EPM, Microsoft Project and You

BY: Collin Quiring

The February Cumulative Update was recently released for Project Professional 2010.  As with most updates, this brings a few questions to mind.

How do I know which version, or build, of Project Professional 2010 is on my computer?

How do I know which version, or build, is the latest one available?

From the Project Server perspective, how do I restrict the Project Professional version my users are using to access the server?

Why does that matter?

When Project Professional and Project Server are released to the world and it begins to get a large installation base and is in everyday use all sorts of scenarios and usage variations are implemented by the people using the tools.  In so doing, some unintended consequences occur, some bugs are found and some “business realities” or “business logic issues” are discovered that aren’t part of the current version of Project.  As other integrated tools, like SharePoint, are modified in some way then Project also needs to be modified.  Therefore, updates are released for the software.

As software updates are released, these issues are resolved.  And, so it is important that all the users have the most recent version of Project Professional installed on their computers.  While most organizations have a process to update software, it isn’t always easy to know if everybody accessing your server has the most recent version.  Even if you don’t use Project Server, it is still important for everybody to be using the same version of Project.  What if a user has two copies or Project Professional – one on a desktop computer that is definitely part of the routine update process and a company issued notebook that they don’t always get updated?

And, again, why does this matter?  Why do I care if they all have the same version of Project Professional?  Let’s have a made-up example where there is a bug in Project where every time a Task Name has the letter “R” in it the system changes that to a “3”.  Well, that would be fixed in an update.  And, everybody that updates their version of Project to the latest version would no longer experience that problem.  However, if somebody does NOT update their version, opens a previously fine file and makes a change and then saves it, their version might affect all the “R” characters and make them “3’s” again.  This causes increased frustration as users have to determine if there is a new bug or if somebody has an older version – and, they have to figure out who has that version.  All of that work is in addition to having to correct all the project files that are affected.

So, how do I know which version of Project Professional 2010 is on my computer?

With most things Microsoft, there are many ways to determine this but the easiest way is to open Project, go to File and then Help.  On the right hand side of the screen is the “About Microsoft Project”.  There is also a link that says “Additional Version and Copyright Information”.  This is an important link.

In my case, BEFORE THE FEBRUARY UPDATE, the screen looks like this:

And, the important piece is when I click on the link:

The important piece of information here is the Build Number, the first number in the top row of the About information box.

In this case, before installing the February update, I am using build 14.0.4751.1000.  So, if you are not using Project Server, or if you just want to know, you can ask everybody to go to their computer, open Project Professional and look at this to determine which version they are using.

If you are using Project Server 2010, there is a setting that allows you to restrict the Project Professional build that people are using to access the Server.  In the Server Settings, Additional Server Settings, Project Professional Versions text box you can enter the version that you want users to have.  This will be the “oldest” version that you allow users to have when connecting.

In this example, BEFORE the update, I am requiring version 14.0.2215.1000.

But, now that the February CU is available, I want everybody to have that version.  So, all I have to do is modify this field to the latest version.  After modifying and clicking Save this is the new requirement. NOTE – it takes effect immediately, so don’t make this change until you have either warned your users this change is coming or you are fairly confident that everybody is on the new version.  And, it would be nice to notify your Help Desk about the error messages that will be produced by Project (shown below).

Since I want to use the February CU, I will change this field to say 14.0.5315.5000 since that is the new build number.  How did I know that?  I explain that a bit later as well.

Now, if a Project Professional client attempts to get to my server with a version that is not at least 14.0.5315.5000 they will get an error.  And, this is why it is nice to warn the users and your Help Desk that this is coming – the error message is a bit cryptic.  When the user tries to sign into Project Server, they will get this error message.  Error ID 12015(0x2EEF) with Error Description “An internal error occurred.”  These do not just jump out at you and tell you that it is an error that came from the version change.  It looks like this:

However, if you click on More Info, you do get a bit more information.  Notice that in the message it says that this is an UnsupportedProjectProfessionalVersion – which is what we would expect.

And, just to be thorough, if the user clicks on More Info or not, they get a second error box that says that the Enterprise Global template could not be retrieved and that there might be a database error.  While we know that is not the case, it sounds like a very bad thing and may cause widespread panic.  Ok, maybe just a lack of trust in the database.

However, once the Project Professional client is updated to the February CU, then no errors will appear.

What does Project Professional look like AFTER the February CU is applied?  Well, the first screen looks the same.  It still shows version 14.0.5128.5000:

However, when clicking on the Additional Version link, I get a different result, showing the new build number 14.0.5135.5000:

That answers the version questions and the compliance issue.  But, how did I know which version to use for Project Server?  I guess one way would be to implement the update and just look at the version.  But, that isn’t always precise because there might be a difference between 32-bit and 64-bit versions or there might be some other modification to the system that you are looking at that gives you a different version number.

The best way to know the correct version number is to look at the KB article that Microsoft provides.  For the February CU, the article is located at:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2496946.  That article also gives information about what the update includes but it also gives the version information.  That is copied here:

x86

Download information

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Microsoft Windows Installer .msp file information

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After the hotfix is installed, the global version of this hotfix has the file attributes, or a later version of the file attributes, that are listed in the following table:

Project-x-none.msp information

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x64

Download information

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Microsoft Windows Installer .msp file information

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After the hotfix is installed, the global version of this hotfix has the file attributes, or a later version of the file attributes, that are listed in the following table:

Project-x-none.msp information

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Since we were using the 64-bit version for this example and since I was looking at the Project Professional information in File, Help, the pertinent information to me is the File Version for Winproj.exe.

BY: Collin Quiring

I always wonder why a blog goes silent.  While it takes great discipline and scheduling to update a blog on a regular basis, there are plenty of folks that do it.  For a long time I was able to do it as well.  However, for a number of personal and professional reasons I have been all but “offline” for a few months now.  I have written a few entries in my head and have some notes about some as well but haven’t been posting anything.  I am hoping to start getting active again now.  This post will be more of a hodgepodge of “little things” of varying interest to you.

• First, Tanya Foster and I have been working on a book on how to use Microsoft Project Professional and Microsoft Project Server for Resource Management.  This is only concentrating on the Resource Management piece.  The book is currently in review and I will update everybody when it is closer to being published.

• One tidbit of knowledge that I have recently learned involves the Project Server 2010 “force check-in” background process.  I noticed that when a schedule was forced to check-in it sometimes took a few moments and other times it took significantly longer.  I didn’t understand the difference and just chalked it up to random “stuff” on the server, my connection or whatever.  However, Brian Smith recently explained to me that a force check-in isn’t just a “check-in” but it actually tries to process outstanding status updates as well.  It probably does other things as well and perhaps Brian will one day blog about that but this was a big “ah-ha” moment for me as I know that I was trying to check in some schedules that had outstanding updates – and that is what took them so long to check in when I was forcing it.  Now, as a general rule, you probably should not be force checking-in schedules very often, but that is a different story for another day.

• We are big believers around here in obtaining certifications – as individuals and as an organization (although Microsoft calls them Competencies for organizations).  We have blogged about it in the past ( http://pmpspecialists.com/Blog/2010/05/new-microsoft-competency-for-partners-%e2%80%93-why-should-the-customer-care/ and  http://pmpspecialists.com/Blog/2010/02/microsoft-project-certifications-%e2%80%93-how-do-they-create-the-test-3-of-3/ and  http://pmpspecialists.com/Blog/2010/10/pmi-membership-and-pmp-certification-%e2%80%93-by-the-numbers/ ).  The Microsoft Project 2010, Managing Projects certification exam has gone live.  The exam number is 70-178.  The “Microsoft Project Server 2010, Configuring”, exam 70-177 is expected to go live in June.

• More information about 70-178 can be found here:  http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Exam.aspx?ID=70-178&Locale=en-us

• More information about 70-177 can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Exam.aspx?ID=70-177&Locale=en-us

• This one is of interest to me:  Project Management Institute (PMI) is creating a new Agile Certification pilot program, beginning in May of 2011 (http://www.pmi.org/en/Agile/Agile-Certification-Eligibility-Requirements.aspx).  While I am not necessarily a big proponent of Agile I do understand that it is the “next big thing” and it may have a place in the Project Management world.  I did see at the last PMI Conference that there were lots of Agile presentations and I attended a couple of them.  One of the two that I went to was extremely confusing as I guess the presenters assumed that everybody in attendance was already familiar with Agile.  There are many folks that would debate that Agile is not really its own Project Management methodology and that Agile is actually a software development method (see http://blog.pmtechnix.com/does-agile-project-management-exist/ for a snippet of that debate).  We shall see where this certification and Agile goes in the future.

BY:  Collin Quiring

First things first – I want to give credit to Microsoft for having some great documentation!  I have been working with Microsoft Project for many years and started becoming very involved with the tool starting with the 2000 release. While there has always been some “documentation”, I have to say that it has gotten better, easier to find and more detailed with each release.  With 2010, the documentation is pretty extensive and there is even a whole section called “Ignite” that has documents and videos which concentrate on the new features.  One of the catches with so much documentation (which I am VERY happy to deal with) is trying to assimilate all the documentation and moving parts as it pertains to a specific subject.  This entry is my version of putting that documentation as it relates to “Departments” into a high level summary.  Some of this is my own research but the majority of this is summarizing an overview of the documentation and of the wonderful video that Christophe Fiessinger made for the Ignite training.  (See that video here: http://cdn-smooth.ms-studiosmedia.com/msstudios/1005/1003463/Mod_9_Administration/Default.html  )

 I think that this is one of those cases where it might be easier to define what this is NOT.  The word “Department” is a word that Microsoft chose for this functionality and should not necessarily be defined as we normally define it in the business environment.  A “Department” should not be considered a “division of a business” like Human Resources or Information Technology or Marketing Department. 

 We need to think of “Department” as a grouping mechanism.  As an example, think of a company that has an IT group that has two separate functions – a Help Desk and New Development.  Even though these are the same “department” in a company, they may have totally separate work processes, requirements and reporting needs.  Therefore, we would set each up as a unique “Department” in Project Server 2010.

 As with numerous items within Project Server, the “Department” appears to be “only a custom field” at first glance but actually can be very powerful since it is possible to be used in many areas of the Server from users to Enterprise Project Types.  It should be thought of as a very powerful tool within Project Server rather than just a mere “custom field.”

 Now for some of that high level summary information about “Department”:

• The Primary purpose is to be a filter for:
  • Projects
  • Resources
  • Resources’ Custom Fields
  • Enterprise Project Types
  • Drivers
• Users can be assigned to none, one or multiple departments
• Projects can be assigned to none, one or multiple departments
• Different Users can see different User Interfaces based on their departments
  • It filters out EPT’s and Custom Fields
• Can be used for OLAP database data filtering
  • See the “Guide for IT Pros for Project Server 2010”, Departments section on the OLAP database detail information
• Different groups can have their own custom fields
• (Note:  a custom field NOT assigned a Department are global)
• Projects associated with different departments will only show their custom fields
• Portfolio Drivers can be associated with departments
• Driver prioritization can be associated with departments
• Departments allow for Enterprise-wide consistency AND different processes, forms and fields for different groups
• Departments are NOT tied to the RBS directly

BY: Tanya Foster

Have you ever noticed that there is more than one way to do the same thing in Microsoft Project?  I didn’t specify a version, because I’ve noticed it in multiple versions of Microsoft Project.  That’s one thing I love about Project… you’re shortcut may not be my shortcut, but we both end up at the same place.  Now this may not be the case for everything in Microsoft Project, but for several things, it’s definitely the case.  Take linking tasks for example.  Let’s say you have a schedule, and the tasks are going to be sequential.  I would just quickly highlight the tasks and hit the link button on the menu bar.  I had a colleague once that liked to see how one task related to the other and if there were any tweaks he needed to make at that point and time. 

So he would double click on a task to open the task information box, type the linking and task information in there and then move on to the next task. 

Me… I’ll link them, then I’ll see how they line up and I’ll tweak them if need be.  We’ll both have the same outcome, we just get there different ways.  And thank goodness that Microsoft took both of our personalities into consideration when creating Microsoft Project!  Well… I’m sure if we asked the programmers, the users different personalities was probably the furthest thing from their mind, but hey… it worked out!

Another great example is assigning resources.  Once you’ve added resources to your team, you can simply add resources by selecting them from the drop down box.

Or you can assign them by using the Assign Resources dialog box.

How about task entry?  Couple of different ways for that too!  Just type it in, right in the Task Name cell of an empty cell.  Double click an empty cell and bring up the task information box and fill out all of the information that way, or right mouse click, select Insert Task type in the task name when it inserts a new empty cell. 

Now it’s your turn.  Let us know of any great shortcuts you’ve found or multiple ways of doing things in Microsoft Project.  If we get enough feedback from you, our faithful readers, we’ll post the list as a future blog post!

By: Collin Quiring

 Ok, so maybe it wasn’t Microsoft Project Professional or Project Server that MythBusters specifically took on, but they did take on the “MegaWoosh” that became a Viral Video last year.  (Tanya Foster wrote about it on our blog one year ago:  http://pmpspecialists.com/Blog/2009/08/real-stunt-or-marketing-tactic/ ).  It was a video promoting Microsoft Project and was made in Germany.  The video has a person slide down a massive slide and then fly through the air for a long distance before landing in a kiddie pool.

 A week ago I watched a MythBusters program (http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/mythbusters/) where they took on this “myth”.  They recreated the slide and took turns sliding down it and then they proved that they could hit an area in the water that was a kiddie pool sized ring.  They also proved that the flight and trajectory in the original video were not possible.  (And, at the end of the episode, they said that they had contacted the original makers of the video and that the originators admitted it was all computer-graphics.)

 Either way, it was interesting to watch the MythBusters disprove a “myth” about the giant slide.  Here is the location for the clips on the slide as presented on MythBusters:

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbusters-adams-super-slide.html

 And, here is the site that explains how the original video was made (which takes you to a Microsoft in Germany site):

www.megawoosh.com

Clients often ask us if there is an easy-to-use and easy-to-understand method of trying to explain and justify the use of Project Management and the use of Microsoft Project.  We have some information about that on other blog entries and on some of our other webpages on our site.  However, Tanya Foster has put together a simple summary the gives a high level overview of some of the reasons to implement Project Management and to use Microsoft Project.

 This is a downloadable PowerPoint that you are free to download and use.  It can be found on our “White Papers” page (http://pmpspecialists.com/WhitePapers.html) under the heading “The Value of Project Management” and the description “This PowerPoint document is for you to use as a guide for explaining the purpose of Project Management and Microsoft Project.  As the title slide states, this is for “Making a Case for Implementing Microsoft Project, Project Server and Project Management Concepts””

 This PowerPoint presentation has the following topic headlines:

Why Project Management?

Why Microsoft Project?

Is it Worth it?

What are some Actual Numbers?

Some of the slides have more explanation in the notes section about the topics presented on that slide.

We think that these slides are great conversation starters and are an easy-to-use tool that might help you demonstrate some of the value of Project Management and Microsoft Project.

By:  Collin Quiring

 One of the changes that Project Server 2010 brings is that it requires SharePoint Server 2010 to operate.  While this is great from the perspective of functionality it does mean that companies may have to invest more in software and licensing than they would prefer to do and it means that an administrator that understands how Project Server works will need to learn SharePoint Server as well. 

 In my opinion, if you are going to be an effective Project Server 2010 administrator, I believe that you need to have more than just a casual knowledge of how SharePoint Server 2010 is administered.  I am sure that there are some folks that would disagree but with the level of integration between Project and SharePoint it is going to be increasingly difficult to know where one ends and the other begins.  Without knowing how the two relate with each other, I think that an administrator is going to be frustrated very often!

 I am sure that some Project Server administrators won’t want to take this on as it will be perceived mostly as a case of “more to learn and do” and they will have the hope that there is already somebody else that is the SharePoint administrator that can “do that stuff”.  At first I fell into that camp myself – thinking that learning more about SharePoint would distract me from my real goal of administering Project Server.  However, I have learned in the last few months a lot about SharePoint Server and have become one of the proponents about its capabilities.  The functionality that it will bring to Project Server is highly beneficial.  From an administrators perspective I think that the 2010 version is going to be easier to manage than 2007 – but it still has a number of inter-dependencies upon itself and with Project which cause interesting issues to pop up every now and then.

 In an effort to become better acquainted I was looking for an opportunity to learn the tool better in a real production environment.  To that end, I have recently had the opportunity to manage a large SharePoint Server 2007 Farm with over 600,000 users.  Yes, 600,000.  In fact, we will be installing SharePoint Server 2010 in the next couple of weeks and then migrating over to 2010. 

While I don’t recommend trying to administer a SharePoint Server with that many users, I do recommend that if you are Project Server administrator you start to learn how SharePoint works.  It can only make your job with Project easier and your end users will notice the increased functionality and integration.

BY: Collin Quiring

For those that don’t know, there is a great organization out there called MPUG – the Microsoft Project User Group.  I just wrote a brief article for them in regards to the fact that there is no longer an Active X control in Project Server 2010.  This is one article in a series by various Project Server experts about some of the new features in the 2010 version.

View the article at:  http://www.mpug.com/News/Pages/MicrosoftProject2010FeatureRallyNoMoreActiveX.aspx , or, here is a copy of it:

Project Server 2010 has many new features, abilities and enhancements that make it a great product.  However, there is one modification to the 2010 version that will go unnoticed by new administrators and will hopefully soon be forgotten by administrators that have worked with previous versions.  I am referring to the fact that the ActiveX controls are no longer part of Project Server.  My non-technical explanation of what an ActiveX control does is that it adds functionality to Project.  In the case of Project Server, there are a number of places it is used but the most noticeable is that it allowed you to see the information within Project Center and Resource Center. 

 I can’t count the number of times I would have a user contact me and tell me that they were getting an error message that looked like this one:

The catch?  Well, if the person isn’t an administrator (or high level permissions) on their machine they can’t download the ActiveX control.  And, there are other settings that have to be configured in Internet Explorer as well.  If the client machines were “locked down” by a central IT group, then they had to administer the installation of these controls.  It isn’t always easy to get the controls pushed out from the central IT administration folks!  Then, when some system updates (Project or not) are done, the ActiveX controls have to be downloaded/pushed out again.  At one client of mine, this is a constant issue and there are always a handful of users that can’t access Project Server due to the hardware and software update cycles and I know for a fact that this has slowed the adoption of the tool overall.

With all of the improvements and new components of Project Server 2010 I hope this now defunct “feature” becomes one of those topics of conversation that “old” administrators tell each other about the “old days” and how much better it is now!  

The catch?  Well, if the person isn’t an administrator (or high level permissions) on their machine they can’t download the ActiveX control.  And, there are other settings that have to be configured in Internet Explorer as well.  If the client machines were “locked down” by a central IT group, then they had to administer the installation of these controls.  It isn’t always easy to get the controls pushed out from the central IT administration folks!  Then, when some system updates (Project or not) are done, the ActiveX controls have to be downloaded/pushed out again.  At one client of mine, this is a constant issue and there are always a handful of users that can’t access Project Server due to the hardware and software update cycles and I know for a fact that this has slowed the adoption of the tool overall.

With all of the improvements and new components of Project Server 2010 I hope this now defunct “feature” becomes one of those topics of conversation that “old” administrators tell each other about the “old days” and how much better it is now! 

By:  Collin Quiring

Just a quick muse.

The saying “Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery” has been around a long time and I have been thinking about it the last few days quite a bit.  I am getting ready to do a massive SharePoint Server 2010 installation and a Project Server 2010 installation.  In so doing, I have been doing quite a bit of research lately to make sure that I have an understanding of how these tools are installed and the steps for setting them up and then maintaining them for the users.

In my research, I do some generic Google and Bing searches for SharePoint and Project to see what has been done by others already.  And, I keep running into tools that claim to be “as good as” Microsoft Project or Project Server.  But when I look at these tools that claim they are “as good as” Project or Project Server I have found that they mean that their tool does one thing and one thing only – and they think it is the same as Project.  I have found this to be quite disappointing.

One tool that claimed to be great at Resource Management had a very efficient interface and did one or two things really well but as soon as I tried to do something that I normally can do in Project, I found that “as good as” didn’t mean “as comprehensive as” the Project tool.  There are also add-on tools that are available for Project - some of those are great and some are useless, but at least they claim to be “add-on” and NOT a replacement that works “as good as” like these other tools claim to be. 

Project might not be perfect, but it amuses me about how many tools want to be “as good as” Project and are doing their best to imitate it.  In fact, some tools even give the same look and feel of Microsoft Project.  It just makes me think that Project must be doing some things right if so many other companies want to imitate it!

BY: Collin Quiring

I know that I haven’t blogged as much lately.  The reason is simple – I have been busy getting ready for a few different large presetnations.  One of them is for Microsoft Project User Group – MPUG – that is a public event on April 28.  Just go to www.mpug.com and look for the “Upcoming MPUG WebNLearns” section on the right hand side.  Here are the details about the upcoming presentation.