EPM, Microsoft Project and You

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

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

 

BY: Collin Quiring

Well, it used to be the “Magic Quadrant” but I guess like everything else it had to be renamed.  Gartner renamed the “Magic Quadrant for IT Project and Portfolio Management” this year to “MarketScope for Project and Portfolio Management Applications.”  A link to the full report is below but the high level summary is the Microsoft’s Project and Portfolio Management software was rated as “Strong Positive” (the highest possible rating).

As an organization that helps companies with their Project Management needs AND their Project and Portfolio Management tools we are always watching to see what happens in the marketplace with software technologies.  We are highly biased towards Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server and have felt for some time that this is the technology that is the best in the marketplace.  We also think that in the 2010 release, Microsoft moved even further away from its competitors by adding functionality and abilities that make life easier for its clients.  And, the ability to integrate the Microsoft Project tool with other software like Dynamics AX or even competing products we continue to think this is the best software on the market for Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management.

As an organization, we want to always be careful to watch what the market is doing because we don’t want to have blinders on and be recommending, implementing and consulting with clients on a software package that isn’t the best available.  While we believe that Microsoft’s tool is the best one on the market it is good to get confirmation that the market agrees with us. That is one reason we are happy to let you know about the report that just came out by Gartner.  It is also interesting to us to note how many of the other tools being rated are based upon Microsoft Project or can be considered as “add-ons” or “variations” of Microsoft Project Server (like a web-enabled only version).  We think this is another proof in the market that Microsoft Project and Project Server are valued tools.

For a summary, here is the Gartner Rating Chart:

Get all the gory details about the entire report here:

http://www.gartner.com/technology/media-products/reprints/microsoft/vol14/article21/article21.html

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!

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: Tim Gryder

This accountability thing…such an important term yet subject to so much variance in opinion as to what it really means. In today’s world, accountability is constantly being redefined to us by a political and culture flag that shifts with every change in the direction of the wind. While terms and opinions vary, it’s good to know that some things never change…for example: gravity.

While gravity isn’t a social topic it is definitely a physical force which keeps us accountable to something…such as the ground. It is well defined and absolute and not up for debate as to what it means. In dealing with gravity we apply many points of physics and as a result, we are able to achieve flight but always within the boundaries of rules and physics of gravity.

So what does this have to do with Project Management you might ask? Well in my mind, Project Management is simply like the rules and physics of the absolute of time. If we apply the right business rules, sequences and events, we can manage time and ultimately cost. I recently heard an associate claim the being a Project Manager is like being a glorified note taker and task chaser. I also heard another associate claim that we never get anything done on time and on budget. These perspectives are symptomatic of not understanding the absolutes of time and its best and most profitable use.

Today, we have proven techniques, logic and technology that allow us to manage time. Never before in the history of humanity have we been able to define, plan, schedule, analyze, resource, cost, track, report etc, etc. The access to these tools are great, the use and understanding is maybe not so much.

Look at the resources at our disposal; we have tools like Microsoft Project that allow us to manage the absolutes of time. These tools are way underutilized. What is the biggest reason for not using these tools? I have come to this conclusion: Its accountability! Yes there can be other reasons but I truly believe that accountability is the culprit that deters us from unfettered time management.

Project Management tools and techniques are extremely oriented towards absolutes and holding us accountable to a “Due Date”. There….I said it…yes, time is an absolute.

Does this sound familiar?

•       “The reality is if we don’t ship our product by this date the customer will reject it”.

•       “The buyout transition must happen by a certain date or we will lose our tax advantage”.

•       “Yes, the interest will accumulate on the mortgage note if the construction is not completed on
time”.

These are simple realities that have real implications when not met. Yet I see where it is still often easier to avoid accountability than to manage these processes with business rules, techniques and tools that drive us to deliver. Human nature hates to be run like a machine, but the bottom line sure likes it.

The reality is… we all need accountability. Project Management gives us techniques and processes by which to manage time. Tools such as Microsoft Project and Project Server enable us to acknowledge the absolutes and manage them as fact. Dealing with the truth is well worth the investment of using these techniques and tools….as opposed to the cost of not being on time.

 

BY: Collin Quiring

Microsoft Project Server and Project Professional work very well together most of the time. However, every now and then, particularly if you use multiple instances or Servers, some challenges can arise. Recently, I was confronted with an annoying issue that I have resolved in the past and thought that I would share it with you just in case they were experiencing the same issues. And, while I am at it, I am going to mention a few other errors that I receive every now and then when using Project Server and Project Professional.

First, the easy part: how it is supposed to work. I know that Microsoft has documentation about this but in a nutshell, here is how you connect Project Professional to Project Server.

1. Open Project Professional

2. Go to Tools, Enterprise Options, Microsoft Office Project Server Accounts

3. Select Add

4. Enter something you will remember in the Account Name field

5. Enter the URL in the Project Server URL field

6. If you are using forms or windows authentication select and enter the appropriate information

7. If this is the only or the main URL that you use, then select the default.

8. After clicking OK, you are back at the Project Server Accounts box

9. I always recommend that you select “Manually Control Connection State” in case you add more instances or often go “offline” but that is up to you.

10. And, that is it – just close Professional and the next time you open Professional it will connect (or give you the option to connect).

Now, that is the way it works for most people. And, it works fine for most of the time, especially for those that only connect to one instance. However, in other cases, interesting things that can happen.

To understand the issues that I run into you need to know my situation. I have both Project Professional 2003 and Project Professional 2007 on my computer. I also connect to about 15 different instances with 2007 and 6 different instances with 2003. Of those instances, only a few of them are local to my computer’s network so I am using my internet connection to access the majority of these sites. The servers I am accessing are either within a client’s domain or are being hosted by PMP Specialists. (This post is about Project Professional setup so assume for this post that the server and user/password are all correct.) Also, for clarity, I am running Vista and Office 2007.

Normally, having both 2003 and 2007 on my computer at the same time isn’t an issue with the way that Professional works. However, every now and then an update from Microsoft will render one of the versions of Project to stop working correctly. I usually find this out at the most inconvenient moment and when I don’t have the time to fix it!

One of the most common ways that I find there is an issue is when I try to open a file directly from Project Server. When in Project Web Access (PWA) and you select a project file to open, the Project Server automatically goes out and opens your Project Professional. The catch is that it sometimes tries to open the other version of Professional. This is because of a change on the local computer, not the server. The error messages are not necessarily intuitive either. And, the Server sometimes seems to time out or to be doing nothing at all so this is a time for patience. Clicking refresh or clicking on other items only makes it worse when the Server catches up. It sometimes takes a minute before the error message appears.

For example, the error message I get when I use 2007 and the server opens up 2003 is some version of the error message below. Note, I am using a 2007 file, created in Professional 2007 and a 2007 Server and the error still mentions Project 98.

Error message:

“Project cannot open the file

· Check that the file name and path are correct

· Check that the file format is recognized by Project

Project files save in a version earlier than Microsoft Project 98 can’t be opened.

If your file is from an earlier version, open it in that version, click Save As (File Menu), and save in MPX format. Open the MPX file in the current version of Project. When you use this method, project data is imported, but formatting is lost.”

At this point, I usually have an easy fix. I open up Professional 2003 first and go to the help drop down and select the Detect and Repair. After that runs, I can try again. This seems to fix the issue for me about 1/3 of the time.

If the issue isn’t resolved and the server is still trying to open the wrong version then the next step that I take is to go to Professional 2007 and run the Help, Microsoft Office Diagnostics.

Interestingly, that doesn’t seem to find problems usually. But, it must flip a bit somewhere because that seems to resolve the problem about ½ the time when I try it second.

If neither of those work I go to Windows Update and run that. After running Windows Update, I sometimes have to repeat the steps above for 2003 and 2007 but have never had to do other steps – to get Server to open the correct version of Project.

Another type of error that I get when connecting Professional and Server is if I have Professional open already and connected to a different instance. Then, when trying to change some server settings or otherwise using PWA to open or use Professional a new error message appears. This is an easy one to resolve as the error message is pretty clear.

It says:

“Project Professional 2007 is currently running under a profile that does not match your current Project Web Access login. Restart Project Professional with a different profile, or exit Project Professional and then let Project Web Access automatically start Project Professional.”

So, close Professional and re-open it with the correct instance, or let Server try to open it for you.

The next error isn’t really an error – it just makes you think it is. When you use Server to open Professional, you sometimes get the message

“Project cannot be fully opened because it is awaiting your input. Either continue with the input process until Project is fully running or quit Project and click Update again.”

The reason for this one is simple, it is waiting for you to enter your credentials. If, like me, you have multiple instances setup and/or just have the “manually control” option setup, then Professional will be waiting for you input. Sometimes this doesn’t become the focus of your computer and so when you don’t enter your information after a bit, the Server is prompting you. Just find the login box prompt on your computer, make sure you have the right instance selected, and sign in.

Another error which appears to have two potentially different solutions is this:

“Project cannot recognize this file format.

Do you want to open this file as text only.”

This is caused by one of two different issues. The first is that you have Professional to open, but in the wrong version. This example was caused by the 2007 Server opening Professional 2003. As we know, this is correct, the 2003 and 2007 versions aren’t compatible. So, make sure that you have the correct version of Professional open.

The second cause of this issue is that you don’t have the Server URL in your IE Trusted Sites zone. I have had the correct version of Professional open and still get this message and then when I add the URL into the Trusted Sites (and close Professional) and try again, all works well.

Another error that may be caused by the Trusted Sites or an invalid URL is this one:

“Login Failed. Project could not connect to the server

Please check your username and password and try again.”

I have seen this error because of the URL not being in the Trusted Sites (usually this is because the URL’s network/domain settings or your network/domain settings have an option that allows traffic through only if the URL is in the Trusted Sites).

I have also seen this error when the URL is typed incorrectly in the Project Server Accounts connection box. In Professional 2003, there was a “test connection” option but in Professional 2007 there isn’t one so you can have a typo in the URL and not know it until you use Professional to try and connect. If you go directly into Professional and then try to connect, you should get a message similar to this one if the URL isn’t correct. (Remember, we are assuming that the Server, userid and password are all correctly configured and working.)

“Could not connect to Server

Project was not able to connect to Project Server because of the following error:

Project Server could not be contacted

If you retry and are still unable to connect, try the following:

· Check your network connection and see if you are able to connect to other websites

· Check the URL of the Project Server you are trying to connect.

· Use Internet Explorer and make sure you can connect to Project Web Access.

· Contact your server administrator for further assistance.”

The best way to make sure that the URL is correct is to go to PWA and then copy/paste that URL into Professional. BUT, be sure to take off the “default.aspx” or whatever extension you have. For example, if the URL in PWA is: https://projectserver/pwa/default.aspx only put https://projectserver/pwa in Professional.

Another issue that happens to me every now and then is that Server gives an error that it can’t open or use Professional. In fact, the error is usually that you have to open Professional – even though Professional is already open, or, sometimes, after it just opened Professional. I am not sure if it is the caching, a timeout between responses or something else that happens but sometimes the Server wants to be the cause of Professional being open and you have to close Professional first. And, other times, you have to open Professional first and then use Server. This seems to happen most often when working with administrative items like custom fields but it does happen in the Project Center every now and then as well. The only solution is to close/open Professional in the opposite order than it was before.

I have one more “error” to mention. Sometimes, after opening Project Professional from Server, it opens without the project opening. No error messages. It just opens Professional and then stops. So, you are looking at “Project 1” and not the project that you expected. In my experience, this has happened when using Forms Authentication and for whatever reason, and some point in the communication between Professional and Server the system decides that you don’t have permissions to open the project. This has been a user authentication issue– even when they can open Professional first and open the project file and even though they can see everything in PWA. This is a rare occurrence and seems to be restricted to certain systems.

Now, when you connect and disconnect from more than one instance or Project Server in a day it is easy to get confused about which instance you are in. Tony Zink wrote a great little article about it and so I refer you to his post titled “Which Project Server Instance Are You Connected To?” at http://www.projectserverhelp.com/Lists/Posts/AllPosts.aspx

BY:  Tanya Foster

Ever wondered how many tasks you can put into a single project? Or how many resources you can assign to a specific task?  Believe it or not, Project does have its limits!  Here are some limits that I found helpful to know and hopefully you will too.

Now… keep in mind that some of these numbers are really outrageous and I would never recommend that you use up to the maximum number allowed on some of these!

Tasks in a single project               400,000
Resources per project                  700,000
Task dependencies per project    No limit
Predecessors per task                  50,000
Successors per task                      50,000
Outline levels per project             65.535
Consolidated projects                   998
Baselines                                      11
Characters in a text field              255
Earliest date allowed                    1/01/1984
Latest date allowed                      12/31/2049

I told you… some of these numbers are outrageous!  400,000 tasks in a single project?  Can you imagine trying to manage that monster!  Or trying to manage 700,000 resources in a project?  I think I’d want to quit my job if I had to manage all of that in a single project!  What about looking at the Gantt chart in a project that had 50,000 predecessors for a single task… No thanks!  I know that you’ll probably never hit the limit on any of these, but it is nice to know this information.  I’ve had people ask me before how many tasks could be in a single project or how many consolidated projects can you have and I didn’t know the answer at the time.  So hopefully this information will be helpful to you in the fact that you can put a lot of tasks or resources in your project without worrying that you’re going to hit a maximum limit.  Now there are two on this list that I have hit the maximum on before and chances are you have too.  That’s the baselines and characters in a text field.  It wasn’t the end of the world when I did hit that max on those two, but I improvised and I’m sure that you will too if the situation arises.  There are some more limits if you would like to read up on them… the ones listed in this blog are just the ones that I have had people ask me about.  You can read more about specific limitations here http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/HP101065651033.aspx.

 

BY:  Tanya Foster

Two great products… each one has its own specialty, but so many people try to use them interchangeably.  I can’t tell you how many times I have seen people using Excel to schedule their projects.  Don’t get me wrong, Excel is a great tool, but not necessarily as a scheduling tool.  Project can do so much more for you regarding scheduling, resource management, cost, etc. than Excel can.  And I’ve also seen people using Project no different than an Excel spreadsheet.  Both of these products has their own special bells and whistles.  Project has so many bells and whistles it’s hard to even know where to start with a list! 

One of the things that Project can do that Excel can’t is reschedule your work for you.  You tell Project how long the task should take, who will do it, and the actual start date, and it will reschedule that task if it needs to be.   Now… could you do that in Excel? Sure… but it’s manual, whereas Project does this automatically.  You can create an entire work breakdown structure with dependencies in Project.  Can you do this in Excel?  You can create a work breakdown structure, but the dependencies would be more difficult.  Once you have your work breakdown structure in Project, all you do is determine which task is dependent on another one and click a button.  Maybe you really like the reports that Excel gives you.  You can do some of those same types of reports in Project.  Or if you have an Excel formatted report that you just can’t live without, you can even export your data from Project into Excel and then create the same reports that you’re used to.  That way you can let Project do the scheduling and use Excel to view and report on some of the data.

I’m all about keeping it simple!  If I try to use Excel for any type of scheduling I typically spend more time and energy doing manually what Project can do for me automatically.  Save yourself some time, energy and money!  If you currently schedule with Excel, take a trial run at Project and see what you think.  I think you’ll be glad that you did!