EPM, Microsoft Project and You

BY: Collin Quirinq

One of my personal goals from this year’s Project Conference was to tweet and blog about the event “as it was happening”.  A couple of my other goals were to enjoy the event and to learn.  I quickly realized that tweeting and blogging would be too time consuming and distracting.  While it was fun to send the periodic tweet about what was happening at the moment, I didn’t want the actual experience to be summed up by saying that I spent my whole time typing into my phone.  I also wanted a bit more time to think about some of the events before just writing about them.

That all said – here is my first blog about the Conference.  The Opening Welcoming Reception was well attended and started in the evening before the main Conference events.  There was a couple days of Project Server 2010 installation/migration training that was given prior to this event as well but that was an add-on to the official Conference schedule.

I was pleasantly surprised by the number of vendors at this year’s conference.  The last couple of conferences seemed to have only a handful of vendors but there were quite a few at this one.  Most of the vendors have a software add-on or other component(s) that work with Project.   

Since this is the only Project Conference planned this year or next (none overseas) it was well attended from the international community.  It was nice to see that Project is being used in so many different places and it was a good reminder that the United States isn’t the only market for Project. 

This was an event designed for us to interact with the vendors and other conference attendees and didn’t have a formal presentation planned.  It was a good time to see others and see what vendor products are available.

By: Collin Quiring

So, the Project Conference just completed and I will have some more substantive blogs about that event in coming days.  But, a new image for Project Server 2010 has been issued along with the information being given out about 2010.  This got me thinking about the older images and how it has changed over time.  I am sure that there are other images out there but these are the ones I could find.  If you have any other ones, please feel free to send them to me and I will gladly add them!  So, here is a bit of fun and a journey down history lane.

Project 2010 Server:

Project – 2007 Images:

Project 2003:

Project 2002:

Project 2000:

Project 1998:

Project 1995:

Project 1994:

By: Tanya Foster

So… have you heard about the mega whoosh lately?  This video is causing quite a stir on the internet.  There is a lot of discussion around whether the video is real or fake.  Here’s the background: German engineer Bruno Kammerl created a type of material that he calls Softslide.  He describes it as “almost frictionless.”  His goal is to build the longest waterslide in the world.  So he creates a website, uses Microsoft Project to detail his schedule, conducts tests and uploads videos to YouTube to document his progress.  He had been searching for investors when along comes an investor who provides him with the means to test his water slide in the German Alps.  Check out the test video below!

Amazing right?  Well… maybe not.  According to one website I read, they have stated that they verified it “was a carefully crafted viral ad for Microsoft Project 2007”.  There is still a lot of speculation and only this one site has come out and stated that they had verified that it was fake.  Now I don’t know… the video looks pretty real to me, but I’m no expert on computer tricks and graphics.  If it is just a clever Marketing tactic, I have to say it’s a pretty good one!  This video has gone “viral” and continues to get thousands of hits every day.  It’s created lots of discussion and Microsoft is mentioned in most of the posts that I have read whether the post is positive or negative… they’re still getting the word out on Microsoft Project.  I did go to the actual site and Bruno does have some screenshots of his project plan on there and does a great plug for Microsoft Project.

So… tell us what you think and why.  Marketing tactic or real project?   (Either way… I still enjoy the video!)

In looking at the number of Microsoft Certified Professionals worldwide I am amazed at both how many people have proven their expertise by taking the tests and by how few have taken those tests in the Project Server area.  A certification, combined with real world experience, is a valuable commodity and we are proud of the fact that we have three separate individuals certified in Microsoft Project and Microsoft Portfolio.

We have certifications in MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist), MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional) and MCT (Microsoft Certified Trainer).

In case you are interested, here are the numbers of Microsoft Project certifications worldwide:

MCTS Certification                                                                       Number

Enterprise Project Management with Microsoft Office Project Server 2007          1181

Managing Projects with Microsoft Office Project 2007                                          2707

Microsoft Office Project Server 2007: Configuration                                              815

MCITP Certification                                                                        Number

Enterprise Project Management with Microsoft Office Project Server 2007          505

MCT Certification                                                                          Number

Microsoft Certified Trainer                                                                                     15,250

Source:  http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-overview.aspx#tab5

By:  Tanya Foster

Last time, we began the process of creating a new Project in Portfolio Server.  Below is a screen shot of the entire Project Info tab that we will have to fill out.  I wanted you to see the entire screen, but we are going to focus on a few fields.  I know this seems like a lot of information, but in order for Portfolio Server to be able to tell us which projects will be best suited for your company’s business objectives, we need this information for it to make good choices.

Let’s start with the first series of information.  First, you’ll notice that there are some fields that have an asterisk beside them.  These fields are required fields and must contain information before the project can be saved.  Keep in mind that these are Portfolio Server’s default fields.  You may want some specific fields of your own and that’s fine.  You will just need to have your Portfolio Server Administrator add the fields for you.

I have added a name called “Employee Suggestion Database”.  This will be the name of our project.  Next, I clicked on the down arrow next to Project Class.  There are two default project classes, Major Project and Non Major Project.  This is going to be a non major project. We won’t get into the workflow piece now, so we’ll just leave ours N/A

Next we’ll look at the Project ID field.  I have manually typed 0001 into this field, but you can set Portfolio Server up so that it will automatically assign a Project ID to each new project.  You will notice that Portfolio Server automatically puts the date in the Creation Date field.  There are several default project types, Regulatory, Business Growth, Infrastructure, Development, Enhancement, and Internal Efficiencies.  I’m going to choose Enhancement for our current project. 

Now it’s time to select our areas impacted.  Click on the black triangle next to the “No items selected” section of the Areas Impacted.  This will open the drop down menu with the default Areas Impacted list.  You can select multiple areas, but in our case, we’ll only click in the box next to HR.

Our next two fields have to do with funding.  There are two types of default funding choices to choose from, Gated and Full.  Click on the drop down arrow to get your types of funding list.  For our example we’re going to choose Full.

And finally, we are going to select whether or not the funding for our project was planned.  Click on the drop down arrow to get the Funding for Project Planned list.  There are three default options to choose from, Fully Funded, Partially Funded, or No Funding.  Since we’re in the land of make believe here, of course our project is fully funded!

We’ve completed the first part to the information needed for our new project.  Tune in next time to learn about the Schedule information we need to fill out next!

By: Tanya Foster

Welcome to another installment in our Portfolio Server Series.  I thought about starting at the very beginning with these Portfolio Server blogs, which would be all of the settings, but then I decided, well… there may be a lot of people out there who just want to know how this thing works.  So… we’re going to start there instead.  We’ll get to the settings, but that will be later in the series. 

Let’s start with the default main page.  Once you log in, Portfolio Server opens up to the Builder module.  Portfolio Server has three modules, the Builder module, the Optimizer module, and the Dashboard module.  You will spend most of your time in the Builder module.  That’s where you will input most of the data.  You will also notice that we have another default in this screenshot.  It’s the My Scorecard view.  This is the main view for the Builder module.  The My Scorecard view is set up by the Portfolio Server Administrator so you have someplace to start from when you first log in.  Now the nice thing about the My Scorecard view is that the rows and columns are completely customizable for each individual user.  You can store several Scorecard views if you want to.  To create your own Scorecard view, simply go to Preferences and choose the appropriate link. 

On the left hand side of the screen, you see a “Name” column with names listed underneath it.  This is the Portfolio Server hierarchy.  This helps to organize the information and also helps to roll up cost and resource data.  There are five types of entities: organizations, programs, projects, applications and custom portfolios.  Project information can be rolled up to the program or to the application level.  Programs and applications can be rolled up to the custom portfolio or organization level.  The Administrator can configure multiple levels of organizations, but keep in mind the more organizations there are, the more complex the configuration will be.  You can click on the plus sign (+) and it will expand the list to show the different levels of the hierarchy. 

The top top level of the hierarchy is the Organization level.  You’ll know it’s the Organization level by this icon:

Here are the other four levels denoted by their respective icons:

Each level can be sorted in ascending or descending order.  To change the sorting order, just click the correct up or down button located in the Name column.  You’ll also notice another icon on this page.  This icon shows whether something is checked in or out.  If the little padlock is open, then the project is checked in, if the little padlock is closed, the project is checked out. The last topic for this blog will be the “tabs” at the top of the screen.  This tab structure shows you roll up information on your Project or Program.  The tabs shown here are default to Portfolio Server.  Your Administrator can customize this based on the needs of your organization. 

Please stay tuned for more upcoming blogs on Microsoft Project Portfolio Server 2007!

By: Tanya Foster

I have had several people ask me about Project Portfolio Server, so it seems that this may be a good time to start blogging about the subject.  Let’s start with Microsoft TechNet.  You can find documentation and How To info on just about anything you want (Microsoft related of course).  Here’s the link in case you want to visit the site http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/projportserver/default.aspx

One of the main things that I like about Portfolio Server is that it can be tightly integrated with Microsoft Project 2007.  Let’s start there and talk about how it all works together.  Portfolio Server has a Project Server Gateway.  This gateway provides a link to Project Server 2007 so that you can import, export, and synchronize information between the two environments.  Information such as schedule phases, milestones, resource requirement info, resource availability, and even enterprise fields.    It also meshes with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 for document storage.

Now that we have our information in Portfolio Server from Project Server, we can begin to look at our portfolio of projects and determine which ones are viable and which ones can be put on the back burner or canceled all together.  Now this blog entry is all about the high level stuff.  The next few blog entries will be diving a little deeper into the Portfolio Server subject…. So stay tuned!

By: Collin Quiring

This is an attempt to help clarify the differences between calendar interactions in Microsoft Project.  While there are very helpful “how to” files on www.microsoft.com/project on calendars I am often asked to explain how they are used and how they affect the timing of a schedule.

In Project 2007 there are four calendars.  Those are listed here with a quick definition.

Base Calendar:  standard working and non-working times.  It is the default calendar that is used if no other ones are specified.

Project Calendar:  the calendar that the project uses.  This can be viewed as “when work can happen” and is representative of the available times for the work to be done.  For example, if a company only works certain days or set hours then that should be represented here, as should a company that works a 24 hour schedule.  It is representative of when the company is working – when a scheduled item on this schedule COULD be worked on – based on the other calendars is when the task will ACTUALLY be worked on.

Resource Calendar:  the calendar that the resource uses.  This is used so that resource groups can be scheduled similarly and so that individuals can have their vacations or other scheduled “non-scheduling” times accounted for.  As an example, if a certain department always has a Tuesday morning meeting from 10-12 every week, you can enter that into their resource calendar so that you don’t expect scheduled work to happen during that time.

Task Calendar:  the calendar that the task uses.  This can be used to schedule a task during non-regular-working hours or if it can only happen during a certain time.  For example, if taking down the email servers, it is probably best to force that to happen during the evening or weekend rather than during peak working hours.

Now, what does that mean and how does it work in reality?

Here is how a schedule works in Microsoft Project when you schedule a task.  You enter a task and lets say you give it “1 Day” duration.  The system will look at these calendars to determine when that 1 day actually will fall to be able to schedule the task.  At a high level, this means that the system looks to see what calendars might affect the ability of that task to begin or end at a certain time.

Think of it from this perspective:

First, when the system tries to schedule the task, it is going to try and determine what the available working hours are for the entire schedule – by using the project calendar.  The project calendar is set up by you with the regular working hours for you organization.  But, for the moment, let’s assume that you do not modify the standard project calendar from the default working times of Monday through Friday, 8-5, with an hour lunch.  So, if the project calendar is based on the standard default calendar then the system will schedule the task between 8-5 on a Monday through Friday. 

Then, the system will check the resource calendar (if it exists) to determine what working hours the resource works.  Normally, you add resources to a standard default resource calendar that you create and then you modify each resource according to their unique schedule (vacation, departmental hours, etc).  Let’s assume for the moment that we have a “normal” resource that works from 8-5, Monday through Friday with an hour lunch.  So, the system will have reviewed the project calendar and now the resource calendar and will have determined that this task can happen between the hours of 8-5, Monday through Friday.

Third, the system will look at the task calendar (if it exists) and determine when the task can be done.  This is the calendar that you set up to determine when a specific task can be done.  Again, if not using a specific calendar the default calendar will be used.

In this example, on a brand new task that we have just added it will be put into the schedule starting at 8 am on the next day (Monday through Friday).  I am ignoring predecessors and other factors affecting this specific task – we are just looking at hour calendars work.

Now, a way to view this in a chart and to use a more difficult, real world example:

Our first example used Monday through Friday and 8-5 for each calendar so the task was scheduled for 1 day according to this chart:

Project Calendar    Resource Calendar       Task Calendar            Scheduled

M-F                           M-F                                M-F                        Next available M-F

8-5                            8-5                                 8-5                          Between 8-5

So, what if we have a situation where we work 24 hours a day (three shifts), seven days a week and our schedule could be worked on by somebody, on any one of those shifts during any day?  Well, we have to set up our project calendar to represent the 24/7 aspect – this allows work to be scheduled any time in that 24 hour, 7 day window.  But, we have to have three resource calendars – one for each shift – and we have to assign each resource to a calendar.  This will let the system determine when each resource is available.  And, as before, if we set one up, we will have to determine the hour(s) that the specific task can be worked on.  For purposes of this example, let’s leave the task calendar as open to anytime.  And, for purposes of this example, let’s say that our resource is on a calendar that is Tuesday through Saturday from 11 pm to 8 am with an hour break.

This would look like this:

Project Calendar           Resource Calendar      Task Calendar                    Scheduled

Any day                            T-Sa                            Any Day               Next available T-Sa

24 hour                            11pm – 8am               24 hour                 Between 11p-8a

This time, the system scheduled the task to fall between Tuesday through Saturday and 11 pm to 8 am.  Why?  It did this because this was the next available time that the task could be worked on – the project calendar said that it could be worked on anytime, but the resource doesn’t work anytime – they work between certain hours on certain days.  So, the system used the most restrictive time – when the resource was available.

In the example above, without any outside influence (predecessors, etc) if we were to enter this into the schedule Monday morning at 8 am (when we work) then this task would be automatically scheduled by the system to occur the next night (Tuesday) at 11 pm.

Now, let’s add one more level of complexity.  What if the resource had this Tuesday and Wednesday off as a vacation day?  The system would move the task to start on Thursday at 11 pm.

So, the next time that you schedule a task and it appears that it is starting at an odd time, take a look at your calendars and see what might be affecting the task.