Christophe Fiessinger's Blog Updates on Microsoft's Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) offerings
Reading this recent TechNet article: Configure disaster recovery across SharePoint farms by using SQL Server log shipping I saw this graph:
It’s another great reason to upgrade your SharePoint/Project Server farm to Windows 2008, the improvements in Distributed File System (DFS) and Copying Files are major between Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.
Time to upgrade your farm today! See this for another great reason to do so and links to TechNet documentation to upgrade your farm: Announcing Project Server 2010 Preliminary System Requirements
For more information on Product Lifecycle support for Project Server 2007, Portfolio Server 2007, etc. check this post: Microsoft Support Lifecycle and Project Server
Just got released yesterday, time to upgrade your Project Server farm running on Windows 2008 as well as your home computers if you are not running Windows 7 yet :)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/dd262148.aspx
Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista is an update to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. It provides customer and partner feedback-driven fixes into a single service pack, minimizing deployment and testing complexity. In addition to all previously released updates since SP1, SP2supports new types of hardware, and adds support for several emerging standards.
It has been interesting to track the latest Project Management buzz about Twitter during the past few weeks; Tony Zink definitely raised the Project Server bar with this post today: Use Twitter to Track Tasks and Time in Project Server 2007. Please find below a summary of recent blog posts on this topic as well as my feedback so far after using it for the past few weeks. So far I do see value in the Twibe but it will take time to master this new medium. Try it out yourself, it’s fun!
Latest Project Management and Twitter blog posts:
My experience: from Newsgroups, to LinkedIn, to Blog, to FaceBook, and now Twitter…
When I joined Microsoft in 2001, I started to follow and participate in Newsgroups (mainly French newsgroups focused on Microsoft Technologies), then I joined LinkedIn but did not use it much then. In 2006 right before the public launch of Project Server 2007 I saw a need to share knowledge to the outside world about the new version and started blogging on MSDN. Back in September 2007 I moved to Redmond and wanted to keep track of friends and started using FaceBook as a personal networking platform. Since 2001 I have been a frequent user of Messenger to communicate with friends and relatives and since 2005 also a frequent use of Office Communicator to chat with internal MSFT contacts. Then three weeks ago I decided to try Twitter and see how can it help with my day to day job. I’m still mastering Twitter but so far my findings are these:
Where are the Microsoft Project MVPs?
It looks like Twitter is still in its infancies with respect to the Microsoft Project MVP community since not too many have an account (in particular non-US MVPs), Bud Ratliff is leading the pack with 192 updates. The latest addition to the Twibe is Bilal Okour (blog post I am twittering now! follow me or I will follow you).
Other resources I found surfing among many:
Chris Boyd and Jan Kalis will be delivering the following webcast this Thursday (May 28 @ 9:30 Pacific Time):
This webcast will uncover processes and key messaging between Microsoft Office Project Professional and Microsoft Office Project Server. From first logon, through operations like project open, save and publish, we will describe in detail the ‘cache’ folder structure and registry settings. Network traffic between client and server will also be explained. Finally, we will discuss enhancements made to increase client/server communication scalability and reliability.
Announcing the release of a Microsoft Project 2007 application co-developed with QuantumPM that is supporting the UN (United Nations)/CEFACT standard, a worldwide standard for cost and schedule project information. The Microsoft Project UN/CEFACT Export tool is available free of charge on CodePlex, which guides users through the export of Microsoft Project 2007 data required by DCMA and translates the earned value output into the required UN CEFACT XML protocol. The application will provide significant cost savings for both DoD agencies and contractors by reducing the time and resources required to gather, analyze and format the data.
Following the recent Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) release for Project Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and SharePoint Server 2007 please note the following issue recently published by the SharePoint team that impacts Project Server deployments as well: Attention: Important Information on Service Pack 2
During the installation of SP2, a product expiration date is improperly activated. This means SharePoint will expire as though it was a trial installation 180 days after SP2 is deployed. The activation of the expiration date will not affect the normal function of SharePoint up until the expiration date passes. Furthermore, product expiration 180 days after SP2 installation will not affect customer’s data, configuration or application code but will render SharePoint inaccessible for end-users. We are working to release a hotfix to automatically fix this issue. A manual work-around is currently available and involves customers re-entering their Product ID number (PID) on the Convert License Type page in Central Administration. For more information and detailed steps please read this KB article. (The KB link is not currently active, it will be available within the next 48hrs).
During the installation of SP2, a product expiration date is improperly activated. This means SharePoint will expire as though it was a trial installation 180 days after SP2 is deployed. The activation of the expiration date will not affect the normal function of SharePoint up until the expiration date passes. Furthermore, product expiration 180 days after SP2 installation will not affect customer’s data, configuration or application code but will render SharePoint inaccessible for end-users.
We are working to release a hotfix to automatically fix this issue. A manual work-around is currently available and involves customers re-entering their Product ID number (PID) on the Convert License Type page in Central Administration. For more information and detailed steps please read this KB article. (The KB link is not currently active, it will be available within the next 48hrs).
Brian Smith has published a workaround to this issue on the Project Support Blog: Project Server 2007: License type set to trial after loading Office Server Service Pack 2 (SP2)
The Microsoft Project Conference 2009 site has just been updated with the following information:
There won’t be another worldwide Project Conference elsewhere or during the next year so we encourage you to register for Project Conference 2009. Don’t miss the opportunity to “Learn, Connect and Grow” at Project Conference 2009 in Phoenix, AZ from September 14th-17th, 2009.
This year’s conference will exclusively disclose the powerful capabilities included in Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solutions while providing real world guidance on how Microsoft Project 2007 and Microsoft EPM Solutions are helping customers today with Project and Portfolio Management to save money, enhance efficiency and prepare for future growth. With in-depth content and hands-on opportunities to learn about Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft EPM Solutions, obtain unique insights into how the next release will continue to support your business tomorrow.
If you are an EPM Specialized partner register to this pre-conference event to get more in depth training: Get Ready for Project 2010 - Technical Airlift Being Held as Part of the Project Conference 2009.
The Microsoft Project Conference 2009 awards program recognizes customers and partners who have delivered innovative solutions built on Microsoft Enterprise Project Management 2007 technologies. This worldwide event represents a unique opportunity for you to showcase your solutions and to earn recognition from customers, partners and industry influencers. Finalists and winners will be announced on August 15, 2009 and will be recognized at the Microsoft Project Conference 2009 in Phoenix, Arizona, from September 14–17, 2009.
Hope to see you all in Phoenix!
Last march I did this post: Looking for Microsoft Project Server/EPM Case Studies?, and since the Microsoft Case Studies site was update plus another great case study got published Shire Pharmaceuticals. To see the latest Enterprise Project Management (EPM) case studies follow these steps:
Please find attached my favorite list (OPML file) of related Microsoft Project RSS feeds. It’s a great way to stay up to date on what’s happening in the Enterprise Project Management world. For instance all the RSS under Microsoft Content contains updates to all key content produced officially by Microsoft whether it’s a Knowledge Base article about Service Pack 2 or the latest “How-To” article on project desktop. Under Non-MSFT blogs you will find a lot of usual suspects, mainly Microsoft Project MVPs.
Last but not least I’m using FeedDemon from NewsGator to track all these and more (I have a large SharePoint list as well).