When creating objects in Microsoft Project that you want to transfer to R/3 PS at a later date, you must remember that the names of projects and WBS elements in the Project System must be unique. If you try to create a project definition or WBS element that already exists in the R/3 system, Open PS issues an error message during transfer and the project is not created.

When you create a project in Microsoft Project, the program creates so called Program Information (a dialog box with default values appears). This information is used to create the project definition in PS. The project dates are taken from the summary tasks.

WBS elements as such do not exist in Microsoft Project. Open PS maps summary tasks to WBS elements in PS.

For a task to be a summary task, it must have subordinate tasks.

For details on the syntax of the names you can use for summary tasks, refer to the Names of Microsoft Project Objects section.

Tasks in Microsoft Project are the equivalent of activities in the Project System. Since an activity number in PS can have up to four characters, you can only use this number of characters in Microsoft Project.

1. Open the resource sheet by clicking on the icon in the left-hand margin.
2. If they are not already present, insert the fields Text20 and Text21 for the plant and the work center respectively in the table. (In Microsoft Project select the column to the right of where you want to insert the new field and choose Insert Column in the context menu. Select the field name Text20 orText21. If you want, you can add another title for the field, such as Plant or Work Center. Choose OK.)
3. In Text20 enter the plant and in Text21 the work center.

 Although you can enter the activity type in the Text17 field, Open PS always creates internal activities in PS. However, during synchronization the activity type is not changed.

Milestones in Microsoft Project are defined as tasks with a duration of 0 days. They have the Mark task as milestone indicator set. Milestones in Microsoft Project do not have the same functionality as milestones in the R/3 Project System. Therefore you will in general have to edit the milestones in the Project System, before you can use them.

Since relationships are common to both the R/3 Project System and Microsoft Project, there are no difficulties mapping them. The four types of relationship (Finish-Start (FS), Start-Start (SS), Finish-Finish (FF), and Start-Finish (SF)) are used in both programs. You can also transfer time intervals, expressed either in absolute values or as a percentage of one of the two activities.

You can use the Predecessors and Successors fields in Microsoft Project to display the task to which a task is linked. If the relationship is not a FS relationship (default value), the relationship type is displayed. Any time interval between the two tasks is also displayed. Here the tasks are referred to by their ID, which is the line number in the project.

In Microsoft Project a task that must start or finish before another task can begin is called a predecessor task. A task that depends on the start or finish of a preceding task is called a successor task.

To be transferred correctly to the Project System, the names of the various Microsoft Project objects have to meet the same criteria as the names of the corresponding PS objects.