Brian Smith has posted a very interesting blog article about synchronizing users in Project Server 2010 versus Project Server 2013.  He says there are behavior differences between Project Server 2010 and Project Server 2013 regarding user synchronization to project sites.  I quote, "One key part of this change should be taken into account when migrating – as there is one 2010 setting that no longer has UI to change it – and if it is disabled before migration it cannot be turned on again in 2013."  

Brian goes into details of that setting and provides a workaround after describing how the settings and behavior have evolved.

For anyone migrating from Project Server 2010 to Project Server 2013, this is a must read.

If you are testing Project Server 2010 by upgrading your Project Server 2007 databases in a test environment, then you may notice that the new 2010 feature of manual scheduling is not available.  I worked with a customer today who had performed an upgrade in his test environment and noticed that the great new feature he had heard about for manual scheduling just wasn’t available.  This is caused by Backward Compatibility Mode being on as a result of the upgrade.

So, what’s the point of Backward Compatibility Mode?  Well, after you upgrade to Project Server 2010 (either by the in-place or database-attach upgrade method), BCM allows you to avoid having to upgrade your Project Professional 2007 client computers at the same time.  This means you can upgrade to Project Pro 2010 on a schedule that suits your budget without having to take a single larger hit at one time.  Once everyone is upgraded to Project Pro 2010, you can turn off BCM and enjoy all the new features that are available and, to be honest, really cool.

Keep in mind, however, that once BCM is disabled it cannot be re-enabled. Verify that you want to disable BCM if you are going to make the change.

This article describes Backward Compatibility Mode and its effects and also how to turn it off.

The following MPUG article by Kenneth Steiness is a good introduction to the basics of baselining.   A baseline is a snapshot of your project at a point in time and you can create up to 11 of them.  Baselines provide a benchmark to compare against and also provide variances.  The variance helps show how far you were or are off of the original estimate, so you can take corrective actions. This can help avoid delays, cost overruns, resource issues, and much, much more.

Here's the article: http://www.mpug.com/articles/baselining-best-practices/

As you go through the article, under the Maintaining the Baseline section, look at how he uses inactive tasks.

A customer pain point brought to my attention this week is related to linking tasks to risks from PWA vs linking risks to tasks via the project site’s Risks list.

The customer noticed that, in Project Server 2010, linking a task to risk from PWA’s drill down view of the project schedule does not make that link show up in the Reporting database so he could report on it using SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services).  However, he noticed that if he links the risk to the task from the Risks list, he was able to report on the link immediately.

I dusted off my Project Server 2010 test server (just kidding, it gets such frequent and heavy testing that I never turn the VM off) and created a project plan with a project site.

I opened the project site, and then clicked on the Risks list. I created a new risk and added a link to a task from the plan.  The queue presented this Reporting (Project Sync) job:

Next, I opened the schedule in PWA and drilled into the plan, then linked the risk there, but no reporting job materialized in the queue.  Nothing queue related happened at all, in fact, unless I saved the plan, but still there was no Reporting job (notice that I did not publish here, which definitely would have fired a reporting job).  Then, I published the plan and the Reporting (Project Sync) job fired.

So, when the user creates the link between task and risk from PWA, the user must publish the plan in order to make the Reporting (Project Sync) job run.  After that job runs, the information related to the link will be in the Reporting database.  When the user creates the link between risk and task from the Risks list, the user doesn’t need to do anything else because the Reporting (Project Sync) job runs immediately. 

This is because changes to Project Server Risks list on the site writes directly to published db so the reporting database has be to be updated. I ran a profiler trace and found a stored procedure that writes to the published DB when a risk to task link is made.  When you edit a plan in PWA, your changes do not impact the published db until you publish, so absent any changes, the published and reporting data still match.  Another way of looking at this behavior is to see that project managers may not want changes made to the plan published until they are ready for the changes to be publicly available. Changes to the site are publicly available without a project publish so the sync job fires when a task/risk is linked.

There real problem to my mind is that there is no way for users to know there is a difference in the behavior based on where you link the task/risk. That’s because there is no warning/dialog pop-up saying if you edit the plan in PWA, you won’t be able to report on the new link until you publish. The result is that a user links a task/risk via PWA and doesn’t know he can’t report on that link until he publishes while at the same time, the user can create the risk/task link from the Risk list and report right away.

From a database and code perspective, linking a risk to a task and linking a task to a risk are actually very different.  Strictly speaking, linking a risk to a task from the Risks list writes to the Published DB, which then requires a corresponding update to the Reporting DB. Linking a task to a risk from the Project Center drill down view writes to the Draft database – and remember, you can make changes all day to the Draft and never see those changes until you publish the plan.  While the actions the user takes appear to be roughly the same whether you link from a task to a risk or vice versa, the command being sent to the databases differ behind the veil of the user interface.  The behavior editing a plan and not seeing those changes until a publish occurs is perfectly in line with a project’s not being made public until a project manager wants them to be by publishing.

Because the project site is already public, linking a risk to a task causes an update to occur against the reporting database.  This behavior is unlikely to change in Project Server 2010, but the fact of the behavior should be relayed to project managers so they can determine the best choice for linking tasks and risks.

Naturally, this line of investigation led to testing on Project Server 2013.  Does the same thing happen there?

For testing, I created a plan called 0000 Linking Risks and published it with a project site on an out of the box instance of PWA.

In PWA, I drill into the project plan schedule and you see the URL below:

http://ps2013c:8080/PWAoob/Project%20Detail%20Pages/Schedule.aspx?ProjUid=807c7051-7881-e411-9433-001dd8b73e9d&ret=0

I selected a task, then clicked on the Options tab, and then on the Related Items button. At this point, the URL changes to the project site URL, where I can create the association.

This means I’m in the project site when I make the association, so the Reporting job fires when I save.  This DID NOT HAPPEN in Project Server 2010.

http://ps2013c:8080/PWAoob/0000%20Linking%20Risks/Lists/Tasks/DispForm.aspx?ID=2&ContentTypeId=0x010800AAD67843BFB5C64E81A19F453581A719&ShowRelatedItems=1

The fact I’m in the project site when I create the association means the behavior is different in Project Server 2013 and the Reporting (Project Sync) job fires because there is only one way to link a task to a risk.  I thought this was worth pointing out and it will make my customer happy to know.

Today, I learned that if you want to run Disk Clean up in Windows 2008 R2, you have to actually install the feature called Desktop Experience.  Launch Server Manager, click on Add Feature, and check Desktop Experience.  Disk Cleanup is not installed by default.  Who knew?

After a restart, you can access Disk Cleanup via Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools.

This link has been making the rounds lately and I wanted to share it.

SharePoint patching demystified by Stefan Gossner:  http://blogs.technet.com/b/stefan_gossner/archive/2014/08/19/sharepoint-patching-demystified.aspx

How to Use a Default Counter Template to Capture perfmon Data.

Go to Start > Run and type perfmon, then hit Enter.

Expand Performance Logs and Alerts.

Click Counter Logs.

Right click in the space on the right and select New log settings from…

Path out the location of the .htm files from the attached .rar file (just about any file compression tool should be able to unzip this file).

Select Server Capture Template.htm and click Open.

Specify a capture log name and click OK.

Change the Interval to X minutes and set the Run As user to a service or user account with password.

Click OK.

Right click the new counter log and choose Start.

Today, I learned that Alerts and Reminders isn't available in Project (2013) Online.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/projectserver/en-US/a3d80d76-7d9c-4011-8a41-e7e0ff7a8bd8/alerts-and-reminders-in-project-2013-online

Edited 2014-01-15:

But wait, there's more...

I've seen a few of these problems lately where a user clicks on a link in PWA that should open a timesheet, a resource, etc., and instead, the user is rewarded with an "Error on page" in the lower left hand corner of IE.

In one case, we deleted temporary internet files using Tools > Internet options and that had no effect.  So we deleted the contents of this folder on the file system in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files and that prevented the problem.

In the other case, we ran a repair on Microsoft Office Professional 2010.  Below are my notes from the call:

On user's workstation, User accesses PWA > Server Settings > Manager Users.
He searches on a single user and attempts to click on the user's name to open the resource for editing.
Nothing happens except an Error on page in the lower lefthand corner.
'g_oFormPOst' is null or not an object
Logged into different workstation.
Signed into PWA, did same steps to repro and was unable to, so problem is on user's workstation.
Research indicates a repair of Microsoft Office will correct this issue; also clearing IE cache is an option.
Deleted IE cache via Tools > Internet Options.
Closed IE, reopened.  Repro is still possible.
Opened Control Panel > Programs and Features.
Right clicked Microsoft Office Professional 2010 > Change > Repair.
Allowed repair to complete.
User restarted workstation.
Repair fixed the issue; unable to repro the problem.

Editing an enterprise custom field lookup table, I received an unexpected error with no other information in the PWA page.  The following error appeared in the ULS log.

Application error when access
/_vti_bin/PSI/LookupTable.asmx, Error='gzip' is not a supported encoding
name.  Parameter name: name 

 at System.Globalization.EncodingTable.internalGetCodePageFromName(String
name)   

 at System.Globalization.EncodingTable.GetCodePageFromName(String
name)   

 at System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding(String
name)   

 at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.PSIForwarderHandler.ProcessRequest(HttpContext
context)   

 at System.Web.HttpApplication.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()   

 at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean&
completedSynchronously)

I clicked on Start > Administrative Tools and launched Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

I clicked the root node of the server.

Then, I double-clicked Compression.

I unchecked "Enable dynamic content compression" and clicked Apply.

I reset IIS from a command prompt using the command iisreset.

I was then able to open the custom field lookup table successfully without error.

The August 2013 CU for Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010 and 2013 were released today. 

http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/08/13/microsoft-project-server-2010-and-2013-august-2013-cu-announcement.aspx

Please thoroughly test the CUs on a test environment before rolling out into production!  This link is an excellent place to start with functionality validation test plans: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg502592(v=office.14).aspx.

Download them into Word docs and store for repeatable test procedures you can modify to suit your business needs.

A customer told me that "the calendars don't work right" in Project Professional 2007, so I created a demo of what to expect using screenshots and a simple plan where you apply a calendar with no days off except weekends and the single day of December 9, 2011.  It turns out, the customer's problem was that resources in the country had one set of days off and resources outside the country had another, BUT all days off had been applied to one calendar and that calendar was being used as the project calendar.  This had the impact of extending the project finish date by a month beyond what was expected because, according to calendar, it was expected that everyone would have all of those days off.

Generally speaking, a project will have a calendar that reflects the works schedule of most of its resources.  Any other resources with common days off should have a separate calendar created and applied to the user accounts.  The Project Server admin will know how to create a new calendar.  Assigning a calendar to a resource involves using Resource Center to select resources and then opening them in Project Pro (with the appropriate permissions, of course).  You can set the calendar for multiple resources here and then save your changes, closing the resources when you are done so they get checked back in.

Here’s a demo of how a calendar with a single day off of 12/9 (and weekends) affects projects, tasks and resources when you apply the calendar to the different entities. 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Project calendars are created by an administrator using PWA > Server Settings > Enterprise Calendars.  Project managers can assign them to their projects using Project > Project Information in 2007 and using the Project tab of the ribbon > Properties > Project Information in 2010.

Project Calendar = 12/9 is a day off. 

Resource Calendar = Standard.  Note that "Adam Hughes" is still working on 12/9, despite the 9th being grayed out.  This may be an example of an outside the country calendar being applied to the project while an in country calendar is applied to the resource.

Task Calendar = None.

Project Calendar = Standard. 

Resource calendar = 12/9 day off calendar.  Resource’s work covers 6 business days in the Gantt Chart, but the Duration is still 5 days because 12/9 is not a working day for that resource.

Task Calendar = None.

Project Calendar = Standard. 

Resource = Standard. 

Task Calendar = 12/9 day off calendar.  The project says that day is a working day, as does the resource calendar, but there is no work scheduled for that task on that day.

Here is a screenshot showing the effect of the resource having the 12/9 calendar assigned and the task covering that day in the Gantt Chart.  Note that the Resource Usage view shows no assigned work on 12/9/11.

Project Calendar = Standard. 

Resource calendar = 12/9 day off calendar. 

Task Calendar = None.

Interesting case studies of using Project, Portfolio, Team Foundation Server, and Project Server at Microsoft.  Enjoy!

Microsoft Information Technology Group (MSIT) using Team Foundation Server with Project Server.

Microsoft Human Resources  using Project Portfolio in Project Server 2010.

Microsoft Information Technology Group (MSIT) using Project Server 2010.

Microsoft Project Development Group using Project 2010.

Microsoft Project Server 2007, 2010 and 2013 February 2013 CU Announcement here http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/02/14/microsoft-project-server-2007-2010-and-2013-february-2013-cu-announcement.aspx

You can also get the downloads from here: Update center for Office, Office servers, and related products http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/ee748587.aspx

Microsoft Project Server 2007, 2010 and 2013 April 2013 CU Announcement - http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/04/11/microsoft-project-server-2007-2010-and-2013-april-2013-cu-announcement.aspx

A user contacted me via email the other day with a simple question - "Where can I get all the KB articles for Project Server 2010 and Project 2010 client fixes from June 2011 to February 2012?"  The user said that, ideally, a spreadsheet including all fixes in those CUs would be the most useful.

CUs for Project Server are cumulative, so the latest CU includes all the fixes from all the CUs prior.  For example, take the April 2012 CU announcement on the Project Admin Blog.  If you go to the link for the April 2012 Project Server 2010 CU, there is a section titled "Issues that this hotfix package fixes".  Each CU will have this section and that section will detail what has been corrected with each CU.  There is no spreadsheet I am aware of that lists all CUs fixes since a certain service pack, so you have to read each CU's KB article to determine what's fixed.  Then, you can plan out your testing to hit those issues if you have been affected by them or want to increase your confidence level that the CU actually fixes what it says it fixes.

Because the CU releases are all announced on the Project Admin Blog, you can search that blog for "CU Announcement".

Doing so resulted in links to

August 2011      http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/2011/09/01/microsoft-project-server-and-sharepoint-2007-and-2010-august-cu-2011-announcement.aspx

October 2011     http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/2011/11/02/microsoft-project-server-and-sharepoint-2007-and-2010-october-cu-2011-announcement.aspx

December 2011 http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/2011/12/14/microsoft-project-server-and-sharepoint-server-2007-and-2010-december-2011-cu-announcement.aspx

February 2012   http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/2012/02/29/microsoft-project-server-and-sharepoint-server-2007-and-2010-february-2012-cu-announcement.aspx

April 2012          http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/2012/04/27/microsoft-project-server-and-sharepoint-server-2007-and-2010-april-2012-cu-announcement.aspx

If you are interested in post upgrade validation testing for Project Server 2010, use the links below to test functionality in your test environment (you do have a test environment, right?) after an upgrade on a Project Server with a copy of production data on it.

You can perform initial testing using the “Initial use setup”.  Consider using an automated testing tool if human resources are hard to come by to reduce the validation testing window. After you complete the above checks, proceed to the following series of tests.  Document the results. 

Full Functionality Validation Testing Links are here:

1. Test security settings in Project Server 2010
2. Test enterprise data settings in Project Server 2010
3. Test database administration settings in Project Server 2010
4. Test look and feel settings in Project Server 2010
5. Test time and task management settings in Project Server 2010
6. Test queue settings in Project Server 2010
7. Test operational policy settings in Project Server 2010
8. Test workflow and project detail pages in Project Server 2010

Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Project 2010 and Project Server 2010 has been released.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/07/23/project-2010-and-project-server-2010-service-pack-2-sp2-released.aspx

As with any service pack (SP) or cumulative update (CU), please run the installation and perform functionality validation testing in a test environment using the link below before installing in production.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg502592(v=office.14).aspx

What you will learn in the webinar

• How to add tasks to a project.
• How to link tasks together.
• How to assign people to tasks.
• How to manage the working days in Project’s calendar

http://blogs.office.com/b/project/archive/2013/06/17/office-15-minute-webinar-get-started-with-project.aspx

"Responding to government legal demands for customer data" by Brad Smith, General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft

http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2013/07/16/responding-to-government-legal-demands-for-customer-data.aspx

As part of my role as a dedicated support engineer, I proactively perform upgrade tests on customer databases that I bring in-house to my testing servers.  After I restore the databases on a server with the customer's current CU level, I perform functionality validation testing prior to the upgrade to ensure everything works as it should.  I use this URL for the test steps: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg502592(v=office.14).aspx. 

I am getting ready to begin a round of testing and pulled the latest CU, which is the Dec 2012 CU.  In downloading the CUs and investigating any "goings-on" with the patches, I came across an article by Brian Smith on the new Microsoft Project Support Blog.  In short the KB article for the SharePoint Server 2010 package claims to include the Project Server package, but it does not (this is being corrected). 

Please go to this link for the detailed information: http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/01/03/project-server-2010-december-cumulative-update-clarification.aspx

Also, please bookmark http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/ for future reference!

Very exciting new!  http://blogs.office.com/b/project/archive/2012/10/11/the-new-microsoft-project-reaches-rtm.aspx

I already have two test servers configured with the new Project Server!

The February 2012 CUs have been released and you can see the announcement here on the Project Administration Blog:

Here are the KB article numbers for Project and Project Server versions:

Project Client 2010 = KB 2597942
Project Server 2010 = KB 2597932

Project Client 2007 = KB 2597955
Project Server 2007 = KB 2597960

Here are the links:

Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Cumulative Update Server Hotfix Package (WSS server-package): February 28, 2012
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2597959

Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 Cumulative Update Server Hotfix Package (MOSS server-package): February 28, 2012
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2597958

Description of the Project Server 2007 hotfix package (Pjsrvapp-x-none.msp, Pjsrvwfe-x-none.msp): February 28, 2012
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2597960

Description of the Project 2007 hotfix package (Project-x-none.msp): February 28, 2012
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2597955

Description of the SharePoint Server 2010 and Project Server 2010 Cumulative Update Server Hotfix Package (MOSS server-package, Project server-package): March 2011
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2597152

Description of the Project Server 2010 hotfix package (Pjsrvwfe-x-none.msp): February 28, 2012 [Only required if you do not install the Server Rollup.]
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2597138

Description of the Project 2010 hotfix package (project-x-none.msp): February 28, 2012
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2597942

Every now and then, I find myself hunting for a command in Project 2010.  Because of the Ribbon, things aren’t where they used to be in Project 2007 and a menu driven guy like me becomes easily confused.  I’ve found a simple way to get access to all the commands at once and I’m going to let you in on my secret.

The Quick Access Toolbar.  That’s it.  That’s where everything is “hiding”. 

Today, I wanted to import a project plan to the enterprise for a test.  All I had to do in order to find the “Import Project Plan to Enterprise” command was this…

Select the dropdown for the Quick Access Toolbar and choose “More Commands”.  (You can also go directly to File tab, Options, and select Customize Ribbon, then add the command you want to a tab on the Ribbon.)

Next, I clicked the down arrow to get access to the dropdown list and I chose “All Commands”.

Finally, I selected “Import Project to Enterprise…” and clicked Add>>.

Now, my Quick Access Toolbar has my Import Project command.

So what can I do to make this command easily available in the Ribbon itself?  That’s easy.

Go to File > Options. 

Click on Customize Ribbon.

Select the “Choose commands from” dropdown you want. And add the command to the right once you have set up a new group, if desired, in the appropriate Ribbon tab.  In this example, I’m adding Import Project to Enterprise on a new Group called "Import" created in the Project tab.

The final effect looks like this and even then, I can move the group I just created to the left, I wanted by using the Up and Down buttons on the Customize Ribbon window.

I have a customer who will be installing and configuring Project Server 2010 this summer.  The upgrade plan is to configure Project Server 2010 as a fresh, new install with no data migration from Project Server 2007.  This being the case, the question came up about how to preserve the Project Server 2007 data.  I suggested the following options, assuming the production Project Server 2007 environment will be decommissioned and the servers recycled for some other use.

1. Back up production DBs and store on a shared drive.
   1. DBs can be restored to a test server to pull specific project plans, then the test server can be recycled.
   2. This is a method commonly used for restoring plans that have been completely removed from production databases including ProjectServer_Archive_DB, but still exist in old backups of the database.
2. Move plans you want to keep to the Project Server 2010 production system.
   1. Open plans from the 2007 server that will be needed on the 2010 server, save as .mpp files, import plans into the 2010 server, save and publish, allow the archive process to run at night, then delete the copy of the plan from the draft and published databases leaving a copy in the archive database. This copy can be made available at any time by using Server Settings > Administrative Restore.
   2. This option runs the risk of having someone request a plan in the future that was not saved to the new server. You would have to fall back on the first option to recover that plan.
   3. This option is the most manual labor intensive and the least attractive, in my opinion.
3. Recommended Option: Move production DBs to a standalone test server.
   1. This is a single server running the SQL Server, Project Server application server, and Project Server web front end.
   2. Production servers can be decommissioned, ensuring no one accesses the 2007 PWA URL, while maintaining an historical/archival snapshot of the production 2007 environment and projects in a test environment.
   3. The standalone server can be virtual and generally have lower specifications than production servers and even other test servers.
   4. Projects are always available at any time and can be referenced or pulled from the standalone server whenever you need them.
   5. I would turn off the any AD syncs that run, the cube build after it runs once.
   6. The initial labor involved isn’t terribly large and once it’s set up and configured, you always have access to it, the URL will only be circulated amongst those administrators who need it and they can retrieve plans for PMs who request them.

I am periodically asked how I became a PFE at Microsoft.  The process is rigorous and you do need to have technical know how, but you will also need to demonstrate people skills.  I found a great description from another PFE and wanted to share it:

Here is the link.