Christophe Fiessinger's Blog The latest news you need to know about Microsoft Project
Following the Cumulative Update rhythm established with Office 2007, SharePoint 2007 and Project/Project Server 2007, I’m happy to announce that the very first 2010 Cumulative Update was released this week for desktop application (Project Standard and Project Professional 2010 for instance – KB 2075992): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2259686 The “2010” server (SharePoint and Project) CU will be out very soon.
And yes we also released a 2007 CU this week, see Brian’s post on the Admin blog: June 2010 Cumulative Update (CU) for Project Server 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007, WSS and Project 2007 now available!
And please attend the upcoming webcast describing the CU content: Microsoft Project and Project Server 2007 and 2010 Cumulative Update Webcast Series
Next CU for 2007 and 2010 product lines are due at the end of August.
And last but not least a great read: Microsoft’s Support Sets Us Apart
Microsoft Project (aka Microsoft EPM) is a leader again this year (similar to last year: Microsoft a Leader in Gartner 2009 Magic Quadrant for IT PPM).
Microsoft Positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of Gartner, Inc.'s 2010 Magic Quadrant for IT Project and Portfolio Management (Gartner Research, June 7, 2010) This Magic Quadrant assesses vendors with offerings in the Project and Portfolio Management space. According to Gartner, the IT PPM market is showing signs of resiliency and innovation, as many PPM vendors transform themselves to support software as a service and other changing user requirements.
As a reminder there are plenty of resources available about Microsoft Project Server 2010:
Got these questions a few times last week at Tech.Ed in New Orleans: how can I purchase the Project Web App? How can I deploy Project Web App in a SharePoint Farm?
So quick post between two World Cup games, to answer these and set expectations: Microsoft Project Web App also referred to as PWA is a component of Microsoft Project Server 2010. So to answer the questions above, PWA comes when you purchase Project Server 2010 and is not sold separately nor free of charges like the Office 2010 Web App; and to deploy PWA you need to deploy Project Server first (plenty of documentation on TechNet: Deployment for Project Server 2010 as usual).
Go to love Microsoft Project 2010’s new timeline view! Busy timeline in the coming weeks http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/calendar.html
And Yes I’m cheering for a few teams :)
Following TechEd 2010 last week in New Orleans (Microsoft Project Presence at Tech.Ed North America 2010) please note the following two breakout sessions (recordings and PowerPoint decks) are available online free of charge! Please note the interactive session are not available online, additionally there are plenty more content for SharePoint 2010: http://www.msteched.com/Tracks/OfficeAndSharePoint
Don’t forget to vote (click on stars underneath the title)
I am happy to announce the following TechNet Cumulative Update (CU) webcast series targeted at IT Professionals/Administrators. The goal of this series is to provide an overview of the updates released for Microsoft Project Server 2010 and Project Server 2007 server products as well as Microsoft Project 2010 and Project 2007 desktop products, and to address related questions you might have about these products updates. These webcasts are scheduled every two months (two weeks after each Cumulative Update release) for the next six CU. Presenters are experts from Microsoft Customer Support and Services. Book your calendars!
What are cumulative updates?
Cumulative updates are a new method of providing hotfix releases on a scheduled delivery basis for Office Server products, including Project Server and Project desktop 2007 and 2010. Through this model, Office hotfixes are released every two months in the form of a downloadable package of current and previous hotfixes. The primary goal is to deliver high-quality fixes on a predictable schedule. The updated releases are accompanied by a Knowledge Base article describing the contents of the update. The first Project Server cumulative update was released in August, 2008.
The hotfixes found in a cumulative update include:
Cumulative updates apply to all versions of Office that are currently in mainstream support. For general information about Microsoft product support, visit the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Web site)(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=147498).
Webcast Overview
Join us for this webcast to get a brief overview of the recently released Microsoft Project and Project Server Cumulative Update (CU). After giving you an overview of the updates for the Microsoft Project Server 2010 and Project Server 2007 server products and the Microsoft Project 2010 and Project 2007 desktop products, we address related questions you might have about these products updates. We also provide the latest content to help you deploy the Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) solution.
Webcast Presenters
Adrian Jenkins, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation and Brian Smith, Senior Support Escalation Engineer, Microsoft Corporation.
Adrian Jenkins is a program manager with the Microsoft Project team and has been working with Microsoft Project since 1990 when the first version was released. Prior to joining the Project team, he worked in the Project support organization under a number of different roles. For the Microsoft Project 2010 release, he worked on areas such as security, delegates, administration, and the Project Center. Additionally, he leads the service pack teams and leads a number of customer-facing programs that get feedback from users on in-market versions of the product.
Brian Smith is in his eighth year of employment at Microsoft. For the last six of these years, Brian has been working in the Customer Support and Services organization, supporting Microsoft Project as a senior support escalation engineer. Brian also supported the beta releases of Microsoft Project 2010 and Project 2007 and is just finishing up the Project 2010 Beta and transitioning back to the main support team. He is also author of the popular blog on Microsoft Project support at http://blogs.msdn.com/brismith.
You need to register for the free of charge webcast by clicking the links below; then you get emailed a link to sign on and participate in the web cast on its date and time (please note only the first two webcast are available for registration at this stage). Each TechNet webcast is recorded for later viewing which should be through the same registration URL: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/epm.aspx?tab=webcasts
Tuesday, March 08, 2011 8:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Similar to 2007, the TechNet IT Pro technical writers team will release on a regular basis a compiled-single file CHM version of all the latest SharePoint and Project Server 2010 content. For instance here is the latest for both as of June 14th. 10MB of MUST READ content for all IT Pros! Also a perfect companion for all consultants that do not have internet access at their favorite customers.
As usual let us know what you think about our documentation:
We would like your feedback so that we can provide you with the best possible technical documentation. Please send any comments, questions, or concerns about the documentation to epmdocfeedback@microsoft.com.
Save these date for these two major events next year:
Following this announcement from a month ago: Microsoft Project Newsgroups transition to Forums, the Project newsgroups, as of today have been officially retired. As Gary Chevetz, MVP, MSProjectExperts noted: A moment of silence to note the passing of the Project Newsgroups. R.I.P (Rest in Peace for non English speakers). For more information about the Newsgroup to Forums transition go to the following: Microsoft Responds to the Evolution of Communities
The following newsgroup are no longer active (please note the list below is not exhaustive and regional newsgroups have also been closed, French project newsgroup as well for instance):
Project Forums
As reminder, Project Forums are monitored by product experts from Microsoft, MVPs, partners, etc... so do NOT be shy and ask ALL your Microsoft Project questions!
Will be an awesome event with awesome content and plenty of cool Microsoft Project Server 2010 goodies as shown below (and more…). More info in these posts:
Flying out this Sunday with Jan, see you soon for some Cajun-ITPro-Dev-ProjectServer2010-FUN!
PS: No I will NOT ship any of these items, it’s ONLY for attendees!