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

Until recently, because I had never actually tried it, I thought that moving customized project workspace templates from Project Server 2007 to Project Server 2010 was simply a matter of saving a customized project workspace site as a template, then importing that template into Project Server 2010.  I decided to actually work through the steps and found I was missing a key piece of information - the template files have different extensions when you save them.  In 2007, you get a .stp file and in 2010, you get a .wsp file.  So for a customer who is moving from Project Server 2007 to Project Server 2010, how do you get your project workspace templates into your new system, especially if you AREN'T migrating/upgrading your data? 

The trick to this situation is that you have to upgrade your Project Server 2007 databases, preferably in a test environment in order to preserve your 2007 production environment, using the Database-attach full upgrade to Project Server 2010 instructions found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662500.aspx.

Once you have a Project Server 2010 version of your databases, you can proceed with the steps below...  

­From the PWA home page, go to Site Actions > Server Settings.

In the Galleries section, click Solutions.

In the Solution Gallery, click the name of the template you want to move to the production instance of Project Server 2010.

You will be prompted to save the file.

Save the file to the hard drive or network share, or copy it to your Central Admin server on the target environment.

On the Central Admin server of the target environment, open the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell and type this command where –LiteralPath is the path to your .wsp file.  In my testing, I used wt20.wsp, but you will want to use a filename that’s more easily identifiable, especially if you use different templates for different enterprise project types.

Add-SPSolution -LiteralPath c:\temp\wt20.wsp

Next, use the instructions below which I copied from the "Deploy a solution package" article on TechNet to deploy the solution to your target instance of PWA.  (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262995.aspx)

To deploy a solution by using Central Administration

1. On the Central Administration Home page, click System Settings.

1. In the Farm Management section, click Manage farm solutions.

1. On the Solution Management page, click the solution that you want to deploy.

1. On the Solution Properties page, click Deploy Solution.

1. On the Deploy Solution page, in the Deploy When section, select one of the following:

• Now

• At a specified time. If you select this option, specify a time by using the date and time boxes. We recommend that you select a time when the load on the destination servers is low.

1. In the Deploy To? section, in the A specific web application list, click either All web applications or select a specific Web application.  (Note: In my test server, the option to deploy to a specific web application did not exist; I could only deploy globally.)

1. Click OK.

If you want to use the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell, the syntax is below:

Install-SPSolution -Identity <SolutionName> -WebApplication <URLname>

Back in PWA’s home page, go to Server Settings > Project Site Provisioning Settings.

In the Default Site Properties section, select the dropdown for the Default Project Site Template and click the workspace template you would like to use every time a project workspace is created.

Lastly, and this step is key, go to Server Settings > Enterprise Project Type.

Click on the EPT that shows Yes in the Default column.

Scroll to the bottom and change the Project Site template to your customized template.

Create a new project plan and when you publish, the new template will be used. 

How to Filter Resource Assignments in PWA by a Project Level Enterprise Custom Field Value in Project Pro 2007

Problem Statement

Resources are assigned to many plans in Project Server going back several years.  This has a tendency to make Resource Assignment views overwhelming due to the number of tasks in old plans that have been Cancelled, On Hold, or Completed.

Customer wants to be able to filter Resource Assignment views so that only tasks where the projects’ Project Status is Active appear in the Resource Assignment views under “View Availability” in PWA’s Resource Center.  In shorthand, if Project Status is Active then Task is Active and should be presented in Resource Assignment views filtered on whether or not the Project Status is Active.

Solution

Project Level ECF

Create project level enterprise custom field based on Lookup Table called Project Status. 

Lookup table contains text values of Active, Cancelled, On Hold, or Complete.  Your values can be different.

Open each project plan and set the Project Status value under Project > Information.  Note: You only really need to do this for plans that are Active, but for consistency, you should set the value for all projects.

Task Level ECF

Create a task level enterprise custom field called Project Status at Task Level or some other suitable name.  The Entity is Task and the Type is Text. Use a formula as described below where you only enter the name of the Project level custom field.  In this case [Project Status].

PWA Views Filter

Create resource views in Server Settings > Manage Views > Resource Assignments to include the Project Status at Task Level custom field.  Filter the view so that Project Status at Task Level Contains Active as in the screenshot below.

Forcing Calculation of Task Level ECF

Recalculate the active plans to fill the task level custom field by opening each plan in Project Pro, pressing F9 to force a manual calculation and then saving and publishing the plans.

You can add the Project Status at Task Level column to each plan view in Project Pro to confirm the value appears as expected.

Save and publish each plan.

Verify the Resource Assignment Views

Use Resource Center to select several resources, then click View Availability.  Change the view to one which includes the filter on Project Status at Task Level custom field.  You will only see tasks from Active project plans.

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

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.