Like most of Microsoft's new server products, Project Server also has the ability to generate reports quickly. Only problem there is that also like many Microsoft server products, it wants SQL Server's reporting engine to do this. That's not a killer problem, but it is additional overhead. Fortunately, Microsoft is relying solely on SQL Server for reporting. Even without Project Server, you'll be able to generate nice reports using Excel -- best with Excel 2007, obviously. But the really good stuff, especially the cross-project reporting, will raise that SQL specter.

There also seem to be issues with Project Server and Active Directory. I've had readers inform me that deleting a user from AD makes Project Server cry like a little girl. We tried that, and it turns out they're right. If you fire Joe Freak for that Project B-vs.-Project A problem, you must delete him from Project before you delete him from Active Directory. That's not a big problem for IT, but it does mean you've got to update your Best Practices documentation.

Overall, however, our lab experience ran nicely with Project Server. And it seems our reader e-mails to this point aren't complaining much about it, either. Microsoft has gone to some trouble to make Project Server 2007 a useful addition to your Project seat licenses, so IT managers working for users dependent on Project can get set for another Office Server in their portfolio.