Insight Microsoft Project Server

Nintex Workflow for Project Server

2010-12-07T09:20:00.001+10:30

What are the options of developing a project server 2010 workflow? For all of you that are in the process of doing that, please refer to Alex Burtons great post on the Nintex Workflow for Project Server which was released yesterday.

http://epmsource.com/2010/12/02/first-look-at-nintex-workflow-for-project-server-2010/

As Alex mentioned, he is actually an employee of a company that is part of Nintex, but I must agree with Alex, this tool rocks big time.

I have installed and configured workflows in Nintex now and here are my experiences. It is a great solution for organisations that would like to drive their governance using automation and workflows.

We have been developing workflows now in Visual Studio quite extensively and we also used the SDK solution starter. Both options are ok for the right workflow, but both have either limitations or are very time consuming.

With Nintex, organisations have the ability to give the business user the power of developing their workflow, either across different enterprise project types or even for individual projects.

What Alex did not mention so far ( I know Alex its only your first post ) is that Nintex does much more than Project Server workflows, it allows customers to seamlessly integrate SharePoint content with Project Server content and that really rocks !!!

Imagine you can make the status of a document dependent on moving a project into the next stage of a project life cycle. Yeap, that is all possible ( and much more) without a lengthy effort of custom developing workflows in Visual Studio.

Also with Nintex you don't just interrogate SharePoint data, but any Line of Business data can also be integrated into the workflow, making possibilities endless.

So without wanting to sound bias ( which I am not) have a look at this and decide for yourself

http://www.nintex.com/

Happy “worklfowing”

Did you know? Task custom field calculations in PS 2010

2010-07-07T13:42:00.001+09:30

I just stumbled across a 2010 limitation that I have not seen before. When creating task custom field formulas, PS will give you a nice red warning to have less than 5 task formulas due to potential performance issues. I believe that this is only a very general guideline, but certainly enough to have Microsoft warn you.

I will struggle at times to obey to this rule since I often use calculations within task custom fields, so EPM’es be aware and let me know if you have come across performance issues when using more than 5 task custom field formulas.

Project Server 2010 Web Casts

2010-04-20T23:29:00.001+09:30

Since Project Server 2010 is just around the corner, I am doing some webcasts regarding the Business Intelligence solution of Project Server 2010. I am sure you will find it most interesting, especially because of the new features of Project Server and in particular SharePoint Server 2010. If you are interested please select the link below for registration :) By the way all web casts are also recorded, so if you are from Australia you don't need to be up in the early hours :)

Project 2010 Business Intelligence

Title	Abstract	link
MSDN Webcast: Project 2010 BI & Portfolio Reporting (Part 1 of 2): Advanced Techniques	Web Cast 1 users will have the ability to understand how to utilize Excel Services, Reporting Services and Dashboard Designer to create organizational specific Dashboards	https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032449565&Culture=en-US
MSDN Webcast: Project 2010 BI & Portfolio Reporting (Part 2 of 2): Advanced Techniques	Within Web Cast 2 users receive a deep dive experience on how to generate reports utilizing Project Servers data sources. This web cast will also allow users to generate a Visio Services Report and Power Pivot analytics by utilizing the Project Server 2010 Data Sources	https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032449567&Culture=en-US

Looking forward seeing you online.

How to import a mpp file into Project Server 2010 or how to manipulate your Ribbon

2010-04-15T12:52:00.001+09:30

I came across a little issue. I was not able to find the import project into enterprise function.

Apparently the Beta and RC MS Project Professional Version have different ways to control the import wizard.

So irrespectively of what version you are running, you may want to include this command into your ribbon. So how do you do that?

Below is a little instruction on how you can control the ribbon and manipulate it with new commands.

This example is based on using the import wizard, which is required if you want to import an existing project to Project Server, but you can essentially do this for all command.

1. Open Project Professional 2010

2. Navigate to the open button which will lead you to the backstage page

3. Select Options and then select “Customise Ribbon”

4. On the right hand side select the project group and then select the “New Group” at the bottom of the dialog window. This will add a custom group

5. On the left hand column under “choose commands from” select All commands and find “import project to enterprise”

6. Select the Add button. That will add the command to the newly created group

7. Select OK and navigate to the Project Tab

8. On the very right you will now see the import project to enterprise icon.

You can do this with all ribbon tabs :) Enjoy playing.

Project Server 2010 Demand Management

2010-02-11T14:06:00.001+10:30

I am just at the project server 2010 ignite session in Sydney and it was most interesting. One thing becomes apparent, project server 2010 really rocks. Microsoft has done a great job, especially when it comes to project lifecycle management. A big part of this is Demand Management.

Over the last couple of month I have started working with the Demand Management component of Project Server 2010 and I promise to post some more about this shortly but lets see what Demand Management actually means:

What is demand management for Microsoft

Here are the main Challenges for Organisations organisations face:

Organisational ideas compete for attention and resources in project and product portfolios.
Organisations need to find the most beneficial suite of projects for benefit optimisation.
No realistic implication for Pet projects implementation.
No idea of what resource implication project proposals may have.

The solution that Microsoft came up with is referred to as Demand Management:

Collaborative platform featuring workflow management, business case, schedule tools, and a portfolio analysis engine that organizations need to comprehensively manage the demands of their organisation.
Portfolio What If scenario planning giving ability to objective decision making in regards to projects and resources.
Track progress against strategic goals to act early in case of non success

Are you excited? How this all works will follow shortly. :)

Project Server 2010 Web Cast

2009-12-16T21:58:00.007+10:30

Hi, i thought you may want to check out the web cast I am going to do in January

In this webcast we provide insight on how you can take advantage of the great reporting features in Microsoft Project Server 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. By using Excel Servises, Project Server delivers a suite of pre-defined reports out of the box. during the presentation we outline how users are able to generate thier own reports and report templates, give an overview on how to manage projects and portfolio dashboards by creating KPI reports using Perfomance Point Services and show how to visualise project and portfolio management processes by generating and integrating a dynamic visual report using Visio Services. The Web cast will give you a good introduction of the reporting capabillities of Project Server 2010.

PS: for thouse Australian viewers, sorry it is in the morning :( but it will be recorded I believe.
Check out this link to the register:

Register for Webcast

Project & Project Server 2010

2009-09-20T07:08:00.003+09:30

I am just in the Brisbane Airport waiting for my plane to Adelaide. Over the last week I had the pleasure being at the Project Server Conference 2009 in Phoenix where Project and Project Server 2010 was introduced. Before I start writing about my impressions, I would like to say thank you to all the MVP's I have meet last week. Many of you I have known now for years, but only a view I met face to face. Every time we meet, it feels like seeing an extended Family and I am very happy, honored and proud to be part of this elite of fine, smart and passioned professionals. Cant wait to see you all again.

Additionally I had the pleasure of meeting many people last week that share the same passion then I and one of the main reasons why I attend these conferences is to share my experience with same minded professionals of which some have become friends from all over the world, Finland, Germany, Russia, Israel, France, USA, Malaysia,New Zealand........ I feel very privileged.

OK now 2010:

Quite a view things have already been written over the last couple of days and as most of the bloggers I am also taken by the amount of great work and effort the Microsoft Project Team has been putting into the product. I already had the chance to see 2010 in action before hand during Beta1 and the conference has only backed up my thoughts. WAU, YEIPEEEE, UNBELIEVABLE, FINALLY, MIND BLOWING, these where the immediate words that sprang to my mind and finally I am able to talk about it :) since the NDA has been lifted.

Lets Start with Project Server 2010. The most important part to notice here is that Project Server 2010 requires SharePoint Server Enterprise 2010 to be deployed. This has a lot of license implications for many of my customers, but also a lot of additional feature sets. It took me about 2 sleepless nights before I started to accept the fact that Project Server is now a truly enterprise solution, not just from a feature set ( which it already was) but also from a licensing point of view. Microsoft has not reveled the license cost yet and I doubt that we will have final figures for a while now. So be aware of that.
Secondly ( which I believe was required) the entire infrastructure has to be 64 bit, including SQL Server. Most of my clients run 64bit anyway, so that should not be such a big issue, but for some organisations that means hardware upgrade which was required anyway :)
Now lets talk about feature sets. I don't really know where to start because there are so many :)

Project and Portfolio Server are now one product and it looks INCREDIBLE. My prediction is we do not have any more competition. With this solution primaveras of the world watch out. You can not beat what Microsoft delivered in a seamless solution. Not only does it look great, it does the job!!!!
Project Server is a SharePoint Solution. All your EPM specialist you will need to become SharePoint Specialists too. There is no life without SharePoint. I personally love it. In the past I had to sell SharePoint to have the featuresets. Now it all comes out of the box. Excel Services, Visio Services, Workflow, Collaboration, KPI's, Perfomance Point, Forms Services and and and I dont know when to stop. That of course means endless possibilities for our customers. I will post more detailed featurests about SharePoint later. By the way the SharePoint conference is on the 15th October. You may want to consider going. This will be a huge event.
No More ActiveX and OWC. All Grids are now bases on Ajax and JavaScript. THANK YOU MICROSOFT. No more complicated desktop deployments. All Server based and extensible to accommodate for any requirement.
The Reporting Engine is Excel Services. That is great, well I already use Excel Services in 2007 extensible and think that this is a great move. Finally business users can create their own reports using Excel, their most loved reporting tool.
Lost of new 3 letter acronyms :) EPT ( Enterprise Project Types). EPT's allow you to create as many different project types as you like ( e.g. proposal, small Projects, Enhancements, large Projects etc). I will write much more about this since this functionality gives you the ultimate flexibility.
PDP ( Project Detail Page) allow you to associate your own customised detail per EPT. I know that sounds a bit complicated but makes pure sense. :) Also more about this later
Departments. Finally you can determine custom fields on a department by department level. This means that Departments can have their individual custom field filter
Delegation. Allows you to act as someone else in case of Holiday etc. That did cause a lot of discussion during the deep dive sessions :) but I am sure it will be very interesting for organisations.

I haven't even started with the new feature sets yet :) but unfortunately my plane is boarding in 2 minutes, so you have to bare with me for more information later. My concluding sentence is......I cant wait to show my customers how I am able to help them with the new great Project Server release and I cant wait till it finally is released :)

SP2 is comming

2009-04-18T08:29:00.002+09:30

Microsoft just released the date for the 2007 Microsoft Office System and the 2007 Microsoft Office servers Service Pack 2. It is due to come out on the 28th April. Check out the blog for the realease on:
http://blogs.technet.com/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2009/04/16/service-pack-2-for-the-2007-microsoft-office-system-due-to-ship-april-28th.aspx

Accourding to the blog these are some of the changes that are comming out for:

MS Project:

The scheduling engine, Active Cache, and Gantt charts all have improvements.
There is additional reliability with earlier versions of the .mpp format.

Project Server:

Better memory management in the queue service.
Performance to certain database table indexes is improved.
Resource plans, build team, cost resources, and the server scheduling engine have improved.

Finally no more SP1 & Infrastructure & Cummulative hotfixes to install anymore :)

A new venture

2009-03-13T11:54:00.004+10:30

I knew that 2009 would be a great year and it has finally happened. After 6 years with SDM building their EPM business, I have decided to open my own EPM Practise and partner with a group of outstanding professionals. I am very happy to announce our new Company
i-PMO EPM Partners. (http://www.i-pmo.com.au). We are a team of currently 7 people with a presents in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide. We concentrate on the delivery and successful deployment of Microsoft's EPM solution with the technical expertise of integration work and custom development within the Microsoft EPM and SharePoint environment.

Additionally we offer various trainings including Project Server, Portfolio Server and MS Project Training. I am very excited about our new venture and know that we will be the EPM force to recon with in Australia. The entire team has many years of experience implementing EPM solutions throughout Australia. The ability to fully concentrate on delivering true value and business benefits to organisations that have a need and desire to deliver projects on time, within budget and to the full customer satisfaction will be our key to success. Lets get it started :)

Project Server and SQL 2008 Part 2

2009-01-09T11:32:00.002+10:30

Christophe Fiessinger left an excellent comment with great blogs that he wrote on his blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/.

Thanks Christophe!!. These are excellent posts regarding the SQL 2008 benefits and upgrade ( if you have the Microsoft VPC image). Have a read and enjoy: :)

to check out Reporting Services 2008 benefits for instance, check this
http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/archive/2008/12/09/microsoft-sql-server-reporting-services-2008-sample-project-server-reports.aspx

to upgrade your existing PS 2007 VPC I've also posted this: http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/archive/2008/12/17/how-to-upgrade-your-existing-microsoft-project-vpc-running-on-sql-2005-to-sql-server-2008.aspx

New year, new challange Project Server and SQL 2008

2009-01-06T10:38:00.002+10:30

It has been a very turbulent 2008 with many changes to the company I am working for, but now it is 2009 and I know this will be a most interesting year in every way. I started the year with a holiday with my wife and kids AND Project Server 2007 :)

Adrian, a friend and college of mine and I spent a day installing Project Server and MOSS onto a Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 image. We did get the cube working ( after a couple of hair pulling events) and we did install the new Report Builder 2.0. The Report Builder 2.0 not only has a ribbon look and feel, finally Microsoft decided to allow the word output format out of the box which is excellent. All in all the installation was strait forward. Here are a couple of tips to consider when installing Project Server and MOSS on a windows and sql 2008 environment.

WINDOWS 2008 BE AWARE things:
- When installing Project Server 2007 and / or MOSS 2007 on a Windows 2008 environment ensure that you have the PS / MOSS media INCLUDING SP1,otherwise the install will be a very short experience :) Windows 2008 doesn't like non SP1 media

SQL 2008 BE AWARE things:
- When setting up the cube within the SQL 2008 environment refer to this link:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd285466.aspx
BUT there is one issue with this link. It askes you to download the backward compatibility components based on Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - February 2007 this is actually not working. You will need to use the backward compatibility components of the
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack, August 2008 ( which makes kind of sense :) )

- Furthermore, if you want to use the Report builder. By default when installing SQL 2008 Reporting Service, it will install Report builder 1.0, which es the same then 2005. If you want to have the REAL NEW Report builder, you will need to download Report Builder 2.0 which can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9f783224-9871-4eea-b1d5-f3140a253db6&displaylang=en

This Report Builder has great new features, a ribbon look and feel AND the ability to generate Word document "Out of the Box" YIEPPEEE.

So all report fanatics without technical skills, check out the report builder :)
Have a great start to 2009

Andy I will miss you

2008-09-16T21:21:00.002+09:30

This post is dedicated to my dear friend Andy Neumann. Andy and I have been working together for the past 4 years and we triggered off the EPM business at SDM, our employer. Yesterday Andy resigned to join OBS, a very good Microsoft Partner and one of the best SharePoint providers in Australia.
Andy I will truly miss you and would like to thank you for your wonderful advice, professionalism and above all wonderful friendship that we share. I truly hope that you and I will have the chance to be a team again one day.
I know you will do an outstanding job at OBS, and they will be most happy having found such a smart asset in you. Without you, EPM would have never even been close as successful as it is now. I know that every single person that worked with you at SDM share my sadness seeing you go.

Presented at TechEd 2008 in Sydney

2008-09-16T21:12:00.003+09:30

Better late then never. I seem to chase my tail at present. The Tech Ed is now finished. I was in Sydney for the week and had 2 presentations at the Microsoft Tech Ed,

- a MVP theatre presentation which was based on enabeling business users to create reports using the SQL Server Report Builder utilising Project Server Reporting Database,

- and a TechEd presentation where my fellow MVP friend Ben Walters ( an Infopath MVP) and I presented on how to govern a project initiation process using inforpath forms and approval processes using Windows Workflow Foundation to finally create a project from a project idea. Once the project is managed in Project Server we reported against the project progress usign Excel Services. Essentially we utilised MOSS and Project Server :)

The presenation was ok, unfortunatly our VPC did not work for the first 10 Minutes ( dont you hate that), but the amount of questions we had was something I have never seen before in a presentation on this magnitute. We had at least 40 - 50 questions and spent the last half an hour only answering questions. So what started bad ended strong. At least this is the feeling I had. Lets see how next year goes :)

Interesting 3rd party timesheet add on

2008-06-27T12:07:00.002+09:30

Finally QuantumPM, from what I can see beeing a great EPM organisation ( no I have not worked with them before :) ) have released a great product called "JustOne" which fills the biggest gap that Project Server 2007 timesheet and task update has.

Essentially it allows users to update timesheet data AND remaining work in the timesheet, it then updates the task automatically. It means a one stop shop for task and timesheet update.

Having said this, I have not used it as yet, but hope to check it out soon. Anyway, for all of your Task and Timesheet users in Project Server 2007 check out this product.

http://www.quantumpm.com/products/JustOnce.html

Here is the description directly of their web page:

- Easily report time for each task

- See Remaining Work dynamically recalculated as actual time is updated
(change remaining time if needed)

- Time automatically imported from timesheet to tasks

- Timesheet sent to Timesheet Manager and status updates sent to Project Manager

- Timesheet and task submission status are kept in synch automatically

- keeps timesheet and task status in synch

- Comments and Rejected status displayed on My Timesheet page per timesheet

- Corrective dialog box reminds users to make updates

Make Planned work disapear in Timesheets

2008-06-25T13:59:00.008+09:30

Chee it is so nice to work with great people. This post is dedicated to Piet Remen, a great person, and developer in my team. A customer asked if it is possible to get rid of the annouing planned work in the timesheet and Piet found the way. Thanks Piet.

As we know, we can make the overtime and billable work disapear, but not the planned work :( ( god knows why). Anyway here is the instruction on how you can hide the planned column in the Project Server 2007 timesheets:

Use the following procedure to hide the ‘Planned’ work section displayed by default in the my timesheet input screen

1. On the Application server, open the CSS file named [pwastyle.css] in the SharePoint 12 hive structure.

Should be something like C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\PWA\STYLES

2. Locate the class named [XmlGridPlannedWork]. Within the class, add the following highlighted code to the class and save the file:

3. Done!

Easy Peezey. Planned work has been banished to the Project Server abyss and is no longer visible.

Dont you just love great developers :)

Project Server 2007 Timesheets the goods and bads

2008-03-26T17:23:00.003+10:30

By now we all know that Task updates and timesheet entry are 2 separate functions within Project Server, generally that is a good thing. The not so good thing is that task updates and timesheet entry is not tightly integrated in Project Server 2007. A user will actually need to import timesheet data into my tasks or vice versa. That is cumbersome as we know.

Having used Timehseets for a while now, I thought I write the pro's and contras of Project Server's timehseet functionality.

Lets start with the Pros:

You can maintain timesheet data and task data separate:
Why is this a good thing I hear you say :) . Well, many organisations would like to plan project tasks in a much more granular level than actually entering time against. Essentially it means that you can maintain your project task information separately from the timesheet data. The timesheet data can be entered on a Project level ( not task level ).

The downside to this is obviously that a PM still requires to reconcile the Project data based on the actual time entered on a Project level. This can be an unnecessary overhead.
Timesheet has a separate workflow to Task update
When users enter timesheet data and submit this data, it will go to the so called "Timesheet Manager". This could be a resource manager or team leader. The timesheet data can then be approved or rejected by the timesheet manager. This will not influence the project at all.

Should you want Project Managers to approve the time spend on a project, what needs to happen is Timesheet data needs to be imported into the My tasks and then needs to be submitted by the resource. This will ensure that the PM will receive the Project update ( not the timehseet update).
Since many organisations want to have this done in one hit, Microsoft made code available that allows you to automate this function. Check out the following link:
http://www.codeplex.com/EPMTSST

The downside is that a resource cannot update the remaining work, since only the actual timesheet data is populated in the My Task and the task update is automatically submitted to the PM
Non Project Tasks - Admin Tasks
timesheet data can include not only project work, but also administrative tasks, which are managed separately from project tasks.
Administrative Time
Some Administrative tasks can go through an approval process. ( e.g. annual leave ). Once this admin task has been approved, the resource utilisation will show that the resource is not available
Great Reporting
Project Server consists of many OLAP cubes ( 14 in total ) some of them are fully dedicated to timesheet information. You can essentially get all timesheet data out of the OLAP cubes, making the management of timehseeting much easier.

Further to this Project Server consists of a fully dedicated reporting database. You can extract any timehseet data out of the reporting database with any SQL reporting tool like reporting services, or the report builder.
Timehseet Periods
You can manage your organisational timehseet periods separately from your project periods. Generally I would assume that weekly periods are appropriate, but you can have daily or monthly periods if you like
Timehseet Classification
For Accounting purposes, you have the ability to create your own timsheet classification. Timehseet classification allow you to uniquely identify different types of timesheets, which could be useful for financial consolidation. BE AWARE.... only the general classification is imported into the task update.
Different Times
A user can maintain Actual time , Actual non billable time, overtime, and non billable overtime
Surrogate Timesheet
You can maintain timesheets for someone who is not able to update his/her timehseet

I am sure I forgot some of the great features of the timesheet. To ensure that you have all the info check out this link which explains the timesheet functionality in detail:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc197418.aspx

Now to the well..... not so nice features, the cons :)

Integration with My Task
As much as it can be a good feature not to have your tasks updated based on your timesheet automatically, as much it can be a curse. I personally find it more of a curse than a good feature. One of the compelling reasons to use the timesheet / taskupdate in Project Server 2003 was that it automatically updated your tasks as well. I truly hope and believe that this will be better in the P14 ( next release )
Adminstrative Tasks for everyone
You cannot determine that certain tasks are only for certain user groups. That is extremely annoying, especially if you have a long list of admin tasks. Essentially it means that a developer can see and enter time against an admin task that is only for Account Management. I hope that this will be rectified in the next release.
Timesheets do not automatically update
Once you create a timesheet, it actually ( depending on how you set it up) looks up the tasks you are supposed to work on this week and updates your timesheet with these tasks. GREAT, but what happens if the PM gives you a new task that you meant to work on this week? I would assume that the newly assigned task is displayed in the timesheet, but no it is not. You will actually need to hunt for it using the "add lines" picker. Which brings me to my next con :)
Add lines picker
Come on Microsoft you can do better than that. If I have many projects and tasks, how do I find the my tasks in the add line picker? It is not a nice User Interface and I hope that the next release will include a more appealing dialog window.
Year to Date....
The year to date vacation time used and the year to date sick used, which can be found in the timesheet header section cannot be reset. hmmmmm. It would be nice to have some kind of admin function that allows me the reset these numbers. Also, Vacation is not the generally used term in Australia, it is Annual leave. It would have been nice to consider a name change.
Timehseet approved, task isnt approved
It is great that you can have different approval process in timehseet and tasks, but ( and I guess that comes back to the tighter integration), if you have a timehseet approved, and then submit your task update, which may was rejected, it is complicated to update your already submitted timesheet. you essentially have to recall your timesheet, change the actual figure, import the task again, resubmit both timehseet and task. hmmmm not sure what the best answer is, but I do know that this is tedious. Lets hope MS comes up with something more slick in the next release.

Well, I dont think I have all the cons covered, but believe the main annoying ones. Please give me your experience with the timesheet. All in all I am sure the Project Server is on the right track with task update and timesheet, but there are still some miles to cover :)

I hope you enjoyed this post

Project Server Backup and Restore Tool

2008-01-27T09:31:00.000+10:30

Based on the Project Server 2007 Resource Kit, the most valuable tool, I believe is the backup restore tool. Since it is very hard to move server settings from one to another server ( from test to production for example), it made our life just very hard when implementing Project Server on customer site. So I had to check out this EXCELLENT tool from Microsoft Here is how it works:

After extracting the Project Server 2007 Resource Kit, you will find a file called "Playbooks.exe". Double click this exe file and you will be prompted with the following screen:

Enter the URL. The following UI will appear ( can take a short while )

Please note the parts you can backup from the server. Excellent !

Click the backup button and the backup will start:

Once the Backup is completed the following dialog window will appear:

All you need to do now is click on the restore tab, and enter the URL of the new server;

You have the option to either replace or merge the settings of the new server. All you then need to do is click on the restore button and the restore runs. By the way, any error that may occur, will result in a log file and the restore is aborted. Once the restore is successfully completed you will get a notification.

Now that's what I call a backup restore tool :) Thanks EPM Team :)

Project Server 2007 Resource Kit

2008-01-26T08:59:00.000+10:30

The Microsoft EPM team has released the Project Server 2007 Resource Kit. There are some great tools in this resource kid like:

Portfolio Analyzer Views Migration:
Allows an administrator to bulk edit the location of an analysis server for multiple data analysis views.
Project Server Settings Backup and Restore (Playbooks):
Allows an administrator to backup Project Server settings and restore those settings to another Project Server.
Project Server Data Populator:
Allows an administrator to populate Project Server with projects, resources and other objects. Useful for helping capacity and performance testing.
Project Workspace Site Relinker:
Allows an administrator to relink the connection between Project Server and Project Workspace sites.
View Effective Rights:
Allows an administrator to query the Project Server to determine the effective permissions of users against projects or resources.

You can download the kit at this link

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A33D253C-6424-48E4-B87E-0861D1977BB7&displaylang=en#filelist

Changing the Title of my blog

2008-01-26T08:47:00.000+10:30

I have decided to change the title of my blog from Project Server rocks to crazy Germans EPM Blog. The title comes mainly from my boss, colleague and very good friend Andy Neumann. Since he decided to create a link to our intranet site at work where he called it the crazy Germans blog :) So here we go, it's official now. Thank you Andy :)

Actaully the main reason is because I want to start writing about Portfolio Server as well, since this is part of Microsoft's EPM solution and since I am implementing this part of the EPM solution these day's, I thought I share my experience with this, well....., interesting peace of technology. Many people seem to "bag" the software, but to be honest, it is a most valuable tool, once you know how to use it, and as with everything, when you know it's "querks" you can prevent downfalls :). Anyway, more to come.

Initial Testing Project Server SP1

2007-12-18T13:59:00.000+10:30

I tested the deployment of SP1 on our VPC Image and it was straight forward. You will need to install WSS 3.0 SP1 before you install the Project Server SP1. Also make sure that you install MS Project SP1. THis is not entirely necessary, but it does make sense to deploy the whole SP1, including the client.

After intial testing there are some small things you need to consider:
- A new version of ActiveX will need to be installed. You need to make sure that users have the right to install ActiveX or need to deploy it via group policy

- Publishing a Project via PWA still causes errors, in particular traffic lights. I have run multiple tests, publishing the project via PWA, but the traffic light is not calculated. Only after I published the project via Project Professional will the traffic light be re-calculated :( that is disappointing.

- When approving tasks updates the changed hours entered in the task approval screen are now in red, making it easier to see what actually has been updated. That will make the approval easier.

- The cube build after SP1 was ok, even though I did get an event log error. Not sure if this is my environment and since the cubes build successfully and are working fine, it may well be that this is only on my environment. I will monitor and update the blog should issues occur.

All in all the installation is easy and at this stage no major issues have occurred. I have not made an end to end test, but the typical things like task update, approval, generation of views, added new resource etc I have done and it all works well.

Now that is a nice Christmas present :) Enjoy upgrading and please don't forget to follow the instruction Microsoft gave, especially PLEASE backup your environment before deploying SP1. If you have any customisation ( reports, custom web parts and a like) you will need to make sure to extra test them.

ENJOY :)

Office SP1 confirmed for the 11th December

2007-12-09T08:56:00.000+10:30

Now it is official :)
http://blogs.technet.com/upstate-ny-technology/archive/2007/12/04/2007-office-system-service-pack-1-to-release-to-web-tuesday-december-11th.aspx

For more information, refer to the Office download site at
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/default.aspx

Microsofts SP1 Christmas present

2007-12-05T07:55:00.001+10:30

Apparently Microsoft announced the release of SP1 for Project and Project Serverfor the next 2 weeks. That would mean before Christmas. Well, who doesn't believe in miracles anymore :) Thanks Microsoft that is an excellent present.

Microsoft Links that help

2007-11-27T11:17:00.000+10:30

Heather O'Cull from Microsoft has made a new post on her blog called Help with Help.
This is from Heathers blog. I thought it would be good to have these links too. Thanks Heather.

It can sometimes be a bit challenging to find just the right spot among Microsoft's many web sites to find that solution to your Project question.

Here is a quick list of the major sites that contain Project help content:

Office online
Office Online is the primary spot to find Help content about all Office products. You can specify where you want to search for Help, and you can restrict the scope of your search to online or offline or to a specific category within a program. You can search for up-to-date Help, templates, training, videos, or additional online content .
Go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/FX100487771033.aspx

Popular links:
Project Roadmap--http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/ha102143771033.aspx?pid=ch102202741033

Available fields--http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/HA102369301033.aspx?pid=CH100788901033

RSS feeds for Project-- http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/ha102127501033.aspx

Community resources-- http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/HA011587371033.aspx?pid=CH010685781033

MSDN
If you are Developer, you want to go to MSDN. MSDN provides articles, whitepapers, interviews, and sample code for software developers using Microsoft products.
Go to
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905469.aspx

Popular links:
Portfolio Server download materials--http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=18848D8B-6784-4E6A-B716-96D571EEB676&displaylang=en

Project 2007 SDK--http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2672f6f9-7028-4b30-99a2-18cb1eed1abe&displaylang=en

Getting started with development for Project Server-- http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456485.aspx

Technet
If you are a Project IT Pro, you will want to go to Technet to learn everything you wanted to know about Installing and deploying Project and Project Server across your organization.

Go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/projectserver/default.aspx

Popular links:
Managing your timesheets in Project Server 2007--http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/3e36877a-657c-4299-8a3a-b259daabbc051033.mspx?mfr=true

Operations manual for Project Server 2007-- http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/91c0c38a-51e1-4aaa-a675-a8d56cd5f08a1033.mspx?mfr=true

If you need to troubleshoot a problem with Project, search Microsoft's extensive Knowledge Base articles on our product support pages.
Go to:
http://support.microsoft.com/ph/11381 for Project client
http://support.microsoft.com/ph/11388 for Project Server

Excellent links :)

Timesheet & My Tasks Solution Starter On CodePlex

2007-11-16T14:35:00.000+10:30

Christophe Friessinger from Microsoft just published this on his blog. Finally a way to bring time sheets and task updates closer in Project Server 2007

Check out his blog on
http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/archive/2007/11/16/timesheet-my-tasks-solution-starter-on-codeplex.aspx

if you are interested in developing a tighter integration between Time sheets and My Tasks. For more info go to:
http://www.codeplex.com/EPMTSST

Have fun :)

Task Custom Fields are displayed in Project Custom Fields

2007-11-15T13:13:00.001+10:30

This post is dedicated to my colleague Laith from Sydney. He discovered how a task custom field can be viewed via a formula in a project custom field. Usually, if you create a project custom field formula in Project Server 07, you are not able to refer to a task custom field. Here is a way of doing so:

Create a task custom field ( please note, needs to be a numeric field like number or cost). In my example I simply called it Test.

Make sure that the rollup is used ( e.g. sum). Save the task field. By the way, this can also be a formula, as long as you use the rollup function.

Now create the project custom field ( my example is called Project Test) with the formula where you can use the task custom field ( test in my example )

You will see that the project custom field will take the task custom field (which normally is not the case).

Save the custom field and now you will be able to use the task custom field to either enter data ( or calculate based on a formula ) and at the same time the project custom field will show the value of the sum of the task custom fields.

---- Task vaues are entered and summed ----

--- Project custom field displayes the task custom field value ----

This function will allow you to add summarises task custom fields into the Project Center for example ( e.g. total work for development tasks ). A great way to give more project details to key stake holders. Not to mention the reporting cababillities. Thanks Laith great way of dealing with this.

What will Project Server next release bring?

2007-11-07T22:55:00.000+10:30

As per my last post here is a little update on what Microsoft has shown us at the Project Server Conference regarding new features of the next version of Project Server ( no release date - but certainly another 1 to 2 years)

Project Goes Excel

New Features in Project Professional include much more flexibility maintaining data, not strict schedule engine controlled data (e.g. start and end dates), information can be entered like in Excel and columns are automatically added ---VERY COOL----

New Feature includes “Timeline” – great visual feature allowing us to have an overall timeline with phases and deadlines that is visualised. This will also be available on in PWA. I can see that this is the best way to check an overall timeline with “key information”. You can do something similar in Visio already, but Project has this now too. I think that is a great new visualisation of a Project Schedule.

The Ribbon is coming and looks great and extremely flexible. I like it :)

Project Server

More and more desktop features go to the Web. This is great !

Project schedules can be maintained in PWA – this looks like Project Professional in PWA and allows users to maintain a schedule like you would on the desktop. It includes change highlight and Multi level undo ON THE WEB in PWA - very nice

NO MORE ACTIVE X ( Yieppeee)

All in all a very exciting show that Steve Balmer showed in his key note. The only problem is that we will have to wait quite some time till the next release :)

Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007- Evaluation Software

2007-11-07T22:20:00.000+10:30

Microsoft has published an evaluation version of Portfolio Server.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d1219a5f-6f01-455b-869e-200425931d2d&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 helps your organization realize its potential by identifying, selecting, managing, and delivering portfolios that align with your strategic priorities. Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 is a key component of the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution and helps ensure that you gain visibility, insight, and control across your project, program, and application portfolios

The Project Server Conference 2007

2007-11-01T14:18:00.000+10:30

Today the project server 2007 conference finished in Seattle. Lots of information to compute, I will write a little more about it in a later blog, but firstly I would like to write about the fellow MVP's I met. The first night of the conference the MVP group had dinner. It was excellent to meet Bud and Tim from the States. Both very nice gentlemen with a great knowledge of EPM.

Then I saw Dale and Gary, the MVP's I refer to as "the rock stars of Project Server". I met Gary and Dale a view years ago in one of the previous Project Server conferences, so it was great to see them again, not to mention the pleasure to talk to these guys about Project Server 2007. I also met Scot, a fellow MVP who works with Gary and Dale. A person who seems extremely knowledgeable around Project Server and SharePoint. I did go out with him and Jennifer to the after party last night and hey I did wake up with a hangover. :) Never mind it was a great evening.

---- The Project Server Experts: Gary on the right, Dale in the middle and me ------

I also meet Bill Raymond, the MVP with the great web casts that he shares with the community. A very nice person and also extremely knowledgeable. He mentioned that he has been involved with Project and Project Server for a very long time and you can tell this based on the knowledge he has. All in all it is excellent to see all the MVP's. The American MVP's have the ability to catch up on a more or less regular basis, but living in Australia only allows me to meet them at the Project Server conference. So great to see you guys.

The conference was very interesting. We had the chance to talk to many Microsoft Program Managers and Developers. It was also most exciting to see what the next release of Project and Project Server has to offer. I can't wait :) Anyway, I will write more about the conference when I am back in Australia, for now ...... thanks Microsoft for organising the event.

Another Project Server User Group and Project Server Conference

2007-10-19T12:52:00.000+09:30

What to say. I have been flat out busy and was just not able to blog some more. Anyway, I did have my bi-monthly project server user group 2 days ago and it was around Resource Management. We had around 30 people there and it once again highlights the challenge that many organisations have with Resource Management.

I think the session went well. We talked about general Resource Management Issues, the feature sets of Project Server 2007 in regards to Resource Management and Project Leveling :) which is always fun. Anyway I am off the the states in a couple of days to visit the Project Server Conference in Seattle. Cant wait to be there. I am sure it will be excellent. I will update you on how it was

Bi monthly project server user group

2007-08-28T05:38:00.000+09:30

Last week I conducted the bi monthly project and project server user group in Adelaide for August. My presentation was around whats new in Project Server 2007, which allowed participants to check out the great new ( and not so great new) features in PS2007. We had about 35 participants with quite a lot of interest and questions around resource management. Based on the feedback I received it would probably be a good idea to make this the topic of the next session.

Updating Global Material Resource using "My Task"

2007-08-13T14:27:00.000+09:30

For all of you who have to work with Material Resource this may be of interest. I had the challenge that an organisation had to capture data (Hectare) for each Project they are working on, so I created a Material Resource called it Hectare and off we went :)

The Main problem was that this Material resource needs to be updated using PWA's - My Task. Sure you can assign a Default Assignment Owner to the Material Resource, but what happens when the Assignment Owner changes on a project to project bases?

Here are the steps you will need to go through in order to assign material resource work to different Assignment owners:

- Open Project Professional
- Build your team and include your material resource
- create a task and assign the material resource to the task
- go to the resource usage view
- insert the Column "Assignment Owner"
- now you can assign a different assignment owner per material resource per task, making it a very flexible way to capture different data.
- all there is left is publishing the project and the assignment owner will now see that task for the material resource in their "My Task"

That will allow you to capture quite a different numbers of data that your organisation may need for Projects.

Now you can report against the "Material Work" and "Material Actual Work" using the Data Analyser or even the report builder within SQL 2005 allowing you to create time phased reports.

Cooooool :)

My TechEd Presentation in Australia

2007-08-08T15:25:00.000+09:30

Well, another month has passed and I have not updated my blog AGAIN. In my defence, I was very busy at work and in preparing my TechEd Australia Presentation. The subject I presented on was around Project Server 2007 Timesheets and Enterprise Reporting using PS07 Out of the box functionality plus MOSS Excel Services, MOSS KPI Lists, Reporting Services and Report Builder.

It is always hard to present to predominantly technical focused people, that's why I have broken down the presentation into 2 sections, Timesheet for business users and Enterprise Reporting for Techies. Considering that it is at the TechEd, I actually had about 100-110 people at the presentation.

I think the preso went well, with lots of questions after the session, plus I actually very much enjoyed myself. It was my first TechEd visit and therefore my first TechEd presentation as a speaker.

The next conference I am very much looking forward to is the Project Server Conference in Seattly in October. Lookign forward seeing some faces that I typically only see at the conference.
Till next time

Project Server Reporting DB - reporting against WSS data

2007-07-20T11:47:00.000+09:30

Finally the end of the financial year is here and I have finally some time to attend to my blog again. It has been a couple of weeks.

Over the last couple of weeks I have started to use the Project Server Database extensively and I must say that I am very impressed. I really like what the Microsoft Project Server team has done. Any information regarding the Project schedule, resource schedule and time sheet I can report against and thanks to the Project Server 2007 SDK I have started to write some valuable Reporting Services reports.

You should also have a go at the report builder in SQL 2005. All you need to do is create a Model. The easiest way to do this is to create a model against a Project Server Reporting Database view. The rest is done more or less by SQL Server. Once you have created the model you can allow business users to create their own report. So far so good. THANK YOU MICROSOFT :)

BUT as soon as you want to report against WSS data you will find it most challenging. The Project Server Reporting DB does transfer Risk, Issue and Deliverable data from WSS to the PS Reporting DB, but only the fields that are pre-defined in the Project Workspaces. That is not very helpful at all. Most Organisations ( if not all) do change at least the Risk and Issue list to suite their business. Any new field do not move from WSS to the PS Reporting DB.

Also, if you delete a field from the "out of the box" template you will receive an event log error saying something like this" The PS Reporting DB cant find a field from the WSS site". That tells me that Microsoft have hard coded these fields. AUTSCH.

Furthermore if you create new lists in the Project Workspace, these will not move into the PS Reporting DB. That means any information maintained in Project Work spaces cannot be reported against UNLESS you have a Reporting Services to WSS wrapper. I think that is very sad. We are in the process of developing a wrapper that will allow us to report against the PS Reporting DB and WSS Workpace Data.

so be aware out there, Reporting against the Project Server DB is excellent and easy. Reporting against WSS data is painful.

PMI Chapter Presentation

2007-06-19T13:02:00.000+09:30

Yesterday I presented at the South Australian PMI Chapter. The presentation was around "the challenges implementing EPM Solutions". Based on the feedback, the audience seemed to have enjoyed the presentation.

Main points of the presentation was based on do's and dont's when implementing EPM and the role PMO offices have, EPM software solutions have and insights of how organisations become ready deploying an EPM solution.

Role of PMO

Support Governance
Act as a centre of excellence
Coach and Mentor
Provide oversight
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY….. Drive measurable improvement in project output

A PMO must be able to help executives with execution of strategy, as determined by the project mix and flow, or the PMO will not achieve sufficient level of value to sustain itself ( Gerald l Kendall and Steven R. Rollins )

The Role of the EPM Software Solution

Support the implementation of corporate PM Standards
Identify project risks and resource constraints
Portfolio reporting and analysis
Early warning for project failure
Improve resource utilisation
Do not try to implement all capabilities at one time
No software will do Project Management, Resource Management and Portfolio Management for you
Bad data in = bad data out!!!

Readiness tips for Organisations

Assess your organisation
Ensure that you have a clear "embraced" process / methodology
Resistance is the biggest obstacle
Plan for it and how it will be managed
Effective sponsorship is the biggest success factor
Obtain clear sponsorship and goals
Train your staff appropriately
Not only on the tool but also on the process / methodology
communication, communication

Surprisingly many participants have been most interested in a Project User Group. We will take this into hand very soon.

Project Server 2007 BETA Exams

2007-05-27T09:40:00.000+09:30

During the last 3 Weeks I had the chance to take the first 2 Project and Project Server BETA exams:

Microsoft Office Project 2007 - Configuring
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 - Configuring

Both exams have been interesting, I think the MS Project 2007 exam is not to bad. Some of the questions where kind a strange, but then there are only BETA tests at this stage and I am sure that Microsoft will work some more on the questions based on the feedback the beta team gave.

The Project Server Configuration I found fairly easy but some questions seem to have been very confusing. It was good to give feedback during the test and once again I am sure that Microsoft will refine the questions before they come out.

Due to the NDA we had to sign, I am not allowed to get into details, but hey, with a bit of luck you will be able to take the exams in the next couple of month :)

I personally am very happy that Microsoft has developed a new structure for Project Server 2007. It has become a serious tool set for Project Management and many organisations discover the power of Project Server these days.

Ugrade 2003 to 2007

2007-05-11T08:57:00.000+09:30

I have noticed that lately we have many question regarding upgrading from Project Server 2003 to 2007 in the discussion Forum.
Upgrading is not easy, especially if you have used the Project Workspace in 2003.

Microsoft has an upgrade path and documented it. Check out this link here:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/13c4bf50-ae21-42d4-a48c-6e2de4284c561033.mspx?mfr=true

You can download the books:
Migration for Office Project Server

I know lately my blogs seem to be full of links, but hey, why would I want to recreate the wheel right :)

Till next time

Change the Manager of an Enterprise Project

2007-05-09T07:56:00.000+09:30

We know that the types of Managers have changed in Project Server 2007 ( Status Manager, Approval Manager etc), but do you know how you can change the Status Manager ( which can be understood to be the Project Manager) within a Project?

Microsoft gives us a good instruction under:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/HA101130771033.aspx

There is one nasty !!
When you create an Enterprise Template and then use the template for a project, the Status Manager does not change automatically to the user that creates a project from the template. In fact, the Status Manager will contain the name of the person who created the template. As part of using a template, you need to ensure that your process includes the changing of the Status Manager. Alternatively you can write a little Macro.

Project Server 2007 evaluation Version

2007-05-07T08:46:00.000+09:30

Microsoft has released the evaluation Version of Project Server 2007. When you download the 180-day trial software, you’re automatically registered to receive valuable resources delivered at strategic intervals throughout the software evaluation period. Here is the link:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/eval/default.mspx

Soooo late - a quick update - and 2007 Cube build tips

2007-05-05T09:23:00.000+09:30

It is almost unforgiving that I have not been posting on the blog for almost a moth, but to my defence, I was on Holiday :) and once I came back I did heaps of renovations around my house. So never mind here I am again.

First of all a couple of interesting Project Server bits and peaces:

Microsoft did bring out the first Beta Exams of Project and Project Server 2007. I will
take them over the next 2 Weeks and let you know how they are. I am actually looking forward seeing how they are. http://mcpmag.com/news/rss.asp?editorialsid=1269
I am looking forward to the Project Server Conference in October. It sounds very big and I am looking forward catching up with some guys I have met over the last couple of conferences. http://www.msprojectconference.com/
Last but not least, I have come across an interesting msdn article that outlines how and what types of custom fields can be populated within Project Server 2007 OLAP Cubes. Very interesting
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms447495.aspx#pj12_EnterpriseCF_OLAPCubes

Till next time

I received the MVP Award

2007-04-03T17:06:00.000+09:30

I am very happy. Microsoft just awarded me with the MVP Award for MS Project. So what exactly is the MVP?
Microsoft MVP - Most Valuable Professionals are exceptional technical community leaders from around the world who are awarded for voluntarily sharing their high quality, real world expertise in offline and online technical communities. Microsoft MVPs are a highly select group of experts that represents the technical community's best and brightest, and they share a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others.

I am very proud to have received this award from Microsoft, especially because I have gained so much from the user groups over the last couple of years, I am very happy that I am able to contribute to users that may not be as experienced. So thank you Microsoft, very much appreciated. I will make sure to continue with the user groups as I am doing at present.

Creating a Resource Plan

2007-03-14T18:11:00.000+10:30

Well, isnt this typical, I wanted to include some images, but always receive error messages when I upload the image. Lets try it wouthout then :)

CREATING A RESOURCE PLAN
On projects which run for a longer time, it is not always be possible to assign a resource directly to a task for the whole duration of a Project. The Project Manager knows approximately whom he/ she would like to be involved in the project, but does not know on which tasks.
In order to show the resources availability Project Server offers Project Managers the ability to create a resource plan. A resource plan gives PM’s the option to assign time to a resource for a project, but does not need to assign the resource to a Project task.

Please note, assigning a resource to a project via the resource plan will not automatically display the project tasks in the “My Task” screen for this resource.

Go to the Project Center and highlight your Project
Click on ‘Resource Plan’
You will be prompted with the Resource Plan Screen
Click Build Team
Select the resources you whish to add to your resource plan
Click Save
Click Settings > View Options
You can now set the resource plan

Date Range = The date range you whish to view
Column Interval =, Days, Week, Month, Year
You can decide how the resource utilisation is calculated:
- Project Plan: The utilisation will be calculated from the Project Plan
- Resource Plan: The utilisation will be calculated from the Resource Plan
- Project Plan until: you can specify a date until the utilisation will be calculated from the Project Plan. After this date, the Resource Plan will be the bases of the utilisation calculation for the resource that are on the resource plan

Work Units ( the units you want to enter based on the date range you specify ) = hours, days, weeks, month, year,

Show Total Work =Allows users to enter one total amount for the whole Project.
Enter the required resource time in to the data grid
Click Save and Publish
The resource plan will now be published and the resource utilisation will be visible in Project Web Access

Please note:
If you use need to change some resource plan information you can do so by clicking on the resource plan within the Project Center of PWA

Proposal and Activities - things you need to consider

2007-03-07T19:04:00.000+10:30

I have been trying to implement Proposals and Activities and here are some things you should know before attempting to use Proposals in Project Server 2007

When allocating a resource to a task ( under build a team ) you cannot allocate a certain unit ( e.g. 50%) to a resource. This makes it nearly impossible to use when you only want resource to work 4 hours a day on this task. Now that is NOT nice :)
You can only assign 1 resource to a task. NOT nice
When you don't use the time sheet, but only the task update ( which some customers do) and you want resources to update tasks by hours worked per day, the resource will need to drill down to the task and enter each day he/she has worked. So far so good. ( by the way this is a setting in Project Server that you can set). BUT when using the Proposal Project Server does NOT allow to enter time per day ( only total actual work). Also NOT nice

In total I am a little disappointed on the function of Proposals and Activities. It seems a "little" over promise was done by Microsoft ( Sorry Microsoft, I still love you :)

So in a nutshell, please investigate deeply before using the Proposal and Activities. Make sure that you have all posebillities covered. There are certainly great possibilities and lets face it. IT IS BETTER THAN NOTHING -- RIGHT :)

OK get your act together - The new formula

2007-03-05T18:25:00.000+10:30

I know it has been a while. Work work work, but 2007 Work which is good. The more I become familiar with Project Server 2007 the more I love and hate it :)
Lets talk about fomulas. The way formulas worked in 2003 was based on MS Project Professional and it was ok to use. you had many different ways to generate formulas and show traffic lights etc.
The way 2007 works is that you will actually need to have enter the formula using the web client. That sounds generally good BUT you need MS Project in order to validate the formula. Why did you take it out of Project Professional in the first place ??? OK OK I know the answer to this, that is due the the new funcitonality of custom fields. ( Which I like, just a shame that is is much slower to use then in 2003, but that is just the way it is.)

what I did discover is that you now have variations to formulas and need to use the WSS formulas. Here is an example: This one displays if the finish date is on time or not. Plesae note the AND statement that we had to use to make this work:

IIf([Baseline Finish]=ProjDateValue("NA"),"No Baseline",IIf([Current Date]>[Baseline Finish],"Late Delivery",IIf([Actual Finish]<>ProjDateValue("NA") And [Actual Finish]>[Baseline Finish],"Delivered Late",IIf([Finish]>[Baseline Finish],"Possible Delay","On Time"))))

I then integrated the Traffic lights and it seems to work . The AND was used differently in the last release and makes 2007 "New" meaning I ( and you ) will have to get used to the new way of formulas.
PS: some fields dont work = e.g. Active Risks and Active Issues do not work, meaning that you cannot generate a formula based on these fields. Now that is a shame :)

Resource Plan ...... Ahhh thats what it does

2007-01-05T09:58:00.000+10:30

I am starting to get more and more impressed with the Resource Plan functionality. At the moment I have to implement Resource Management capability on a customer's site and we all know how hard resource management is. Project Server 2003 was ok but certainly not the start and end of resource management. Predominantly because resources had to be managed on a task by task bases. Not that this is bad, but lets face it, if you have a Project that lasts for a couple of Month or even years, you cannot plan all resources from the first to the last day of your project, not to mention the overhead involved to maintain the plan. So THANK YOU MICROSOFT for the great new functionality of calculating the utilisation either from the Project Plan ( as per 2003 ) or from the resource plan ( the new feature).

If you create a new Project / Proposal you can build your resource team and create a resource plan within Project Web Access. You can tell Project Server to use the resource plan information to calculate the utilisation of your resource(s) based on this resource plan, or use the Project Plan ( with the assignment to the tasks) to calculate the utilisation.

Furthermore you can have a choice of letting the utilisation calculate based on a project plan until a certain date and then use the resource plan to calculate the rest of the utilisation. This is especially beneficial if you have a long lasting project where you only have a detailed plan for "Phase 1" but dont have a detailed plan for "Phase 2". You can assign your resources for Phase 1 on a detailed task level ( which you want to do) and then you can say, "I believe I will need resource A for 2 days a week over the next 12 Month" in Phase 2. When you choose the option "Calculate resource utilisation from Project Plan until:" DD.MM.YYYY" Project Server calculates the utilisation based on the Project Plan for Phase 1 ( until the finish date of Phase 1 ) and then uses the resource plan to calculate the rest of the utilisation. This will give Resource Managers and Organisations a great forecast /outlook to their resource requirements.

Check out the MSDN Link which explains the Resource Management and Resource Plan in more details. It is cool stuff and certainly a big improvement from Project Server 2003

EPM Version Comparison

2006-11-20T07:47:00.000+10:30

Many users may not be aware of the changes within Project Server 2007 and Project Server 2003. Microsoft provided a very good comparison that may be of interest for some of you
http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/help/HA101759371033.aspx

Resource Plan

2006-11-17T08:45:00.000+10:30

Isn't it excellent that you can actually create a resource plan for your project now. This will make resource planning much easier. I wonder why you can only plan for "real" resources and not for generic resources? This is most important if you have a large project and only know that "in 6 month time i need 20 Developers".

Resource management is hard as it is, it doesn't matter if you have tools or not, but at least if I can plan for generic resources as well, I can create a picture of what resources I require in the future.

Maintenance and Proposal Resourceing

2006-11-17T08:40:00.000+10:30

I really like to Proposal and maintenance functionality of PWA ( especially because it is a PWA function. ) What I cannot understand is that you can only assign one resource to a task when you create your schedule. I would have thought that it would have not been so hard to allow users to choose more then one resource for a task. Lets hope that this may changes in the RTM.

Active What?

2006-11-12T09:20:00.000+10:30

After starting to seriously using PWA there are certainly some parts that would need some special attention, but overall, the functionality of PWA has become so much better. Once they actually get writ of the Active X component our lives will be much easier.

Look at this

2006-09-05T12:21:00.000+09:30

After beeing used to the PWA User Interface for such a long time now, it is very refreshing to look at the Project Server 2007 User Interface.

The only part that disapoints me, is that you can't "hide" the left side action bar. At least 2003 had an arrow where you could choose to look at the side bar.

I understand that WSS doesnt like the hiding, but from a User experience point of view, I believe the Microsoft team should have given us this option. What do you think?

Hello EPM World

2006-09-04T13:13:00.000+09:30

Now that is quite an experience, since this is my first time "blogging" and it feels like..... No one will give a rats ass of what I write :) Never mind. Let's hope there is an EPM world out there that is actually interested.

Let's talk about ME :) My name is Marc Soester and I am a passionate EPM solution implementer from Australia. You may discover that my English is not up to scratch for an Australian, well that is because I am not Australian. I am a German living in Australia. Lets hope you understand most of what I write PLUS you can consider yourself lucky since I have a German accent that you can hear but cant read ( I hope ).

today's session will only act as a test post and the announcement of a great Microsoft site that you will be interested should you like EPM or Project Server or Portfolio Server or or or :)
Enjoy
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/office/project/default.mspx