EPM, Microsoft Project and You

BY:  Collin Quiring

This is an updated version of the post from February, 2010, when Project Professional 2010 and Project Server weren’t really in the wild yet.  I have now included the 2010 versions and updated the 2007 information.  This information is everything I could find as of January 10, 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.

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

 

­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):

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.

 

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.

 

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.

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! 

Now we can review which projects are causing these problems by reviewing the data view.  (We review this in image form at the end of this article.)  We can see that she is over capacity by between 24 and 104 hours for January.  Be able to review this information allows you to go to the various Resource Managers or Project Managers (or the resource) and discuss what the priorities are and what tasks can be moved to other resources or other time periods.  From this chart, we can determine that the Resource Managers for both the “Infrastructure Plan” and the “Residential Construction” schedules think they have 100% of Shelly’s time for the week of 1/9/12.

 

If one of the potential results of seeing a view like this is to determine if we can move work to other resources we need to be able to see those resources for the same time period.  We can look at each resource individually as we have done or we can see all the resources that we want to during this time period.  For this example, I have chosen to include two more resources, Ryan and Jessica.  I now have a new black line that represents the capacity of all three individuals and I can see the work assigned for the three of them combined.  Note that Shelly is now the yellow and that Ryan is green but Jessica is Blue and she is seriously UNDER capacity.  In one quick look we know who can get some of Shelly’s work.  And, we have also discovered that Ryan is over capacity.

 

These last few images were from the resource’s perspective but we can also view the work from the schedule perspective.  Earlier, while we were concentrating on Shelly, we looked at which projects were assigning her the most work.  But, we can view how many hours of work are being assigned to resources based on the perspective of projects.

In this chart we are still only looking at three resources but this time by project – that is why the black line representing capacity is still at 120 hours a week (40 hours each per week).  But on the right hand side the names of the projects are all color coded.  Just by reviewing the chart we can determine that the “Commercial Construction” project is taking the most time for the most weeks.

 

There is another really positive aspect to all of this – it is in real time.  If you are looking at this chart and a Project Manager changes the dates on a schedule and then published that schedule, as soon as you hit refresh the data changes!  Also, you can deselect projects or resources or change the date range and hit the “Apply” button and the graph changes to your new parameters.

These examples just touch on the amount of information that Project Server 2010 can provide.  There are numerous other views and reports and ways to get data that is meaningful to your specific situation.

 

 

 

 

 

I am excited about being one of the presenters at the Microsoft Project Conference 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona.  My topic is going to be “Resource Management – Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together!”.  I will be talking about some of the settings that interact together to make the Resource Management piece of Microsoft Project work effectively.

This is the premiere Microsoft-led event for Microsoft Project. To quote Microsoft: “Get more out of your Project 2010 investment by attending this special event for the worldwide Microsoft Project Community Attended by a world-wide audience of project professionals, business and technical decision makers and the Microsoft Project team this unique point-in-time event is your opportunity to learn, network and get more out of you Project 2010 investment!”

For more about the conference and to sign up, go to this website:

http://www.msprojectconference.com/pages/default.aspx

 

This article, written by Collin Quiring, first appeared in Wellington Project Management newsletter on November 8, 2011.  (http://www.projectserver2010.co.uk/2011/11/08/resource-management-with-project-server-2010-part-12/)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are many questions about resource management that probably keep you awake all night.  Ok, maybe you can sleep just fine, but perhaps there are questions that perplex you during the day.  There might be dozens of questions that you have but here is a small sample that you (or maybe management) might be wondering about.

• 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?

Of course, the way to get the answer to each of these is very simple.  All you have to do is walk around, talk to each person individually and ask them.  You can write their answers down (assuming they all tell you the correct information) and then combine your notes and it will be totally valid!  And, when management surprise you with a request for this information for a meeting they are having in a few hours you just have to walk around faster.

Or, maybe there is an easier way!  An easier method would be to click on a link and get a report that gives you the answer to one or more of those questions.  Just think of all the walking time that you will save!

Project Server 2010 can provide you this information quite easily.  To get this information doesn’t require meticulous hours spent entering every possible detail from the first day you start using Project Server.  At some point in the future you may want to add more detail, like skill sets, but it is easy to start gaining valuable information right away with Project Server 2010. (Even if you don’t use Project Server, it is possible to use Project Professional to get this information.  I won’t go into more detail here about how you can get this information without Project Server but it is covered in my new book “Mastering Resource Management Using Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010”.)

Let’s briefly look at the first three questions – ‘Who is working on what projects?’ ‘What tasks are they doing on those projects?’ and ‘When are they doing those tasks?’.  The easiest way to obtain this information is to assign a Resource to each task on your projects (when applicable) and provide a Start Date and Finish Date for those tasks.  This action will give us the ability to see in one combined report who is working on which tasks, on which projects, and when they are working on them.  You can see this information from the Resource’s perspective or by Project.  For example, this screenshot shows how this might look when viewing a single Project:

The view shows us that Shelly Smith is one of the Resources assigned tasks.  Now let’s look at the information from the perspective of Shelly Smith for this same time period as the screenshot above.  When we dive into the information for one single resource we will also get the information that answers the others questions posed at the beginning of this article.  How many hours are assigned?  What is the resources capacity?  And, who is over capacity?  For Shelly Smith, for the time period as shown in the screenshot above from the project perspective, we can see that she normally has a capacity of 40 hours a week.  And, based on her current assignments, she has work assigned to her of about 40 hours per week.  There are two exceptions in this data – the first and last weeks of this time period.  During the week of 11/1/2011 she is assigned 64 hours on the schedule called “Sample” and with a capacity of 32 hours, she is 32 hours OVER capacity.  The week of 12/26/2011 she is 36 hours over capacity.

Sometimes, pictures are worth a 1000 points of data in a grid.  Here is that same information represented in a graph.  The black line represents Shelly’s weekly capacity and the blue bars represent the amount of work assigned to her for that week.

You might be thinking that this is nice for ONE resource and ONE project but when you walk around and ask resources what they are assigned to now they have multiple assignments on multiple projects and it overlaps.  No problem!  Stay tuned for next month’s installment when we show how this information rolls together from multiple projects for multiple resources.

NOTE:  The information provided by these views depends upon some of the business decisions and corresponding setup of Project Server.  These examples are using the Standard Calendar and Fixed Duration tasks.  You can get more detailed information by using different calendars and different task types.  Even if you are using Fixed Duration for task assignments, you can still get a useful perspective of the amount of work being assigned to a Resource!   (For a deeper explanation of task types see http://pmpspecialists.com/WhitePapers/PMP_Specialists_Task_Types.pdf )

BY Collin Quiring

In our book, “Mastering Resource Management Using Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010” we concentrate on the tool itself and on Work Resources.  This document is an addendum of sorts to that and is designed to better define specifically the Budget Resource Type and the Cost Resource Type that are available in Project.

From Chapter 5 of the book:

A Resource can be defined as a Work, Material or Cost Type.  Material Resources are consumable items like concrete or paint.  Cost Type Resources are meant for controlling or reporting costs such as airfare or lodging.  Work Resources are people or equipment and can be generic or actual (sometimes called named).  A Generic Resource is a resource identified by the skill set or type of resource and an actual resource is a person.

For example, a Generic Resource might be called something like Carpenter, Painter, System Administrator, DBA or Project Manager.  The Generic Resource is then replaced by an actual resource with the appropriate skill set at a later time

To more deeply define the Cost and Budget Resources I have come up with this:

A Cost Resource is a specific cost that occurs that is usually related to a specific task.  For example, to accomplish a specific task you may incur some airfare.  But, throughout the life of the Project, there may be numerous times where airfare expenses are incurred – each one based on the deliverable for a specific task.  (Yes, if you want to, you can be more advanced and spread a cost across multiple tasks but that requires a bit more effort on your part and we are going to stay simple in this document.)

And, each time you assign the Resource to a task, you can put in the amount of the cost as it pertains to that specific task.  For example, I have created the Cost Resource named Airfare and on these two tasks have two different cost amounts for each ticket – the first one being $750 and the second being $250.  I assign the same Resource (Airfare) but with different costing.  When you enter the information into the Resources tab of the Task Information box the amount of the cost will appear in the Resource Name field.

For the rest of this post, view the full document:  http://pmpspecialists.com/WhitePapers/PMP_Specialists_Resource_Types.pdf

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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File name	File version	File size	Date	Time	Platform
Project2010-kb2496946-fullfile-x86-glb.exe	14.0.5136.5000	8,057,648	03-Feb-2011	23:55	x86

Microsoft Windows Installer .msp file information

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File name	File version	File size	Date	Time	Platform
Project-x-none.msp	Not Applicable	7,500,800	03-Feb-2011	13:22	Not Applicable

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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File name	File version	File size	Date	Time	Platform
Atlconv.dll	14.0.5130.5000	286,040	18-Nov-2010	14:11	x86
Pj11od11.dll	14.0.5130.5000	572,840	16-Nov-2010	17:26	x86
Serconv.dll	14.0.5130.5000	408,952	16-Nov-2010	17:26	x86
Winproj.exe	14.0.5135.5000	13,874,528	21-Jan-2011	12:19	x86

x64

Download information

Collapse this tableExpand this table

File name	File version	File size	Date	Time	Platform
Project2010-kb2496946-fullfile-x64-glb.exe	14.0.5136.5000	10,099,544	04-Feb-2011	01:07	x86

Microsoft Windows Installer .msp file information

Collapse this tableExpand this table

File name	File version	File size	Date	Time	Platform
Project-x-none.msp	Not Applicable	9,556,992	03-Feb-2011	14:05	Not Applicable

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

Collapse this tableExpand this table

File name	File version	File size	Date	Time	Platform
Atlconv.dll	14.0.5130.5000	384,856	18-Nov-2010	14:18	x64
Pj11od11.dll	14.0.5130.5000	754,088	16-Nov-2010	18:05	x64
Serconv.dll	14.0.5135.5000	591,736	19-Jan-2011	16:47	x64
Winproj.exe	14.0.5135.5000	20,816,224	21-Jan-2011	12:26	x64
Winproj.man	Not Applicable	3,474	19-Jan-2011	16:37	Not Applicable

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

 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

Now that the “non-disclosure” agreement that I have with Microsoft about 2010 is basically over, I will be going into more details about some of these in future posts.  In the meantime, here are some of the highlights about Project Professional 2010 and Project Server 2010.  Note: since the product isn’t released into the wild yet, it is possible that some of these may change.

 

Microsoft worked on Project with some goals in mind that set the framework for 2010.  The framework that Microsoft worked under for Project 2010 was:

·         Unified Project and Portfolio Management

·         Enhanced Collaboration and Reporting

·         Simple and Intuitive User Experience

·         Scalable and Connected Platform

 

Even though I tried to separate Professional from Server for this list, many features and capabilities are now available on Server that we would traditionally think are Professional only.

 

Highlights of Project Professional 2010:

·         The Ribbon – currently used in Office 2007 and 2010

o   Known as “Fluent” user interface

o   Makes for a highly customizable interface

o   Organizes common tasks together

·         Runs on Windows 7, Vista and XP

·         Office Backstage

o   Puts printing options in one place – gives a WYSIWYG preview

o   Replaces the “file” view

·         Text Wrapping

·         Filter Improvements

·         Auto-Complete

·         Copy and Paste

o   Indentions stay in place when copying in or out of Project

o   Can copy and paste between many Office applications

·         User-Controlled Scheduling

o   Manually versus Automatic scheduling

o   You can now put notes in columns that used to be data (date/number) only

o   Adding placeholder tasks is easy

·         Inactive Tasks

·         Team Planner

o   Quickly view assignments across resources

o   Easily manage assignments

·         Task Inspector

o   An improvement over the Task Driver in 2007

·         Report Improvements

·         Timeline View

o   Report on selected tasks in timeline format

o   Format online

o   Shares easily

·         Synchronize with SharePoint lists

·         Two versions of the Product

o   Project Standard 2010

o   Project Professional 2010

·         Incremental Leveling

·         Versioning

·         Supports Total Work and Percent Complete tracking

·         Zoom slider

o   Zoom in and out rather than clicking “+” or “-“

·         Resource Selection

o   Select multiple resources from the drop down at one time

·         Add new columns easily

·         Office Suite integration

o   Able to use items like WordArt

 

 

 

Highlights of Project Server 2010:

·         The name – it is no longer “Office” Project Server

·         Web based Project editing

o   Ability to do a lot of work on the server that used to be client only

·         Portfolio Server is now part of Project Server

o   No longer a separate product makes integration and use easier

·         Requires SharePoint Server to work

o   Project Server now is “SharePoint centric”

·         NO ACTIVE X CONTROLS

o   Grids are now Ajax or JavaScript

·         No Office Web Components (OWC)

·         Resource Updating

o   Multiple places for resources to update their tasks now

·         SharePoint synchronization

·         Exchange Server integration

o   No Outlook add-in

o   Easily update tasks from Outlook

o   Allows for mobile updates

·         Custom Fields enhancements

o   Can create fields by “Department”

·         Have I already mentioned NO ACTIVE X CONTROLS!?!?

·         Excel Services

o   Reporting engine allows for more functionality

·         Multiple level Undo

·         Delegation

o   Allows resources to “request” delegation

o   Lessens load on the Admins

·          The PSI (Project Server Interface) is enhanced

o   It doesn’t replace the old version, so custom PSI should still work

·         Improved Programmability

·         Timesheet Enhancements

·         Workflow Capabilities

o   Enterprise Project Types (EPT) that help define types of workflow

·         Improved Reporting

·         Increased collaboration

·         Did I mention NO ACTIVE X controls?!?!

BY:  Collin Quiring

There are many new features, modifications and changes to Microsoft Project in the 2010 version.  This entry is about only one of those modifications – Portfolio Server.

 

With Project Server 2007, there is a separate tool to purchase called Portfolio Server 2007.  The Portfolio Server is designed to allow an organization to identify, select, manage and deliver portfolios that align with strategic priorities.  PMP Specialists has done installations of both Project and Portfolio Server and customers have received value from Portfolio Server.  However, there is some installation and configuration that must be done to tie Portfolio and Project together in a useable fashion. 

 

Well, in 2010 there is no more Portfolio Server.  That is because it is now part of Project Server 2010!  This is a great combination!  From the technology standpoint, this makes the installation just that much better – and, of course, makes the integration seamless (since, it isn’t really something else to integrate but is just part of the tool).  By combining the two tools into one there will no longer be the issues related to having to pull the data together between the two programs.  From a reporting standpoint this makes life just that much easier and it means that information flows more easily from the “top” (selection) to “bottom” (Resource hours or task information or other specific details).

 

From the “business perspective” I really like that Portfolio Server is combined with Project Server.  This means that an Executive will be able to “one stop shop” for information (yes, they could do that before, but the setup was critical for it to flow, and, there were potentially two or more security locations).  They can drill down easily and, they won’t have to know when they are looking at “Portfolio Server” or when they are looking at information from “Project Server” as they do today.  The information will be in one place!  This should also make it easier for the stakeholders to understand the goals of the Executives as the information will be more readily available for them as well.

 

The term “Portfolio Server” will no doubt fade away and a term like “Portfolio Management” will become more common when talking about this aspect of Project Server.

 

I have given my opinions above but here are some of the official Microsoft bullet points:

·         Project and Portfolio Management capabilities in a single server

o   This provides a consistent user experience

·         Common data store

·         Centralized administration

·         Portfolio Prioritization and Selection Analytics

·         Project Capture and Initiation

·         Resource Capacity Planning

·         Enhanced Reporting and Business Intelligence

 

 

Sources:  http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/project-portfolio-server.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/project/2010/en/us/default.aspx