Many of you have given us feedback over the years that you enjoy having role guides in the EPM community much like what we had for the Project Server 2003 release. Well we’ve answered the call and created a Project Server 2010 Administrator’s Guide which has been published and gone live today. You can now download the guide here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=212383
We are currently planning more role guides, so please email us (epmdocfeedback@microsoft.com) with any feedback you may have. If you like this role guide, please let us know so we know we’re on the right track by creating more.
Watch this space for more info as we make hard copies of the guide available for purchase, along with announcing new guides.
Thank you all,
Robert Hoover, PMP
Creating a New PWA Instance
1. Access the Sharepoint 2010 Admin Console and select Manage Service Applications
2. Click on Project Server Service Application
3. Click on Create Project Web Access Site
4. Input the properties of the new project Web App site by selection the Web Application to use and the name of the Project Server databases to use, and press OK to provision the new site.
The very first EPM-related VirtualLab was recently released! A hosted Virtual Machine accessible to everyone via WEB is free to use with only registration being required.
Available via Project Server TechCenter http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/projectserver/. Direct link to the Lab is here.
The lab content:
Exercise 1: Using built-in capability of Analysis Services in the EPM deploymentExercise 2: Using Excel Services to Visualize Project DataExercise 3: Using Performance Point Server for advanced data visualization Exercise 4: Using SQL Reporting Services Project Report Pack to Analyze Project Data Exercise 5: Creating a SharePoint Dashboard to Display Project KPIs Exercise 6: Using Visio 2007 to Visualize Project Data
Abstract: This lab will make you understand how to leverage the portfolio of Microsoft business intelligence tools and solutions applied, but not limited to, Enterprise Project Management (EPM) data. This lab will make you discover how to leverage Excel Services, PerformancePoint Server, SQL Reporting Services 2005, Visio 2007 as well as SharePoint Server 2007 Dashboard and Project KPIs to provide full-feature solutions to solve your customers’ requirements.
In order to follow up on our promise to provide you with more Project Server 2010 role guide content, we are pleased to announce the recent publish of the Microsoft Project Server 2010 Project Manager’s Guide for Project Web App. Much like the Project Server 2010 Administrator's Guide that we released earlier this year, this guide was created with great consideration given to the great customer feedback we've received. In putting together this guide, our writing team addressed the three big asks customers had for this content:
The Microsoft Project Server 2010 Project Manager's Guide for Project Web App provides detailed information about how to use Microsoft Project Web App (PWA) to work with Microsoft Project Server 2010 data and to perform project management-related tasks. This guide helps project managers in your organization to better understand elements of project management in PWA, such as projects, resources, tasks, approvals, updates, and notifications. It includes many step-by-step procedures and accompanying user-interface screen shots of Project Web App. It is important to note that although Microsoft Project Professional 2010 can be used with Project Server 2010 to perform many project management tasks, this guide only covers procedures done through PWA.
The Microsoft Project Server 2010 Project Manager’s Guide to Project Web App contains the following seven chapters:
File size: approximately 3 MB
I just wanted to highlight (copy) Christophe’s blog post regarding the release of two new white papers just published this week:
For additional information on Microsoft Project Server 2010 business intelligence & reporting please check out Business Intelligence in Project Server 2010.
Microsoft Project Server 2010 Reporting with Excel Services, 71 pages
Overview
Table Of Content
The purpose of this document is to provide enough detail to be able to create and deploy reports which will support the deployment of Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution. Microsoft EPM Solution relies on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2, Microsoft Project Server 2010 and Microsoft Project Professional 2010. Although each individual component of the solution is well documented on TechNet and MSDN (for the Business Intelligence), little documentation exists, as of today, which describes a step-by-step approach to building reports specific to Project Server 2010 data with Excel and Excel Services.
This document is not intended to provide an in-depth description of all the features available in Excel 2007 or 2010 and Excel Services 2010 when building a report but rather provide the building blocks required to ‘be up and running’ quickly.
Creating Dashboards for Microsoft Project Server 2010, 115 pages
The purpose of this document is to provide sufficient detail to fully design and implement Business Intelligence Dashboards that will support an Enterprise Project Management Solution (EPM), which consists primarily of SharePoint 2010 and Project Server 2010. It also includes detailed steps on how to replicate reports and dashboards included in the Project Server 2010 demonstration and evaluation pack available on the Microsoft Download Center. The purpose is to help you easily create reports and dashboards for your environment with similar characteristics.
The target audience for this document is the business owner and report developers who are looking for a quick way to develop Dashboards that will support an Enterprise Project Management Solution for their organization.
While we’re currently working on documenting more backup and restore scenarios for Project Server 2010, I just wanted to highlight a recent post by Brian Smith detailing some caveats for restoring or migrating a PWA instance when following the documentation we have on TechNet as there are changes from 2007 backup and restore.
Brian Smith
10 Jun 2010 11:18 AM
Just a quick posting on this topic pointing out a few of the changes between 2007 and 2010. We have some documents already up on TechNet – under the Operations section at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc197578.aspx, but thought this would be a useful posting to make clear what you can and cannot do.
In 2007 you could restore your 4 Project Server databases, then point your provision job at these 4 and you’d have a new PWA instance using those DBs. If you wanted your workspaces too then you’d need to copy the sites or if you’d had the forethought to use a different web application for sites then it could be even easier.
In 2010 we introduce the 5 dB restore –so you can now restore your Content database containing your PWA site (and potentially all your Project sites (workspaces,in 2007 speak), and your 4 Project Server databases, attach the Content DB to a web application and then you can provision and it will use this PWA site and the databases – rather than complaining that the /PWA site already exists – which was the case in 2007. So this is excellent – and makes it much easier to move a complete copy of the instance around.
However, there are some gotchas:
You cannot change the name of the site - but you could restore to a different web application (port) to avoid a clash if you needed to pull /PWA from one server to another server where /PWA already existed
If you change domains you might have some unexpected results – This is due to differences in accounts in different domains, and will be even more unusual if you happen to use a different farm admin from the Project admin (which would be best practice, but in a dev/test/support scenario might not be the case. The issue here is that attaching the content DB will add the farm admin as the site administrator, but will not add the Project admin when you provision the site. So you have a great Catch 22. Once you provision the PWA instance the Project admin will get an access denied on /PWA as he has no rights to the site. Farm Admin will get Access Denied (or might be unexpected error) as he is not a project server user. Simple solution is to navigate to http://servername/pwa/-layouts/user.aspx as the Farm Admin and then give the Project admin rights. Once you can connect as Project Admin then you can update users credentials as necessary.
4 DB restores will NOT work – it looks like it has worked, but if you try to drill in to a project you will see a message “Unable to open Project, no valid Project Detail Page could be found for the project.” The Project Detail Pages (PDPs) are stored in the Content DB – if you don’t; restore the Content DB then you don’t have them and cannot get to existing Projects through Project Center. You can however still access via Project Professional, so in some support or disaster recovery scenarios this might be good enough – just to get access to projects while the full recovery happens somewhere else.
You may need to use the WSS site re-linker tool – now built in to Server Settings in PWA as “Bulk Update Project Sites”. If you have changed URL die to a different port then re-linking should get your sites in order. In upgrade scenarios the “Previous Site Path” Web application might show as a GUID in the drop down – however it still works and will re-link the sites.
Cannot attach Content DB via the Central Administration UI – This is handled with very good error messages and will tell you to use stsadm if it needs to upgrade the content database due to differences of versions. You could also use the PowerShell command – mount-SPContentDatabase. The correct syntax of the stsadm command is:
stsadm –o addcontentdb –url “http;//servername:port/ –databasename Content_DB_Name
Partial Restores using Full Farm Backup are not supported. From the UI it looks as though you should be able to select just a PWA instance and backup stuff and then restore from this backup to another farm. This isn’t supported. it will only work when restoring to the same farm and the same named /PWA site. I guess it could be used as a means of restoring the required databases, but you would still need to provision a site on the target server against the databases to get anything to work.
I am sure we will find more gotchas as we go along, and perhaps even some workarounds to recover from certain issues – but that’s all for now. Let me know of anything you feel should be added. I will probably do a more “step by step” posting with a few more details – but the TechNet articles cover those kind of details pretty well.
I wanted to echo Brian Smith’s latest post over on the Project Admin Blog about the release of the Project Server 2010 and 2007 CUs being live:
Microsoft Project Server and SharePoint 2007 and 2010 December CU 2010 are (mostly) Live!
15 Dec 2010 12:23 PM
Great News! The latest Cumulative Updates (CU) for Project and Project Server 2010 and 2007 have been released. There was a problem found in both the 2007 and 2010 Server Rollup Packages which required a fix and for the patches to be rebuilt. The current guidance is that we should see it released during the week of 12/27/2010. Feel free to open a support case if you have any questions around this or need assistance getting these patches deployed.
Additionally, you are welcome to join us on TechNet for a webcast on January 11, 2011, 8:00 am Pacific Time, where we will be discussing this issues in detail and answering questions regarding the December Cumulative Update. The information on this webcast can be found at the URL below.
TechNet Webcast: Information About Microsoft Project and Project Server Cumulative December Update (Level 200) - January 11, 2011, 8:00 am Pacific Time
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032454956
Project and Project Server 2010
This include a number of fixes, so Microsoft strongly recommends that you test this in a test environment based on your production environment before putting this fix live in production.
The article below provides information on how to deploy the Project Server Cumulative Update.
Updates for Project Server 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/projectserver/gg176680.aspx
As Project Server 2010 is now based on the MOSS we strongly recommend that you install the Server Rollup Packages as there are a large number of individual server packages for MOSS. There is a set of two rollup packages which contains all the fixes for SharePoint Foundation Server, MOSS and Project Server. Both Server Rollup Packages should be installed to ensure that the underlying technology that Project Server depends on is up to date.
For those accustomed to Project Server 2007 Cumulative Updates, you should note that the MOSS Server Rollup Package does not contain the Project Server patches. You will need to make sure that you install the MOSS + Project Server Rollup Package (the link is provided below). As in Project Server 2007, the Server Rollup Packages are much larger (~150MB each) but they will greatly simplify your Project Server patch deployment.
You can read about the fixes included in the December CU from the following articles:
Server Rollup Packages:
ETA for release is the week of 12/27/2010.
Project Client Package:
Available Now
Client Installation:
Installation of the client patch is straightforward and is the same as it was in Project 2007. The instructions for installing the client patch are below.
NOTE: Microsoft strongly recommends testing within a NON-Production environment prior to rollout.
Project and Project Server 2007
Deploy cumulative updates (Project Server 2007)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd239177.aspx
Service Pack 2 for both WSS and Office Servers 2007 are required for this Cumulative Update. The KB articles below provide information on how to download and install SP2 if you have not already done so.
The Server CU is released in two different versions. The first version is in Individual Packages specific to a particular product like WSS and Project Server. These are smaller downloads but they do not include language packs or patches for other products so patches for those products would have to be downloaded and installed separately.
The second version is the Server Rollup Packages. This is a set of two rollup packages which contains all the fixes for WSS, Project Server and MOSS. These packages should be used when MOSS is part of the deployment and/or you have language packs installed. The Server Rollup Packages are much larger (~200MB each) but they will greatly simplify MOSS patch deployment.
Note: There was an issue found in the Server Rollup patches so they are currently unavailable until the issue is fixed and a new set of patches built. The links below are where you will be able to access the articles when they become available. We are working towards a release date during the week of 12/27/2010. Both the Server and Client Project packages are fine and are ok to install.
Individual Product Packages:
In order to install this hotfix, you will need to have Microsoft Project 2007 SP2 installed on the client.
Once we know that SP2 is installed, you will install the hotfix by performing the following steps:
Feel free to open a support incident at http://support.microsoft.com if you run into any issues with the installation and we will be happy to help!
Originally posted by Treb Gatte over on the Project Administration Blog. I’m reposting it here to make sure everyone sees it:
The Project Server 2010 Business Intelligence feature utilizes the support of Excel Services, Secure Store Service, PerformancePoint Services and SQL Server. A thorough understanding of how these features fit together is necessary to get the most from the feature. This post will provide that overview and provide troubleshooting questions for common issues.
Our Business Intelligence features leverage Excel Services as the base functionality since most people use Excel to visualize data and it’s a tool that many people already know how to use.
There are four core components to this solution.
Excel client. The Excel Client is used to author and publish new reports. This solution will work with Excel 2007 SP2 or later.
Office Data Connections. Office Data Connections(ODC) are used to store the connection information, the SQL Query and the Secure Store Target Application ID. External ODCs are used to allow you to manage data connection and query information externally to the reports that consume the data. These two components together are the deliverables from the report author.
When you provision a new Project Web Application site or when you create a new OLAP database, ODCs and attached templates will be automatically generated in the Business Intelligence Center.
Excel Services. Excel Services provides rendering and interactivity support on the web. This service enables the user to share reports easily with others. It also enables a user to filter the data in a report dynamically to meet a particular need.
Secure Store. Secure Store is a SharePoint service used to store credentials in a Target Application Profile. These profiles help avoid double hop authentication situations and provide control around who has access to what data for a given Target Application Profile. In SharePoint Server 2007, this service was known as Single Sign-On service or SSO.
The diagram above illustrates the interactions between the four components. The arrows denote what information is passed between the components and in what direction.
Lastly, PerformancePoint is called out above as it is used to create the Business Intelligence Center as it is their service that provides this infrastructure. It isn’t used for the core reporting features. However, you can easily develop PerformancePoint reports over Project Server data.
The setup steps for the Business Intelligence features can be found here. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662106(office.14).aspx
Please note, if you are using Active Directory(AD), you can set up a AD Group for Report Authors such that you only have to create one SQL Login for the group. The membership of the group is then maintained outside of SQL Server.
Also, you must set up a SQL Login with db_datareader rights for the credentials used in the Secure Store Target Application ID. If you have created the AD group for the authors above and it matches the security needed to service reports, you can simply add the Target Application ID credentials to the Report Author’s AD group instead of creating a new SQL Login.
This can be due to a number of reasons. Here is a list of items to verify. The steps to do each of these items are listed in the setup link above.
I just wanted to pass on word that starting October 1st, 2008, Michael Jordan (Lead Architect – MCS EPM Global Practice | WW COE for EPM) will present a series of Project Server 2007 webcast on TechNet targeted at IT Professionals.
These 60 minutes webcasts will present in details key aspects to consider when you evaluate, plan, deploy, and operate Project Server 2007 specifically:
· Solution Overview and System Elements
· Solution Elements and Data Flow
· Workload Scenarios and Reference Architecture
· Network Communication
· Server Administration
· Maintenance and Monitoring
· Deployment into a SharePoint Server Intranet Farm
· Disaster Recovery
· Virtualization
You need to register for the free of charge webcast by clicking the link; then you get emailed a link to sign on and participate in the web cast on its date and time (please note only the first two webcast are available for registration at this stage).
Each TechNet webcast is recorded for later viewing which should be through the same registration URL.
For a listing of all EPM webcasts on TechNet check the following: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/epm.aspx
Webcast Title
Abstract
Date
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 - Solution Overview and System Elements
In this webcast, we introduce the Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 solution and the main product components. We describe key concepts such as high availability and scalability, which should be taken into account when planning and deploying Project Server 2007. This introductory webcast is part of a webcast series targeted at IT professionals. In the series, we present in detail key aspects to consider when you evaluate, plan, deploy, and operate Project Server 2007. We discuss the main considerations when planning for high-availability deployments—when to scale up and out, points of failure, and software/hardware boundaries.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
11:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Pacific Time
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 - Solution Elements and Data Flow
In this webcast, we describe the elements of the Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 solution (Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007, Application Server, Microsoft SQL Server), and we cover Data Flow components and key areas for scalability. This webcast is part of a webcast series targeted at IT professionals. In the series, we present in detail key aspects to consider when you evaluate, plan, deploy, and operate Project Server 2007. We discuss the main considerations when planning for high-availability deployments—when to scale up and out, points of failure, and software/hardware boundaries.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 - Workload Scenarios and Reference Architecture
This webcast covers Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Workload Scenarios and Reference Architecture to help you plan your deployment. We discuss typical product operations broken out by user roles and how it affect performance. We present typical reference architecture based on key capacity planning characteristics. This webcast is part of a webcast series targeted at IT professionals. In the series, we present in detail key aspects to consider when you evaluate, plan, deploy, and operate Project Server 2007.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 - Network Communication
This webcast covers Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Network Communication and specifically ports, protocols and network traffic. We present network considerations when deploying Project Server and Project Professional 2007, this includes an overview of the Project Professional's Active Cache mechanism. This webcast is part of a webcast series targeted at IT professionals. In the series, we present in detail key aspects to consider when you evaluate, plan, deploy, and operate Project Server 2007.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 - Server Administration
This webcast covers Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Server Administration best practices. We discuss SharePoint's Central Administration, Shared Service Provider Administration and Project Web Access Administration. This webcast is part of a webcast series targeted at IT professionals. In the series, we present in detail key aspects to consider when you evaluate, plan, deploy, and operate Project Server 2007.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 - Maintenance and Monitoring
This webcast covers Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Maintenance and Monitoring best practices. This session will cover maintenance plans that should be put in place as well as performance counters that should be monitored. We also discuss how to deploy software updates for both Project Server and Project Professional 2007. This webcast is part of a webcast series targeted at IT professionals. In the series, we present in detail key aspects to consider when you evaluate, plan, deploy, and operate Project Server 2007.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 - Deployment into a SharePoint Server Intranet Farm
This webcast covers Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Deployment best practices into a SharePoint Server intranet farm (out of the box Project Server 2007 is deployed on top of Windows SharePoint Services V3). We discuss SharePoint Server deployment pre-requisites, deployment scenarios and best practices. This webcast is part of a webcast series targeted at IT professionals. In the series, we present in detail key aspects to consider when you evaluate, plan, deploy, and operate Project Server 2007.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 - Disaster Recovery
This webcast covers Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Server Disaster Recovery options and best practices. We discuss how to recover from a catastrophic failure on your SharePoint/Project Server far;, this includes what are the options to recover from a loss of any component of your SharePoint/Project Server farm: SQL server, Application Server, Disk etc … We present farm and database restore options. This webcast is part of a webcast series targeted at IT professionals. In the series, we present in detail key aspects to consider when you evaluate, plan, deploy, and operate Project Server 2007.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 - Virtualization
This webcast covers Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Server Virtualization best practices using Windows Server 2008's Hyper-V. We discuss deployment best practices with respect to virtualization, including optimum architecture configuration (which component should be deployed on a virtual environment and which ones should be deployed on a physical environment), and how to architect a high availability virtual farm. This webcast is part of a webcast series targeted at IT professionals. In the series, we present in detail key aspects to consider when you evaluate, plan, deploy, and operate Project Server 2007.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Michael Jordan’s Biography
Michael Jordan is the Lead Architect for Microsoft Services’ EPM Global Practice and member of the World Wide Center of Excellence. Michael has been with Microsoft for 8 years serving in technical roles from Application Development, Systems Engineering, SQL Database and Project Management. He has been working with EPM for the last 4 years architecting, troubleshooting and implementing large deployments at priority customer sites. As a member of the EPM Global Practice he performs a role as an extension to the Product Group by providing field feedback, spec reviews, product guidance and running customer programs for marketing initiatives.
Key Resources
Enterprise Project Management
· EPM Connect: The Business Exchange for EPM Solutions and Services
· EPM University: Online, instructor-led, deep dive technical training on EPM
· EPM Solution Office online EPM Home Page
Project Desktop
· Easier with Project: Project Desktop Home Page
· Microsoft Project on Office Online
IT Professionals
· Project TechCenter on TechNet
· Project Portfolio TechCenter on TechNet
Developers
· Project Developer Home Page
For simple information discovery - we have just published a Project 2010 Demand Management resource center that centralizes all information around Demand Management and Portfolio Strategy into one single location.
This new resource center is the third dedicated resource center for Project 2010 – the full list below:
· Demand Management for Project 2010 - http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9739874
· Business Intelligence for Project 2010 - http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9726143
· Upgrade and Migration to Project 2010 - http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9676814
These centers are part of the Project Server 2010 TechNet TechCenter http://technet.microsoft.com/projectserver/ee263909.aspx and their concept is to collect relevant information in one place and to give end-to-end information from getting started quickly to deep dive.
· Product information and trial download
o Main product site www.microsoft.com/project
o Project Team Blog blogs.msdn.com/project
· End-User Product Help
o Project 2010 Help http://office2010.microsoft.com/project-help
o Project Server 2010 Help http://office2010.microsoft.com/project-server-help
· Interactive content – Videos/Sessions/Webcasts
o Quick Start Training - http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/quick-start-training.aspx
o Project Video Channel - www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/US/channels/microsoftproject
o Project Webcasts - www.microsoft.com/events/series/epm.aspx
· IT Professional related – TechNet
o TechCenter http://technet.microsoft.com/ProjectServer
o Admin Blog http://blogs.technet.com/projectadministration
· Developer related - MSDN
o Developer center http://msdn.microsoft.com/Project
o Programmability blog http://blogs.msdn.com/project_programmability
· Project & Project Server 2010 Demo Image
o Download http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713956
o Hosted Virtual Lab http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713654
· Got questions? Search or ask in the official Microsoft Forums
o http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/projectserver2010,projectprofessional2010
· SharePoint 2010
o http://sharepoint.microsoft.com
Here is a list of content available for Project Server 2010. For comments or suggestions please email us at epmdocfeedback@microsoft.com
Product evaluation:
Planning and architecture:
Deployment:
Operations:
Technical Reference:
We're happy to announce the publish of a new white paper by Chris Vanderluis of HMS Software for the "From the Trenches" column in the Project Server 2010 TechCenter and the Project Server 2007 TechCenter. This latest white paper - "Creating an EPM Deployment Plan" - describes how to separate your Enterprise Project Management solution deployment into logical phases, and identifies main points that need to be addressed during each phase. From the perspective of a mid-sized organization with several hundred EPM system users, Chris also estimates durations for each phase in this useful white paper. Make sure to look at this and other white papers in the From the Trenches column, as they are sure to provide you helpful insight into deploying and using Project Server in your environment.
Here is some great news from Jim Corbin in the Developer Docs team:
The Project 2010 SDK download and the MSDN online release are both published, and the Project Developer Center portal is updated.
· Project Developer Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905469.aspx
· SDK Online: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms512767(office.14).aspx
· SDK Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=46007f25-b44e-4aa6-80ff-9c0e75835ad9&displaylang=en
What's New
Following are the major content sections in the Project 2010 SDK.
Articles online:
· What's New for Developers in Project 2010
· Project Server Architecture and Programmability (with three subtopics)
· Workflow and Demand Management
· Custom Fields in Project 2010 (with six subtopics)
· VBA Object Model Changes (includes the subtopic, How to: Add a Custom Command to the Ribbon)
o Tables of VBA Object Model Changes (In the Programming References section – lists new members organized by functional area. Supplements VBA Help in the client, which includes a list of all new objects and members organized alphabetically.)
· Overview of WCF and the PSI (explains the basics of the Windows Communication Framework interface and the nature of the dual WCF and ASMX interfaces of the PSI)
· Developing Project Server Workflows (includes subtopics for configuring Visual Studio, developing, deploying, and testing the workflow)
· Walkthrough: Developing PSI Applications Using WCF
· PSI Reference Overview (introduction to the namespaces and Web services of the PSI)
· Project Server 2010 Class Library and Web Service Reference (landing page for the PSI object model reference)
Note: Some JS Grid articles are currently in the Project SDK, but are updated in the SharePoint Foundation SDK. The basic articles will be removed from the Project SDK in the next update, and we will add Project-specific articles over time. See JS Grid Control and Microsoft.SharePoint.JSGrid Namespace for the JS Grid documentation.
Download:
For the first time, the Project SDK download is installed with an MSI, in [Program Files]\Microsoft SDKs – along with the SharePoint Foundation, SharePoint Server, and Windows SDK downloads. The installation also creates entries on the Start menu:
Major content in the download:
· pj14SDK_beta.chm is an HTML Help file that includes the same conceptual topics and managed code reference that is online.
· pj14ReportingDB_beta.chm documents the RDB schema.
· OLAPCubeSchemas2010.xlsx
· mspdi_pj14.xsd is the Project Standard / Professional XML schema for data interchange.
· WINPROJ.DEV.hxs is an update of VBA Help that includes the latest changes in the VBA OM documentation and (at last) F1 Help IDs that work right. (VBA Help in the Excel 2010 beta has the same issue, but with 6,000 topics, compared to Project's 2800. The DevDocs group will publish a download that updates all VBA Help files for Office 2010 beta clients.) There are also instructions for replacing the VBA Help file shipped with the Project beta.
· Intellisense subdirectory: includes updates of the XML files for Intellisense descriptions, instructions for installing, and scripts for creating a PSI proxy assembly using either the WCF or ASMX interface. With a proxy assembly, developers can see Intellisense descriptions for the PSI Web service objects and members.
· BranchingWorkflow includes the complete Visual Studio 2010 project for creating a Project Server workflow, as described in the online SDK.
· WCFHelloProject includes a Visual Studio 2008 project that programmatically configures a WCF application for Project Server. It also includes a Visual Studio 2010 project that configures the WCF application using the app.config file, which enables many of the flexible features of WCF (for example, the same app can be configured to run over HTTP SOAP for the Extranet, or with NET.TCP for faster Intranet access – without recompiling).
The article Manage Active Directory synchronization in Project Server 2007 will contain the following updated information when it appears in the Project Server 2007 TechCenter next week.
User Synchronization Issues
Caution:
Under certain circumstances, synchronizing Project Server users and workspaces with Active Directory can cause a “deadlock” situation in which all users are locked out of a PWA site or the respective workspaces. This causes user synchronization jobs to fail and site permissions to synchronize partially or not at all. Users may not be able to log on to PWA or their workspaces. A deadlock can occur if the user synchronization process is taking too long to complete. This is due to the synchronization job iterating through many users and workspaces, for example, when large membership changes are being made. A synchronization job remaining in the queue a long time increases the possibility of other jobs starting inadvertently, which can also cause a deadlock.
To reduce the chance of a deadlock, you can do the following:
This just in from Toney Sisk in on the IW writing team:
The blog title says it all—Quick. Project management methodology can be a complex jungle of concepts. One way to help you through the jungle is with a reference guide. This popular download maps the features in Microsoft Project 2007 with commonly accepted project management practices and procedures.
Click the image below to download your copy for easy browsing. Or print it out for easy access.
We're excited to announce that we recently published a new whitepaper by Chris Vandersluis for the "From the Trenches" column in the Project Server TechCenter. The whitepaper is titled The Executive Connection and discusses the importance of executive involvement to having a successful EPM deployment. This is the latest in a series of whitepapers by Chris, all dealing with deploying the EPM solution in the real-world based on his many years of experience. Chris is an excellent writer, so I urge you to read this article and previous ones that he has written for the From the Trenches column. You can access them by clicking here.
Here is some additional information about the author:
Chris Vandersluis is the president and founder of Montreal, Canada-based HMS Software, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. He has an Economics degree from McGill University and over 25 years experience in the automation of project control systems. He is a long-standing member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and helped found the Montreal, Toronto, and Quebec chapters of the Microsoft Project User Group (MPUG). Publications for which Chris has written include Fortune, Heavy Construction News, The American Management Association's Handbook on Project Management, Computing Canada magazine, and PMI's PMNetwork, and he is a regular columnist for Project Times. He teaches Advanced Project Management at Montreal's McGill University and often speaks at project management association functions across North America and around the world. HMS Software is the publisher of the TimeControl project-oriented timesheet system and has been a Microsoft Project Solution Partner since 1995.
The Project Web App Help content, available on Office.com, is now also available on TechNet.
While the Help system within Project Web App continues to point to Office.com, this content has been made available on TechNet for those who may have an easier time browsing through content in the TechNet Library.
This content is also available in a downloadable CHM file that contains all Project Server 2010 technical library content on TechNet.
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Please find below the SP1 and June CU announcement published on the main Project blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/project/archive/2011/06/28/announcing-the-release-of-service-pack-1-sp1-for-microsoft-project-and-project-server-2010.aspx
Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft Project Standard 2010, Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010 has been released to the Microsoft Download Center. SP1 contains a number of products updates based on customer feedback, as described in this announcement last May: Announcing Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Project & Project Server 2010.
Before you install SP1 it is essential that you understand its content described in the links below, and thoroughly read the guidance documented on TechNet and test out SP1 in a separate environment prior to a production rollout.
The following TechNet article provides information on how to deploy Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010 SP1: Deploy Service Pack 1 for Project Server 2010.
We strongly recommend that you deploy the June 2011 Cumulative Update for Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010 when you install SP1. You can download the June 2011 Cumulative Update from the KB Articles from the links below:
The following TechNet article provides information on how to deploy Project Server Cumulative Updates: Updates for Project Server 2010
There will be a webcast on July 6th, 2011 at 8:00 am Pacific Time to give an overview of this Service Pack (which will be recorded for later viewing): TechNet Webcast: Information about Project 2010 and Project Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (Level 200). Please check out these posts for additional SP1 production information: Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1 Availability and Service Pack 1 for SharePoint 2010 Products is Now Available for Download.
Finally, our Microsoft Support Team is available to assist should you run into any problems installing these updates; feel free to follow your internal support guidelines to use Premier Support or open up a case directly at http://support.microsoft.com.
We're happy to announce the publish of a new white paper by Chris Vanderluis of HMS Software for the "From the Trenches" column in the Project Server 2010 TechCenter and the Project Server 2007 TechCenter. This latest white paper - "Dashboard directions" - describes some of the common challenges you may face when deciding to use dashboards in your EPM environment. It describes how the prettiness of a professional-looking dashboard might sometimes hide the need for users to look into the quality of the data — "pedigree" and updated data, for example. It mentions how data for dashboards should go through an approval process to ensure high data quality and completeness. It includes a few techniques to prevent people from skewing data under their control to misrepresent the data that is displayed in the dashboard. Additionally, it states some basic rules you should take into consideration when you create dashboards for EPM. Make sure to look at this and other white papers in the From the Trenches column, as they are sure to provide you helpful insight into deploying and using Project Server in your environment.
Here is some bio information about the author:
Chris Vandersluis is the president and founder of Montreal, Canada–based HMS Software, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. He has an economics degree from McGill University and over 27 years’ experience in the automation of project control systems. He is a long-standing member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and helped found the Montreal, Toronto, and Quebec chapters of the Microsoft Project Users Group (MPUGA). Publications for which Chris has written include Fortune, Heavy Construction News, Computing Canada magazine, and PMI’s PMNetwork, and he is a regular columnist for Project Times. He teaches Advanced Project Management at McGill University and often speaks at project management association functions across North America and around the world. HMS Software is the publisher of the TimeControl project-oriented timekeeping system and has been a Microsoft Project Solution Partner since 1995.
Chris Vandersluis can be contacted by e-mail at: chris.vandersluis@hms.ca.
If you would like to read more Enterprise Project Management related articles by Chris Vandersluis, see his blog: EPM Guidance.
It is with great pleasure that I announce today’s launch of the EPM Content Pivot Viewer app on TechNet which can be accessed at:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/projectserver/hh240184.aspx
(once there I highly suggest clicking on for a better experience)
The idea behind developing the EPM Content Pivot Viewer was to help provide you the customer with an easy to use interface that allows you to view, sort, and search through our extensive content library. We’ve provided logical pivot points to help you find content for your area of the deployment lifecycle from planning through operations and technical reference, as well as pivot content by Project Server solution areas so you can pinpoint TechNet articles, training, and white papers that will be most helpful to what you are looking to do.
If you find the EPM Content Pivot Viewer useful, please email EPMDocFeedback@microsoft.com with any comments or questions as your feedback is very valuable to us.
Thanks,
-Rob
We're happy to announce the publish of yet another new white paper by Chris Vanderluis of HMS Software for the "From the Trenches" column in the Project Server 2010 TechCenter and the Project Server 2007 TechCenter. This latest white paper - Enterprise System Best Practices - describes operational best practices for enterprise systems in general (including Project Server). It describes how although enterprise systems strive to provide an easy-to-use interface or display at the user level, the technology and infrastructure required to provide it is often very complexed. This requires you to exercise some basic best practices that can give you the best chance of maintaining a high degree of reliability in your enterprise system. Make sure to look at this and other white papers in the From the Trenches column, as they are sure to provide you helpful insight into deploying and using Project Server in your environment.
Chris Vandersluis is the president and founder of Montreal, Canada–based HMS Software, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. He has an economics degree from McGill University and over 24 years' experience in the automation of project control systems. He is a long-standing member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and helped found the Montreal, Toronto, and Quebec chapters of the Microsoft Project Association (MPA) users group. Publications for which Chris has written include Fortune, Heavy Construction News, Computing Canada magazine, and PMI’s PMNetwork, and he is a regular columnist for Project Times. He teaches Advanced Project Management at McGill University and often speaks at project management association functions across North America and around the world. HMS Software is the publisher of the TimeControl project-oriented timekeeping system and has been a Microsoft Project Solution Partner since 1995.
Customer requests fueled two new documentation resources for Project Server 2010! These resources went live at the end December. If you have feedback on either of these resources, feel free to leave comments here, or send email to projdocs@microsoft.com.
This article details the standard method for archiving completed projects, as performed by a project manager and administrator. It also provides a high-level look at some alternate archiving methods, as well as some best practices for long-term archival.
This Visio file contains diagrams that illustrate five different timesheet and task progress workflow scenarios.
Standard (Single Entry Mode). This diagram illustrates the workflow involved with reporting time and task progress if your organization reports on both of these in one view.
Standard (Separate Views). This diagram illustrates the workflow involved with reporting time in the Timesheet view, and task progress in the Tasks view.
Timesheet Delegation. This diagram illustrates the workflow involved when a resource identifies a delegate to report time and task progress on his or her behalf.
Closed-Period Updating. This diagram illustrates the workflow involved when a resource needs to make a change to a timesheet for a time period that the administrator has already closed to updates.
Closed-Task Updating. This diagram illustrates the workflow involved when a resource needs to make a change to task progress that was reported for a task that the project manager has closed to updates.
Mike Plumley here on our team has just come up with some awesome high quality videos that walk through a Project Server 2007 farm installation as well as the configuration of the Project Server 2007 Cube Building Service.
You can download these videos from the Microsoft download center here:
Please comment and let us know what you think. You can also email Mike directly at mike.plumley@microsoft.com with any comments or requests for future topics.
Here are a couple screenshots:
This newly-publshed white paper outlines how Microsoft Project Server 2010 can provide the tools necessary as part of a good, practice-driven finance function, with regard to project appraisal and capital allocation. This paper also reviews key things to consider during the implementation of a solution. Finally, for readers who are looking for more detail and have additional requirements, the paper outlines additional technologies available from Microsoft and other companies to further extend the base functionality of Project Server 2010. The intended audience for this paper is finance professionals who are responsible for budgeting, corporate strategy, or project accounting. As the processes of project financial management and budgeting affect varying levels and areas within many organizations, this white paper may also benefit those who have a role within, or responsibility for, financial management processes that relate to projects.
This white paper was written by Arbutus Solutions.
Download as a PDF file (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=216201)
Download as an XPS file (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=216204)
Reposting from Jan’s original post here on the Project Server blog.
It’s our pleasure to present you refreshed versions of our one-stop technical resources related to
Q: How about Demand Management and Portfolio Strategy?
A: We are working on Demand Management Center that will became one stop for information about Demand Management, Portfolio Strategy, including technicalities, like building custom Demand Management Infrastructure – including workflow. This center will live on the Project Server 2010 Center on TechNet - http://technet.microsoft.com/projectserver/ee263909.aspx and will be available in few weeks.
Q: I’m a developer, what’s in there for me?
A: Many of included links include pure developer resources. We have decided not to fragment the resources between TechNet and MSDN – that’s why you might find also developer-related link to MSDN content in the above TechCenters.