EPM, Microsoft Project and You

BY: Collin Quiring

The way the ribbon works is that the format tab will automatically appear based upon the view that you are in at the time.  And, the options that the ribbon contains at that point are based upon the view so that you have options that are appropriate to the view.  This “always” works.

I was working in Project Professional 2013 and wanted to change the formatting in the view that I was in.  The problem was immediately obvious to me, the format tab was not appearing in the ribbon.  But, it is “always” there.  I tried other views and for a few of them, it appeared, for others it did not.  I closed out of Professional and re-opened it (I was not connected to a server so it was purely a local client issue).  I even rebooted my computer, but no difference.

Since I had been working in Professional the whole time and since I hadn’t done anything special I know for a fact that I did NOT do anything to make this stop happening.  However, I have used computers long enough to know that the “impossible” happens quite often.

Project Professional 2013 is new and there may be some sort of bug or it may have been something on my computer in the background (again, it was NOT something that I did) or it could have been anything happening that I don’t know about.  I am not sure about how it happened, just that it did.

So, the key item – how did I get it fixed?  Well, with the help of Project MVP Julie Sheets we discovered that a few of my format tabs had been turned off!  How, we don’t know.  But, the fix was to turn them back on and the world was a happy place again.

How do you turn them on?  Go to File — > Options — > Customize Ribbon and then go to Customize the Ribbon on the left hand side and select the Tools selection from the drop down or select the All Tabs option.  Then, scroll down until you find the Tools option and the Format option.  Select the checkbox next to each Format option.  This is what was randomly turned off on a number of mine.

 

BY: Collin Quiring

As more and more of my users get Internet Explorer (IE) 10 I am getting questions about error messages.  To clarify, as of this writing, IE 10 and Project Server 2010 don’t play well together.

Some screens within Project Web App (PWA) appear to work and some others don’t work at all.  One of the error messages that you get is unfortunately a very unhelpful and non-accurate message.  It states that Project Server 2010 feature requires at least Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0.  But, you are already using version 10!

 

So, first thing is to ignore that message.  Don’t click on “Go Back to Site.

You have two options here to fix this.  The first one is the immediate fix but requires you to do it every time you hit one of these pages.  In the address bar is the “Compatibility View” icon.

 

Selecting this should make the screen open properly and you can go on until you get the error again and then you hit the icon again.

The other option is to try and use the Compatibility View Settings.  To do this, go to IE– > Tools — > Compatibility View Settings —  >  and then add the website to the list.  I say “try” this because it hasn’t worked for me yet.  I have a couple websites in my list that don’t work right and I have to hit the icon in the address bar anyway.  There are other options in the Compatibility View as well that might work for you.  Those are outlined here:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd567845(v=VS.85).aspx .

BY:  Ali Salih

 

Just a quick note for a strange error we got while trying to get an OLAP cube to work in Project Server 2010.  The problem seems to be that we were using a non-default directory for Analysis Services.  Every time that we ran the cube we got the following error message:

===== Initiating OLAP database build process =====

[12/17/2012 8:37 AM] Cube build request message has been added to the Project Server queue

===== Verifying and running pre-build server event handler =====

[12/17/2012 8:37 AM] Verifying and running pre-build server event handler

===== Determining database and OLAP database structure =====

[12/17/2012 8:37 AM] Cube build initialization started

[12/17/2012 8:37 AM] OLAP database and cube structure was determined successfully

===== Building database and cubes =====

[12/17/2012 8:37 AM] Cube build session started

[12/17/2012 8:37 AM] Analysis Services server failed to build OLAP database. Error: Error Adding DataSource ‘Project Reporting data source’ to database ‘Proj10Cube’. Error: Errors in the metadata manager. Either the database with the ID of ‘Proj10Cube’ does not exist in the server with the ID of ‘xxxxx’, or the user does not have permissions to access the object.

===== Process Completed =====

[12/17/2012 8:37 AM] Failed to build the OLAP cubes. Error: Error Adding DataSource ‘Project Reporting data source’ to database ‘Proj10Cube’. Error: Errors in the metadata manager. Either the database with the ID of ‘Proj10Cube’ does not exist in the server with the ID of ‘xxxxx’, or the user does not have permissions to access the object.

This error might be due to NTFS permissions on the data directory for OLAPDATA. A permission addition might be needed.  Since we were using a non default directory, the normal settings weren’t automatically set.

• Add the SQLServerMSASUser${SERVERNAMEHERE}$MSSQLSERVER local security group to the data directory for Analysis Services.

You can check the data directory from properties on Analysis Server, Right Click and go to Properties.

 

 

BY: Collin Quiring

Recently an associate created a Project Detail Page (PDP) that had a large number of fields in it.  He added the appropriate custom and standard project fields (about 25) to the PDP knowing that he would have to create a very similar PDP immediately afterwards.  The second PDP had to have all of the fields of the first one plus an additional number of fields (about 10 more for a total of 35).  And, he didn’t want to have to recreate the second PDP from scratch.

When he asked how to copy the PDP I told him it was relatively easy in that he would just go to the Server Settings and Project Detail Pages page which lists all the PDP’s and then select the one he wanted and click on the Download a Copy, save it with a new file name and then use the Upload Document button and there it is – your new PDP!

Well, not so fast.  What we just copied was really the Name, Display Name, Page Type and it wants me to add my own Description.  That might be nice but what we needed in this case was for the 25 fields that he had added in the first PDP that we THOUGHT we were copying to the new PDP.  The problem is that the custom fields do NOT copy along with the PDP.  The 25 fields that we really wanted to copy are in the web part that were within the first PDP.

After some Bing-ing and Google-ing I didn’t discover a solution so I present our solution (which, you need to remember, is free so you might be getting what you paid for here! J  )

A SharePoint expert might have had a more elegant method to solve the problem but here is how we did it.

1. From the Project Detail Pages – All Documents screen we selected the first PDP to open that page with the 25 fields.
2. We selected the Export option on that page and saved the web part.
3. We then went back to the Project Detail Pages – All Documents screen and selected the new PDP page – which opened a totally blank screen.
4. On the new blank PDP we selected Site Actions – Edit Page.
5. We then selected Add a Web Part
6. At the bottom left of the screen under that Categories scroll bar is the Upload a Web Part option.
7. We selected the web part that we just created (in step 2 above).
8. Then, right next to the Browse button is the Upload button which we selected.
9. Selecting Upload kicked us back to the Add a Web Part again and we had to select it again to get right back to the Categories options in the Edit Page.
10. In the Categories options at the top of the list is now an option for Imported Web Parts.
11. When selecting that Category the Web Part now shows up that we just uploaded.
12. We then selected that web part and clicked on Add
13. Then we added the10 new fields and we were done!
14. That’s it, a lucky thirteen “simple” steps to make the original 25 fields available in a new PDP so that we didn’t have to retype them.

 

BY:  Pete Evangelista

When a project schedule has both Local Resources and Enterprise Resources assigned to the same task there are some unique challenges that are presented to the Project Manager during the task update process.  The following example outlines how durations, work and other calculations are done by Project Professional 2010 and Project Server 2010 when the update process uses timesheets in Project Server.

We have been asked by Project Managers and Resource Managers as to why the duration of some of their tasks seem to increase into unexpected amounts.  In this case, they are used to manually updating the task in Project Professional directly.  But, now that they are using Project Server and getting updates from Project Server Team Members directly but when they go to manually update the Local Resource’s work they are seeing that the duration of the task is no longer what they originally set.

After some research, it was discovered that this happened whenever the Enterprise Resource updated their tasks but did not update it to 100% complete.  Here is an example and explanation of what is happening.

I have a task in my plan:  69- Review Sponsor’s Access to PMO site.  It’s a fixed worked task.  I set the work to 4 hrs and assigned myself (a resource in the pool who does timesheets) and Joe Sponsor (a local resource) each 100% to the task.  Project made a 2 hr task assignment for me and a 2 hr task assignment for Joe Sponsor on Wed 8/14/12.  Here is a snapshot of the Project Professional Gantt chart view:

Here is the TASK USAGE view from Project Professional (helpful for analyzing how resources are USED on TASKS):

Seeing that this is what I expect for myself and the local resource Joe Sponsor, I then save and publish the schedule.

Once on Project Server, I open my timesheet.  The task shows up as expected with 2 hours assigned to me.  For purposes of this example, I will update the task to indicate that I have spent 1.5 hours on it.  With no other time recorded on it and no other modifications or entries, I record 1.5 hours on 8/14 and I then save and submit that time:

After submitting the timesheet/task update and the Project Manager approving the task, this is what shows in Project Professional.  I went to the Task Usage view and insert the following columns for demonstration purposes:

Actual Work – 1.5 hours, just as I reported

Remaining Work – 2.5 hrs – .5hrs left for me, and 2 hrs left for Joe Sponsor.

% Work Complete – is a calculation based on Work.  I’ve done 1.5 of the 4 hours of work.  So, 1.5 divided by 4 is 37.5% (rounded to 38% by Professional)

Now, it gets a bit interesting in the Duration calculations..

Duration – .31 days (or 2.5 hrs) – This is because I marked 1.5 hrs done (75% done).  I still have .5 hours LEFT to go – in other words, .5 hrs / 8hr per day = .0625 days duration.  THE KEY ITEM is that because Project received the update from Timesheets, it assumes that NO MORE WORK will be done on that day.  It ADDS the remaining work to the currently scheduled duration.  In this case, add .0625 to the original .25 day duration to get .3125 days (rounded to .31).  So, the Fixed Work task remains at 4 hours BUT the duration has now been extended.

Note that the planned finish time is now 10:30 a.m., not 10:00 a.m.  We would expect that the new Finish Date wouldn’t be 10:30 on the same day but would rather put that 30 minutes on the next day since it is already assuming that the duration has to increase.  Maybe that is a bug?  Maybe that is an oddity of the way the calculation is done?  Either way, it does make logical sense that the duration has been extended based on our update.

% Complete –  is a calculation based on duration of the both resources over the total duration.  In this case, 1.5hrs / 4.5 hrs (total duration) = 34% (with some rounding).

Actual Duration – Is a calculation of Duration (now .31 days) *% Complete (.34) = .1054 or .11

Remaining Duration – Is Planned Duration of .3125 days minus the Actual Duration of .1054 (.11)  days to get .2071 days (.21 with rounding).

So, we understand why the Project Manager sees a Duration and Remaining Duration that don’t necessarily make sense at first glance.  However, the system is producing a logical result when broken down into its calculation method.

BY: Collin Quiring

Sometimes two projects on the same Project Server 2010 instance are being managed separately, perhaps even by different groups or organizations, but they have inter-dependencies. When doing Google and Bing searches for the best way to do that, I keep running into sites stating that you need a Master Schedule.  This isn’t the case.  And, in many situations, having a Master Schedule is much more damaging to Resource loading and other areas that they aren’t worth it (hence why there is even an option to NOT allow Master Schedules to be published at all…but I digress).

Also, I suspect there is a bug in the way that I have seen others explaining how to do this.  That is highlighted below.

I thought I would just post a quick “how to” when you want to link tasks within different projects but not have a Master Schedule to deal with.  I have two schedules built on the same Project Server 2010 instance.  They are named ScheduleONE and ScheduleTWO.  ScheduleONE currently has four tasks, all at 2 days duration and all linked sequentially like this:

ScheduleTWO has tasks with 4 day durations and is linked sequentially like this:

 

Both of these are saved to the server (they don’t need to be published for this to work).  For our example, we have decided that for Task C in ScheduleONE to be completed Task 4 in ScheduleTWO must be completed.  Or, using the Project parlance – ScheduleTWO, Task 4 is a predecessor for ScheduleONE, task C.

Now is the critical part – the syntax.  To link between projects, the syntax is to have <>\Project Name\Task ID  .  NOTE – that is the task ID, not the task name!  So, in our case, the syntax is going to be: <>\ScheduleTWO\4.  And, we are going to put that as the predecessor for Task C.  The natural way to do this, and normally the documented way, is to go to the Task Information for the task, and add that syntax to the ID field in the predecessor tab.  And, it APPEARS to work – in fact, you get this result:

All appears well – the syntax in the ID field, and the system has even put in the text for “External Task”.  But, when you click on OK, nothing happens.  No error and no result.  Hence why I think this is a bug.

However, this is easily resolved.  Just put the syntax into the Predecessor column text field directly like this:

 

Now, after you hit enter, the predecessor will be in place.  And, if you have the “show external predecessor/successor” set to display then you will see the ScheduleTWO task in ScheduleONE as a grayed out task like this:

 

AND, in ScheduleTWO, Task C will automatically appear like this:

No need for a Master Schedule and when you have the syntax down and the work-around for the predecessor bug, it works great!

 

 

BY: Collin Quiring

Having recently worked on two separate Project Server 2010 implementations where each organization used the Timesheet functions I have come across a few gotcha’s that I think might be helpful to document.

This article will discuss the Timesheet Chain.  This is where the timesheet is approved but when the approver approves the timesheet they have to send it on to another approver.  Even though they approved it, the timesheet still isn’t really approved until the last person in the chain does the approval.  In one case, we had four people involved with three approvers.

For example, this is the way it worked:

Team Member  — >  Manager A — > Manager B — > Manager C

This is the way it worked “out of the box”.  We didn’t set up any special groups or settings.  In researching it, we had to first figure out why it did the chain approval.  Each person’s Timesheet Manager was the person that the approval was going to and Manager C was their own Timesheet Manager.  (They were all their own Default Assignment Owner.)

For example, from their user setup screens:

The Team Member:

 

The first manager:

 

The second Manager:

 

And the third and final manager:

 

So, that was easy enough to see WHY it was chaining.  Since each Manager was the next manager’s Timesheet Manager it kept going through the process.  But, this setup is correct in that we really did want Manager B to report to Manager C.  We really did want the Team Member to report to Manager A.  HOWEVER, we wanted it to stop at one approval.

 

The users were all setup in groups with no selected permissions in their own user setup.  The default group settings were not changed.  The Managers were all in the Resource Manager group, the Team Member in the Team member group.  The RBS was setup but doesn’t appear to play a role in this situation.  We searched high and low and were able to piece together the following three pieces that all work in tandem.

 

Here is gotcha number one:

The system needs to be setup so that the resource that you want to approve timesheets has the “Approve Timesheet” permission.   (Note – there is an “Accept Timesheet” and an “Approve Timesheet” permission.)  When an individual has the “Approve Timesheet” permission it should stop at that point.  They need to have the “Accept Timesheets” permission set to allow in the Global Permissions for the group as well.  In our case, no joy.

 

Here is gotcha number two:

In the timesheet settings you have to turn off (uncheck) the Fixed Approval Routing in the Timesheet Settings and Default screen.  (Note – unchecking this only stops the Managers from “selecting” who the timesheet goes to, it does NOT stop the routing from happening.)

 

Here is gotcha number three:

The permissions for this are based on the Category within the group.  The Manager who is approving the timesheet must have the Approve Timesheet permission IN THE CATEGORY that the Team Member has on their group.

Let’s walk through Manager A.

• Manager A was in the Resource Manager group.
  • The Resource Manager Group global permissions had the “Accept Timesheets” permission:

   

  • The My Resources Category had all Resource permissions checked, including the “Approve Timesheet”
  • 

• Still, when Manager A approved the timesheet, it went to Manager B.
• So, we looked at the Team Member.  The Team Member had the Category “My Tasks” in the Team Member Group settings.
• Therefore, we went back to the Resource Manager and added My Tasks to the Category and gave it one permission – Approve Timesheets

 

And, finally, it stopped routing to the next manager.

Now, when Team Member updates the timesheet, Manager A approves it and it is done.  Manager A’s timesheet is approved only by Manager B and Manager B by Manager C.

This article is an overview for the diagram that can be found here:  http://pmpspecialists.com/WhitePapers.html  and is called “Timsheet and Task Update Workflow”.

The diagram and this article are a high level overview and are to help with understanding the workflow in Project Server 2010 for using Timesheets and Task Updates.  The goal is to demonstrate how the timesheet “splits” into two separate flows (from a system perspective).

First, it helps to understand that in Timesheets there are two basic types of work being accounted for:

1. Work assigned in schedules as tasks
2. NON-scheduled work called Administrative tasks

NON-scheduled tasks include things like Sick Time, Vacation, Jury Duty or other items that you want to track within your organization.

Secondly, there are two perspectives to think about – the Project Manager and the Timesheet Manager.  These are not necessarily the same person as the Timesheet Manager is the person approving the number of hours a person worked and may not even be a Project Manager.  The Project Manager may have only one task for an individual that takes only a few hours of their week and from their perspective, they don’t care whether or not the individual worked 4, 40 or 90 hours during the week.  They care about whether or not the individual worked on the tasks they were assigned and how that work (or lack thereof) affected the overall schedule.

When an individual enters their time, the timesheet “splits” into two separate flows:  one for the Project Manager(s) and one for the Timesheet Manager.  The splits are named based on their type – the updates of time on scheduled tasks are called Status Updates and the other items along with the overall timesheet are considered Timesheet Updates.

Not represented in the diagram is that Timesheet Managers can set up rules about accepting updates.  And, it is also an automatic setting that if you are your own Timesheet Manager that your update will be accepted.  So, it is important to understand that the diagram and this brief post are about the high level workflow and doesn’t try to include every setting that can be made to automate this process or the cases where a Project Manager and Timesheet Manager are the same person.

BY:  Collin Quiring

Updated: September 11, 2012

I am asked “What release (version) of Project do I have?” and “What is the latest update?” quite often and this is an attempt to help answer those questions.  And, this also answers the question about what the differences are between a hotfix, patch, update and service pack.

Please note – always read the installation instructions on any update for software as there are pre-requisites that sometimes must be installed first or at best the update won’t work and at worst case it could stop your program from working at all.  And, of course, always back up your software and data prior to patching anything!  Also note that it is important that the Server and Client versions of the software stay as close to the same version as possible with updates as problems can occur if they are not equal.

2010 Versions

Note that along with Project Server 2010 you need to update SharePoint Server 2010.  They aren’t just dating like they we in 2007, they are fully married now and almost always both have to be updated for full effect.  (I put some SharePoint 2010 update information at the end of this post.)

To see what version of Project Professional 2010 is on your computer, open Professional, go to File, Help and on the right hand side will be the Version number under the “About Microsoft Project” heading.  This is known as the “Backstage” area and is listed that way in the table below.  There is also a link called “Additional Versions and Copyright Information” which gives a bit more information if you select it.  Or, you can go to your Control Panel and view the version at that location.  The version numbers will look different in the Control Panel or in the Professional.  The list of the Project Professional versions are in the following table.

 

Some of the information in the tables below for Project 2010 and Project Server 2010 comes from Brian Smith’s blog (http://bit.ly/cHxHPW).

Project Professional 2010

 

Release	Binary Version	KB
Initial Release	Control Panel – 14.0.4763.1000 BackStage – 14.0.4760.1000 Under Additional Versions and Copyright Information – Microsoft Project 2010   (14.0.4751.1000) MSO(14.0.4760.1000) MSO may be different depending on other Office KBs installed
June 2010 CU	KB 2075992 will show in installed updates BackStage – 14.0.4760.1000 Under Additional Versions and Copyright Information – Microsoft Project 2010   (14.0.5112.5000) MSO(14.0.4760.1000) MSO may be different depending on other Office KBs installed	KB 2075992
August 2010 CU	NA – No client release for August. MSO may change if other   Office updates loaded	NA
October 2010 CU	KB 2413663 will show in installed updates. Backstage   14.0.5128.5000. Under Additional Versions and Copyright Information –   Microsoft Project 2010 (14.0.5126.5000) MSO(14.0.5128.5000) MSO may be different depending on other Office KBs installed	KB 2413663
December 2010 CU	KB 2466263 will show in installed updates. Backstage   (File, Help) 14.0.5128.5000. Under Additional Versions and Copyright   Information – Microsoft Project 2010 (14.0.5130.5000) MSO(14.0.5128.5000) MSO may be different depending on other Office KBs installed	KB 2466263
February 2011 CU	KB 2496946 will show in installed updates. Backstage (File, Help) 14.0.5128.5000. Under Additional   Versions and Copyright Information – Microsoft Project 2010 (14.0.5130.5000)   MSO(14.0.5128.5000) MSO may be different depending on other Office KBs installed	KB 2496946
April 2011 CU	KB 2516479 will show in installed updates. Backstage (File, Help) 14.0.5137.5000. Under Additional   Versions and Copyright Information – Microsoft Project 2010 (14.0.5137.5000)   MSO(14.0.5128.5000) MSO may be different depending on other Office KBs installed	KB   2516479
June 2011 CU	KB 2536590 will show in installed updates. Backstage (File, Help) 14.0.6023.1000. Under Additional   Versions and Copyright Information – Microsoft Project 2010 (14.0.6106.5000)   MSO(14.0.6023.1000) MSO may be different depending on other Office KBs installed – 6023.1000   relates to SP1 in this example.	KB   2536590

 

June 2011                 Service Pack 1 – Build 14.0.6106.5000        KB 2460047

August 2011             Build 14.0.6109.5000                                      KB 2584056

October 2011           Build 14.0.6112.5000                                       KB 2596498

December 2011       Build 14.0.6114.5000                                       KB 2597006

For Project Server 2010

Also from Brian Smith’s blog (http://bit.ly/cHxHPW) is this information on how to run a query or use the control panel to get the version.

The version can be different depending where you look, so I will tabulate the version you will see in Control Panel, Programs and Features (binary version) or on the individual binaries – which is also listed in Central Administration under Upgrade and Migration, Check Product and Patch Installation Status – and also the version you will see in the databases. I’ll mention too various other components that might be of interest. I have listed just the Project Server KB for the CU – but the DB Version noted for SharePoint assumes that either a SharePoint Server or Server rollup has also been installed

As a reminder to get the version from the database there is a table in each SharePoint DB, and each Project Server DB called Versions so a query such as the following will return the current version, which will be the highest Version next to the NULL GUID.

USE <PROJECTSERVERNAME>_Published

SELECT * FROM Versions

WHERE VersionId =’00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000′

Release	Binary Version	DB Version	KB
Initial Release	14.0.4763.1000	Project – 14.0.4750.1000 SharePoint – 14.0.4762.1000
June 2010 CU	14.0.5114.5003 – See KB for individual binary versions –   KB will show in Installed Updates	Project – 14.0.5114.5000 SharePoint – 14.0.5114.5000	KB 2075990
August 2010 CU	14.0.5123.5000 See KB for individual binary versions – KB will show in Installed Updates	Project – 14.0.5114.5000 (no change from June) SharePoint – 14.0.5123.5000	KB 2276341
October 2010 CU	14.0.5126.5003 Re-released – See KB for individual binary   versions – KB will show in Installed Updates	Project – 14.0.5114.5000 (still no change from June) SharePoint – 14.0.5128.5000	KB 2394322
December 2010 CU	14.0.5130.5000 See KB for individual binary   versions. KB will show in installed updates	Project – 14.0.5130.500SharePoint 14.0.5130.5002	KB 2459258
February 2011 CU	14.0.5136.5000 See KB for individual binary versions. KB will show   in installed updates	Project – 14.0.5135.5000SharePoint - 14.0.5136.5002	KB 2475879
April 2011 CU	14.0.5138.5000 See KB for individual binary versions. KB will show   in installed updates	Project – 14.0.5137.5000SharePoint - 14.0.5138.5001	KB   2512801
June 2011 CU	14.0.6106.5002 See KB for individual binary versions. KB will show   in installed updates	Project – 14.0.6105.5000SharePoint - 14.0.6106.5002	KB   2536600

June 2011                       Service Pack 1 – Build ​​14.0.6029.1000      KB 2460047

August 2011                   Build 14.0.6109.5005                                     KB 2553049

October 2011                 Build 14.0.6112.5000                                      KB 2596506

December 2011             Build 14.0.6114.5000                                      KB 2597015

February 2012 CU            Project Build 14.0.6117.5002                              KB 2597152

April 2012 CU                Project Build 14.0.6120.5006                               KB 2598152

June 2012 CU                Project Build 14.0.6123.5002                               KB 2597015

 

­2007 Versions

To determine the version of Project that you have, open Project Professional, go to Help and then select About.  (There are other ways to determine the version, but we will only cover this one method.)

A pop-up box will appear and the top line will have the information that answers the question “What version of Project do I have?”  The first part of the line will be descriptive of the version and will say something like “Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003” or “Microsoft Office Project 2007” (or 2000, 2002, 2010) as appropriate.

The next part of that line is the “File Version” or “Build” for that product.  If you have installed a Service Pack then the file version or build of the Service Pack is listed as well.  Here is an example:

“Microsoft Office Project 2007 (12.0.6524.5000) SP2 MSO (12.0.6425.1000)”

This means that this computer is using Project 2007 with the December 15, 2009 hotfix update (found by knowing what the number “12.0.6524.5000” means) and with Service Pack 2 that has been updated with the latest Office Service Pack (that is what “12.0.6425.1000” means).

I have included a list below of the Project 2007 release numbers as of today, with the Microsoft KB article explaining the modifications:

Project client Release   Name	Project client   Version Number	KB Article
Initial Release	12.0.4518.1016
January 28th Hotfix	12.0.6300.5000	941657
March 22nd Hotfix	12.0.6300.5000	950284
April 30th Hotfix	12.0.6312.5000	952067
May 8th Hotfix	12.0.6314.5000	952293
Service Pack 1	12.0.6215.1000	937154
Infrastructure Update	12.0.6318.5000	951547
August 2008 Cumulative Update	12.0.6327.5000	956060
October 2008 Cumulative Update	12.0.6331.5000	958138
December 2008 Cumulative Update	12.0.6334.5000	959643
February 2009 Cumulative Update	12.0.6341.5002	966308
Service Pack 2	12.0.6423.1000	953326
April 2009 Cumulative Update	12.0.6503.5000	969409
June 2009 Cumulative Update	12.0.6510.5000	971501
August 2009 Cumulative Update	12.0.6514.5000	973930
December 2009 Cumulative Update	12.0.6524.5000	977266
February 2010 Cumulative Update	12.0.6529.5000	980209
April 2010 Cumulative Update	12.0.6535.5000	981732
June 2010 Cumulative Update	12.0.6539.5000	2028571
July 2010 Hotfix	12.0.6539.5004	2290529
August 2010 Cumulative Update	12.0.6545.5000	2289175
October 2010 Cumulative Update	12.0.6548.5000	2412260
December 2010 Cumulative Update	12.0.6550.5000	2458602
February 2011 Cumulative Update	12.0.6554.5000	2483215
April 2011 Cumulative Update	12.0.6557.5000	2534046
June 2011 Cumulative Update	12.0.6562.5000	2552541
August 2011 Cumulative Update	12.0.6565.5000	2553105
October 2011 Service Pack 3	12.0.6612.1000	2526091
October 2011 Cumulative Update	12.0.6654.5000	2596533
December 2011 Cumulative Update	12.0.6656.5000	2596984

I don’t have a full listing for Project 2003 like I provided above for 2007, but here are the original release values for Project 2003:

Office program	Release version	SP1	SP2	SP3
Project 2003	11.0.2003.816	11.1.2004.1707	11.2.2005.1801.15	11.3.2007.1529

 

How do you determine what version of Project Server are you running?  If you go to the Project Server itself, to the currently installed program list it will have a line for Project Server.  In the 2007 version, that is called “Microsoft Office Project Server 2007”.  When you select that line, there is a “Click here for support information” option.  Selecting that will bring up a pop-up with the server version of the product that you are using.

As a rule, the file version of the Server should be the same as the file version on the Client.  When the client says this:  “Microsoft Office Project 2007 (12.0.6524.5000) SP2 MSO (12.0.6425.1000)” the Server version should also be “12.0.6425.1000” – demonstrating that they are on the same Service Pack.

Here are the Project Server 2007 release numbers as of today:

 

Project Server Release   Name	Project Server Version   Number	KB Article
Initial Release	12.0.4518.1016
January 31 Hotfix Package	12.0.6300.5000	941426
April 3rd Hotfix Package	12.0.6309.5000	950816
April 22nd Hotfix Package	12.0.6312.5000	951169
April 29  Hotfix Package	12.0.6313.5000	952000
May 8th Hotfix Package	12.0.6314.5000	952289
June 2nd Hotfix Package	12.0.6316.5000	953136
June 9th Hotfix Package	12.0.6317.5000	953478
Service Pack 1	12.0.6218.1000	936134
Infrastructure Update	12.0.6318.5000	951297
August 2008 Cumulative Update	12.0.6327.5000	956061
October 2008 Cumulative Update	12.0.6331.5000	957696
December 2008 Cumulative Update	12.0.6335.5000	960313
February 2009 Cumulative Update	12.0.6341.5002	968271
Service Pack 2	12.0.6422.1000	953334
April 2009 Cumulative Update	12.0.6503.5000	968860
June 2009 Cumulative Update	12.0.6510.5003	971502
August 2009 Cumulative Update	12.0.6514.5000	973937
December 2009 Cumulative Update	12.0.6514.5000	977028
February 2010 Cumulative Update	12.0.6529.5000	978397
April 2010 Cumulative Update	12.0.6535.5000	981044
June 2010 Cumulative Update	12.0.6539.5000	983312
July 2010 Hotfix	12.0.6539.5004	2290258
August 2010 Cumulative Update	12.0.6545.5000	2276475
October 2010 Cumulative Update	12.0.6548.5000	2412269
December 2010 Cumulative Update	12.0.6550.5000	2458607
February 2011 Cumulative Update	12.0.6554.5000	2475887
April 2011 Cumulative Update	12.0.6557.5000	2512784
June 2011 Cumulative Update	12.0.6562.5000	2544400
August 2011 Cumulative Update	12.0.6565.5000	2553024
October 2011 Service Pack 3	12.0.6612.1000	2526299
October 2011 Cumulative Update	12.0.6554.5000	2596542
December 2011 Cumulative Update	12.0.6656.5001	2596989

 

Finally, here are the definitions and differences of the various update types (as taken directly from Microsoft’s TechNet Project information and/or support.microsoft.com):

Hotfix:

A hotfix is a single cumulative package composed of one or more files used to address a problem in a product. A hotfix addresses a specific customer situation and is distributed by Microsoft Customer Service and Support. Customers may not redistribute hotfixes without written, legal consent from Microsoft.  Individual hotfix releases are no longer available. Hotfixes are released to customers by Microsoft Customer Service and Support through cumulative updates.

On-demand (OD):

An on-demand hotfix must meet certain criteria. The customer’s business must be functioning with minor or no impediment of services. These criteria include a lack of an effective workaround, a critical business effect, or other reasons.

Cumulative Update:

A Cumulative update is a method of providing hotfix releases on a scheduled delivery basis for Office Server products, including Office Project Server 2007. Through this model, Office hotfixes are released every two months in the form of a downloadable package of current and previous hotfixes. The primary goal is to deliver high-quality fixes on a predictable schedule.

Service Pack:

A service pack is a tested, cumulative set of all hotfixes, security updates, critical updates, and updates. Service packs may also contain additional fixes for problems that are found internally since the release of the product and a limited number of customer-requested design changes or features. Microsoft service packs are public updates that are available for download from the Microsoft Download Center.  Service Packs are usually released 12-18 months after the product (or last Service Pack) was released.

Infrastructure Updates:

The Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers is a set of public updates to improve platform performance and also contains several customer-driven fixes.

Critical Update:

A critical update is a broadly released fix for a specific problem that addresses a critical, non-security-related bug.

Critical-on-demand (COD):

A Critical-on-Demand hotfix is requested by a customer who experiences significant loss or degradation of business services.

Security Update:

A security update is a widely released fix for a product-specific, security-related vulnerability. Security vulnerabilities are rated based on their severity. The severity rating is indicated in the Microsoft security bulletin as critical, important, moderate, or low.

Public Update:

An update is a widely released fix for a specific problem. An update addresses a noncritical, non-security-related bug.

Update Rollup:

An update rollup is a tested, cumulative set of hotfixes, security updates, critical updates, and updates that are packaged together for easy deployment. A rollup generally targets a specific area, such as security, or a component of a product, such as Internet Information Services (IIS).

Upgrade:

An upgrade is a software package that replaces an installed version of a product with a newer version of the same product. The upgrade process typically leaves existing customer data and preferences intact while replacing the existing software with the newer version.

NOTE:

The SharePoint updates also are important.  I ran across this blog posting from Technet’s Joe’s SharePoint Blog (sorry, I don’t know the author’s name).  (http://blogs.technet.com/b/sharepointjoe/archive/2011/02/01/sp2010-sharepoint-2010-build-level-and-version-numbers.aspx)

I removed non-SharePoint information and the download and revisions columns.

 

Build	Release	Affected   Objects	​KB Info
14.0.4763.1000	RTM	All components	​
14.0.4762.1000	RTM	Farm Build   Version	​
			​
14.0.5114.5003	June 2010 CU	SharePoint Foundation 2010	KB2028568
14.0.5114.5003	June 2010 CU	Microsoft Shared Components	KB2281364
14.0.5114.5003	June 2010 CU	Microsoft SharePoint Portal	KB983497
14.0.5114.5003	June 2010 CU	Microsoft User Profiles
14.0.5114.5003	June 2010 CU	Microsoft Search Server 2010 Core
14.0.5114.5003	June 2010 CU	Microsoft Web Analytics Web Front End   Components	KB2204024
14.0.5123.5000	August   2010 CU	SharePoint Foundation​ 2010	KB2352346
14.0.5123.5000	August   2010 CU	SharePoint Server 2010	KB2352342
14.0.5128.5000

​October   2010 CU​SharePoint Foundation​ 2010KB2394323​14.0.5128.5000​October   2010 CU​SharePoint Server 2010​KB2394320​​​​​14.0.5130.5002​​December 2010 CUSharePoint Foundation 2010

​KB2459125   ​14.0.5130.5002​

​December 2010 CU​SharePoint Server 2010​KB2459257​​​​​14.0.5136.5002​February 2011 CU​SharePoint Foundation 2010

​KB2475880​14.0.5136.5002​February 2011 CU​SharePoint Server 2010​KB2475878​​​​14.0.5138.5000​April 2011 CU​SharePoint Foundation 2010​KB2512804​14.0.5138.5000​April 2011 CUSharePoint Server 2010​​KB2512800​14.0.6029.1000​Service Pack 1​SharePoint Server 2010​KB2460045​14.0.6029.1000​Service Pack 1​Office Web AppsKB2460073​14.0.6029.1000​Service Pack 1​SharePoint Foundation 2010KB2460058​​​​​14.0.6105.5000​June 2011 CU Version 1​​SharePoint Server 2010​KB2536599​14.0.6105.5000​June 2011 CU Version 1​SharePoint Foundation 2010KB2536601​​​​​14.0.6106.5002​​June 2011 CU Version 2​​​SharePoint Server 2010​KB2536599​14.0.6106.5002​​June 2011 CU Version 2​SharePoint Foundation 2010KB2536601​14.0.6105.5000​June 2011 CU​Office Web AppsKB2553919​​​​14.0.6109.5002​August 2011 CU​SharePoint Server 2010KB255304814.0.6109.5000​August 2011 CU​​SharePoint Foundation 2010KB255311714.6112.5000​October 2011 CU​SharePoint Server 2010KB259650514.6112.5000​​October 2011 CU​​​SharePoint Foundation 2010KB259650814.6112.5000​​October 2011 CU​​Project Server 2010KB2596506

 

This article, written by Collin Quiring, first appeared in Wellington Project Management newsletter in December  2011. (http://www.projectserver2010.co.uk/2011/11/08/resource-management-with-project-server-2010/)

Last time we started this two-part article by asking some questions about resource management that might be on your mind.  We focused on six questions.  They were:

• ·         Who is working on what projects?
• ·         What tasks are they doing on those projects?
• ·         When are they doing those tasks?
• ·         How many hours of work are assigned for those tasks?
• ·         What is the capacity of each person?
• ·         Who is scheduled to their capacity, over-capacity or dramatically over-capacity?

We also focused on how to see all the resources assigned to one project and then seeing how one resource can see their information.  Our goal in this article is to see how Project Server 2010 allows us to see the information for a resource assigned to many different projects and to see all the resources from the perspective of a schedule or multiple schedules.

In Part One, we looked at our resource, Shelly Smith, for a time period where she was assigned to one schedule.  Now, we need to look at a time period where Shelly is assigned to many different schedules.  Since the picture view might be more easily understood, we will review that one first.  The black line represents Shelly’s capacity – at 40 hours a week.  The blue bar represents the amount of work assigned.  We can easily see that she is way over capacity!