tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298090962024-02-08T06:39:49.821+01:00Marc's Enterprise Project Management BlogFind out more about Enterprise Project Management with Microsoft Project Server and Microsoft SharePointMarc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-480018999527278272007-03-14T16:38:00.000+01:002007-03-14T17:11:43.299+01:00Restoring single projects with Project Server 2007For those of you who have been using Project Server 2003, this may be one of the new features not too many people have talked about. Yet, it will help you a lot in your daily life as Project Server administrator. In the past - or maybe present if you're still using PS2003 in your organization - it has been painful to restore a single project that for some reason is not accessible anymore or has some other issues. Many people have tried using the "Restore Single Project Tool" but were not too happy with the results. So the quickest way to restore a project actually was to restore the entire Project Server database to a backup instance of PS2003, open and export the project to a MPP file and finally re-import it back into the productive environment. That is finally over with MOPS 2007! If you already had a closer look at the 'Server Settings' in PWA of MOPS 2007, you have probably seen the 'Database Administration' section. There you will find all you need to solve the above mentioned scenario with MOPS 2007.<br /><br />On the 'Schedule Backup' site you can define how many versions per project (as well as other backup objects) you want to retain. Per default, only one version per object will be retained.<br />On this page you can also define whether you want MOPS 2007 to automatically backup individual objects. You can also manually backup objects on the 'Administrative Backup' site. You will find the UI pretty intuitive and straightforward, I guess.<br /><br />If you need to restore an earlier version of a project, simply navigate to the 'Administrative Restore' site. Here you can first select the object type you intend to restore - Projects in our case - then mark the respective version of the project plan and finally click the 'Restore' button to initiate the restoring process. For projects plan of a normal size this operation won't take too long, so don't be surprized if you don't even see the job listed in the queue.<br /><br />Feel free to leave comments with questions - hope this post is helpful.Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com1011tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-14828812991519622132007-03-01T10:58:00.000+01:002007-03-01T11:14:28.443+01:00Workaround for corrupt look-up tables in MOPS 2007If you have installed Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 in your organization (MOPS 2007), you will sooner or later run across some product bugs that will hopefully be resolved with SP1 (availability unknown). This article describes a workaround for one of these bugs around Enterprise Custom Fields and Look-up Tables.<br /><br /><br /><br />As you know with MOPS 2007 you can now create your Enterprise Custom Fields in PWA rather than in Project Professional as it was the case with Project Server 2003. To me, this is definitely much more convenient and a nice improvement. However, you will soon find that not all changes you apply to a look-up table linked to a custom field will be represented in Project Professional 2007. This is obviously caused by the new Active Cache feature in Project Pro 2007. Here is how you can work around that issue until a hotfix or service pack is available<br /><ol><li>Open Windows Explorer</li><li>Navigate to the following directory:<br />C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\MS Project\Cache\</li><li>In \Cache you will find several subfolders labeled with long GUIDs</li><li>Within each GUID subfolder you will find a file named 'global[1].mpc'<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjRzMI-gr2QsMMlHmYPJh0PLhLXcRzo2AldfbESHdlZXiF7RDDAAKDLNgCjs-M5eC8FLNqHeDWXaHCZd9VmoemEr38fLa1mMxEyATczZL4MDpIenESHDc26MqkbAbiwbbxxlBP/s1600-h/cache.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5036896356994374018" style="WIDTH: 403px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 51px" height="70" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjRzMI-gr2QsMMlHmYPJh0PLhLXcRzo2AldfbESHdlZXiF7RDDAAKDLNgCjs-M5eC8FLNqHeDWXaHCZd9VmoemEr38fLa1mMxEyATczZL4MDpIenESHDc26MqkbAbiwbbxxlBP/s400/cache.jpg" width="426" border="0" /></a></li><li>Delete the 'global[1].mpc' from each subfolder. Alternatively you could also the entire subfolder for each GUID</li></ol><p><strong>Note:</strong> Make sure that the Project Professional 2007 application is not running at the moment you're performing the above steps.</p>Keep in mind that you will have to follow these steps for all clients.<br /><br /><br /><p></p>Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-51454254425861971382007-02-15T16:10:00.000+01:002007-02-19T16:46:17.966+01:00E-Mail notifications in SharePointIn one of my previous posts I have written about the added value that the Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) can provide to your EPM solution. As you may know WSS - among many other things - is capable of sending user's action-triggered e-mails, e.g. send an e-mail when a new item has been added to a specific list. This is a very powerful function that helps users to stay up-to-date without having to check each SharePoint site daily or even on a hourly basis. The purpose of this post is to guide you through the process of configuring the e-mail notification on your SharePoint server.<br /><br /><strong>Step 1: Configuring default e-mail settings</strong><br /><ol><li>Connect to the server running WSS using the farm admin account. </li><li>Open the Central Administration website</li><li>From the section 'Server Configuration', select 'Configure default e-mail server settings'</li><li>Fill in the information of your SMTP/Exchange server (host name, fully qualified domain name or IP address)</li><li>Fill in the information for 'From address' as well as 'Reply-to address'. Note that this can be an un-monitored account</li><li>Select the applicable character set (default: 65001 Unicode) should work in most cases</li></ol><p><strong>Step 2: Configuring virtual server</strong></p><ol><li>Go back to the Central Administration start page</li><li>Click 'Extend or Upgrade Virtual Server'</li><li>Click the link 'Complete list' and then select the website hosting WSS (e.g. Default Website)</li><li>From the 'Virtual Server Management' section, select 'Virtual server e-mail settings'</li><li>Fill in the information as mentioned above in Step 1, points 4 - 6</li></ol><p><strong>Post-configuration</strong></p><p>On your server, go to Administrative Tools - Services and look for the 'SharePoint Timer Service'. If the e-mail notifications are not working yet, change the account running the service from 'NT Authority' to 'Local System'. You can do this under the service's properties in the 'Log on' tab.</p>For additional information regarding e-mail notifications with WSSv2, see <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/wss/2/all/adminguide/en-us/stsf13.mspx?mfr=true">http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/wss/2/all/adminguide/en-us/stsf13.mspx?mfr=true</a><br /><br /><strong>E-mail notification in Project Server</strong><br /><br />Please note that the above steps only address Windows SharePoint Services. This means that through these settings you will allow your users to receive notification on changes in project workspaces, e.g. when somebody has uploaded a new document or modified an issue.<br /><br />E-mail notifications for Project Server are completely separate from the settings in WSS. To enable e-mail notification in Project Server, go to the PWA Admin section and select 'Customize Project Web Access' followed by 'Notifications and reminders'. Filling in the correct information here will e.g. enable team members to receive notifications about new assignments or alert project managers about task updates that must be approved.Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-37086165888849815782007-01-30T11:24:00.000+01:002007-01-30T13:53:02.139+01:00Project Professional 2003 with Project Server 2007?That might be a question you have already heard a couple of times if you have talked to people working with Project Professional and/or Project Server.<br /><br />Project Professional 2003 will not integrate with Project Server 2007 for technical reasons. As you may know Project Professional 2003 has connected to the Project Server 2003 database through ODBC. This was a pain for a great number of customers, especially with WAN scenarios.<br />For the 2007 products ODBC has been replaced (although you could still connect to other databases using ODBC). Instead, the Project Professional 2007 client will connect to the Project Server 2007 database through HTTP. The publishing process has also been improved thanks to the Active Cache the Project Professional 2007 client is now working with.<br /><br />Even though Project Professional 2007 looks a lot like its predecessor, you will find many new features that your project managers will enjoy a lot. There's change highlighting, multiple un-do and task drivers just to name a few. Even if it would be possible technically to connect to Project Server 2007 through Project Pro 2003, I would recommend you to upgrade to the 2007 client.<br /><br />Feel free to post any comments regarding questions.Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1165855369513568142006-12-11T17:39:00.000+01:002006-12-11T17:42:49.736+01:00Project Server 2007 available!I'm sure all of you have already heard that Project Server 2007 will be available soon. For all you MSDN subscribers out there, let me tell you that you can download the RTM version of Project Server 2007 today! Download it, install and configure using your MSDN license key and start testing! I'm sure you will like the new look and feel of Project Web Access, the change highlighting in Project Pro as well as all the other nice, new features. <br /><br />In the meantime, both Office 2007 as well as Windows Vista have become available as well. They are also available for download from MSDN.<br /><br />I will start posting about the new Project Server features soon, so stay tuned.Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1163760956150962522006-11-17T11:48:00.000+01:002006-11-17T13:45:00.780+01:00Project Web Access with Internet Explorer 7.0The latest version of Microsoft's web browser has been released a few weeks ago. Unlike the previous Beta versions, the final products works just fine with Project Web Access 2003.<br /><br />The out-of-the-box configuration of IE 7.0 should run smoothly with your existing Project Server configuration. Users will not have to re-install the ActiveX controls again, removing a large potential obstacle for companywide deployment. However, depending on your company's policies and your current Project Server 2003 architecture, ensure that the 'Access data sources across domains' option is enabled in order to continue using the Portfolio Analyzer feature (OLAP cubes).<br /><br />If you do not want to update to IE 7.0 make sure that your company has disabled the automatic Windows Update feature for your workstations and laptops.Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com74tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1157708837435716752006-09-08T11:11:00.000+02:002006-09-08T11:47:46.273+02:00Project Server 2007 Beta 2 TR available soonToday has been announced that Beta 2 technical refresh (TR) will be made available somewhen next week from <a href="beta.microsoft.com">betaplace</a>. If you are participants in Microsoft's TAP or RDP programm you should be able to download it withouth the announced download fee.<br /><br />Unlike Beta 1 TR for Project Server 2007 which was a complete new version of the product, Beta 2 TR will be a patch only. This means you can simply apply it to your current installation of Project Server 2007 Beta 2. Please consider that you must have Beta 2 installed to run the patch -- neither Beta 1 nor Beta 1 TR will work.<br /><br />As far as the RTM (final) version is concerned there were rumors that there will be an update available to directly update your Beta 2 TR installation to the RTM version! This would be huge considering the amount of time you would save with installation, configuration and migration.Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1155891307378308192006-08-18T10:49:00.000+02:002006-08-18T15:19:49.553+02:00Change the name of a user in Windows SharePoint ServicesIf your company runs Project Server 2003 with Windows SharePoint Services enabled you benefit from all the great functionality provided by WSS such as risk, issue and document management for all your projects. But if you ever have to change the name of a resource in the Project Server resource pool you will first find it strange that the name will not be updated on the SharePoint sites. Confusion will grow even more if you try deleting the user from the specific SharePoint site and expect the name to change once you added the user again. This article will help you on what you need to do if you encounter this problem.<br /><br />The key to solving this issue is knowing that SharePoint has its own table storing user information. This table is called 'UserInfo' and can be found in the WSS content database that is created when installing WSS.<br /><br />Connect to the computer running SQL Enterprise Manager and navigate to the WSS content database. Run the following query against the 'UserInfo' table:<br /><br />UPDATE UserInfo SET tp_title = 'new name' WHERE tp_title= 'old name'<br /><br />This will change the user's name for both objects that are already existing and objects that are created.<br /><br />Stay tuned for more helpful tips & tricks...Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1155235015028461122006-08-10T20:36:00.000+02:002006-08-11T13:30:35.966+02:00Useful Project Server tools: The View Backup and Restore ToolIn the series of useful Project Server tools today's post is about the View Backup and Restore Tool. This is a very helpful little tool especially if your company is in the process of modifying and/or adding views. Unlike for example the Rename Project Tool this tool has no GUI (Graphical User Interface), it is a traditional command line program. ViewBackup.exe works with the XML file format.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Downloading and launching the tool</span></strong><br />The View Backup and Restore Tool is a free download from Microsoft. You can download it directly by following <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=06c9ec22-5fed-45e8-9f37-301cde2e55a8&DisplayLang=en">this</a> link. Once you have downloaded and unpacked the program open a MS DOS command box and then drag and drop the ViewBackup.exe file into the command box. Now you are ready to enter the parameters required to work with the tool.<br /><strong></strong><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Backing up views</strong><br /></span>These are the mandatory parameters you must set if you want to backup views<br /><br /><ul><li>/b<br />indicates that you want to backup views from Project Server rather than restore views. </li><li>/s "server name"<br />where " " is the placeholder for the name of your SQL Server, not Project Server</li><li>/d "database name"<br />where " " is the placeholder for the name of database from which you want backup views. </li><li>/n "name of backup file"<br />where " " is the placeholder for the name and location of the backup file </li></ul><p>These are the non-mandatory parameters<br /></p><ul><li>/u "user name"<br />where " " is the placeholder for the SQL user name. When leaving out /u ViewBackup.exe will try to authenticate against the SQL server with the current user.</li><li>/p "password"<br />where " " is the placeholder for the password of the SQL user. When leaving out the user name password is not required<br /></li><li>/i "view id"<br />where " " is the placeholder for the unique ID of the view to be backed up. When leaving out this parameter all views will be included in the backup file.<br /></li><li>/v "view name"<br />where " " is the placeholder for the name of the view. When leaving out this parameter all views will be included in the backup file.</li><li>/t "view type number"<br />where " " is the placeholder for the type of the view.<br />0 = Project<br />1 = Project Center<br />2 = Assignment<br />3 = Resource Center<br />4 = Portfolio Analyzer<br />5 = Timesheet </li><li>/f<br />will force ViewBackup.exe to overwrite an existing backup file with the same name. If this parameter is not set existing backup files won't be overwritten.<br /></li></ul><p>Finally, press the return key to execute the command.</p><p><strong>Notes</strong>: </p><ul><li>Without specification of either the i/ or /v and /t parameters ViewBackup.exe will backup all views from the specified database. </li><li>If you want to backup a single view you can either specify the respective view with the unique view ID (parameter /i) or the combination of view name (parameter /v) and view type (parameter /t).</li><li>The order of the parameters in the command is not relevant</li></ul><p><strong>Example</strong>: ViewBackup.exe /b /s msepm01 /d projectserver /n c:\temp\backup_all_views.xml</p><p><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Restoring views</span></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>If you want to restore one or several views you want ViewBackup.exe to work with the following mandatory parameters</p><ul><li>/r<br />indicates that you want to restore views from the XML backup file to Project Server </li><li>/s "server name"<br />where " " is the placeholder for the name of your SQL Server to which you want to restore the views</li><li>/d "database name"<br />where " " is the placeholder for the name of database to which you want retore views. </li><li>/n "name of backup file"<br />where " " is the placeholder for the name and location of the backup file that you want to restore </li></ul><p>The non-mandatory parameters for restoring are the following</p><ul><li>/u "user name"<br />where " " is the placeholder for the SQL user name. Again, when leaving out /u ViewBackup.exe will try to authenticate against the SQL server with the current user.</li><li>/p "password"<br />where " " is the placeholder for the password of the SQL user. Again, when leaving out the user name password is not required </li><li>/o<br />indicates that you want to overwrite existing views with the same name on the database with the version from the backup file. If this parameter is not set already existings views in the database will not be overwritten, you will receive an error message instead.</li></ul><p>To execute the command press the return button.</p><p><strong>Example</strong>: ViewBackup.exe /r /s msepm01 /d projectserver /n c:\temp\backup_view1.xml /o</p>Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1153820484741141182006-07-25T11:40:00.000+02:002006-07-25T12:04:01.146+02:00Project Server newsgroupIf you work with Microsoft Project Server on a daily basis you will have question of all kinds on a regular basis. Sometimes you are able to answer them on your own maybe after you have done some research on the web. However, if you run into problems you can't solve I can recommend you the public Project Server newsgroup. Experts from around the globe post their questions and answer into this group. All you need is a Microsoft Passport e-mail account and you are ready to start!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/dgbrowser/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.project.server">This </a>is the link to newsgroup using your web browser. If you find it more convenient you can also access the newsgroup through Outlook Express. Simply add a new news account, server name is msnews.microsoft.com. You can then subscribe to the Project Server newsgroup (microsoft.public.project.server) and all the other newsgroups you are interested in.<br /><br />If you are looking for answers to a specific question make sure you run a quick search for similar posts before you ask a question that has already been answered many times.<br /><br />Enjoy the summer vacation, stay tuned!Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1153087769377091532006-07-17T00:00:00.000+02:002006-07-18T09:04:08.990+02:00Archiving projects in Project Server 2003If you have been using Microsoft Project Server 2003 for some time the question of archiving projects plans has surely popped up. And - to answer this question right away - there is no out-of-the-box function for archiving projects in the current version of Project Server 2003. Project Server 2007 however will consist of a separate archiving database what will hopefully erase this question from the list of Top 10 questions for Project Server 2003.<br /><br />After doing some research on the net and a lot of trail and error by myself I have finally found what I was looking for on projectserverexperts.com - a great website for many topics related to operating and managing Project Server. <a href="http://www.projectserverexperts.com/Shared%20Documents/ArchiveCompletedProjects.htm">This </a>is the direct link to the article on archiving project plans. This solution provides archiving functionality by simply adding a new category for completed projects as well as an Enterprise Outline Code to define the status of projects (e.g. planned, running, completed) to your Project Server implementation.<br /><br />Bear in mind that if you want to archive projects simply to reduce the size of your productive Project Server database this will not be what you are aiming at since the archived projects remain in the productive database. If this is what you are looking for you might want to check out the archive tool of <a href="http://www.projectmadeeasy.com/archive.htm">projectmadeeasy.com</a>. They use a nice little GUI that allows the admin to easily move one project from the productive database to a separate archive database. You will also have the possibilitiy to copy Enterprise Global, Enterprise Resource Pool, categories, views etc. from production to the archive allowing you to run reports against the archive database as well.<br /><br />Hope this helps, stay tuned!Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1152536103549439572006-07-10T14:37:00.000+02:002006-07-12T08:24:05.856+02:00IE security update affecting Project Web Access behaviourIf you (or your company's system administrators on your behalf) have downloaded and installed the latest security updates for <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912945/en-us">Internet Explorer ActiveX</a> you may have experienced a slightly different behaviour in IE when working with Project Web Access.<br /><br />E.g. when using the Portfolio Analyzer feature of Project Web Access you could start moving around columns etc. right away in one of your views. Now, with the above mentioned security update applied, you will first have to activate the ActiveX control by selecting the object and then you can start with changing the order of the columns in your Portfolio Analyzer views.<br />The same in timesheets. Before clicking the cell you want to write values into you have to select the timesheet object with an extra click. <strong>This is the new behaviour everywhere where ActiveX controls are used in PWA. </strong>Of course this is not only the case with Project Web Access but rather with all websites that use ActiveX objects.<br /><br />As you can probably tell this could cause confusion among users. Therefore I would recommend you to inform everybody pro-actively about this change in behaviour. Although people probably won't like this new extra click they will have to deal with it sooner or later. Microsoft has provided a <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917425/en-us">compatibility patch </a>that will restore the old behaviour temporarily.Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1151876729293867222006-07-02T23:06:00.000+02:002006-07-02T23:45:29.320+02:00Useful Project Server tools: The Rename Project ToolI will introduce you to the many helpful Project Server 2003 tools that are provided by Microsoft in a posting series. This is the first post in this series, covering the <strong>Rename Project Tool.</strong><br /><br />If you work with Microsoft Project Server 2003 at your company you might at first be very surprised to hear, that there is no way to rename projects out-of-the-box. However, you can download the above mentioned renaming tool from directly <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c4a6a749-f0ff-4846-9ec1-4add5e493fa6&DisplayLang=en">Microsoft</a>. Don't even consider renaming a projects manually on database level unless you're a database pro with good knowledge of the Project Server tables.<br /><br />After downloading you can simply double-click the exe-file to run the tool. Press the login button first to submit your credentials to the server to then receive a list of all projects currently stored in the selected instance of Project Server. However, you need to be a Project Server administrator to successfully rename projects with this tool.<br /><br />Once you have renamed a project successfully with the tool you're almost done with the whole process. First, make sure you open the project you have just renamed in Microsoft Project Professional and publish the project plan (summary and tasks). If you skip this step you will run into problems when a users selects the "Open" option in Project Web Access. Finally, make sure you rename the project workspace as well (this is not done by the tool automatically) to avoid any confusion among the users. Of course this only needs to be done if you use the Windows SharePoint Services functionality with your Project Server.Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1151398384156549742006-06-27T09:48:00.000+02:002006-06-30T00:31:19.363+02:00Collaboration in projects using Windows SharePoint ServicesEfficient collaboration is definitely a key factor for successful projects. However, not all companies use Windows SharePoint Services v2 with their Project Server installation, for whatever reasons. This post should give you a quick overview on what benefits await you when using WSS with Project Server 2003 and which restrictions and problems you may encounter.<br /><br />You can look at Windows SharePoint Services as a free and light version of Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server. WSS has similar functionality, however SPS offers even more features and is designed to be a web portal.<br /><br />Windows SharePoint Services enables you to create a so called <strong>project workspace</strong> individually for all projects of your Project Server installation. The administrator can choose whether sites should be created automatically when a new project has been published or manually. This workspace is designated to be the one virutal place where all members of a project team get relevant project information. There are sections where especially the project manager can post <strong>risks and issues</strong> and assign them to other project team members or himself. With given permissions all project team members can work with risks and issues and update them with new information. Unfortunately you will soon find out that there is no way to have all your risks graphically represented in a nice risk graphic, at least not out-of-the-box.<br /><br />Another key section of the project workspace is the <strong>shared documents</strong> section. This is where you can upload all project relevant documents to share them with all project team members. You also have the possibility to create a confidential document folder that can only be accessed by the project manager and e.g. selected managers or executives. However, with WSS v2 you do not have the possibility to change permissions on folder or even item level. You will have to create a new document library with restricted access.<br /><br />I would recommend you to look at the shared documents feature only as a way to share the most important projects documents. It is not designated to replace file systems you may currently have running on a file server. You may also run into some problems when you have a very deep folder structure in shared documents. When browsing through this structure have a look at the URL in your web browser, it will of course get longer when you browse deeper into the structure. As soon as the length of that URL exceeds 255 characters you will not able to work with documents in that location anymore.<br /><br />Another thing you may be looking for but will certainly not find out-of-the-box is a recycle bin for your project workspace. This means that by default all the deleted items are definitely gone - if you deleted them intentionally or not. Fortunately you will find add-ins for WSS v2 providing you with the functionality of the recycle bin, something you simply must have when seriously considering using Windows SharePoint Services with Project Server.Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1151267051519262072006-06-25T22:21:00.000+02:002006-06-25T23:19:50.920+02:00People and processes in EPM implementation projectIf you have been involved in an implementation project of Microsoft's Project Server as an EPM (Enterprise Project Management) solution you can probably imagine what awaits you in this post. It is all about people being parts of processes when working with Project Server.<br /><br />From experience I can tell you that the installation of Microsoft Project Server - even including configuration and deployment - is only one major step in your implementation project. At least equally important is the training of the future users of all levels, from team members to top level executives. They must become aware of the level of transparency that is achieved when working with Project Server.<br /><br />On one hand these training sessions will of course cover functionality of Microsoft Project Server in Project Web Access as well as Microsoft Project Professional. You might want to show the project managers how to work with enterprise resources or explain team members how to use timesheets. But on the other hand I would strongly recommend you to equally emphasize the company's strategic vision of future project (portfolio) management and the processes that will lead to that. New processes, processes that have been changed as well as processes that do not exist anymore. For example you will certainly have to come up with a new process for project initiation as you probably do not want permit everybody to create and save new projects to the Microsoft Project Server.<br /><br />This of course means that working on the processes has to begin early on in the implementation project. Make sure you bring the right people to the table and have them talk about all the upsides and downsides of Enterprise Project Management and the impact the solution will have on the current processes. After all, you want the new processes to be widely acknowledged so these people should represent all the departments affected by the project. This however will likely make the definition of the processes more complex but will also result in a broader user acceptance.<br /><br />Keep in mind: Even the greatest software will not help supporting your business if people do not work with it!Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1150836874504970422006-06-20T22:34:00.000+02:002006-06-21T22:53:16.593+02:00Workflow support for Office 2007, SharePoint 2007Business processes optimization is among the #1 strategic goals of most major companies. Thus workflow support of computer software is becoming more and more important.<br />As you may know there was some workflow functionality implemented in the Microsoft EPM 2003 solution. These workflows however were almost impossible to customize. Let's have a look at what the workflow support for the upcoming Microsoft Office 2007 products looks like!<br /><br />The Office 2007 workflow support is based on Windows Workflow Foundation which is a part of the .NET 3.0 framework (WinFX). Workflows can be created or customized using Microsoft VisualStudio or Microsoft SharePoint Designer (formerly known as Microsoft Frontpage). Hence the entire workflow functionality is not intended to be designed by the end-users such as project managers or team members using Project Server. The developers will not have to write much code themselves since the workflows can be edited/created using a GUI. The biggest advantage is that changes in business processes which affect document workflows can be updated a lot quicker.<br /><br />In SharePoint v2 meta data of documents could only be changed in SharePoint itself. Now all that data is being displayed when a user actually works with a document, for example in the new Microsoft Word 2007. All the data on the document can be viewed and edited there. That of course makes the use of meta data much easier and more appealing to users.<br /><br />So with all that being said, the new workflow support is definitely a big improvement compared to the workflows in SharePoint v2 that you can look forward to!Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1150704034920456602006-06-19T09:39:00.000+02:002006-06-20T13:20:34.476+02:00Microsoft Office 2007 Beta 2 availableAs you may have heard the new Beta 2 release for the Microsoft Office 2007 is now available. Go to <a href="http://beta.microsoft.com">betaplace</a> and start downloading now. The new products offer great new features and a whole new look-and-feel that you gonna like!<br /><br />From an EPM (Enterprise Project Management) point of view these are the products you might want to have a closer look at:<br /><ul><li>Project Server 2007 (including SharePoint)</li><li>Project Professional 2007</li><li>Windows Workflow Foundation</li><li>(SharePoint Server 2007)</li><li>(SharePoint Designer 2007)</li></ul><strong>In the next couple of days I will make posts about the exicting new features particularly in Project Server and Project Professional, as well as SharePoint and Windows Workflow foundation - so stay tuned!</strong><br /><br />Bear in mind that it's still a beta version of the product, so you'll definitely have to cope with bugs here and there. However Beta 2 is way better stability-wise than Beta 1 TR was, so it's definitely worth trying it. Also keep in mind that the Beta 2 license key you will get when downloading will expire in early 2007.Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1150464031924056632006-06-16T15:10:00.000+02:002006-06-16T15:51:47.416+02:00Swiss EPM communityOn Monday this week the kick-off meeting for the Swiss EPM community took place at Microsoft in Zurich. Approx. 15 people (from Microsoft, partners and customers) attended the one-day meeting where presentations where held by each customer about their current Microsoft Project Server implementation. Later on the day the goals and content for the EPM community itself have been defined by the members.<br /><br />Everybody enjoyed the day and is looking forward to the next community meeting that will be held somewhen in November. On that day there will be workshops on resource management and the EPM architecture.<br /><br />If you and/or your company have a Project Server implementation tied to Switzerland and want to become a member of this community, just let me know, I'll hook you up.Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809096.post-1150462790135104362006-06-16T14:58:00.000+02:002006-06-16T14:59:50.156+02:00Welcome to Marc's EPM blogThank you for reading my blog! I want to provide you with everything you might want to know if you're interested in Enterprise Project Management. Stay tuned for the next posts!Marc S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02565572972226753444noreply@blogger.com0