Project Server General - Project Server Help Blog

5/12/2010

Project Server 2010 Must Read

Implementing and Administering Microsoft Project Server 2010
sets the deployment Gold Standard. Do not start your Microsoft Project Server 2010 implementation without it!

New York, NY, May 13, 2010 –msProjectExperts essential reference for Microsoft Project Server 2010 begins shipping June 14, in step with the general availability launch of the Microsoft Office 2010 suite. "We are pleased to announce the pre-sale availability of our most popular book in our series for Microsoft Project Server 2010 and Microsoft Project 2010," commented Gary Chefetz, Microsoft Project MVP and the book's primary author. "My co-authors Dale Howard, Tony Zink and I are very excited to be first to market with Project Server 2010 guidance, especially considering the importance of this release," he continued.

Project Server 2010 is a landmark release of Microsoft's market-leading project and portfolio management software. "This is the one I've been waiting for," remarked Chefetz. "This release fulfills the potential I saw in this software when I first started using it as a PMO Director in 2000, when Microsoft first released Project Central. Project Server 2010 connects enterprise project management, enterprise portfolio management, resource management and business intelligence in an unprecedented package through the marriage of Microsoft's project management and SharePoint 2010 technologies."

Implementing and Administering Microsoft Project Server 2010 covers all aspects of Project Server deployment, from installation through configuration, and includes non-technical topics such as preparing an organization for an enterprise project management deployment and providing techniques for organizational change management. "Time and again we see organizations master the technical challenges of deploying an enterprise project management tool, but fail to plan for the organizational challenges, which very often prove to be the most difficult," Chefetz said. "We tackle this right up front in Implementing and Administering Microsoft Project Server 2010, and follow this guidance with best-practice considerations throughout the book."

At 912 pages, Implementing and Administering Microsoft Project Server 2010 includes extensive SharePoint Server 2010 management guidance and a strong introduction to configuring and managing Microsoft's business intelligence stack, including Excel Services and PerformancePoint Services. "We show you how to get started with SharePoint Server 2010 workflows, how to build and deliver Excel reports and how to build dashboards for your Project Server 2010 implementation," commented Chefetz.

Implementing and Administering Microsoft Project Server 2010 is available directly from msProjectExperts or your favorite bookseller. For a limited time only, you can pre-order your copy from msProjectExperts at special pre-order pricing.

Contact: info@msprojectexperts.com

Posted at 11:55 AM by Gary Chefetz | Category: Project Server Administration; Project Server Development; Project Server General; Project Server Usage; Project 2010 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (3)

4/2/2010

A Resource Changed a Task Start date in My Tasks, Why doesn’t this Show in the Gantt Chart View?

The above captioned question comes up periodically in the Microsoft Communities so I thought I might as well create a post on this topic. When users make changes to their assignments in the My Tasks page, project managers can see the change in the Approvals page and after approving the update; they go looking for the new date in the Gantt Chart view in Microsoft Project and do not see the new date reflected either in the data sheet or the Gantt. This is the result of a common misunderstanding about how this feature works.

You need to keep in mind that your resource is changing the task at the assignment level. So, you must apply an assignment view such as Task Usage or Resource Usage, and you will then see the new date for the assignment. These changes do not roll up to the task level automatically to account for the fact that you can have multiple assignments on a task and Microsoft obviously didn't want to invest in the business logic to control the rollup. So, you have a couple of choices:

Live with the discrepancy between task planned start and assignment planned start (doesn't look pretty on the Gantt chart).
Roll up the new start date to the task level manually by adding a Start No Earlier Than (SNET) constraint and add a note to the task to document your schedule change.
Create a macro to do the rollup - keeping in mind that if there are multiple assignments on the task, that you need to handle the decision logic that might entail.
Wait for the date to true up when the resource posts an actual start date.

The good news is, as option number four suggests, the data will eventually true up when a resource reports an actual start date, which is the standard behavior of the Project scheduling engine. Planned Start always equals Actual Start after an actual start date is entered because you can't continue to plan to start an activity on a date uncertain, once you establish a date certain for said activity.

Posted at 4:58 PM by Gary Chefetz | Category: Project Server General; Project Server Usage | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

2/5/2010

Data Differences between the Timesheet Cube & MSP_Project_Timesheet Cube in Microsoft Project Server 2007

The fact that Project Server has two different "Timesheet" cubes, alone, is an understandable source of confusion for many users, but when people then discover that in most Project Server implementations where both of these contain actual work data, that most often these contain very different data they get really puzzled. This can be particularly noticeable when you look at the data summarized by resources or projects. While much of the task and assignment line-level data may appear to be identical, even this data can vary widely. Not only is this a source of confusion, it's rather disconcerting to many new Project Server users who immediately become suspicious of all the data in Project Server 2007.

To get comfortable with the data differences you first have to understand that the data for these two cubes originate from different data sources. That's why the Microsoft product team created two distinct cubes in the first place. The Timesheet Cube shows actual work reported through the timesheet system in Project Server 2007, which is completely isolated from the actual work record recorded in the project other than the fact that data entered through the timesheet system can be pushed through the My Tasks page and into the Project Plans themselves. The SP_Project_Timesheet shows the actual work record as it is recorded in the Project file. Because the product team wanted to make the configuration of Project Server 2007 as flexible as possible, you can choose to configure your system to collect time in the Timesheets without ever sending the information to project, or you can choose to send some information to the project, or you can configure Project Server 2007 to force all users to enter all time (Time entry by Timesheet only. Users will sync to update tasks option) through the timesheet and you can mandate that the actual work record in Project 2007 always be equal to the time collected in the Timesheets (Restrict updates to Project Web Access option). Of course, you can also choose to disable the Timesheet system, but then this data duplicity issue doesn't apply.

There are numerous reasons why the data in these cubes are not always in sync, including some obscure bugs in the project client that caused alteration of actual work and that have just recently been resolved in the December 2009 CU. With that said, bugs are the least common reason for discrepancies unless you're using the Restrict updates to Project Web Access option, which locks down the system rather tightly. Without applying that setting, project managers can update the project plans directly, which can cause actual work to change in many ways. For example, suppose a PM updates a task status directly in the project plan where a resource is assigned. This action causes the system to impute actual work for the assigned resource that will never show in the timesheet cube. As this is a very common practice, in many, if not most cases, you are very likely to see more actual work registered in the project plan than in the timesheets, unless of course, your PMs are also in the habit of deleting completed tasks, which has the exact opposite impact. Using the more restricted setting, however, puts the system into a very rigid and unforgiving state in its effort to maintain integrity between the Timesheet record and the Project record. Unless organizations have very experienced Microsoft Project practitioners operating a high-level of maturity with the tool, this setting is not practical because it causes most novice users untold grief in managing their plans.

Remember, also, that the Timesheet cube may contain actual work entered against Administrative task classifications and that this data shows only in the Timesheet cube and never makes it into a project record. If you use the Administrative time feature, you need to exclude this data in your analysis views in order to begin to compare roll-up data between the Timesheet cube and the SP_Project_Timesheet cube, which remains a problematic challenge unless you are willing to commit to the restrictive system options.

Posted at 10:25 AM by Gary Chefetz | Category: Project Server Administration; Project Server General; Project Server Usage | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

12/27/2009

Which Project Server Instance Are You Connected To?

When you connect your copy of Microsoft Project Professional 2007 to an instance of Project Server 2007, Project Pro does not make it immediately obvious which instance it is connected to. When you look at the Project Pro 2007 interface, it may display that you are "Connected" on the lower status bar, but does not display the instance...

To determine which Project Server instance you are connected to, select...

Tools > Enterprise Options > Microsoft Office Project Accounts

In the 'Project Server Accounts' dialog, it displays the "Current account" immediately below the 'Add' button:

Good luck!

Posted at 10:11 PM by Tony Zink | Category: Project Professional Client; Project Server Usage; Project Server General | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

11/3/2009

Crowdsourcing the Solution to Time Tracking

Time Tracking Stinks

Let's face it... nobody likes to track their time. It's not fun, it's inconvenient, and it provides very little value for most of the thousands upon thousands of people who are asked to do it every day / week / month. It's not extremely difficult or time consuming to do in most cases, but nonetheless it still stinks. Whether they are using paper-and-pencil timesheets, Project Server timesheets, or another third party timesheet tool, I bet that most people would be tickled pink to hear that they never need to perform this boring and tedious task ever again.

It Stinks, But We Need It

On the other hand, I doubt that anyone in our community would deny the benefits of capturing data that describes how people spend their working time. We need it to status project and operational work, we need it to justify headcounts, and we need it to bill our customers... just to name a few reasons. If captured consistently and completely, the data can be extremely valuable:

What if you discovered that your personnel currently spend 30% of their time on projects? What if you could increase it to 50%?
What if you discovered that some of your personnel are 90% billable, but others are only 20% billable?
What if you discovered that the average work week within your department / business unit is 65 hours? What if you discovered that it is 32 hours?

Let's Be Innovative!

Until someone in a laboratory discovers a way to tap directly into our brains and record what we are thinking and doing throughout the workday, an interim solution would be extremely helpful. This solution should address the age-old problem of time tracking... the need to capture the data to manage and improve the business, while at the same time making it effortless for the company personnel to capture. After all, if we ask our personnel to follow a process or utilize a tool that is confusing or tedious, then we will most likely end up with a garbage-in, garbage-out situation.

Many existing solutions are merely slight variations from one another; a timesheet consisting of a list of tasks or activities shown in a table or form, with daily or weekly columns for entering how much time was spent on each. A truly innovative solution would cast aside any existing time tracking paradigms... no more timesheets, no more typing work hours into a form, and no more waiting until the end of the day / week / month to capture the data.

One example is a shop floor solution in which an employee swipes their ID card when they begin working at a station or work center, then swipe again when they leave the station. A system automatically tracks the amount of time that the person spent performing that activity... no manual time entry required.

With the widespread use of mobile phones, RFID (Radio Frequency ID) tags, text messaging, social networking tools, and other emerging technologies, we should be able to invent some very interesting methods of tracking our company time.

Crowdsourcing the Solution

In an effort to crack open the time tracking problem that so many companies have, I would like to engage the community to do some brainstorming. Here are a few thought starters to get the conversation rolling:

What specific aspects of time tracking stink?
What types of working and non-working time need to be captured?
How accurate does the data need to be?
How granular does the data need to be?
How often does the data need to be captured?
How often does the data need to be submitted?
Is it better for people to manually enter the data into a tool?
Is it better for a tool to automatically ask people for the data?
Where should the data be captured?
What types of devices should people use to capture the data?
Should it be a stand-alone tool, or embedded within other software / tools?
Should the tool utilize social networking platforms?

Please leave your ideas, suggestions, and other comments here.

Thanks!

Posted at 2:13 AM by Tony Zink | Category: PM Processes; Project Server Administration; Project Server General; Project Server Usage | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (9)

10/7/2009

Project Server 2010 Provides Vastly Improved Installation Experience

Installing Project Server has never been a pleasant task with numerous prerequisite steps and downloads as well as server tweaks and configurations. With the introduction of 2010, Microsoft removed dozens of small tedious tasks from the process providing a much more streamlined and automated installation experience. A Project Server implementer's life gets markedly better in 2010.

One very major difference between installing Project Server 2007 and Project Server 2010, is that the automated installation routine now performs most of the server prerequisite configuration and component gathering and implementation for you. You heard that right, provided that you have an available Internet connection the new Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies 2010 Preparation Tool not only configures the application server for you, it reaches out to Microsoft download sites to gather all of the additional software bits you previously needed to hunt down yourself, and then it installs them for you. Included are such things as the appropriate version of the .NET Framework, PowerShell, the new Geneva Framework, OCS and SQL components from the feature pack to name only a few of the chores removed from the implementer's plate.

The second big change to the Project Server 2010 installation is that Project Server now slips into the SharePoint envelope as a service. To me, this marks the completion of the major SharePoint integration journey that began with the introduction of Project Server 2002. During the 2002/2003 years, Project Server and SharePoint started dating, by the time 2007 rolled out dating turned into living together and with the 2010 release, Project Server and SharePoint server are officially married. Once you run the SharePoint configuration wizard for your Project Server/SharePoint Server installation, you now manage Project Server and Project Server 2010 sites just like you'd manage any other SharePoint application. You no longer need a shoehorn for the process and gone are Shared Service Providers as a more streamlined management experience emerges as well!

One of the most significant impacts of this arrangement is that all Project Server reporting is now handled by Excel Services in SharePoint Server. In fact, it seems likely that the desire to leverage this powerful facility, offered only with the SharePoint Enterprise SKU, is the driving factor behind the inter-SKU dependency. While the Project Server installation is now a relative cinch, Project Server implementers and administrators now need to be much more conversant with managing SharePoint than ever before, and must now become very competent with the new version of Excel Services, which underlies all Project Server reporting capabilities.

Finally, one last major change for Project Server implementers and administrators is the new integration with Exchange Server to synchronize Project Server tasks with tasks in Outlook. By eliminating the Outlook add-in, Microsoft is removing one of the banes of an administrator's existence trying to keep it working out in desktop world. From the continuously annoying active-X installation failures to other strange behaviors in deployment, I doubt many will be sad to see this one go. Configuring the new integration with Exchange could best be described as similar to the chore of configuring Active Directory sync for the first time, and similar in its requirements for administrative attention as well.

Expect to be pleasantly surprised when you tackle your first installation of SharePoint Server 2010 and Project Server 2010.

Posted at 9:33 AM by Gary Chefetz | Category: Project 2010; Project Server Administration; Project Server General | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

9/22/2009

Announcing Expanded Book Offering for Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010 with Microsoft to Feature Excerpts on MSDN

Previews of new Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010 books to be featured on MSDN, TechNet, and other Microsoft sites through Microsoft's community authored content initiative.

msProjectExperts announced its new books for Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010 at the Microsoft Project Conference in Phoenix. "We're very excited to introduce our new titles at the Microsoft Project Conference this year" commented Gary Chefetz, CEO of msProjectExperts, "we're finally introducing a long-awaited Developer's Guide to Microsoft Project Server 2007 and 2010 and Managing Enterprise Portfolios, a new title that covers the portfolio management capabilities now integrated into Project Server 2010. "The Developer's Guide for the server is long overdue, as was Rod Gill's VBA book when we published it several years ago," he continued. "Microsoft Project Server represents a very small niche to larger publishing houses, so it takes a smaller company like ours willing to tackle the subject matter and make the production investment."

"Earlier this year, we signed a Master Content Agreement with Microsoft that paves the way for us to share our content on Microsoft web sites," said Chefetz. "The new agreement with Microsoft allows us to feature excerpts from our books in advance of publication." The Developer's Guide to Microsoft Project Server 2010, by MVP Stephen Sanderlin, VP of technology at msProjectExperts, is the first of the new titles with advance content published on MSDN. Importing SharePoint List Data into Project Server 2007 Custom Fields is the first article to be featured from the 2010 books series Excerpts from MVP Rod Gill's VBA Programming for Microsoft Office Project versions 98 through 2007 are also featured on MSDN. For 2010, Rod Gill is expanding his book to become the "Developer's Guide to Microsoft Project 2010 and now includes topics such as using VSTO for creating program add-ons.

"We toyed with the idea of publishing a Developer's Guide for 2007, but given the time constraints, we decided to make the 2010 book backward compatible to Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 rather than publishing two books." said Chefetz, "This book is be a must have for developers working with both versions as the content that is specific only to 2010 is clearly identified throughout. I am also very pleased to introduce Managing Enterprise Portfolios using Microsoft Project Server 2010. This new title covers the enterprise portfolio management capabilities now integrated into Project Server 2010 including demand and capacity management, portfolio optimization and the lifecycle governance features in the new system."

Along with the two new titles for Microsoft Project Server 2010, the Ultimate Learning Guide to Microsoft Project 2010 is back as two separate books, one covering foundational learning and one covering advanced topics. Managing Enterprise Projects using Microsoft Project Server 2010 continues to be the only book specifically written for Project Managers using the Microsoft EPM platform as does Collaborating on Enterprise Project Teams using Microsoft Project Server 2010 remain the only book specifically written for team members and managers using the system.

The gold standard for Project Server deployment, Implementing and Administering Microsoft Project Server 2010, completes the company's eight-title book offering for Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010. "It's hard to believe that this all started with one book that I wrote for Project Server 2002," Chefetz remarked. "When Dale Howard joined the company, we started expanding our core offering with the introduction of Project Server 2003 and grew through 2007. We finally have all aspects of Project and Project Server covered with the introduction of the Developer's guide and Managing Enterprise Portfolios."

msProjectExperts books are available at the company's e-store, Project Daddy, and from booksellers around the world. msProjectExperts holds an invitation-only private prepublication sale 30 days prior to shipping each title. For a private sale invitation, visit the msProjectExperts web site and click on the contact link to reserve you invitation.

Posted at 11:48 AM by Gary Chefetz | Category: Project 2010; Project Server General | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

8/19/2009

Who Said There’s no Free Quick Launch? New Custom Web Parts for Project Server 2007 Released Including a Very Cool Freebie

Yesterday we released a bunch of new web parts for Project Server 2007 including the first in our series for the My Timesheet page and a new Quick Launch Toggle web part that you can obtain for free just by downloading our trial versions. For the My Timesheet page, we released the following:

My Timesheet Tamer: Allows you to control many aspects of the grid display such as relabeling any field name in the grid, changing the Page Header, relabeling buttons, setting justification to the left and hiding planned work rows. The ability to hide the planned work rows allows you to compact the display significantly, which makes time entry much easier.

My Timesheet Totals: Displays totals by day, by week and by project without having to click the Recalculate button. While the My Timesheet page does display daily totals, as well as a total for the entire period, it doesn't sum these up by project and administrative time. The My Timesheet Totals web part updates as you make your entries giving you instant feedback and doesn't require page reloads, and we designed this to be printer friendly for users who want or must have a printed summary.

We're also working on a version of our constant filter web part for the My Timesheet page, which should be ready soon. This web part allows you to filter out assignments the same way the My Tasks version works. Finally, we also introduced a new web part for the My Tasks page:

My Tasks Not New: A hidden web part that removes the New Task icon from the grid display in the My Tasks page. Now that we've eliminated the need for users to visit the Assignment Details page with our web parts for My Tasks, users wanted a way to remove the new task icon without having to drill down on each task. This new web part gets this nuisance out of your way simply by adding it to the page.

Finally, we released a very cool and totally free web part called the Quick Launch Toggle. The QL Toggle can be added to any SharePoint, MOSS or Project Server page to allow users to collapse the Quick Launch menu. This is superb for pages with grid displays like the Project Center, Resource Center, My Tasks and My Timesheet. The toggle web part allows you to reclaim valuable display real estate, which is particularly important for users with laptops or screens that support only 10 X 7 or slightly higher resolutions. It's also great when you're presenting Project Server screens on a projector. I'll be using it for all my demos!

Find both trial versions and full versions in our web store

Posted at 10:03 AM by Gary Chefetz | Category: Project Server General; Project Server Usage; SharePoint | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (2)

7/30/2009

Stay Ahead of the Pack With These MS Project Resume Building and Job Search Tips

We all know that times are tough for many Project Managers and the companies that employ them. Even if you are not currently a daily MS Project or Project Server user, these products have such a large market share that turning a blind eye to them may mean the difference between landing / keeping a job... and hunting through the job boards.

Here are a few tips and resources to build your resume and stand out from the rest of the Project Management and Microsoft Project user community:

Learn Microsoft Project Inside and Out
Learn How to Manage Projects Using Project Server
Learn How to Administer Project Server
Get Certified in Microsoft Project and Project Server
Post Your Business Card at ProjectServerExperts.com
Monitor MS Project Jobs, Project Server Jobs, and Project Management Jobs at ProjectServerExperts.com
Monitor MS Project Jobs, Project Server Jobs, and Project Management Jobs via the MSProjExperts Twitter Feed

Learn Microsoft Project Inside and Out

In my experience working with MS Project and helping others to learn the tool, most people who have a copy of Microsoft Project (desktop) struggle to build anything more sophisticated than a simple project schedule. It is an extremely powerful, yet very misunderstood tool. If you can take the time to truly learn MS Project inside and out, then that puts you far ahead of most folks.

Once you have mastered it, don't be afraid to use the word "expert" on your resume!

Although there is a scattered collection of online resources for people who want to learn more about MS Project, it is better to get your hands on a GREAT book, or better yet, attend a GREAT training class. Here are some options that MSProjectExperts offer:

Ultimate Learning Guide to Microsoft Office Project 2007

http://www.projectserverbooks.com/books/ultimatelearningproject2007.aspx

Over 900 pages of goodness, this book covers every single feature in Microsoft Project 2007, including exercises, warnings, and best practice notes.

If you want to take it a step farther and attend a formal, structured training class, here is a great option:

Establishing a Project Management Foundation using Microsoft Office Project 2007

http://projectservertraining.com/learning/foundations2k7.aspx

This two-day hands-on class is held in New York City, via cyberspace, or at your location, is led by certified instructors with years of field experience, and earns PMPs 14 PDUs.

Learn How to Manage Projects Using Project Server

Not only is Microsoft Project on the desktop understood by a select few, even fewer people have sufficient training and experience to call themselves masters of Project Server. With more companies adopting this powerful Enterprise Project Management (EPM) tool every day, you are wise to keep yourself in the game by learning how to use it effectively.

Once again, if you have mastered the use of Project Server for managing projects, don't be shy about stating it on your resume.

There are even fewer quality resources available to learn Project Server; here are some great options to prepare yourself:

Managing Enterprise Projects using Microsoft Office Project Server 2007

http://www.projectserverbooks.com/books/managingprojectsprojectserver2007.aspx

Nearly 900 pages of Project Server wisdom are contained in this book, including exercises, warnings, and best practice notes.

If you want to take it a step farther and attend a formal, structured training class, here is a great option:

Managing Projects from Foundation to Enterprise using Microsoft Office Project Server 2007

http://projectservertraining.com/learning/hybrid2k7.aspx

This four-day hands-on class is held in New York City, via cyberspace, or at your location, is led by certified instructors with years of field experience, and earns PMPs 28 PDUs.

Learn How to Administer Project Server

As more companies adopt Project Server every day, there are more companies that find themselves in need of a trained, experienced person to update and care for their Project Servers... a.k.a. the Project Server Administrator. People who know how to administer Project Server are few and far between. If you have an interest in it, learn how to do it, and it you will reap great rewards.

Here are some terrific options for learning this invaluable skill set:

Implementing and Administering Microsoft Office Project Server 2007

http://www.projectserverbooks.com/books/implementingadministeringprojectserver2007.aspx

This book contains over 900 pages of highly detailed information covering how to administer every area of Project Server 2007, including exercises, warnings, and best practice notes.

If you want to take it a step farther and attend a formal, structured training class, here is a great option:

Configuring and Administering Microsoft Project Server 2007

http://projectservertraining.com/learning/administering2k7.aspx

This three-day hands-on class is held in New York City, via cyberspace, or at your location, is led by certified instructors with years of field experience, and earns PMPs 21 PDUs.

Get Certified in Microsoft Project and Project Server

Once you have mastered any or all of the areas described above, there is no better way to prove it to your employer -- or prospective employer -- than earning a Microsoft certification. There are four certification exams that you can take, depending upon how you and your company use MS Project and Project Server:

70-632: Microsoft Office Project 2007, Managing Projects

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-632

70-633: Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, Managing Projects

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-633

70-634: Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, Managing Projects and Programs

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-634

70-639: Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, Configuring

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-639

Passing any one of these exams earns you an MCTS certification; passing the 70-632, 70-633, and 70-634 exams will earn you the MCITP certification. Both look great on a resume!

To prepare yourself for the 70-632 exam, you can attend the MSProjectExperts course specially-designed for this purpose:

Ultimate Microsoft Project 2007 Exam Prep Boot Camp 70-632

http://projectservertraining.com/learning/ultimateexamprep.aspx

This three-day hands-on class is held in New York City, via cyberspace, or at your location, is led by certified instructors with years of field experience, and earns PMPs 21 PDUs.

To prepare yourself for the 70-633 exam, you can attend the MSProjectExperts course specially-designed for this purpose:

Managing Projects from Foundation to Enterprise using Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Exam Prep

http://projectservertraining.com/learning/hybrid2k7exam.aspx

This five-day hands-on class is held in New York City, via cyberspace, or at your location, is led by certified instructors with years of field experience, and earns PMPs 35 PDUs.

If you are planning to take the 70-639 exam, attending the 'Configuring and Administering Microsoft Office Project Server 2007' course mentioned above should prepare you well.

If you are planning to attend the Microsoft Project Conference 2009 in September (http://www.msprojectconference.com), you can take the 70-632 and 70-633 exams for FREE.

Post Your Business Card at ProjectServerExperts.com

After you have mastered Microsoft Project and / or Project Server, get noticed by posting your virtual business card on the Project Server Experts Community web site... it's FREE:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com

Monitor MS Project Jobs, Project Server Jobs, and Project Management Jobs at ProjectServerExperts.com

Rather than waiting for that next job to find you, be proactive and keep your eye on the MS Project, Project Server, and Project Management jobs that are updated daily on the Project Server Experts Community web site:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com

Monitor MS Project Jobs, Project Server Jobs, and Project Management Jobs via the MSProjExperts Twitter Feed

Not only are you proactive, but you are hip to the latest online social networking tools available. If you don't already have one, sign up for a free Twitter account (http://www.twitter.com) and follow the MSProjExperts Twitter feed:

http://www.twitter.com/msprojexperts

Not only will you be notified automatically of the latest MS Project, Project Server, and Project Management jobs, but you will also be the first to learn about the latest articles and announcements that are posted on the Project Server Help blog (http://www.projectserverhelp.com).

I wish you luck in staying ahead of the pack!

Posted at 11:33 AM by Tony Zink | Category: Certification; Project Professional Client; Project Server Administration; Project Server General; Project Server Usage; Project Standard Edition; Training | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

6/30/2009

Update for Project Server SP2 Fixes Expiration Date Bug

The Microsoft SharePoint team has released an update for the Office Servers (including Project Server 2007) Service Pack 2 (SP2), fixing the expiration date bug as mentioned here:

http://www.projectserverhelp.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=66

When applying SP2 for Project Server 2007, an expiration date is improperly activated, thus causing the product to lock users out of the system after a trial period has elapsed.

As stated on the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog, Project Server 2007 users can download an update (patch) which will resolve this issue; the update can be applied before or after SP2 is applied to your Project Server 2007 environment:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/06/25/service-pack-2-update.aspx

To visit the original Microsoft KnowledgeBase (KB) article and review the details of the issue, as well as download the SP2 update:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/971620

According to the SharePoint team blog post, they plan to update the SP2 download package with the bug fix in the next 4-6 weeks.

What is your experience with this issue, as well as any other issues with SP2? Please share by leaving a comment.

Good luck!

Posted at 11:48 AM by Tony Zink | Category: Project Server Administration; Project Server General; SharePoint | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

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