Today we're excited to share all session recordings from Project Conference 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona with the greater Project community. Over 1250 people from 44 countries made the trip--75% for the very first time. The week featured 94 handpicked sessions with 20 delivered by customers eager to share their experiences. Many sessions were standing room only and from the evaluations, many only wished they could have attended more of them. Zach Heisinger, first time attendee, tells us he's already looking forward to the next Project Conference. His only complaint? "I wish certain sessions could be offered more than once during the conference. That way I wouldn’t have to pick one great session over another great session." So, we're excited to share these recordings with all of you as it represents a collection of the best content out there from our customers, partners, and industry leaders.

This year's Conference focused on Project 2010 momentum and offered attendees both networking as well as training opportunities. We've said before, 2010 marks the biggest release in over a decade, but product innovation didn't end with its release. You'll find 87 recordings totaling over 100 hours of content. We suggest getting started by viewing both keynotes, first from Microsoft Office Division CVP Kirk Koenigsbauer and then from Microsoft Project GM Ludovic Hauduc. Then jump into some of the top rated sessions at the conference:

1. Deliver SharePoint Success: Key Steps to Reap the Business Benefits
2. Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices for Using Project Server 2010
3. The painters, the policemen and the Pope...understanding task movement in Microsoft Project 2010
4. Take Your Project Reporting To the Next Level: Dashboards and Other Tools
5. YJTJ (Your Job Tool’s Job) ™ – Working in Concert with Microsoft Project
6. Unleashing the Value of Earned Value: Applying Schedule and Cost Controls to Measure Project Performance
7. Turning Project Data into Real World Reports: An Overview of Business Intelligence Options
8. Leveraging Project 2010 with Office 365 for Project Management Success
9. Be Loved By Your Development Teams: Using the Team Foundation Server – Project Server Connector
10. Microsoft Project 2010 Desktop Overview

From all the social media buzz (2.5 million Twitter impressions) and excitement, the Project community looks to be growing stronger and stronger each day. None of this would have been possible without each of you and we're thankful for the opportunity to have met many of you in person. A special thank you to those who were able to join us this year. Hope you enjoyed all the parties and the warm weather. We can't wait for the next one! For those who couldn't make the trip this year, we hope you find the sessions informative and enough of a reason the join us next time. Let us know what you think in the comments or via Facebook/Twitter.

You can view all sessions on the Microsoft Project Showcase Channel

Work typically isn’t difficult to describe. We all do it, and sometimes wish we had less of it. In Microsoft Project, on the other hand, defining work can get a little tricky, especially when setting up the working calendar for the team in your project schedule.

Usually, Project considers working time to be Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m ., with weekends off. So far so good, especially the part about the weekends.

But you can change this to any time you want. If you want everyone to work Saturdays or all evenings, so be it.

The following graphic will show you how to use the Change Working Time dialog box to change the project work calendar. In the example graphic below, Saturday is made into a four-hour working day with, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m .

That’s it. And sorry about the weekend part.

Special message from Project & Visio Director Chris Crane

This morning, Kirk Koenigsbauer – Corporate Vice President of the Office Division Product Management Group – kicked off the Microsoft Project Conference 2012 in sunny Phoenix, Arizona with an opening keynote address.  This year’s event celebrates the success of Project 2010 and showcases how it continues to evolve in order to meet the changing collaboration and project management needs within organizations of all sizes.  At the heart of that evolution is Microsoft’s focus on an integrated platform wherein customers are better able to respond to industry trends (i.e. devices and the cloud) and have an opportunity to realize the benefits of Project Portfolio Management (PPM) beyond IT and into all areas of a business including Marketing, Finance and Resource & Development (as seen in Revlon’s example below).

Since its launch in May of 2010, Microsoft Project has quietly climbed to the top of the Project Portfolio Management market with over 20 million users of the Microsoft Project desktop to date. That’s one license sold every 20 seconds!  And, analysts agree with Gartner giving its highest rating to Microsoft in the latest Marketscope for Project and Portfolio Management.

But, you don’t have to take our word for it! Eighty-two of the Fortune 100 are Microsoft Project customers and Revlon– a global cosmetics company headquartered in New York City – is one such company.  With an excess of daily meetings, the company found that the productivity of its employees plummeted and, with 1.3 billion dollars’ worth of sales in 2010 alone, it stood to lose a lot due to inefficiencies.  The Revlon IT department was looking for a way to optimize its project planning, reduce the number of meetings and bridge the gap between developers and project managers by improving the transparency of project data. 

Enter Microsoft Project Server 2010.  Revlon implemented the technology in addition to the Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Integration Feature Pack.  Bringing both into the organization produced a wealth of improved efficiencies including up to 30% less time in meetings, productivity gains of 2-5% and improved risk management through better data.  Perhaps Jacqueline Shannon – senior planner in program management for Revlon – said it best, “I think Microsoft Project Server 2010 is an incredible tool because it promotes accountability, timeliness and structure allowing us to focus more on our deliverables rather than reporting on our deliverables.”  For more information regarding Revlon’s use of Project 2010 check out this video: http://aka.ms/zdniuj!

Another reason customers, like Revlon, value Project 2010 is for its improved integration and continuous innovation with Microsoft technologies like Exchange and SharePoint providing people with a familiar user interface and connected platform that they can use to manage all their work from the simplest to the most complex projects.

• Experienced and/or accidental Project managers can plan and collaborate with teams to share schedule details quickly with Project Professional 2010 and SharePoint Online (Office 365) task list synchronization. Individuals throughout the organization can view the task list and quickly see task status and update progress in SharePoint Online—from virtually anywhere! Please refer to this Project blog post for additional information.
• SharePoint integration allows professional Project Managers to collaborate with a wider group of colleagues, important participants and “accidental project managers”, who track their tasks and progress through SharePoint.
• SharePoint 2010 integration brings powerful Business Intelligence capabilities via Excel Services, PerformancePoint Services and SQL Reporting Services, so all Project 2010 users can create enhanced dashboards that give you greater transparency across your many portfolios within the organization. Please refer to this website for additional information.
• Improved integrations with other proven Microsoft technologies such as Microsoft Exchange means that users can manage and respond to project tasks effectively through Outlook—on their PC, over the mobile phone, or using Outlook Web Access.
• With the release of the Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Integration Feature Pack, project managers and software development teams can use the tools that they prefer, work at the level of precision that supports their needs, share information transparently, and each use the methodology they prefer (agile or formal).

Please check out the Microsoft Project 2010 Customer Success page for more case studies. For more information about the Project Conference and a transcript of today’s keynote, please visit the Project Conference virtual press room.

Enjoy the conference!

Sincerely,

Chris Crane

Director, Project and Visio Product Marketing at Microsoft Corp.

A common ask from customers nowadays is to integrate their Project Portfolio Management (PPM) solution with their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions to achieve end to end visibility into portfolios, projects, resources and finance. Microsoft Project Server 2010 offers an extensive and powerful platform that can easily be integrated with leading ERP, including out of the box integration with Microsoft Dynamics AX and SL. A number of PPM partners have built solutions that connects Project Server with other line of business applications, please check Microsoft Enterprise Project Management Solutions for the latest list.

In addition we have released the following white paper recently: Microsoft Project Server 2010 integration with SAP. This white paper, written by Advisicon, outlines the benefits and scenarios for integrating Microsoft Project Server 2010 with SAP’s ERP; in particular integrating the actual time reporting from SAP with the time-phased planning and resource forecasting power of Project Server 2010. This white paper illustrates one of the many options & approach to integrate Project Server with SAP. I also wrote this post on the same topic: Integrating Project Server 2010 with Line Of Business Applications.

Last but not least and to reinforce the points made above, please find below a list of sessions at our upcoming Microsoft Project Conference 2012 that will discuss PPM and ERP integration, don’t forget to register if you have not done so yet!

• Achieve Complete Project Cost Planning & Insight: Integrating Microsoft Project Server 2010 with financial systems like Dynamics AX
• Bean Counting in the Cloud: Merging hosted EPM and internal GL data to optimize financial reporting
• Integrating Data from External LOB Systems (SAP, ClickSoft, etc.) for Strategic Resource Planning & Forecasting
• Rapid Implementation of the Microsoft PPM solution and SAP-integration in a global Chemical company
• The comprehensive use of Microsoft EPM, SharePoint and TPG PSLink within the mining industry
• The Integration of Project Management and Project Accounting with Dynamics SL
• Project Server and Dynamics AX - Completing the Lifecycle from Project Estimation to Revenue Recognition

Need help finding Project Server documentation on TechNet? Watch this video to learn more about where to find Project Server content, what content is available, and how to provide feedback.

The Microsoft Project Conference 2012 has the largest Sponsor and Exhibitor momentum in the history of all Microsoft Project Conferences! We’d like express our gratitude to all sponsors & exhibitors who have committed to make this event a great success!

All sponsors (listed below) and exhibitors will be available in their booths to demonstrate how they contribute to the momentum of Project 2010!

In addition to standard expo hall hours all sponsors and exhibitors will be ready to greet you at the Welcome Reception Monday Evening – make sure to visit the Expo Hall to enjoy the food, drinks and networking!

If you have not registered for the Project Conference yet – check the reasons to attend and register!

The full list of Project conference Sponsors and Exhibitors.

See you in Phoenix!

Jan Kalis
http://blogs.msdn.com/jkalis/

We're excited to accounce that we will be giving out full Microsoft Project Conference 2012 passes ($899.00 each) to three deserving individuals who would like to attend Project Conference 2012.

We want you to nominate someone you know who has made a substantial contribution and gone the extra mile for your organization or the Project community. Think of someone who always puts others first, someone going above and beyond, and someone you feel deserves more recognition--from the "accidental" project manager all way to project management professionals.

We want to thank your project hero!

Here is how you enter:

• Email projconf@microsoft.com with the subject “My Hero Nomination” by 11:59 p.m. on the 7^th of March 2012
• Describe why the unsung hero deserves this prize in 100 words or less.
• Your project hero’s Name
• Your project hero’s Email address    

We will judge the entries and pick three (3) individuals who we will offer a full conference pass to Microsoft Project Conference 2012 (MSPC12).

We want dedicated and passionate individuals who love to help others.  We want to reward them with the chance to attend MSPC12 in person and see for themselves the passion of the Project community.

You can nominate up to five (5) project hero! (separate email entries for each please)

Here are the Official Contest Rules

Thanks and have fun nominating those who you think have made your life easier or improved our community.

From the great food and great people to the keynotes and SharkPro sponsored evening event, there are plenty of reasons to attend Project Conference. But it's the second to none training events that truly makes the trip worthwhile for many of our users and I wanted to take this opportunity to focus on the conference experience for you. Whether you're just starting out with Project or a seasoned veteran, Project Conference is the single greatest opportunity to see how the experts use the tool, share your questions while networking with the community, and grow to master the tool. As much as we'd like to, Project Conference won't be hosted every year and there won’t be another worldwide Project Conference elsewhere, so we encourage you to register for Project Conference 2012.

We have a ton of great sessions for all audiences, but I wanted to highlight the key sessions that will help our desktop users (Standard or Professional) master the tool. To go along with our instructor led trainings, hands-on labs, and on-site certifications for Microsoft Project Managing Projects 70-178, we have the following sessions dedicated to the client to help train you and the rest of your team.

• 10 "Golden Rules" to work with Microsoft Project!
• Bridging Project Management and IT Service Management domains using Microsoft Project professional 2010
• Care and Feeding of the Zealots: Why Project users are disproportionately invested in their product, and how you can help spread the love
• Critical Chain Project Management using Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and Prochain: Implementing Project Portfolio Management
• Critical Path 2.0
• Designing with Project’s new manual scheduling type
• Desktop Reporting Overview
• Implementing PMI’s Practice Standard for Scheduling in Microsoft Project
• Leveraging Project 2010 with Office 365 for Project Management Success
• Making the Most of Project Professional When Managing Multiple Projects
• Managing your projects: Come find out how to save over 3 hours a week using Microsoft Project
• Microsoft Project Inappropriate Practices
• Modeling Traditional, Serial and SCRUM Techniques in Project 2010
• Project 2010 Desktop Overview
• Task Types
• The Painters, The Policemen and The Pope... understanding task movement in
  Microsoft Project 2010
• YJTJ (Your Job Tool’s Job)™ – Working in Concert with Microsoft Project

Learn more about Project Conference 2012 and follow us on Twitter @MSFTProject

“Today Microsoft announced limited details about Office 15. For more information, go here.”

Update 2/8/2012: You can view the entire video series on the Microsoft Project YouTube channel. http://bit.ly/wUCAYg

Earlier this month our friends on the Office 365 team shared a link via Twitter to an article by technology writer Will Kelly. Entitled "Microsoft Office 365 for Project Managers", the article surfaced the project management potential in Office 365 and an interesting theme--the "democratization of project management data". Read more about it here.

Today, we're excited to share a special series on how Office 365 adoption can transform your existing project management capabilities. Microsoft Office 365 provides an infrastructure for collaboration and information sharing. It offers a cloud solution for an organization of any size, whether that organization involves a small business or a small team with members spread across the globe. But best of all, it offers the ease and familiarity you'd expect from Microsoft and its Office products.

Many enterprises have already had a great deal of success implementing a PPM solution via Project Server 2010. But how about options for smaller organizations or departments just getting started? Microsoft Project is perfect for helping project managers organize schedules and manage budget, resources and dependencies, but what about the rest of the team?  Effective project management begins with team collaboration.  It necessitates a secure and central location for all project documents and artifacts like a site provisioned in SharePoint Online, demands ease of mobile communication you'd find in Exchange Online and Lync Online,  and the great user experience provided by Microsoft Project and Office 2010 when working with project schedules and documents. By themselves, these tools are just tools, but together it opens the door to a unique collaboration experience that any organization can benefit from. And because we've built these products with the user in mind they just work, even across multiple platforms and devices. 

We've called out a number of common pain points tied to project collaboration--document storage, effective communication, sharing a project schedule, and visual reporting for stakeholders just to name a few. But this represents a small sample of all the great possibilities Office 365 enables for project management and we'd love to hear more from users like you in the comments below or via Twitter and Facebook.

Download the paper and accompanying video here.

You can view the full video series on our YouTube channel as well.

We’ll be featuring a great session around this very topic this March at Project Conference 2012 in Phoenix, AZ. Don't forget to register!

Now we all know that the finish date a project is automatically calculated by Project and might not necessarily be the due date. If the finish date is before the due date, you have some buffer, if the finish date is after the due date, you have a problem. Let’s assume you are in the first case - it is important to track this buffer and I’ve found manually scheduled tasks are useful for this since they won’t automatically move but they’ll warn you when there is a problem.

Let’s say you have this project (this will work for all projects, just make sure you have a milestone representing the project finish that all task chains are connected to):

My project finish date is January 9th but I actually don’t have to be done until the 13th so I have a few days of buffer. To represent that I add a new manually scheduled task with the Project Finish milestone as the predecessor and the end date as 1/13:

You can now easily tell that you have 4 days of buffer.

Now say that task 4 takes 3 days instead of 1 day. Your schedule will look like this:

Notice how the buffer tasks didn’t move but you get a warning that there is an issue. Now go in and for the Buffer task, right-click and select Respect Links. This will push the task out. Now you need to decrement the duration until the finish date is once again the 13th:

So you can now tell from task 4 slipping that you only have 2 days left of buffer.

I find that manually having to update your buffer task helps to make you more aware of when you are using up buffer. You can use this same technique on individual task chains, etc., if you want. Additionally, if you want to make sure you remember the deadline, you can set a deadline on the buffer task to make sure you always adjust the buffer back to it.

Learn more about this and other scheduling tips by attending the Microsoft Project Conference 2012 in Phoenix, AZ March 19th-22nd.

Microsoft Project Conference 2012 Sessions Announced

We’re excited to announce that all session content including titles, abstracts, speakers and learning objectives have been posted to www.msprojectconference.com! Microsoft Project Conference 2012 is your only opportunity this year to see over 90 sessions focused on Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010 in addition to other key products that integrate with our Microsoft Project and Portfolio Management such as SharePoint, Office 365, Dynamics, Team Foundation Server and more! Let us know what you’re looking forward to most on Twitter using our new hashtag #mspc12!

This year’s conference will cover a variety of in-depth topics across three tracks: Business Value & Insights, Product Sessions, and Deployment, Administration & Developer, delivered by customers, industry experts, partners, Project MVPs and the Microsoft product team. Here are just a few highlighted sessions.

View the full agenda on the website for details on all 90+ sessions.

There will be valuable computer-based and instructor-led training opportunities on-sight at the conference. Make the most of your investment by attending one of the sessions below.

At Microsoft Project Conference 2012 (remember, #mspc12 on Twitter) you will not only attend rich sessions, participate in hands-on training and network with your peers, but there is a lot to look for in the exhibit hall!

You can review the list of Microsoft Project and Portfolio Management Partner companies who will be demonstrating industry leading products and services. Check back weekly as we are updating the list as new exhibitors and sponsors join!

If you are interested in the sponsoring, exhibiting or marketing & promotional opportunities please contact projconf@microsoft.com.

Join us for a special webcast event with Microsoft Project Director Arpan Shah and hosted by our partner at Innovative-E, Inc., Dux Raymond Sy, next Wednesday at 9 AM PST. More details available on our Facebook events page. We'll be doing a live Q&A about the conference, tweet @ProjConf and include #MSProjectChat.

One of the questions I get fairly often is that people want to show their project schedules and get feedback on them without including real dates since their project hasn’t been officially scheduled yet. You know once you show someone a schedule with dates, that’s all they can think about and then you don’t get the feedback you want.

You have three ways of doing this:

Timescale

The default timescale setting has it showing real dates. You can update this though by right-clicking on the timescale and selecting Timescale… Then in the dialog, for the tiers that are being displayed choose one of the circled items that uses relative time (ie. the first week of the project is Week 1) instead of calendar time:

This will update my timescale to look like:

The only other step you’ll need to do is to hide the start and finish date columns

Date Format

For date format (what controls how dates are displayed in the task sheet and throughout Project), Project doesn’t support a relative time format so you have two options which I’ve circled below. To update the date format, go to File – Options:

You can select to just show time when how tasks line up is important to show.

Alternatively you can choose one of the W4/4 formats. This date isn’t relative to the first week of the project but instead is based off the calendar (so the first week of January is week 1). Doing this format plus the timescale formatting I mention below will still essentially hide real dates from the people you are reviewing the schedule with. Just make sure to temporarily set your project to start on the first week of the year.

Then when you know the actual start date of your project, you can use Move Project to adjust the schedule.

Timeline View

Last but not least, you can use the Timeline View. Say I have the following Timeline:

To not show the dates, you need to go to the Format tab – Date Format and un-check Task Dates, Today and Timescale. This will get you:

Now you still have dates on either ends, to remove those you can either crop the image or paste the Timeline into PowerPoint and delete them there.

The only problem is that while you aren’t showing dates anymore, now the timeline is kind of meaningless if you want to show anything more than order and relative size of tasks. To get around this you can create dummy tasks to represent generic time intervals. For example, if I create a bunch of week long tasks I can get this:

I also changed Text Lines to 2 since I just think that looks better. And here’s what I added to my project plan:

You can choose whatever time interval makes the most sense for your project. Also, don’t forget to include weekends or else you’ll have gaps.

Free Instructor-Led Project 2010 Training Sessions for Conference Attendees
We are excited to announce Instructor-led training sessions by our three validated training partners:

Milestone Consulting Group
Global leaders in providing Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) services, Milestone Consulting Group can help your organization gain visibility, insight and control across all work.  With the launch of Project 2010, Milestone expanded their training offerings to include Microsoft’s Certification exams, had them validated by a third party, and made them available through your local software training center.  Make plans now to attend Project Conference and deepen your knowledge on Project 2010 desktop and prepare yourself to take the Microsoft Project 70-178 exam.

MSProjectExperts
MSProjectExperts is a Microsoft Certified partner and the global leader in Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010 training, courseware and reference books. MSProjectExperts maintains both the Gold Microsoft Project and Portfolio Management and Silver Microsoft Learning Systems competencies, a rare combination that certifies both its depth in Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010 and its ability to deliver quality training, eligible for Microsoft Software Assurance training benefits.

The Versatile Company
The Versatile Company provides expertise in project management, Microsoft Project and Project Server, delivering training, consulting and Project Server deployment. Company founder Eric Verzuh is recognized worldwide for his bestselling book, The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management, the fourth edition which was just released last December.  Sam Huffman, a Microsoft Project Most Valued Professional (MVP), will integrate proven best practices, industry standards, and hands-on learning to create high impact learning experiences.

We've got Over 110+ hours of Sessions!
We've added more content since our last blog post - more customer-led sessions! To recap, here are some content highlights over the three tracks (Business Value & Insights, Product Sessions, and Deployment, Administration & Developer):

• 19 customer-led sessions (representing 10 industry verticals) where customers share personal success stories using Microsoft Project and Portfolio
  Management (PPM), and upgrading to the latest 2010 solutions from prior PPM versions and competitive solutions.
• Project desktop best practices for scheduling, program management, Earned Value, and more.
• Project Server best practices for Demand Management, Portfolio Analysis, Resource Management, Time Management, Business Intelligence, and more.
• Key solutions overviews and case studies for Application
  Lifecycle Management, Innovation Process Management, Product Lifecycle Management, Dynamics AX integration, ERP integration, and more.
• Technical best practices for IT Professionals and Developers.

A full list of session titles and abstracts will be available in mid-January on the official conference website.

Wednesday Event at the Arizona Science Center
Spend an unforgettable evening at the Arizona Science Center!  Take a trip to the stars in the state-of-the-art Dorrance Planetarium, soar high above the ground on the exhilarating Sky Cycle, climb your way to adventure on the Rock Wall, and immerse yourself in over 300 hands-on exhibits while nestled in the picturesque setting of Heritage and Science Park in historic downtown Phoenix.  Do your own star-gazing on any of the beautifully situated terraces as you sip handmade specialty cocktails and dine on an array of mouth-watering gourmet fare all while you explore the wonderful world of science! This will be a fantastic venue to connect with other Project Conference attendees!

Tell us what excites you about the event on Twitter or facebook.

One of the most important aspects of any Project Server implementation is the ability to accurately record and report on actual work values when they are submitted by resources. The desire to ensure that the integrity of actual work, or “actuals”, is maintained within Project Server is one of the most critical customer requests. When implementing a Project Server based solution for time tracking and progress reporting there are a lot of questions that come up like:

• What’s the best way to have my resources report time for their assignments?
• How do I make sure that the resource-reported value and the project plan stay in sync?
• Where should I retrieve data from if I want to integrate Project Server with an external billing or ticket tracking system?

Admittedly the breadth of configuration options available in Project Server can create some confusion and lead to solution configurations that are not optimal for the maintenance of actual work values. To help ease the process of recording and reporting on actual work we’ve created the Best practices for submitting and reporting on actual work (Project Server 2010) documentation. To give you a quick preview of what the document contains here are the primary tenets of best practices for actual work integrity:

1. Use single entry mode
2. Protect user updates with protected actuals
3. Use submitted work from timesheets, instead of project plans, for timephased reporting
4. Use administrative time categories to track non-project work

You can find more details for each of these best practices in the linked document.

Good news for all the Visio enthusiasts out there! Did you know that you could visualize, edit and even create a new project plan in Microsoft Office Visio 2010 (Professional or Premium) and then export it to Microsoft Project?

Courtesy of the Visio product team, the Visio 2010 Add-in for WBS Modeler enables effective integration between Visio and Project by offering the ability to manage project elements in a graphical view, as well as capabilities to layout a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in Visio.

The Modeling process in WBS Modeler offers a wide variety of options to manipulate the WBS data and layout. Custom ribbon elements enable intuitive import and export between Visio and Project. Sibling and Child tasks can be added to existing tasks at every level within the project plan. Shape data can be defined and assigned for every element within Visio and this data binding remains in place when exported to project.

Download the add-in today and get more out of your Visio and Project investments.

The Can't-Miss Conference of the Year
With just 3.5 months before Microsoft Project Conference 2012, excitement over Microsoft Project Conference 2012 has been through the roof! Come celebrate the phenomenal momentum of Project 2010 with us at the conference. There will be a concentration of learning, networking, and growth opportunities you can't get anywhere else. Remember, Microsoft Project Conference doesn't happen every year (the last one was in 2009) so you definitely don't want to miss this. 

We've got Over 100+ hours of Sessions!
We received over 170 submissions (note: over 200 hours of great community content!)through our Call for Content. Here are some content highlights over the three tracks (Business Value & Insights, Product Sessions, and Deployment, Administration & Developer): 

• 15 customer-led sessions (representing 6 verticals) where customers share personal success stories using Microsoft Project and Portfolio
  Management (PPM).
• Project desktop best practices for scheduling, program management, Earned Value, and more.
• Project Server best practices for Demand Management, Portfolio Analysis, Resource Management, Time Management, Business Intelligence, and more.
• Key solutions overviews and case studies for Application
  Lifecycle Management, Innovation Process Management, Product Lifecycle Management, Dynamics AX integration, ERP integration, and more.
• Technical best practices for IT Professionals and Developers.

A full list of session titles and abstracts will be available in mid-December on the official conference website. 

Get hands-on Project 2010 Training at the Conference
Whether you are currently using or looking to invest in Project 2010, Microsoft Project Conference 2012 provides awesome computer-based and instructor-led training opportunities. On-site at the conference, you can begin your mastery of Project 2010 and make the most of your investment through:

• Project Professional 2010 (Managing Projects 70-178) desktop training
• Project Server 2010 (Configuring 70-177) computer-based training with your Project Conference 2012 registration (Hurry: limited seats are available for this hands-on training session.)
• Instructor-led training sessions

Fantastic Sponsor and Exhibitor Excitement
The Sponsor and Exhibitor momentum has also been wonderful! We'd like to thank these partners for their support and continued dedication to Microsoft Project. Check out the list of sponsors and exhibitors. If you're interested in becoming a sponsor or exhibitor, it's not too late! Contact ProjConf@microsoft.com for details.

This is the event for You and the Project Community!
Great content and a wealth of training are just some of the reasons for you to attend Microsoft Project Conference 2012. This is also the key event for the worldwide community to see, share, and evolve. With such richness of expertise and depth of knowledge in the community, you'll be able to discover ways to take your project management success to the next level.

Tell us what excites you about the event on Twitter or facebook.

Brian Kennemer over at Deltabahn, a Microsoft Partner specializing in Project Server deployment consulting, recently updated his Thanksgiving dinner project plan and we wanted to share it with you all. You can download the .mpp file here. This is just a guide, but a great example of how flexible the tool can be and how it can be used to improve everyday activities. If you don't already have a copy of Project 2010 be sure to download the trial here, give it a try, and tell us what you think! And you can learn more about the US holiday on Wikipedia.

Start with the Resource Sheet view in Project 2010. You may want to track your cooking tools and supplies along with the overall budget. Here's a generic view where "Helper 1" could be your partner, a friend, or even one of the kids.

Inactive Tasks is a great way to think about the unexpected and plan for surprises. Maybe your brother/sister decides to bring a +1 or the kids invite their friends from college.

Notes in Task Information is a great place to keep all your important information in one place. Copy over your planning notes from OneNote and add comments on what to do differently next year.

Special thanks to Brian (briank@deltabahn.com) for sharing his Project plan with us. Whether you're a seasoned Thanksgiving veteran or hosting Thanksgiving dinner with the family for the first time, a well crafted project plan can help you minimize the stress of organizing such an important event. You can use Project to plan larger scale catering events, festivals, or even a wedding. Unfortunately, you may be on your own with the in-laws. Microsoft Project can only do so much.

We encourage you to share your Thanksgiving plans and experiences with us in the comments. And, if you have other ideas on what we should plan with Project or a template of your own, please share as well. You can "Like" us on Facebook and share your thoughts there, too. Check out an earlier post by Heather on where to find great templates for Project. Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving from all of us on the Microsoft Project team to you!

Today – we launched the Sponsors & Exhibitors portal for the Microsoft Project Conference 2012 (#PC12). Microsoft Project Conference 2012 is the premiere Microsoft-led event to showcase Project and Portfolio Management best practices and connect with your peers from around the globe - the registration is open now!

We are proud to introduce three Premier sponsors for the conference – PCU3ED,  TPG and UMT. These top level sponsors are all Microsoft Gold Partners, trusted advisors and leaders in the world-wide Microsoft Project community. Here they share their thoughts and plans for the conference:

PCU3ED are proud to be selected as the platinum sponsor of the Microsoft Project Conference in 2012. PCU3ED is the preeminent, global leader dedicated to Project and Program Management (PPM) delivery and measurement.  From 16 local offices, PCU3ED builds long term relationships with customers by providing the best available mix of project management practices integrated with leading technologies, such as Microsoft Project Server® to ensure programs and projects are delivered on time and within budget. With a vast portfolio of experience and data gained from over three thousand (3,000) successful engagements, Pcubed practitioners provide the heavy lifting to ensure critical work gets done. Adrian Balfour – PCU3ED Chairman

After an extremely positive experience of being the platinum sponsor at the Project Conference in 2009 there is no question that we will go for it again! This event is by far the most excellent forum for project and portfolio management based on Microsoft technologies. It attracts customers and partners from all over the globe and provides a unique learning and networking opportunity for everyone in this ecosystem. TPG is a global company with a worldwide partner network and a broad portfolio of products and services. Sponsoring this event is absolutely important to us in order to meet customers and partners and create joint opportunities. We are very pleased about our upcoming sponsoring commitment and look forward to see this tremendous outcome happening again. Stavros Georgantzis - TPG Global CEO

The opportunity to connect with Microsoft Project customers and partners from around the world makes the Project Conference a premier event for UMT. Our experience as a solution provider developing Project Financial Server 2010 and Workflow Developer working with many partners globally and our experience as a service provider integrating state of the art MS solutions at the enterprise level with key customers have highlighted the importance of interacting with both customers and partners at this key event. It’s a powerful forum that generates a proven return-on-investment for UMT through reinforcing brand awareness, driving new business and onboarding global Project partners to deploy our software solutions as well as a fantastic learning environment. We are delighted to be a Platinum Sponsor at this important event. Gil Makleff – UMT CEO

Are you a Microsoft Project Partner?

Looking for sponsoring or exhibiting opportunities? We have designed wide portfolio of options that fit your business needs and deliver remarkable value for your investment! Please send us your enquiry for more details to projconf@microsoft.com.

Are you a Microsoft Project User?

Excited to learn about Project and Portfolio Management and connect with your peers from around the globe? Explore more details at http://msprojectconference.com/ and register today!

Looking forward to see you all in Phoenix! In the meantime you can Search for Project and Portfolio Management Partners, Project 2010 Solutions and Project 2010 Trainings!

Jan Kalis
http://blogs.msdn.com/jkalis/

I get questions on templates fairly often so I wanted to do a quick post pointing to a previous post we did on this topic.

Essentially, if you are new to Project or starting a project and want to see a generic plan for how others broke down the work, check out a Project template.

To access templates in Project 2010, go to File – New – Office.com Templates section. In Project 2007, go to File – New and in the New Project pane either select On Computer or Templates on Office Online.

Now here’s where you come in…

We are always looking to add more templates and wanted to get feedback from you. What templates should we add?

You can either post comments directly to this blog (note they won’t show up right away) or you can send me your thoughts by emailing projrep@microsoft.com

And here’s some template trivia for you:

• Our most popular template is the Project Management Plan
• My personal favorite template is the Wine Tasting Fundraiser since two tasks actually involve drinking wine. Sounds like a great time to use a recurring task.

We’ll be making a trip to Dallas this year and spending some time with the PMI community. Let us know if you’ll be there! @MSFTProject

Booth #301 will feature 8 kiosks and a theater filled with product demos and the experts from our amazing Partner Network. Booth #700 will offer hands-on labs continuing our success from PMI GC 2010, so be sure to sign up when you arrive to guarantee your spot. Microsoft is also giving out USB keys to all of our visitors and special prizes including the chance to win a free pass to Project Conference 2012 in Phoenix, AZ! Finally, please join us for three presentations at the product theater:

1. October 24th at 3:45 PM, Leveraging Project 2010 with Office 365 for Project Management Success with Dux Raymond Sy (Innovative-e, Inc.)
2. October 25th at 12:30 PM, Quickly Automate Microsoft Project Server 2010 Governance Workflows with Ben Chamberlain (UMT)
3. October 25th at 3:45 PM, Making Life Simple for Small and Mid-sized PMOs: A Pre-Configured Microsoft Project & Project Server 2010 Solution with Greg Bailey and Tad Haas (SharkPro Software)

PMI^® Global Congress 2011—North America
October 22–25 2011
Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center
Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, USA

Hope to see you there!

Get a head start and a chance to win some great prizes (more info to come) by registering for Project Conference 2012 now! 

Microsoft Project Conference 2012 Registration is LIVE! Project Conference will be held in Phoenix, Arizona on March 19 - 22, 2012. Register now at www.msprojectconference.com.

Microsoft Project Conference is the event for the global Microsoft Project Community. We’ll have attendees from all over the world, giving you an opportunity to connect with over a thousand passionate members of the Microsoft Project Community, from project professionals, business decision makers, certified partners and the Microsoft Project team. The conference will feature high-impact keynotes, rich breakout sessions, trainings and plenty of networking opportunities.

Join us at Microsoft Project Conference and learn how you can transform and accelerate your success with Microsoft Project 2010!

Follow us on Twitter @MSFTProject for the latest updates and tweet #PC12 to let us know you’re coming!

Please note the call for content  has been extended to mid-October: Microsoft Project Conference 2012 Call for Content Now Open

We are happy share Microsoft Project 2010 presence at the upcoming SharePoint Conference 2011!

The Microsoft SharePoint Conference is the most comprehensive event in the world dedicated to SharePoint and related technologies taking place in Anaheim, CA, October 3-6, 2011.

Facts:

• Technical pre-event “Project 2010 Technical drill-down for SharePoint Partners”
• 7+ breakout sessions directly covering Project 2010
• 2 booths in the expo hall staffed by Project experts
• Lots of great swag…
• … and more!

Project 2010 Technical Pre-event

Date: Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

Audience: IT Professionals, Architects and Developers from SharePoint Silver and Gold competent partners

• Keynote Speaker: Arpan Shah, Director of Project, Microsoft Corporation
  
• MVP Speakers: Dux Raymond Sy, SharePoint MVP, PMP and Scott Jamison, SharePoint MVP and Certified Master,
  
• Microsoft Speakers: Christophe Fiessinger and Jan Kalis, Senior Technical Product Managers; Steven Haden, Microsoft Consulting Services Senior Consultant

Full agenda of the technical pre-day:

8:00 AM	8:30 AM	Breakfast and Registration
8:30 AM	9:00 AM	Keynote: Microsoft Project Opportunity	Arpan Shah
9:00 AM	9:30 AM	What it takes to become a Gold Project and Portfolio Management Partner	Dux Raymond Sy
9:30 AM	9:45 AM	Break
9:45 AM	10:45 AM	SharePoint Lifecycle Management with Project Server 2010<	Scott Jamison; Christophe Fiessinger
10:45 AM	11:30 AM	Project 2010 Key Capabilities - Demos, demos, demos!	Jan Kalis
11:30 AM	12:30 PM	Lunch
12:30 PM	2:15 PM	Project Server 2010 Architecture and Administration Overview	Christophe Fiessinger
2:15 PM	2:30 PM	Break
2:30 PM	4:00 PM	Building Solutions on Project 2010	Jan Kalis; Steven Haden
4:00 PM	4:15 PM	Break
4:15 PM	5:00 PM	Executive Panel with Arpan Shah, Dux Raymond Sy and Scott Jamison

More details and registration here.

 

Project 2010 Breakout Sessions

Session	Title	Abstract	Speaker
SPC2994	Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010 Overview	In this session we will highlight the key investment areas for Project 2010, demonstrate the Microsoft Project and Portfolio Solution which is built on top of SharePoint 2010 and introduce you to Microsoft Project Professional 2010, the world's most popular project desktop scheduling tool. We will also demonstrate business intelligence dashboards, portfolio analysis and demand management.	Jan Kalis
SPC242	Leveraging Project 2010 with Office 365 for Project Management Success	Microsoft Project 2010 has proved to be instrumental in driving project management success for many organizations. In this session, we will discuss how to effectively create a Microsoft Project Plan, create a SharePoint-based Project Management Information System (PMIS) with Office 365 and integrate Microsoft Project information with SharePoint 2010. In addition, we'll cover best practices around empowering a project team to share relevant information, facilitate better collaboration and build project management dashboards in SharePoint. All PMP certified attendees will earn 1 PDU for attending this session.	Dux Raymond Sy, PMP, MVP
SPC262	Project 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Better Together	With the release of Microsoft Project Server 2010 which is built upon SharePoint Server 2010 project management has reached new heights of flexibility, and power. Project Server 2010 provides a natural growth story to SharePoint 2010 advanced capabilities. In this session,  we will cover project portfolio management tools and how they can help any organization by providing insight into resource utilization, portfolio execution and alignment with strategic objectives.	Tad Haas
SPC273	SharePoint Lifecycle Management Solution with Project Server	Is SharePoint becoming an important part of your company’s overall IT offering? If so, it's likely that you have a need to better manage SharePoint business requests. Join industry expert Scott Jamison as he discusses the importance of SharePoint Lifecycle Management from an IT governance perspective. In this session we'll demonstrate how business users can make special project requests through a form in Project Web App, and how Project Managers can monitor and assign resources, evaluate priorities, and manage their overall project portfolio more efficiently.	Christophe Fiessinger; Scott Jamison, SharePoint MVP
SPC275	Solving Agile and PMO Problems by Integrating Project Server 2010 with Team Foundation Server 2010	Do your Project Managers and Developers need to play nicer together? In this session, we'll discuss how integrating Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server 2010 allows you to enable development and project management teams to collaborate and communicate more effectively by using tools that they are most familiar with. In addition, we will conduct demos and share real world stories and best practices from customers.	Christophe Fiessinger
SPC354	Managing Innovation with SharePoint & Project Server 2010	Innovation is vital to an enterprise's long-term success. Collaboration, social networking and project management tools can help encourage people in an organization, to share their ideas, rate them, and make critical decisions about their associated risks, benefits, and strategic value. Come see how to use SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010 to widen the idea pipeline, formalize the innovation process, and optimize return on investment. This session will cover solution design, implementation, real-world examples and best practices for launching an innovation program within the Enterprise.	Simon Floyd
SPC313	Best Practices for Deploying Project Server 2010 on SharePoint Farm	Are you interested in deploying Project Server 2010 but don't know where to start? In this session we will provide you with an overview on how to deploy Microsoft Project Server 2010 in a SharePoint 2010 Farm. Specifically, we will discuss how to deploy Project Server in an existing or separate farm, asses the proper capacity planning, and how to tackle upgrading and migration.	Christophe Fiessinger
SPC378	Project 2010 Development for SharePoint Developers	Microsoft Project Server 2010 is built on SharePoint 2010 and offers a wide variety of customization options. In this session we will provide you with resources and real-world best practices  to help you get started with Project 2010 development. In addition, we will discuss the similarities in development between SharePoint 2010 and Project Server 2010.	Steven Haden; Jan Kalis

Full SharePoint Conference 2011 session agenda here.

Microsoft Project Conference 2012 is the premiere Microsoft-led event to share Project and Portfolio Management best practices and connect with your peers from around the globe. Project Conference will be held in Phoenix, Arizona on March 19 - 22, 2012. Do you have best practices you would like to share on Microsoft’s Project Portfolio Management (PPM) offering? Do you have success stories you would like to share with attendees? Are you passionate about Microsoft Project & Project Server? If you do and are interested in presenting next March, you are invited to propose content for delivery at Microsoft Project Conference 2012!

Action

1. Propose titles & abstracts at https://projconfcallforcontent.deregistrationservices.com/
2. Complete all the required fields carefully so we can better evaluate your entries.

Deadline for Submissions: October 14th, 2011
Acceptance Timeline:  Notifications will be sent out by November 15, 2011

Audience
Project Conference hosts a mix of audience including audiences including Microsoft PPM practitioners, IT Professionals and Developers, as well as Decision Makers and Business Managers.

Breakout Sessions
Breakout Sessions are the main content delivery modality at Project Conference other than the keynote sessions. These breakout sessions are lecture-style presentations located in rooms seating anywhere from 100-400 people and are 75 minutes in length. They typically include slides, demos, and a Question & Answer period, and they are recorded and distributed in the MyPC virtual event platform.

Content Tracks

• Business Values & Insights will showcase customers across industries and experienced partners, all sharing success stories and PPM best practices. 
• Product Session will showcase production information, how to best enhance your project portfolio performance, and solutions that enhance out of the box capabilities and provide integration with line of business applications.
• Deployment and Administration focuses on deployment, configuration, administration best practice as well as developer sessions on how to extend the out of the box desktop and server products to fits your specific business needs.

Questions
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the Project Conference Speaker Team at pcspkr@microsoft.com. All proposals will be responded to by November 15, 2011.

A very common problem people have when building their schedules is they have more work to do than they have budget for. We hit this problem all the time on the Project team when we are doing feature work (we just have so many good ideas for features thanks to all of your feedback). In the past when building budgets, we’d create multiple plans or even, aak, use Excel. Thanks to Inactive Tasks in Project 2010 Professional, we can now easily do this in Project.

Before I get into the details, let me give you a little background. When we are doing budgeting, we don’t look at dates, we just look at how many dev hours are required for a feature and then work to get the rollup number to match our budget. So our initial schedules will often look like this:

We’ll schedule all the tasks, once we’ve decided which features and tasks we’re going to do for the coding milestone. Yes, the feature and task names were changed to protect the innocent.

Step 1 – Turn on the Project Summary Task. This allows you to see the rollups for your project. You can do this by going to the Format tab and checking Show Project Summary Task.

Step 2 – Insert the Work field since this is really what I care about. After doing this, I can see it would take 1,793 hours to complete all of these features. Unfortunately I don’t have that much time. I only have 1,370 hours so I need to do some cutting.

Step 3 – Working with my co-workers, I determine the priority of each feature. We track this in a text custom field, Feature Priority. I’ve collapsed the view to Outline Level 1 since right now we only care about features.

Step 4 – Inactivate the lowest priority features by clicking Inactivate on the Task Tab - Schedule group.

Before:

 

After:

Notice how Work is now reduced to 1,385hrs. The original values are preserved for the inactivated tasks, they just don’t affect the rollups anymore.

Step 5 – more cutting since I’m still over my budget of 1,370hrs by 15 hours. I could ask for an exception but I want to see if anything else stands out at this point. I’m going to expand the Medium priority features to get more details.

Under feature 2, I see some pri 2 UI work that we could ship without so I’ll cut that.

And we are now 1 hour under our budget – yay. At this point, our next steps would be to get the correct devs assigned to the tasks and the work scheduled out.

Now clearly I simplified this from the real world experience to make the example fit the blog article but I hope this article shows that you can easily use Project when you are trying to hit an hour or cost budget. If your project is more date driven, you can still use inactive tasks, you’ll just have to adjust your predecessors along the way. From experience the hard part is not using Project, it is getting everyone to agree on the priorities of the various features and agreeing to the cuts.

Click here for more info on Inactive Tasks.