March, 2010

Another Project Server 2010 “must see” webcast on Wednesday morning, March 31, 2010 8:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada): Managing the Project Life Cycle with Demand Management

Demand Management, a new feature in Microsoft Project Server 2010, captures work proposals in one place and takes them through a multi-stage governance process using a SharePoint workflow model. In this presentation, we provide an overview of Demand Management and its importance in managing project life cycles, and we explain how to configure Demand Management and the required components.

Learn from one of our Project MVPs: Rolly Perreaux why this great new capability of Project Server 2010 is a major enhancement:

As usual to stay on top of upcoming and past Microsoft Project webcasts, subscribe to the following RSS: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/epm.aspx?tab=rss

For instance if you missed it, check out this other must see webcast from Michael Jordan: TechNet Webcast: Project Server 2010 - Performance Part 2: Architecture, Sizing, and Capacity (Level 300)

Been busy lately but wanted to remind all that a lot of valuable posts have been made by my Microsoft colleagues recently. First as a reminder you should all subscribe to the following blogs/rss feeds with no exception:

• http://blogs.msdn.com/project
• http://blogs.msdn.com/project_programmability
• http://blogs.technet.com/projectadministration
• http://blogs.msdn.com/brismith
• http://blogs.technet.com/doug_mccutcheon

Now the MUST read topics in no particular order, happy readiness ! And as usual expect a ton more content being released as we gear up for the launch on Project and Project Server 2010 on May 12th, 2010 (book your calendars, Project 2010 and SharePoint 2010 are on schedule and will release to manufacturing (RTM) in April):

• The Enterprise Project Management Partner of the Year Award entry process is open, submissions accepted until 2nd April!
• Announcing the Microsoft Project 2010 certification and training program
• Project Server 2010: New Business Intelligence (BI) Center on TechNet
• Project Server 2010: What to Expect when you get the Unexpected
• Project Server 2010: Goodbye SSP, Hello Service Application
• Project Server 2010 – Even more reasons to keep your server clocks in sync
• Project Server 2010 Departmental Custom Fields
• Project Server 2010 Delegation – Different Default Behavior for Native versus 2007 Upgrade
• Project Server 2010 - Video Walkthrough of the Out of the Box Sample Proposal Workflow
• Project 2010: Introducing Delegates
• Microsoft Project 2010: Powershell Cmdlets for Project Server PSI
• Project 2010 SDK, **March** update (online MSDN only)
• Nintex announced adding Microsoft Project Server 2010 integration to the Nintex Workflow 2010 product range

Currently attending a Microsoft event this week, and I love the water bottle … (thanks to Jan), not to mention the beautiful 16GB USB keys that just happens to be the perfect size to store my favorite demo image …

and since we are talking about race cars :) check out my favorite pinewood derby car that hit the racetrack tonight:

Following this announcement at the beginning of the month: ANNOUNCING Microsoft Project Server 2010 IT Professional TechNet Webcast Series, don’t miss out tomorrow to learn from the very best consultant on the subject:Michael Jordan, How to Architect, Size and Plan your Project Server 2010 Farm. Live at a browser near you starting at 8:30 Pacific Time (Seattle time!): https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032442909&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

If you missed it, check this first webcast on the subject: Microsoft Project 2010: Project Server Stress Testing

Following the Microsoft Project 2010 Ignite Worldwide tour, we did a series of interviews from attendees (customers, partners, MVPs and Microsoft employees) in France, Brazil, Singapore and Australia.

Please find below links to about 100 interviews (3min each on average) from attendees and their thoughts about 2010, in multiple languages. It’s great to see the excitement around Project 2010 across the globe!

There is one last delivery of Project 2010 Ignite next week in Seattle if you are interested, agenda and registration.

As a reminder we have a dedicated video channel for Project with over 350 videos since Project Conference 2009: http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/US/channels/microsoftproject

Ignite specific videos: http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/US/channels/microsoftproject/search?phrase=ignite

Happy viewing on your PC/Phone/Web!

Highlights:

• Ignite Singapore – Montage - February 2010
• Ignite Sydney, Australia - Montage - February 2010
• Ignite Sao Paolo, Brazil – Montage – December 2009
• Ignite Paris, France - Montage - November 2009

Dear Francophile around the globe check out this great series of recordings from my ex colleagues from Microsoft France, MVP and partners on Microsoft Project 2010: Les webcasts des TechDays 2010 sont disponibles !!!!

Following Mike Shughrue webcast this morning entitled: Project Server 2010 – Performance Part 1: Setup, Test Execution, and Results (more webcast to come so book your calendar: ANNOUNCING Microsoft Project Server 2010 IT Professional TechNet Webcast Series), we now have a new set of tools to test Project Server 2010 on MSDN Code Gallery: Microsoft Project 2010: Project Server Stress Testing

Using that toolset I was able to quickly populate a blank PWA site and more importantly perform a series of web test on PWA (my demo image in this case) as shown below (amazing to see the SQL activity during the tests):

As you can see below lots of valuables tests you could all leverage not just to perform capacity planning but also to test custom code for instance:

Time to be SharePoint 2010 Ready! Check out the following from MSFT:

• Microsoft SharePoint – Training Portal http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/training/sharepoint.aspx
• Getting Started with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 (Beta) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ee518660.aspx
• Get Started Developing on SharePoint 2010: http://MSSharePointDeveloper.com

I have been getting a few question about Timesheet/Statusing in Microsoft Project Server 2010 so please find a recap of available resources we have released so far. Feedbacks I have received worldwide while presenting this subject at Project 2010 Ignite has been extremely positive; enhancements such as single-entry mode, richer user interface (Excel like), delegation and last but not least extensible! As usual we are still in Beta so expect more resources on that topic once the product is released this spring.

• Project Conference 2009 Session:
• Time tracking and Statusing Overview: http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/us/details/71210470-313d-4e3b-9022-2e8a7b7d74bd
• Project Server 2010 - Timesheets and Task Management Improvements: http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/us/details/1814dcae-34e5-468b-8cc4-a53c68a3bdc9
• Product group blog post:
• Time Tracking in Project Server 2010: http://blogs.msdn.com/project/archive/2009/11/23/time-tracking-in-project-server-2010.aspx
• Project 2010: Introducing Exchange Integration: http://blogs.msdn.com/project/archive/2009/12/11/project-2010-exchange-integration.aspx
• Task Statusing and the new Grid: http://blogs.msdn.com/project/archive/2010/01/28/task-statusing-and-the-new-grid.aspx
• Project 2010 Ignite Timesheet/Statusing deck: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff358349(office.14).aspx
• Demo Image (based on Public Beta) if you want to test out Timesheet and Statusing/Single entry mode in 2010:
• Download: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713956
• Hosted Virtual Lab: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713654

I’m excited to announce the following Microsoft Project Server 2010 presence at TechEd 2010 in New Orleans from June 7-10. It will be an exciting event since we will have released 2010 then (Project 2010 and SharePoint 2010 are on schedule and will release to manufacturing (RTM) in April)

More details will be communicated closer to the event.