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 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 3/7/2010.(Oops - too eager with the cut and paste from February!) 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 where we will be discussing this issues in detail and answering questions regarding the February Cumulative Update. The information on this webcast can be found at the URL below.

TechNet Webcast: Information About Microsoft Project and Project Server May 2011 Software Update (Level 200)

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032455143

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.

You can read about the fixes included in the Project and Project Server April CUs from the following articles:

Server Rollup Package(Recommended):

Description of the SharePoint Server 2010 and Project Server 2010 Cumulative Update Server Hotfix Package (MOSS server-package, Project server-package): April 26, 2011

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2512801

Individual Project Server Package:

Only required if you do not install the Server Rollup.

Description of the Project Server 2010 hotfix package (pjsrvwfe-x-none.msp): April 26, 2011

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2516483

Project Client Package:

Description of the Office Project 2010 hotfix package (project-x-none.msp): April 26, 2011

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2516479

More information on deploying the Cumulative Update:

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 SharePoint Server 2010 we strongly recommend that you install the Project Server 2010 Server Rollup Package as there are a large number of individual server packages for SharePoint Server.  The Project Server 2010 Server Rollup Package contains all the patches released in this Cumulative Update for SharePoint Foundation Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 and Project Server 2010.

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 but they will greatly simplify your Project Server patch deployment.

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.

1. Download the hotfix from the link in the KB Article.
2. Extract the patch package by running the .exe file that you downloaded.
3. Run the extracted .exe file to apply the patch to your Project Professional/Standard client.

Project and Project Server 2007

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.

You can read about the fixes included in the April CU from the following articles:

Server Rollup Packages:

Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Cumulative Update Server Hotfix Package (WSS server-package): April 26, 2011

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2512783

Description of the Office SharePoint Server 2007 Cumulative Update server hotfix package (MOSS server-package): April 26, 2011

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2512782

Individual Product Packages:

Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 hotfix package (sts-x-none.msp): April 26, 2011

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2512780

Description of the Project Server 2007 hotfix package (pjsrvapp-x-none.msp, pjsrvwfe-x-none.msp):April 26, 2011

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2512784

Description of the Office Project 2007 hotfix package (project-x-none.msp):April 26, 2011

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2534046

More information on deploying the Cumulative Update:

The article below provides information on how to deploy the Project Server Cumulative Update.

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.

Description of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack SP2

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953338

Description of 2007 Microsoft Office servers Service Pack 2 and of 2007 Microsoft Office servers Language Pack Service Pack 2

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953334

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 but they will greatly simplify MOSS patch deployment.

Client Installation:

In order to install this hotfix, you will need to have Microsoft Project 2007 SP2 installed on the client.

Description of Office Project 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and of Office Project Language Pack 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953326

Once we know that SP2 is installed, you will install the hotfix by performing the following steps:

NOTE: Microsoft strongly recommends testing within a NON-Production environment prior to rollout.

1. Download the hotfix from either the KB Article or by using the information at the end of this email.
2. Extract the patch package by running the .exe file that you downloaded.
3. Run the extracted .exe file to apply the patch to your Project Professional/Standard SP1 client.

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!

Introduction

Project Server 2007 allows you to creating literally hundreds of custom fields.  This is great, but a huge downside is that all of these fields are not typically needed by every user and therefore, they may add clutter and confusion.  In 2007, it is also not possible to create different custom field rules for one project vs. another user.  For instance, you cannot make a field required for one project yet optional for another.

With Project Server 2010, departmental custom fields help to relieve the problems of too much information and too many choices. As an example, departments help you to manage the UI clutter, and help you to define, at a resource, at a task, or at a project level, which fields are required or not required.  Let’s walk through this new feature and show you how you can use departments to manage your enterprise custom fields.

Scope

To begin with, we need a brief conversation about scope.  In Project Server 2007, all custom fields are globally scoped which means the fields are available to all users.  In Project Server 2010, fields can be globally scoped, but they can also be departmentally scoped as well.  Consider this list of custom fields:

If a project belongs to the Development department, then when viewing areas of the product that enabled departmental fields, you will see:

• ProjectCustomText1
• ProjectCustomText2
• ProjectCustomText5
• ProjectCustomText6

Let’s say we have a user named Bob. Departments filter the list of custom fields Bob sees by-default.  This does not mean, however, that he won’t be able to view custom fields assigned to the marketing department.  When Bob saves a project, which fields will he be required to enter values for?  Remember, in Project 2007, Bob would need to input data for all required fields. In Project 2010 since a project, for example, can be associated with a department, Bob may be required to enter a value for the ProjectCustomText5 field AND will always be required to enter a value in the ProjectCustomText2 field since has global scope.

A quick summary of scope shows that departmental fields enable two primary functions:

1. Filtering custom fields so that a user sees by default, only those fields that are either global to the system or those that are in a given department.
2. Controlling which fields require input.

It needs to be stressed the departmental fields are not tied into security.  That is, you cannot use them with security categories and groups to enable or disable fields and their functions.  Instead, their primary purpose is to filter out fields you don’t need to deal with.  There are places in Project Web App (PWA) where you may not be able to see filtered fields and so it may seem like security has been applied, but you’ll find that in places like Project Professional, you can re-filter to show all fields.

Remember this:  it’s about Structure and NOT Security.

Now, let’s look at what it takes to setup and use departmental fields.

Setup

By default, Project Server 2010 has a new lookup table named Department.  Similar to the 2007 State and RBS lookup tables, this is a permanent lookup table (you can’t delete it) that is blank by-default.

Like any other lookup table, you can define the code mask and create a lookup table that’s flat or hierarchical. In addition to the Departments lookup table, by default there’s also the “Project Departments” and “Resource Departments” fields, predefined with the Department lookup table selected (you can’t change this).

These two new fields control a number of aspects within Project Professional and PWA. As with other custom fields associated with lookup tables, you can choose whether or not multiple values can be selected. But, just as with other such fields, once you’ve chosen to allow multiple values, you cannot revert back to single selection.  So be careful in your selection!

You can create other custom enterprise fields and also choose to associate them with departments as shown below.

To help administrators easily determine which fields have been associated with a department, as you can see in the next picture the new Department field has been added to the Enterprise Custom Fields and Lookup Tables page.

In addition to setting up custom fields and associating them with departments, you can also associate users with departments.  Let’s suppose user Bob needs to be a part of the Development and Testing departments.  While editing his user account, you set the departments as seen the next picture.

Remember, setting the user’s department(s) helps to control how custom fields are filtered to them and helps to control which whether some items are seen or not seen in PWA. 

Using Departmental fields

Now that you’ve had a brief overview of creating departments, and associating departments with fields and with users, how do you use them in normal every day usage and what should you expect?   There are a number of Places in Project Professional and PWA where departmental custom fields can be used to your advantage so let’s take a brief look at these.

Project Professional

To understand how departmental custom fields are used in Project Professional, let’s look back to the first example given earlier where there are the two globally scoped project level fields plus two each for the marketing and development departments.  Our user Bob is working in Project Professional and is saving a project.  By default, Bob will see only the globally scoped enterprise project fields similar to the below picture:

Bob sees the two global fields because this project has not been associated with a department. Therefore, when Bob attempts to save the project (and without entering text into the ProjectCustomText2 field), he sees the following message:

Bob then enters a value into the ProjectCustomText2 field and is able to save the project. Bob then goes to the Project Information dialog box and associates the project with the Development department. Now he sees not only the global custom fields, but also two additional fields associated with the Development department.

Take notice that the required fields always appear at the top of the list.

Here you see the addition of both the ProjectCustomText5 and the ProjectCustomText6 fields.  Bob forgets to fill in the required ProjectCustomText5 field and is reminded of this when saving similarly to when he neglected to enter required text into the ProjectCustomText2 field.

Finally, Bob fills in the required field and is able to successfully save his project.  The same concepts can be applied to task level custom fields as well.  For instance, you can assign a department to a task-level custom field and if the project belongs to the department and a field is required, you’ll need to fill in a value for all tasks in the project before you can save it.

Project Web App

There are a few places in PWA where departments affect your experience and an example is when creating new projects based on an enterprise project types (EPT). The administrator who creates the EPTs can specify that they belong to a department.  Therefore, when creating new projects from within the Project Center view, the list of EPTs you see is filtered based on your department.  Likewise, when editing the properties of a project, you will see similar behaviors.  In the following picture, suppose you you are a project manager and you are a member of the marketing department.

Here, you see the “EPT for Marketing Projects” EPT because you are a member of the marketing department. If there are EPTs that have no department association, then they appear in the list as well. However, EPTs associated with other departments do not appear and unlike in Project Professional where you can set the department filter within the Save dialog box, there’s no provision to do so in the Project Center.

Reporting

Project Server 2010 allows you to create multiple OLAP databases for reporting purposes.  When configuring a cube, you can specify both the project and source departments so that the cube is “filtered” on these criteria.  Here is a look at the OLAP Database Build Settings page:

Within the cube configuration, you can add the Project department field as a dimension to the Project and Tasks cubes and you can add the Resource department field as a dimension to the Resource cube. Like any other custom field, if the Project or Resource departments fields are defined for multiple values, then they can be used for filtering, but the field itself does not make it into the cube.

Portfolio Analysis

Departmental custom fields are used heavily in Project Server 2010’s portfolio analysis features.  When creating your driver library, you can associate a business driver with a single or multiple departments as shown in the following picture:

In this example, Driver2 has been associated with both the Development and Testing departments.

Similarly, after your business driver library has been established and you want to create the driver prioritizations, when establishing the properties for the prioritization set, you can associate it with a department.

A department on the driver prioritization filters which business drivers are available. In the previous picture, you can see that Driver2 is available because this driver belongs to both the Development and Testing departments.  Obviously, having just one business driver will not produce a good portfolio analysis, but the example suffices.

Summary

This brief overview of departmental custom fields has been given to help you understand the following:

1. Departmental custom fields’ primary function is to trim or filter the list of what a user may see within given areas of Project Professional and PWA.
2. Departments are not meant to act as a security measure. Remember, it’s about Structure and NOT Security.
3. Examples in both Project Professional and PWA where departments are used.

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.

Architecture

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. 

Setup

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why isn’t my workbook rendering on the web?

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.

• One Time Setup Items
  • Has the Excel Services Service Application and Proxy Connection been created?
  • Is Secure Store Service Application and Proxy Connection been created?
  • Is Excel Services Service Application configured?
  • Is the folder for the data connections in a trusted location within the Excel Service Application?
  • Is the folder for the reports in a trusted location within the Excel Service Application?
  • Is the Secure Store Service Service Application configured?
• For each Target Application Profile
  • Has the Secure Store Target Application Profile for the reports configured?
  • Is the user authorized or belongs to a group that is authorized to use the particular SSS Target Application profile?
  • Does the SSS Target Application have credentials set?
  • Does the SSS Target Application credentials have DB_DataReader rights to the Reporting Database?
• For each workbook
  • Is the SSS ID value in the Office Data Connection filled in?
  • Does the SSS ID in the Excel workbook match the ID of the Application Profile in SSS? 

Why hasn’t my data appeared yet?

• If the data is sourced from the Reporting database, it could be that the Reporting Publish job has not yet completed.  Since these jobs are queued, you need to ensure the jobs has completed before you will see the data.
• If the data is sourced from an OLAP database, you won’t see the data until the OLAP database is refreshed.
• If these two items aren’t the case, there may be an issue with the query itself.  

*** Update November 2011 *** With the recent release of Project Server Service Pack 1 and recent IE9 updates, Project 2010 is now fully compatible with IE9

Internet Explorer (IE) 9 was launched on Monday, March 14^th. We have been working very closely with the Internet Explorer (IE) team to ensure that our customers can take advantage of all the great new features that the new IE release offers. After testing the different versions of Microsoft Project Server with IE 9, here is an update on IE 9 support status:

• Project Server 2010 was tested and supports IE 9.
• The main scenarios and functionalities of Project Server 2007 Service Pack 2 were tested and support IE 9. Project Server 2007 SP1 and Project Server 2007 may also support IE 9.
• The main scenarios and functionalities of Project Portfolio Server 2007 Service Pack 2 were tested and support IE 9. Project Portfolio Server 2007 SP1 and Project Portfolio Server 2007 may also support IE 9.

There is a small known issue with editing some of the grids in Project Server 2007 and Project Server 2010. When the entire contents of an editable cell are deleted, that cell becomes un-editable until the page is refreshed. Therefore, when modifying the content of a cell, you must ensure that all the content of the cell is not completely removed. To completely replace the contents of the cell, select the whole text and replace that with the new string. This issue affects the grid on the following pages:

There are also known issues with changing a project owner in the project information page, and adding or removing project fields in project detail pages. We are working across IE and Microsoft Project teams to fix all these issues soon. We will update when the fixes are available.

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.

•  
  • Description of the SharePoint Foundation 2010 hotfix package (Sts-x-none.msp): December 14, 2010
  • http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2459125

ETA for release is the week of 12/27/2010.

•  
  • Description of the SharePoint Server 2010 and Project Server 2010 Cumulative Update Server Hotfix Package (MOSS server-package, Project server-package): December 14, 2010
  • http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2459258

Project Client Package:

Available Now

•  
  • Description of the Office Project 2010 hotfix package (project-x-none.msp): December 14, 2010
  • http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2466263

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. 

1. Download the hotfix from the link in the KB Article.
2. Extract the patch package by running the .exe file that you downloaded.
3. Run the extracted .exe file to apply the patch to your Project Professional/Standard client.

Project and Project Server 2007

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.

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.

•  
  • Description of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack SP2
  • http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953338

•  
  • Description of 2007 Microsoft Office servers Service Pack 2 and of 2007 Microsoft Office servers Language Pack Service Pack 2
  • http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953334

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.

You can read about the fixes included in the December CU from the following articles:

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.

Server Rollup Packages:

ETA for release is the week of 12/27/2010.

•  
  • Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Cumulative Update Server Hotfix Package (WSS server-package): December 14, 2010
  • http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2458606

Available Now

•  
  • Description of the Office SharePoint Server 2007 Cumulative Update server hotfix package (MOSS server-package): December 14, 2010
  • http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2458605

Individual Product Packages:

ETA for release is the week of 12/27/2010.

•  
  • Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 hotfix package (sts-x-none.msp): December 14, 2010
  • http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2458600

Available Now

•  
  • Description of the Project Server 2007 hotfix package (pjsrvapp-x-none.msp, pjsrvwfe-x-none.msp): December 14, 2010
  • http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2458607

Available Now

•  
  • Description of the Office Project 2007 hotfix package (project-x-none.msp):December 14, 2010
  • http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2479429

Client Installation:

In order to install this hotfix, you will need to have Microsoft Project 2007 SP2 installed on the client.

•  
  • Description of Office Project 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and of Office Project Language Pack 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2)
  • http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953326

Once we know that SP2 is installed, you will install the hotfix by performing the following steps:

  NOTE: Microsoft strongly recommends testing within a NON-Production environment prior to rollout. 

1. Download the hotfix from either the KB Article or by using the information at the end of this email.
2. Extract the patch package by running the .exe file that you downloaded.
3. Run the extracted .exe file to apply the patch to your Project Professional/Standard SP1 client.

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!