have another person keying in those updates. So it's easy to see that delegation can be used in many situations and it improves the process of keeping the data flow moving in project server.

And finally I find delegation useful for testing security and new processes within the PMO. When setting up a new PMO or making change to the processes on project server, delegation is useful for playing different role and making sure that processes work as they were designed. With delegation, it's easy to switch from one person to another and test different roles.

How to Use Delegation

Using delegation is straight forward. First a delegation session needs to be defined. It contains three parts. One person is assigned as the "delegate" who is doing the work and another person assigned the "working on behalf of" person and then a period of time is specified as to when the delegate is allowed to work in behalf of another. As simple as it is, the strategy for managing delegates can be complex. Delegation needs to be easy to maintain and at the same time, you need to prevent it from being a way to hack project server. Depending on the version of project server, there is a "Manage Delegates" and "Act as a Delegate" option found under server settings.

Manage Delegates: Delegate records must first be defined as to who is the delegate, working on behalf of someone and during a period of time. The manage delegates requires special permission and discussed later in this paper.
Act as a Delegate: The delegate turns on the delegation. Once delegation is turned on yellow bar on ribbon indicates that you are currently in delegation mode and working in behalf of someone.

Step 1: Using "Manage Delegates" to define a delegation session

Setting and managing delegates is easy, however, there are some issues that we need to be concerned with. For example, it would not be good for delegates to work in behalf of the PWA "Administrator". If delegation is not properly designed, the keys to controlling PWA are given out freely to all those who have the "Delegate" security permission. Most people are ethical and wouldn't take advantage of this, but you still must be careful. Especially, if processes are tied into timesheets and contractor payments.

Step 2: Act as a delegate. Click on this option and then click on who you will be working on behalf of. If there are not records, then go back to step one. Once delegation is enable, there is a yellow bar on the ribbon.

Turning off delegation requires clicking on the "here" to get a ribbon option of "Stop Delegation"

Configuring Delegate Managers and Acting as Delegates

Configuring delegate managers and delegates is done by setting PWA security permissions in categories and groups. Configuration follows the same principles as defining any security permission. Often there is a category that defines the reach of how has features enables and a group that includes categories and global permissions. The out-of-box security has delegation setup for project managers and resource managers and may be a good place to study on how they are originally defined.

In the Global Permissions section in security group contains the following switches to enable or disable delegation:

Can Be Delegate: Enables this user to become a delegate for another user. This is required for anyone who will a delegate. It can be set in one or more groups. It's a good practice to great a new group called "Delegates" to assign to users that do not fit in any of the typical groups.
Manage My Delegates: Enables the user to create his or her own delegations. Basically, it allows you to define a delegate for yourself when you are out. It's limited in that you can only set up people who will be working in your behalf. Setting the time period and selecting your delegate, creates delegate working in your behalf. Take note that there is not a "Working on Behalf Of" in this example. The assumption is that the delegate is working in your behalf or the person who has this permission enabled.

Figure 1

Manage My Resource Delegates: – Enables the user to setup delegations for other users.

Set delegation period defines when the delegate can enable delegation.
Set delegate lists all resources who have "Delegate" permission. The user must have delegate permission in one of their assign groups or it can simply be enable on the user update page. Create a security group called "Delegates" and put resources in that group versus setting a permission on the user update page.
Working on behalf of lists all resources that have the "Manage Resource Delegates" permission set in a category.
Recommend that a group called "Delegate Manager" that contains the users that manage the delegation process.

Figure 2

Point of confusion. When "Manage My Delegates" is checked and "Manage My Resource Delegates" is not checked, the managed menu only allows you to define your delegate and will look like figure 1. However, if "Manage My Delegates" and "Manage My Resource Delegates" are both checked, then the menu looks like figure 2. Where the confusion is that it's hard to tell that the two permissions are enable. When both permissions are set then you must specify yourself you username in the "Working on behalf of" field. Also, when the "Manage My Delegates" is unchecked, this means that you cannot have someone to delegate for you.

Defining PMO delegation and "working on behalf of" governance.

The following statements can be used to determine the PMO delegation and "working on behalf of" policy for your organization.

The PMO Staff needs the ability to assign delegates for Project Managers, Resource Managers or any role that requires attention when individual is unavailable.
Project Managers can assign someone to "work in their behalf of" as a project manager when they are unavailable and the delegation period is for one week. It's important that project schedules are maintained and published weekly to ensure work resources are working on the appropriate deliverables. Does the PMO manage the schedule or will this be assigned to a backup project manager?
Resource Managers can assign someone "to work in their behalf" as a resource manager when they are unavailable and the delegation periods is for one week.
The administrator has keys to everything in the project server, so no one is allow to delegate as Administrator. When someone needs to cover for an administrator they should be assigned the role when the need arises.
Work resources can be assigned to delegates to send final timesheets or submit task sheets. When timesheets are used for billing, a special delegate can be assign to complete and submit timesheets for resources.
Should a special security group called DELEGATES or DELEGATE MANAGER be used for managing delegates and delegation?
Other PMO groups such as Day-to-day Resource Managers and Enterprise Managers need delegates to keep the flow of project server moving.

Strategy of Implementing Delegation Governance.

Define security groups and categories that allow users to become delegates and to manage their 'working on behalf of" resources. Allowing project manages and resources managers to set up "working on behalf of" when the need arises speeds up the process of keeping data moving, however it can also open up some doors that need to be closed. For example, if not careful, a project manager could setup delegation as an executive and then they can see all projects and resources.
Provide a security group called "Delegate Manager". Security permission are setup allowing designated people to create and managed the delegation list.
Provide a security group called "Delegates". Individuals in this group are grant the security permission to be a delegate.

Ways to Monitor Delegation

Once delegates and delegation is defined and deployed it then becomes critical to monitor delegation and ensure that it is being used properly, by the right people and at the right times. This may be more important as timesheets become the official time tracking tool and timesheets need to be in on time. Below are a list of reports that can be used to help with monitoring.

Report sent to PMO listing all the "Delegates" and "Working on Behalf of" and saved in audit file or database for auditing purposes.
Report sent to project managers that list work resource that have delegates working in their behalf and ensuring that the right delegates are assigned.
Report sent to resource manager that list work resource who have delegates working in their behalf which provides a simple way to validate that the right people are delegates.
Report sent showing who was managing time in their behalf during the coming weeks.
Report sent showing who has been acting as delegate

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