Effective immediately I will be blogging again at www.projectified.com

This thing is SO cool.  Using this tool you can create simple sign-off type linear workflows without having to write any code!

Example scenario:

I have a customer that wants to allow any users to enter new project proposals. Then they want to require that a member of a certain security group approves before it moves to the next stage. Then in that stage some more information gets added and then again members of a specific group need to approve before it moves to the next stage.

This tool walks you through setting up this exact scenario without even having Visual Studio installed! Sure you need  Visual Studio and developer skills to do the complex stuff but this makes sure that you can do the nice clean linear ones by yourself.

So here is how to install the tool and then use it to create a workflow for the scenario above.

Installation

1. Download the ‘deployment.zip’ file and unzip it to the location of your choice
2. Find the DynamicWorkflow folder. Within it open the Deployment folder
3. Right click on the DeployPowerShell.cmd file and click Edit
4. Change the site url parameter to the url for your Project Server 2010 instance. In my case http://project.contoso.com/PWA/
   
5. Close and Save
6. Double click on the DeployPowerShell.cmd file
7. Once it is complete your command prompt window should look like this:
   
   If it does then you are finished with the installation.
   

Configuring a New Workflow

Now we can use this new tool to create our workflow. But first remember that you need to have created your stages and PDPs first. The tool will be asking you to place your stages in a specific order and then setup several properties for them that will control how the workflow will work. So, you need to set them up first.

1. Create your Enterprise Project Type (EPT), Phases, Stages and Project Detail Pages to create the basic stage flow for your workflow.
2. Navigate to this url: http://server_name/pwa_name/_layouts/WrkSetng.aspx or in my case im using the demo virtual machine so I will be using this url: http://project.contoso.com/PWA/_layouts/WrkSetng.aspx
3. Click “Add a workflow”
   
4. In the Workflow section select “DM Dynamic Workflow”
5. In the Name section give your workflow a unique name. You will select this name in the Enterprise Project Type definition page when you associate it with a workflow
6. In the Task List and History List select which SharePoint list to use for the approval task list and the history list. The defaults used by Project Server are “Project Server Workflow Tasks” and “Project Server Workflow History”. I, personally, would generally pick these so that all the workflow tasks from all the workflows show up in the same list. If your particular deployment calls for different EPT workflow tasks to show up in separate lists then you can specify them here.
7. The Start Options section lets to specify how the workflow can be started.
8. Click the Next button to start laying out the actual steps and how they are ‘workflowed’ together.
   
9. From the Stage Selection drop down pick the first stage that should appear in your workflow. In my sample I have created a stage called Stage 1.
10. Stage Status message lets you provide some text that will be displayed on the status web part. It can be instructions or some other text of your choice.
11. Force Submit on Stage: if this is “Yes” then the user MUST hit Submit. If it is ‘No’ then once the required fields are filled in and the project is saved it is automatically submitted. For my needs I want ‘No’ so that the user that is entering the proposal does not have to any special actions other than hitting save.
12. Approval Settings. Here is the cool part. Here you get to specify a group, number of groups or specific users that need to approve before the project can make it to the next stage. You can also specify three types of approval.
    1. First Response
       Here once the very first person approves, the project is moved to the next stage
    2. Majority
       Here a majority of those specified need to approve. So if you specify a group that has 14 people in it then once 8 people have approved then the project is moved to the next stage
    3. Consensus
       This one means that ALL of the specified users need to approve. So all 14 users would need to approve.
13. Filter Approves by Department
    This is also cool because it means that if you specify a department in the stage and then specify a group like Executives that only executives that are in the same department as the project will be counted among the approvers.
14. You can now hit the Add Stage button and repeat this process for all your stages.
15. Once you have all your stages in place hit submit and the solution creates all the code for your selections.
16. Now you need to go to your Enterprise Project Type and specify the workflow you just created as the Workflow for that EPT.
17. You are done. You have an awesome approval workflow without having to be a developer.

The main page for the solution starters also has links for some great videos. Two that walk through the different elements of the solution starters in general. Then four others that do detailed code walkthroughs.

Check this thing out. It could save you a HUGE amount of time and trouble if you need a simple workflow.

The product team has put out some very cool solution starters for Project Server 2010.

The solution starters include:

• A tool to import and export Demand Management (workflow) items (EPT, Phases, Stages, PDPs, custom fields, lookup tables). It moves all the items associated with a given EPT and packages it up as a single object for easy redeployment.
• A tool for doing bulk editing of project level custom fields
• A tool for creating a linear workflow without any actual coding
• Several tools for working with and visualizing EPT and workflow items
• A variety of webparts for inclusion in PDPs and project workspaces for viewing and editing such things as InfoPath forms, SharePoint lists, and project cost capture items.
• A tool that helps you build SSRS reports

There are also videos that go over the starters and do detailed code walkthroughs to get you started.

Remember, these are starters meant to get your own custom development efforts off and running quickly. They are NOT directly supported by Microsoft Tech Support.

I almost forgot to share this!

Let me start by saying that I LOVE the Fluent UI (“Ribbon”). I was not so sure about it at first when started using Office 2007 but after a short time I was pretty happy. Now in 2010 you can add your own buttons it is even better.

I have to admit that in Project I was SO used to the menus that it has been tough. But the Office user ed team came up with a VERY cool set of interactive guides. You open this page, select your Office application and point to a toolbar button or menu command and it visually shows you how to navigate to it in 2010.

So how do you find the Organizer in 2010? Open the Project 2010 app from the page above and then HOVER on Tools | Organizer. It pops up a small note saying how to get there.

CLICK on Tools | Organizer and it animates the clicks required to get there:

You can hit this from the web or choose to install it on your local machine for quick offline help.

Glen Alleman has an interesting post here on his thoughts about how risks are handled. He talks about Risk Retirement as the process of taking steps to stop a risk from happening. He references a post elsewhere from Brad Egeland that talks about Risk Mitigation as the process of lessening the impact of a Risk once it does actually happen.

In Project Server (All Versions) we have risks and issues as part of the standard SharePoint workspace template that is used to create workspaces for each project. Our Risks list has fields to track probability, impact, (a derived “Exposure” score based on probability and impact), mitigation plan and contingency plans (and other fields as well). We keep these fairly general so as not to paint us into any specific corner with regard to process since we have to fit into many organizations. For us Probability is just that: the chance that we think the risk will actually occur. Impact is a 1-10 subjective measure of how bad it would be for the project if it did occur. Scales for impact are something like 1 equals “less than a $500 change order or 10 hour scope change” to 10 equals “close down the project” or “someone goes to jail for compliance issue”.

When I work with customers that have not had a sustained risk management process before I suggest to them a bit of a hybrid of what Glen and Brad have said. I tend to think of Mitigation as a combination of avoidance (actions to take that will lower the probability) and what Brad calls mitigation (actions to take to lower the impact.) Contingency is then the plan of action that should be in place (generally only for high Exposure risks) in case the risk actually occurs.

Project Server has a few features that aid in this planning. Of course the Risks list has the rich text fields for laying out the high level plans for both mitigation and contingency but we also provide the ability to link tasks from the full project schedule to the risk. This link can be marked to show that the “Task Mitigates the Risk” or “Task is in risk contingency plan” (as well as a few others that do not concern risks). In this way you can insert tasks into the schedule and show that they are part of the planning for a specific risk.

The new “Inactive Task” feature in 2010 can also play a role for contingency plans. Using this feature you can insert sets of tasks into your schedule, assign resources, make estimates, and anything else you would do for any other tasks in your schedule and then mark that whole set of tasks as “Inactive”. This ‘greys them out’ in Microsoft Project but they are still there in the plan. It also removes them from the Tasks or Timesheet pages for the resources assigned to them. Then as risks actually occur you can mark the appropriate set of tasks as “Active” and your schedule now reflects the actions in your contingency plan for that task.

Here is the introductory post about Inactive tasks from Heather on the Project Team. In a later post i will show specifically how I use Inactive tasks in my risk planning.

Project Server security is something that is very flexible once you get used to how it works but it can be a bit confusing when you first look at it.

Here are the basics as I explain them to my customers:

The Group

Groups contain sets of users and they define the system level permissions that those users have the rights to perform. These include: Logging in, performing certain admin functions, create a new project, create a new resource, etc.

The Category

Categories provide access to projects, resources and views. The projects and resources that the category provides access to can be specifically called out by name or they can by dynamically included based on a set of rules within the category itself. For example a category can provide access to all projects where the user is the project owner or a status manager on a task, or all the projects where the Project Owner is ‘below’ the user in the RBS structure. I refer to this set of projects and resources as the “Scope” of the category.

Categories can be shared by many groups because of the dynamic way the scopes can be defined. The dynamic options for project and resource scope are dependant on the user and their relationship (via the RBS structure) to either the owner or team members on a project or to the resources themselves. I often, for simplicity, create a role based group and then a corresponding category. It sometimes means that there are technically more categories than is absolutely required but it does make the whole security model a bit easier to follow.

The Group\Category Permissions

This is the part that people often overlook.

A group and a category can be ‘linked’ or joined. When this happens there is a set of permissions that sit at that join. This set of permissions defines what the members of that group can DO with the projects and resources within the “Scope” of the category.

If you open a Group and you see the list of Categories that are associated to group there is one of these grids for each category. If you select one of the Categores associated with the group the grid pertains to THAT pairing of group and category. If you select a different category the grid changes and is now pertaining only to THAT pairing. The same is true if you open a category and select the Groups that are associated with it. The grid pertains to the pairing. It can be edited in both places but it remains the same.

I posted this originally over on the COE blog but wanted to make sure it was visible to those that are not reading that one…

Someone on the SharePoint team took some time and built a VERY cool application for viewing ULS Logs. It lets you filter by any of the ‘fields’ in the log and format certain lines based on filter criteria.

Of course it lets you point the viewer at any ULS log file but it even lets you stream in the live ULS Log activity as it is happening and have it color code lines on criteria you determine.

If you find yourself looking at ULS logs for any reason then you will want to download this application

Get it here: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/ULSViewer

OK, first off I will get the obligatory list of excuses for why I have been absent from blogging for so long: work out of the way up front and spare you the boring details: work, travel, family, more work, east coast work travel, more family and then more work. The last 6 months has been a blur to say the least.

But on with the good stuff. During these past few months I have been doing a lot of work around SSRS reporting against Project Server 2007 and 2010 so I will have some things to say on that front as well as maybe some sample reports. I’m working on on 2 different 2010 deployments right now so I will also have some things to share about my experiences doing that as well as some coverage of how my customers are making use of some of the new features.

So over the next few weeks I hope to get some posts up on the following subjects:

Lessons Learned around SSRS and Project Server
including using a SharePoint document library as your report center instead of using SSRS Report Manager

Expansion of Christophe’s work on Program Level Issue Reporting
A while back Christophe wrote this post on the subject. I had a similar need for both issue and risk reporting across sets of projects. I will write something up on how I did it and share my SSRS Reports.

SSRS report for showing the ‘health’ of Deliverables across projects
A report that examines the relationship between the “source” task dates, the published deliverable date, and the “receiving” task dates and uses color coded formatting to provide visibility of if the deliverable is up-to-date and if the '”receiving” task is scheduled to start before the deliverable is scheduled to deliver.

Use of Inactive tasks feature for contingency planning scenarios
Inserting a set of tasks that will only be used if a certain risk or other event occurs. We can have the whole set of tasks in place, with resource assigned and with links in place but have them marked as Inactive so that the schedule ‘collapses’ around them until they are needed.

Fiscal Period setup in the OLAP cube
Nothing exactly new here but I want to cover it anyway for those that have not done it before

Using Excel 2010 workbooks against Project Server 2010 OLAP cubes
Again, not new but a good thing to cover for those that have not done it before.

Some posts about how my deployments are going
I will share tidbit and things I find as I’m doing my deployments so that you can have some insight to how things are going in real-world deployments of 2010

Inside Microsoft the EPM COE has always had a strong reputation but outside of Microsoft it was not as well known. This team, which I am very proud to be a member of, just started a team blog here: http://blogs.msdn.com/wwepmcoe/ where we will all be sharing our real world, field tested thoughts, opinions and guidance.

This is a team that is humbling to be a part of because they are some of the smartest and best EPM consultants on the planet and have taken part in the most complex and largest EPM deployments. I have always felt lucky to have been on this team because it meant having access to what they know. Now they are going to share with everyone and we will all benefit from what they have found in the field.

If you reading this blog you NEED to be reading that one as well. :-)

I am moving my RSS feed off of Feedburner and back to the standard feed from blogs.technet.com.

Please update your readers to use this url: http://blogs.technet.com/rss.xml  http://blogs.technet.com/projectified/rss.xml

The Feedburner feed will stop working in few days.

Again, the right feed is: http://blogs.technet.com/projectified/rss.xml :-)

Thanks

All will be recorded and available afterward as podcasts in case you miss them.

As some of you may already know the PERT Addin that was in Project for several versions was NOT included in Project 2010. The good news is that below we have the first version of some sample code you can use to add the feature back into the product! This first version does not use a form like the old one. It uses custom fields at the task level to store the Pessimistic, Optimistic and Most Likely estimates and the weights for each estimate. This is just a preliminary version. We hope to gather feedback and then release a future version of the code as a Visual Studio project that can be customized and used to create a Project 2010 Addin.

This code depends on using 7 task level custom fields:

The image below shows a Gantt Chart view with these fields inserted. In this example we see weights only on the first task. This is an option you can set in the code. If the option is set to ‘False’ then each task can have its own set of weights. Duration estimates are inserted for each task. The code at this point will estimate every task. (We could add the option to allow a project manager to specify which tasks should be estimated.)

To use this sample code in your own projects:

1. Open Project 2010
2. Click on the View Tab of the Ribbon
3. Click Macro | Visual Basic
4. Double Click on the “ThisProject (Global.MPT)” node just under the ProjectGlobal node
   
5. In the code window that opens up on the right paste in the code below
6. Decide if you want to use only one set of weights or if you want each task to have its own set of weights
   If you want one set leave the code as it is. If you want separate weights then change this: “UseOneSetofWeights = True” to this:
   ”UseOneSetofWeights = False”
7. Close the Visual Basic Editor
8. Click on the “Customize Quick Access Toolbar” item on the ribbon
   
9. Click on “More Commands”
10. In the “Choose commands from” list box pick “Macros”
11. Select “PERT” in the left hand box and then click the Add button
    
12. Click OK

Now the code is ready to be used. All that is left is to insert the fields in the table above into a Gantt Chart view, enter your estimates and your weights (Remember that the weights must add up to 6!!) and then run the macro using the Quick Launch button you just added.

Feedback Wanted!!

This is just a first pass at a sample for replacing the PERT functionality. Please email me (brian.kennemer@microsoft.com) with your feedback.

Some things to think about:

• Should there be the ability to specify which tasks should have their Durations estimated when the tool is run?
• Do you prefer a form for setting the weights?
• What other options would you like to see?

One last thing: This is just sample code and should be thoroughly tested before you use it on a ‘production’ project.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sub PERT()
Dim tskT As Task
Dim tskFirst As Task
Dim FoundBadWeights As Boolean
Dim UseOneSetofWeights As Boolean

UseOneSetofWeights = True
FoundBadWeights = False

CustomFieldRename FieldID:=pjCustomTaskDuration1, NewName:="Optimistic Duration"
CustomFieldRename FieldID:=pjCustomTaskDuration2, NewName:="Most Likely Duration"
CustomFieldRename FieldID:=pjCustomTaskDuration3, NewName:="Pessimistic Duration"
CustomFieldRename FieldID:=pjCustomTaskNumber1, NewName:="Optimistic Weight"
CustomFieldRename FieldID:=pjCustomTaskNumber2, NewName:="Most Likely Weight"
CustomFieldRename FieldID:=pjCustomTaskNumber3, NewName:="Pessimistic Weight"
CustomFieldRename FieldID:=pjCustomTaskText30, NewName:="PERT State"

If UseOneSetofWeights = True Then
    Set tskFirst = ActiveProject.Tasks(1)
    For Each tskT In ActiveProject.Tasks
      If Not (tskT Is Nothing) Then
        If tskT.PercentComplete = 0 And tskT.PercentWorkComplete = 0 Then
          If (tskFirst.Number1 + tskFirst.Number2 + tskFirst.Number3) = 6 Then
            tskT.Duration = ((((tskT.Duration1) * tskFirst.Number1) _
            + ((tskT.Duration2) * tskFirst.Number2) _
            + ((tskT.Duration3) * tskFirst.Number3)) / 6)
            tskT.Text30 = "Duration Calc'd: " & Now()
          Else
            tskT.Text30 = "Not Calc'd: Weights <> 6"
            FoundBadWeights = True
          End If
        Else
          tskT.Text30 = "Not Calc'd: Task In Progress or Complete"
        End If
      End If
    Next tskT
Else
    For Each tskT In ActiveProject.Tasks
      If Not (tskT Is Nothing) Then
        If tskT.PercentComplete = 0 And tskT.PercentWorkComplete = 0 Then
          If (tskT.Number1 + tskT.Number2 + tskT.Number3) = 6 Then
            tskT.Duration = ((((tskT.Duration1) * tskT.Number1) _
            + ((tskT.Duration2) * tskT.Number2) _
            + ((tskT.Duration3) * tskT.Number3)) / 6)
            tskT.Text30 = "Duration Calc'd: " & Now()
          Else
            tskT.Text30 = "Not Calc'd: Weights <> 6"
            FoundBadWeights = True
          End If
        Else
          tskT.Text30 = "Not Calc'd: Task In Progress or Complete"
        End If
      End If
    Next tskT
End If
If FoundBadWeights = True Then
    MsgBox Prompt:="Some Tasks Weight Values were found to be incorrect." & _
    Chr(13) & "Check the Text30 fields for details.", Buttons:=vbCritical, _
    Title:="WorkPERT Weights Error"
End If
End Sub

The product team for Project and Project Server have started a new blog to segment their content about the administration of Project Server environments. It can be found here and will be a must read if you are involved in the deployment or administration of Project Server.

If you are enough of a Project-nerd to read this blog you likely already know that the Project 2010 public beta is out and ready for you to download. I have been using and testing it several months and I can honestly say that it is the strongest version of Project I have ever seen. I mean that from a feature standpoint (lots of cool new stuff) and from a product quality standpoint. I have been looking at beta versions of Project since Project 98 and I have never seen a set of pre-beta builds with the quality and stability I have been seeing with 2010. Just amazing work by the product team. Everyone, testers, developers and program managers, really kicked it up a notch with this version. Great work to all of them. NOW…on with the nerdiness!

I am hosting a Thanksgiving dinner party for my family (sorry, not enough room for everyone) and my wife and I were thinking about the timing of all the food and preparations and we were wondering if we could do it all. Last year we just went for it and found out that our dishes all needed different oven temps and it was a huge, and very late mess. This year my wife asked "Hey, software bigshot, doesn't Microsoft make some kind of tool for planning and scheduling things?". "Well yes, I suppose they do", I said sheepishly. :-)

So I broke out my trusty copy of Project 2010 and started lining out my WBS. I started with the prep work and even had tasks for my kids to cleaning up the yard and such but I abandoned that idea and started concentrating on the food part of the event. I looked at all the recipes and broke them down into sets of tasks with proper durations. Then I figured out that to solve my oven problem I would need some Oven resources. So I entered a resource for each oven temp my dishes required. Oven - 350, Oven - 375, Oven - 400. I assigned the cooking tasks for each dish to the proper resource and then I went to the Team Planner and found that the only way I would be able to do all those dishes is if I had 3 ovens or I cooked them serially and had several of them sitting out cooling off while the others cooked. Obviously this was not good. So I moved some things to the day before and then planned to just heat them up just before the service. Then my wife and I went through and found some great dishes that all required the same oven temp! I reworked the plan and and now things are much better. The end result is a great dinner (I predict!) that is doable from a schedule standpoint and now I’m even more in love with the Team Planner than I was before! Here is how my Oven – 275 resource looks in the Team Planner, now that I reworked it:

You can see that the Oven is overallocated but I did check and all three of the overlapping items will fit at the same time. :-)

So bottom line? Project 2010 saved my Thanksgiving! :-)

I have attached the mpp file to this post.  Feel free to download the beta (link above) and play around with it, use it for your party planning, make fun of it or point out where my schedule is flawed. Hopefully, all of those things will happen1 LOL

This sample project contains resources for me, my wife and my daughter as well as various oven temps, burner sizes and other appliances I will be using. Most of the tasks started out as manually scheduled tasks while I was moving things around and messing around and then once I wanted full scheduling I moved them to Auto Scheduling. (I was not sure what I thought about manual tasks at first but I really like them now for that early scheduling stage when you are building your WBS and just experimenting with timings before the real scheduling starts!) It has a custom field for aligning tasks to a specific dish (there is also a view that shows the tasks grouped by this field that I used to make sure I did not leave anything out). I used a bunch of Start-to-Finish links (first time I ever used one outside of a training class!) to make sure that if the service time moved that it would “re-flow” my cooking tasks in relation to the new date.  I even went with an old-school feature and added a drawing object and pinned it to a specific task so I could have a vertical line on the Gantt chart tied to the “Guests Arrive” milestone to make it more visible. LOL

So download the beta (it pretty much kicks ass!), mess around with this project and have a good, filling and safe Thanksgiving holiday (or for those of you NOT in the US, have a great Thursday the 26th!) :-)

PS, the beta will install a little ‘Send a Smile’ and ‘Send a Frown’ tool for giving feedback and you should certainly make use of it if you find an issue. But if you find something really interesting or something you think is a big problem feel free to send me an email (brian.kennemer@microsoft.com) I would be interested in hearing about it.

OK, flat out this is the coolest thing to happen to the Project desktop since, well, since maybe EVER!

So here is a sample project. 5 tasks, 4 of them assigned to Del Griffith:

Here is the project represented in the Team Planner view:

A row for each resource with each of their task assignments shown in the timescaled area. You can see the red background behind Task 1, 2 and 4. This is showing that Del is overallocated for the time period shown. Now you can grab a task and move it to another date or even move it down and drop it into Neil Page’s row and assign it to him.

I was able to drag Task 4 down to Neil Page and then move Task 2 and Task 3 so that Del is no longer overallocated.

Like I said, this is the coolest thing ever. I think that this view will end up being popular not only for newcomers to Project (because of it’s simple, elegant way of showing what tasks are assigned to which resources) but also for experienced project managers (because it makes manual resource leveling much easier than before.)

The Timeline is a very cool feature in Project 2010 Standard and Professional. It adds a pane at the top of the Gantt Chart view that looks very much like a Visio timeline drawing. You can pick which tasks from your project show up in the Timeline. It allows you to create presentation ready depictions of important tasks that you can show to management or customers without having to show a Gantt Chart.

For example. Here is a very simple project schedule. It has a Summary task, some milestones and a few regular tasks.

I have chosen to show the Summary Task, Task 2, Task 4, Task 5 and both Milestones on the timeline below.

Project 2010 lets me put this graphic into other programs such as an email or a PowerPoint so I can show just these tasks in a very easy to understand format.

There are tons of formatting options and some interactivity between this view and the Gantt Chart that I will need to show in a video. It is just too visual and dynamic to show with static images. More to come on this feature later on.

You can have Project Portfolio Server 2007 auto-generate a ProjectID for you. To do so:

1. Click Settings | Organization Management | Organization Settings
2. Pick your organization and then click Edit
3. In the Organization Template Code you enter the template codes for how you want the number generated using the following codes:
   {D} - current day (1,2...31)
   {DD} - current day on 2 characters (01,02...31)
   {MM} - current month {1,2,...12)
   {MMM} - current month abbreviation {"Jan","Feb",...)
   {YY} - current year on 2 characters; e.g. 04 represents 2004
   {YYYY} - current year on 4 characters; e.g. 2004
   {ORG} - Organization Code
   {N} - the project number; if the template uses {ORG}, then the project number is the current number per project created in ORGANIZATION; otherwise it's per Account
   {Nx} where x = 2, 3, 4 - the project number on 'x' characters; if the template uses ORG, then the project number is the current number per project created in ORGANIZATION; otherwise it's per Account
4. Click the “Use Organization Template For ProjectID check box
5. Click Update

For example, the entry below will generate a code that has the 4 digit year and then a sequential number (2009-1, 2009-2, 2009-500, etc)

But that is not quite it. At this point the system will auto-generate your ProjectID but the field will still be editable so users could overwrite the auto-generated number. A quick change to the Project.aspx will fix that right up.

1. Navigate to C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\PortfolioServer\Default\
2. Make a copy of Project.aspx named Project_OLD.aspx or something to that effect. This will be your backup.
3. Out of the box the Project.aspx file contains the following line:
   <cell position="1" attribute="PROJECTID" label="ProjectID" mandatory="yes"/>
   Edit this line so that it looks like this:
   <cell position="1" attribute="PROJECTID" label="ProjectID" readonly="true" mandatory="yes"/>
4. Save the file

Now the system will auto-generate your ProjectID but the user will not be able to overwrite it.

Late next week I will be in Phoenix for the pre-events and meetings for the Project Conference. If you are going to be there let me know.

I will be trying to update here with the big stuff and will be updating http://www.twitter.com/briankennemer with the small things.

I hope to see everyone there.

I guest posted over on the PMBlvd blog “PM Bistro” about keeping processes and PM tools simple. Check it out.

The guys at 37 Signals were almost on to a good thing with this post about Planning as Guessing. Sure plans are guesses. Sure they are just a hopeful take on what we think might happen. Nobody that is good at what they do has ever questioned the transient, unsteady nature of plans (and yes, to be perfectly clear, by this I am implying saying out-right that those that think that their plans are cast in stone and not to be wavered from are bad at what they do.) But what their post gets wrong is that by dismissing plans and planning as a waste of time and diminishing the importance of planning they encourage the very thing that we need WAY LESS of in the world of, well the world of EVERYTING: a lack of planning. They seem to think there is too much planning. Well Im going to go the other way and say that there is nowhere near enough (good) planning. Maybe the problem is that it is assumed that the only outcome of planning is a plan. That is often the tangible product that one can hold in their hand or email to the team but it is not the only output of planning. The process of building that plan (the one that SHOULD be assumed will not last through the first week or so of the project) makes us smarter about what we are doing. It makes us think about what might go wrong. It makes us walk through different scenarios and different possibilities. Creating that solid plan that we know will get at least heavily modified if not out-right replaced is the very thing that equips us to make those heavy modifications or to come up with the replacement plan. Without the planning, if we dismiss planning as just the creation of guesses, we leave ourselves exposed to the four winds like so many backpackers huddled around the campfire at basecamp.(Sorry, just kidding. I could not resist. LOL. 37Signals makes some cool stuff for sure. I mean them and their products no disrespect.) But seriously, the planning process is not about coming up with the be-all, end-all, rock-solid path through the project. It is about preparing yourself and your team for what might happen. It is about thinking through what could go wrong, figuring out what will likely go wrong and figuring out what you will do when it DOES go wrong. My fear when I read posts like the one at 37Signals is that they seem to minimize the importance of planning (and even, if just a little and very subtly, ridicule those that think planning is important.) If this leads to even one team doing less than the appropriate amount of planning because a plan is “just a guess” then it has done a disservice.

Brian Smith writes here about a new behavior added in SP2 around timesheet pre-population and some reports of some customer dissatisfaction.

The ‘Gist’ is that with SP2 if you have the ‘Current task assignments’ option in the Default Timesheet Creation Mode then even after a user creates their timesheet new tasks assigned to them that fall within that timesheet period will still be added to the timesheet. Pre SP2 these new task assignments would NOT show up in the timesheet. The user would have had to delete the timesheet and recreate it. That was a HUGE bummer and the new functionality is VERY cool.

As Brian states there are a few customers that have users that want to delete a line from their timesheet but now, with SP2, if the line was a task from a Project the timesheet line comes back the next time the user opens their timesheet. The timesheet will now ALWAYS contain all tasks to which the user is assigned (that fall into that timesheet period.) These customers are unhappy with this behavior.

I think this is the best thing that could happen for these users. Basically, we have a situation here where a team member has been assigned a task by a project manager so it shows up on their timesheet. Then for whatever reason the team member feels that the task should not be on their timesheet. Either they feel that the task should be done by someone else or they feel that it should be done next week or some other reason. So they delete the line but then it comes back. So the good part of this is that it will encourage this user to talk to their project manager and explain why they think the task should not be on their timesheet. If the PM agrees then they can remove the assignment or move the task to a later week and it will drop from the users timesheet.

This feature not only makes timesheet task population dynamic but will now also encourage team member-project manager communications! Now THAT is a good feature. :-)

UPDATE (on 6/30/2009):

Here is the KB on this issue. Funny…it actually links back here and to Brian Smith’s blog. :-)

Just in case mine is the only Project blog you read, in which case you should really expand your blogroll by the way, here is an invitation to join the Technical Preview for the next version of Project and Project Server. :-)

_________________________________

Final call to those wishing to have access to the Microsoft Project 2010 client and Microsoft Project Server 2010 Technical Preview.

We have issued an invitation asking to show and expression of interest in gaining access to the Technical Preview of Project/Project Server 2010. The invitation was issued to all known EPM Specialized partners; Independent Software Vendors (ISV’s) that build on Project/Project Server; Project Most Valued Professionals (MVP’s) and  Project/Project Server courseware builders (books, Computer Based Training (CBT) DVD’s, instructor lead, on-demand).

There is only one invitation per company and it was sent to the company’s primary contact as registered in the Microsoft Partner Portal or through the Microsoft field providing contact details. Be aware as part of the process the person accepting the invitation must also sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement which applies to the individual and their company.

This is a final call to express and interest in receiving an invitation. If you fell that you company has not received this invitation (and should have based on the criteria given) please email proj2010@microsoft.com with your contact name, company name and email address.

For all other partners who are reading this and wish to participate in the Project/Project Server 2010 please email proj2010@microsoft.com with your name, company, email address, city, country and three sentence explanation why you should participate in the Technical Preview. Your name will be added to a wait list, there is not a guarantee that you will receive an invitation.

It is also worth noting that  as an added value to the Microsoft Project Conference registration at no additional cost to the conference ticket, you and your technical colleagues have been invited to attend the Microsoft Project 2010 Ignite Airlift which will be held on September 13-14, 2009 at the Phoenix Sheraton in Phoenix, Arizona, USA . This is a training workshop for EPM specialized partners and ISV’s who are looking for in-depth technical training on setting up the next EPM version: Project 2010.

See  http://blogs.technet.com/doug_mccutcheon/archive/2009/04/09/project-2010-readiness-be-one-of-the-first-off-the-line.aspx

This post is for the person named Santhiya that commented on my “Server-side Calculation of Custom field formulas” post. I accidentally deleted it instead of approving it. I have it in my notification email so here is what they asked:

How do we use to check whether the Date fields contains values or not.

IN Project professional they are using

" Actual Finish = NA".

how can we use in PWA site while creating view with Filtering option.

Thanks!

Here is the answer:

As you found you cannot filter for “equals NA”. You also cannot filter for '”contains /”. Both of these give you an error when you try to save your filter.

What you can do is test to see if the value in the date field is greater than 1/1/1984. If it is greater than 1/1/1984 then the field contains a valid date.

So “is greater than 1/1/1984” will return only rows where the date value is NOT “NA”. The hard part is that you cannot use this idea to have a filter only show rows there there is NOT a date. The filtering mechanism does not seem to understand the idea of NA.

So the workaround for this is to do a ‘does not contain’ filter for a character that you know will always be in your dates but NOT the forward slash character (which throws an error.) If your dates for this field will always be in this century and you always use regional settings that show four digit dates then you can use this filter:

“does not contain 2”

This filter will return all rows that do not have a date in them if you use 4 digit years and your dates are always greater than 12/31/1999.

I hope this helps. Sorry I deleted your comment Santhiya. :-)

Here is a sample of some VBA code that will populate the Task Text30 field with the numbers of the baselines for which each task has values saved. This is useful if you are using lots of the baselines but not all your tasks have had all the baselines saved.

For example:

“Task” has values in Baseline, Baseline2, Baseline4 and Baseline9 while “Other Task” only has values in Baseline2.

   1:  Sub WhichBaselinesSaved()

   2:  Dim t As Task

   3:  Dim i As Long

   4:   

   5:  For Each t In ActiveProject.Tasks

   6:      If Not (t Is Nothing) Then

   7:          t.Text30 = ""

   8:          For i = 0 To 10

   9:              If i = 0 Then

  10:                  If t.BaselineStart < 50000 Then

  11:                      t.Text30 = t.Text30 & i & ", "

  12:                  End If

  13:              ElseIf Not t.GetField(Application.FieldNameToFieldConstant("Baseline" _

  14:              & i & "Start", pjTask)) = "NA" Then

  15:                      t.Text30 = t.Text30 & i & ", "

  16:              End If

  17:          Next i

  18:          t.Text30 = Left$(t.Text30, Len(t.Text30) - 2)

  19:      End If

  20:      

  21:  Next t

  22:  End Sub

OK as nerdy things go I’m pretty sure a 4 day conference about Project Server ranks right up there. Maybe not as nerdy as Blizzcon but for sure more nerdy than Comdex. Of course I’m using ‘nerd’ in its most complimentary sense.
:-)

September 14-17 2009 in Phoenix. The Project Conference is THE place to be to learn from and rub elbows with all the best minds in the Project\Project Server\Portfolio Server universe. From the designers, the developers, testers, support pros, Microsoft Consulting Services on the consulting and implementation side, as well as the many GREAT partners providing addins, training and top notch deployment consulting…everyone is represented.

It is going to be a huge geek-out that is sure to answer all your questions about this version and the next! :-)