Christophe Fiessinger's Blog The latest news you need to know about Microsoft Project
Following these two releases of Project 2010 Announcing Microsoft Project 2010, Project Server 2010 Public Beta Availability (Beta 2)and Announcing Microsoft Project 2010 Technical Preview (Beta 1) I am sure you all have been actively deploying and testing this great upcoming release. By the way if you are still running Tech Preview time to upgrade to Public Beta which is a lot more stable.
As a reminder both versions will expire on October 31, 2010
(this also applies to SharePoint 2010)
Dear Microsoft Project/EPM Community I wish you all a great break and lots of great non-epm time :) I see working with EPM as a marathon so here is a picture of a recent one I did (Portland last October), yes spectators cheered someone called “EPM 2010”!
After some rest in the next two weeks I look forward to an exiting 2010 year with a very exiting release in the pipe!
For those of you that I have not met yet, here is a recent video shot before the last Project Conference in September where I talk about what I do, still confused, send me an email :) http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/details/7be14dac-0bd3-4632-be56-3eba0045f92f
In case you have not heard SharePoint 2010 and Project Server 2010 will support PowerShell and hence will ship with a library of already about 650 commands. Please find below a few examples I wrote trying to automate Project Service Application creation.
One useful commands to get started: Get-Help *project* (lists all cmdlet that contains the word ‘project’).
Check out this recently Project Server 2010 PowerShell Help file for more information: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee890098(office.14).aspx
As usual we will release Project Server 2010 PowerShell documentations by RTM on TechNet. One of the great thing about PowerShell is that you can easily create your own commands (think of a utility that issues PSI calls for instance…), stay tune for more samples MSDN, in the meantime experiment the power of PowerShell :)
$projectapppool = "ProjectServer-AppPool" $projectserviceapp = "ContosoProjectServiceApplication" $pwaname = "PWA" $projectwebappname = "Contoso Project Server Site" $projectwebappport = 82 $projectwebappurl = "http://www.contoso.com" $projectwebcontentdb = "ProjectServer"+$projectwebappport+"_Content" $adminaccount = "contoso\administrator" $databaseserver = "DEMO2010A" # Create Application Pool New-SPServiceApplicationPool -Name $projectapppool -Account $adminaccount # Create Project Service Application New-SPProjectServiceApplication -ApplicationPool $projectapppool -Name $projectserviceapp # Create Project Service Application Proxy New-SPProjectServiceApplicationProxy -Name ContosoProjectServiceApplicationProxy -ServiceApplication $projectserviceapp # Create Project Server Web Application with its own Content Database New-SPWebApplication -Name $projectwebappname -Port $projectwebappport -URL $projectwebappurl -ApplicationPool $projectapppool -ApplicationPoolAccount $adminaccount -DatabaseName $projectwebcontentdb # Create New Project Server Site Collection # Get-SPWebTemplate New-SPSite -Url ($projectwebappurl+ ":" +$projectwebappport) -OwnerAlias $adminaccount -ContentDatabase $projectwebcontentdb -Template PWS#0 # Provision PWA Instance New-SPProjectWebInstance -AdminAccount $adminaccount -ArchiveDbname ($pwaname +"_Archive") -DraftDbname ($pwaname +"_Draft") -PrimaryDbserver $databaseserver -PublishedDbname ($pwaname +"_Published") -ReportingDbname ($pwaname +"_Reporting") -ReportingDbserver $databaseserver -Url ($projectwebappurl + ":" + $projectwebappport + "/" + $pwaname) -Lcid 1033
Great PowerShell resources:
Following our two sessions on Microsoft Project 2010 at the last TechEd in Europe (Berlin, Germany): Microsoft Project 2010 Session at Tech Ed Europe 2009 please find here (SkyDrive location) the two decks used.
Also check check these two videos we did for IT Pros and developers: Are you Microsoft Project 2010 IT Professional Ready?
Happy 2010 readiness!
As announced last September: Are you Project 2010 Ready? - Announcing Project 2010 Technical Ignite and Sales Training we will be delivering free (yes there are no registration fee associated with this event!!) Microsoft Project 2010 training at the upcoming two locations in Asia/Pacific region in February, as part of the Project 2010 Ignite readiness program:
So far the feedback from attendees in both Europe and recently Mexico City and Sao Paulo have been extremely positive so don’t miss out this great readiness opportunity, seating is limited so register today to secure a seat. Yes this training is also open to non EPM specialized partners (typically SharePoint partners) and customers (assuming they are familiar with Project Server 2007).
For detailed agenda and link to the registration page go to the following Ignite site.
We have booked our travel/hotels to both locations and location forward to train you all in this exciting upcoming release for Project Professional and Project Server 2010!
Simon Moore, product planner for Microsoft's Enterprise Project Management, published recently this great book: Strategic Project Portfolio Management: Enabling a Productive Organization (Microsoft Executive Leadership Series) A great read for the holidays and in preparation for Project Server 2010 and it’s out of the box portfolio strategy capabilities:
Practical and filled with expert advice, Strategic Project Portfolio Management: Enabling a Productive Organization presents a clear framework for your organization to complete impactful strategic projects. Providing executive-level guidance to build a powerful and efficient process from initial adoption to portfolio alignment, this essential resource contains case studies from small to global multinational organizations, arming you with the insights to ensure your strategic projects are given the resources they need to deliver business impact.
This important guide Shows executives how to align their projects and processes with their business strategy for compelling competitive advantage Provides cases from best in class organizations, showing how they were able to achieve results by using processes outlined in the book Reveals how technology is the key to developing new collaborative platforms and innovative work management environments that have not been possible until now Defines a framework for assessing project portfolio management competence within your organization and driving momentum for compelling improvements Explores how to go beyond project portfolio management to a holistic work management system Strategic Project Portfolio Management: Enabling a Productive Organization offers the practical recommendations, guidance, and real world insights you need to immediately begin driving better project management strategy.
This important guide
Strategic Project Portfolio Management: Enabling a Productive Organization offers the practical recommendations, guidance, and real world insights you need to immediately begin driving better project management strategy.
Exactly a year ago while stuck at home during a Seattle snowstorm I wrote this post How to report Project Risks at a Program Level?
Basically the need is: how can you easily create a report that aggregate multiple SharePoint lists (typically Issues and Risks in the Project Server world but not only if you have created custom lists in your Project Workspaces)? My solution was hardcore, not flexible and not easy to administer. Well, it must be Christmas very soon because i-PMO from down under Australia has actually built a solution that solves this problem and more in an elegant way: i|PMO DataMiner 2009 for SharePoint
No they have not paid me to post this and if you also have a solution that addresses this reporting problem let me know and I will gladly update my post!
I downloaded the trial version of i-PMO SharePoint Data Miner in my favorite PPM V4 demo image and within minutes was able to mine all my project workspaces for all Issues and Risks.
and voila all your items from all your lists are now stored in one reporting database and you can then easily create powerful dashboards using you favorite reporting tool (SQL Server Reporting Services, Excel Services, PerformancePoint Services to name a few :)) What I liked about this solution beside solving the problem at hand is that it was easy to install and configure and I did not need to purchase additional services to be up and running. In the end you might still want to work with a Business Intelligence expert to build the exact report/dashboard/KPI that you need but at least this solution does all the work for you of storing all the items from the all the SP lists.
Please note that this solution is applicable to not only Project Server 2007/SharePoint 2007 but also the upcoming 2010 release.
The December 2009 Cumulative Update was released today:
Check out the following TechNet resources for deployment guidance: Deploy cumulative updates (Project Server 2007)
[Update Dec 16] - Brian just did a post with a lot more details on this subject: http://blogs.msdn.com/brismith/archive/2009/12/16/project-server-2007-december-2009-cu-released.aspx
Quick reminder, we have a few important Microsoft Project 2010/2007 webcasts this week (all free of charge :)), mark your calendar and attend:
Thursday, December 17, 2009 8:30 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
During the worldwide Project 2010 Ignite Tour, we have been getting a lot of questions about licensing. While the details of pricing and licensing of our next wave of products have not been disclosed yet, this article recently published in Directions on Microsoft is a great reminder on how Microsoft licensing works: Five Essential Resources for Microsoft Licensing
Expertise in Microsoft licensing requires, besides an extraordinary appetite for detail and fine print, knowing where the rules live. Even those who aren't licensing experts still need to live by the rules, and there is no single "Bible of Microsoft Licensing" that contains them all in a clear, navigable format.