Promising to keep the blogs going, but with a bias towards Project and Project Server 2013 (check out the book here…), I thought I’d blog this little issue.

Project Server 2013 (hereon in known as PS2013) introduces the timeline to the web, which is a great feature – so thank you Microsoft for that.

If you didn’t already know, Microsoft provide an out of the box solution to integrate Project Server and Team Foundation Server called “Team Foundation Server Extensions for Project Server”.  I’ve dealt with several organisations who have the requirement to track their agile development (managed in TFS) in Project Server (via PWA), and we . . . → Read More: Instant Team Foundation Server 2012 and Project Server 2010 Integration How-to]]> <Double expresso>

If you didn’t already know, Microsoft provide an out of the box solution to integrate Project Server and Team Foundation Server called “Team Foundation Server Extensions for Project Server”.  I’ve dealt with several organisations who have the requirement to track their agile development (managed in TFS) in Project Server (via PWA), and we ran a UK Web ‘n’ Learn via the MPUG on this very topic – to view the webcast please use this URL – http://www.mpug.com/webnlearn-recordings/webnlearn-uk-an-introduction-to-team-foundation-services-with-project-server-2010/ (you will need to log into the MPUG site to access it.)

So, is everything rosy in the Project Server / TFS integration world?  Well, yes and no.  Yes in terms of once everything is set up, it works very well (it does what it says on the tin!).  No, in terms that setting it up can be fairly complex, which is where the following paper comes into play “Instant Team Foundation Server 2012 and Project Server 2010 Integration How-to” which is available at http://bit.ly/ZulWBG.

I’ve read the paper it and it explains exactly what you need to set up and configure in order to get the two solutions (TFS and Project Server) to talk to each other, and it includes a whole section on getting the security right, and all the powershell commands required in order to associate a Project Server plan with a TFS project.

I you are planning to deploy TFS/PS integration, then I would recommend this as a good technical starting point.

Further information and useful URLS

Solutions For Application Lifecycle Management: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/solutions/management

Customer Case Studies: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Search_Results.aspx?Type=1&Keywords=ALM

MSDN Product documentation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/gg455680.aspx

MSDN Public Forums – Team Foundation Server and Project Server Integration http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/tfsprojectsrvint

BR,  Ben.

[UPDATE] – the link to view the recording of the presentation is here

<Haagen-Dazs ice cream>

Save the date – 6th March 2013

Microsoft have kindly asked me to give a presentation on Project 2013 Reporting – I did one for the MPUG before Christmas, so I’m excited about running this again, only . . . → Read More: Do you want to find out more about Reporting in Project 2013?]]> <Expresso>

[UPDATE] – the link to view the recording of the presentation is here

<Haagen-Dazs ice cream>

Save the date – 6th March 2013

Microsoft have kindly asked me to give a presentation on Project 2013 Reporting – I did one for the MPUG before Christmas, so I’m excited about running this again, only this time it’ll better and greater!

Here’s the abstract.

Microsoft Project comes stacked with new features, including a new platform on which to build reports and dashboards. If you’ve ever wanted to produce that killer report, or wished you could create a burn down chart, but couldn’t work out how to do it in (or decided it was quicker and easier in PowerPoint), then grab yourself a coffee and a copy of Project 2013 and join us for this session to learn exactly how build your dream reports.

Register here

Looking forward to meeting you online,

BR,  Ben.

Cost resources are a very useful feature of Project (and also therefore of Project Server), but there is at least one rule you need to follow.

Rather than telling you how to use cost resources, I’ll point you at the an article from Microsoft which explains their use (and because links sometimes get . . . → Read More: Using Cost Resources–best practise]]> <Cafe creme>

Cost resources are a very useful feature of Project (and also therefore of Project Server), but there is at least one rule you need to follow.

Rather than telling you how to use cost resources, I’ll point you at the an article from Microsoft which explains their use (and because links sometimes get broken, I’ve captured the article pasted it at the end of this blog)

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/project/archive/2010/09/18/tips-and-tricks-add-miscellaneous-costs-to-tasks-using-cost-resources.aspx 

….

So, now you know what cost resources are, and you are probably thinking that they are really neat, and in truth, they are. 

Do not mix cost and work resources on the same task

However, please be aware that when assigning a cost resource to a task, best practise dictates that cost resources should not be mixed with any other resources assigned to the task (note this is exactly what Microsoft’s blog article does do!)  This is because, if a cost and work resource are assigned to the task, and progress is used to track the task (ie marking it 100% complete), then Project will update progress for the work resource and not for the cost resource.  This is because Microsoft did not want you to inadvertently accrue the cost of the cost resource when progressing the task. 

If you only have cost resources assigned to a task, then progressing the task (ie marking it 100% complete), will accrue the cost for the cost resource(s) assigned to the task.

Obviously the above can (and does cause confusion), hence this best practise blog – I’ll walk you through this.

I’ve set up 3 cost resources with different accrual types (because that’s the way they would generally work in real life, you pay airfares upfront, hotels when you leave, and meals as you go along), and a single work resource.  In the 1st instance, I’ve assigned them as Microsoft’s blog suggests, assigning cost and work resources to the same task (note in the screen shot below I’m viewing two windows in Project, showing you the resource sheet (at the bottom) and a split view showing the Gantt Chart and the Task form (with costs) (at the top).

When I update the Task using the % complete field, only the WORK RESOURCE (ie Ben) is affected. 

In order to update the costs on the Cost Resources, I need to manually edit the Actual Cost field in the form.

So, this is perhaps a little too obscure for the majority of users, so to implement this as per the best practise would require splitting the Visit Customer into two tasks.

Best Practise – place the cost resources on a separate task

This is the same project as the one above, but this time I’ve split out the cost resources onto a separate task (and inserted the cost fields into the table).

Let’s set the status date to Friday the 11th Jan, and status the project (and as usual with my projects, everything is on track!).

I’m expecting to have spend £500 on the airfare (accrued at the start of the task), £100 on meals (prorata), and £0 on the hotel (I’ve not yet checked out).

I can quickly use the Update Project button to status the whole project, this is my preferred method and then I amend the things that haven’t gone to plan.

The project now looks like this.

So, this way, by separating the work resources and cost resources onto separate tasks, everything works as you would expect. 

Kudos must go to Adrian Jenkins of Microsoft for the explanation of how this works – thanks Adrian, and to fellow Project MVP Nenad Trajkovski who brought it to my attention. 

Enjoy,  Ben.

(next blog post, probably something on setting up an agile plan)

Screenshot of the Microsoft post referenced at the beginning of this blog.

I’m going to concentrate this blog just on the new Reports feature.  . . . → Read More: Project 2013 Reports–reason enough to upgrade]]> One of the greatest things about Project 2013 is the new reporting section.  The old tabular reports have been pulled, leaving us with Visual Reports (which were first introduced in Project 2007) and the new reports feature, called, wait for it, “Reports”. 

I’m going to concentrate this blog just on the new Reports feature. 

Introduction

The new reporting feature sits under a new tab in the ribbon (note that this changed between Tech Preview and General Availability).  Clicking on the new Report tab reveals the following…

So,the reports are categorised into different types – I’m not going to list all of the different reports – you’ll need to go and look yourself.  I’m going to concentrate on two types of reports in this blog, the 1st being the burn down reports and the 2nd being the Project Overview type of report.

Burndown Reports

Project 2013 introduced new cumulative fields that are necessary for the production of burndown reports – two types of burndown reports are available out of the box, a burndown work report, and a burndown task report. 

The new fields that support the burndown work report are;

Cumulative Actual Work

Baseline Cumulative Work

Remaining Cumulative Work

Baseline Remaining Cumulative Work

The new fields that support the burndown task report are;

Remaining Tasks

Remaining Actual Tasks

Remaining Cumulative Work

Baseline Remaining Tasks

Burndown reports at the beginning of a Project

The Baseline Remaining Cumulative Work and the Baseline Remaining Cumulative Work are the same, the Baseline values overwrite the non-baseline remaining values.

As work and tasks are completed, the Remaining Cumulative Actual Work and Remaining Actual Tasks line reduces. 

Burndown reports during execution.

It is important to correctly update the tasks as and when they are completed, otherwise these reports become meaningless. In the scenario below I’ve finished some tasks early, .

The following project has been updated to Friday the 16th November, with some tasks being completed early (and moved as a consequence), but then I’ve increased the durations of Task 5 and Task 8, thereby increasing the work. 

The Burndown reports show that the work is running later than planned, and that more work is required than was baselined.  The number of tasks has not increased, but although we had a period where we were ahead of schedule in terms of completing tasks early, we are now running late.

Burndown reports at the end of a Project.

When a project has truly finished, the remaining tasks and and work should of course be zero as can be seen in the following screen shot.

Project Overview Reports

As and when the Project gets updated, Project Overview reports can be automatically produced.  As you can see from the project updated below, all my tasks have been completed on schedule or early, with the exception of Task 8 which should have been started but hasn’t been.

The Project Overview report shows 4 different areas of Project Information, including the total %Complete, the upcoming milestones, the %Complete of each of the Level 1 tasks, and any Late Tasks.  Its easy to add new tables, charts, text or pictures onto the chart, and change the colour. 

<120818> UPDATE – part 2 of the video (installing Project Pro for O365 using click to run) is available on YouTube here

Please note, . . . → Read More: The next version of Project – unscrambling the products…]]> I’ve recorded my experience of installing Project Pro for O365 using click 2 run (C2R) over a public WIFI (<2mbs) – parts 1&2 of this video are available on YouTube below.

<120818> UPDATE – part 2 of the video (installing Project Pro for O365 using click to run) is available on YouTube here

Please note, the actual installation of Project Pro took 20 minutes in total (using a broadband connection of < 2mbs); I cut some of the video down so that it is around 10 minutes in length.  One of the things I wanted to test was the viability of using C2R in a public location – it works nicely.

<120816> UPDATE – part 1 of the video (how to assign the licences to a user) is available on YouTube here

<home brewed beer>

Disclaimer – everything below relates to the Office365 Technical Preview – it may well change for full release.

So now that the new version of Office, and more importantly for me, Project, has been announced, I thought I’d try to clear up the different versions that Microsoft will release.  The important thing to remember is the naming nomenclature, because now, things have got even more complex…

So, what are Microsoft delivering for us?

The big news is that Project Server 2013 is now available online, known as Project Online, and the client is available as a Click 2 Run service (C2R).  See Alex Burton’s excellent post on using the C2R service – like Alex, I’m totally “wowed” by this – http://epmsource.com/2012/08/01/project-online-hidden-gem-click-to-run/ .  Please note that when I set this up, it took several minutes for the Software to be able to available for download – I think that this is because in the background the licencing service needs to sync to the download service – I’m sure MS will reduce this time as they move towards production (remember, this is the technical release).

Just so you know how to set up C2R

Within your O365 home page, select Assign user licenses

Select the user, and then select the checkbox against Project Professional Subscription (note that in this Technical Preview, the Project Professional Subscription name is incorrect, and we should be calling this Project Pro for Office 365, (and Project PPM Online will be called Project Online)).

Then select Download software back in the Office 365 Preview admin center, highlight Project and click install (I checked mine immediately and the Project software link wasn’t available, 5 minutes later it was) – follow Alex’s blog for the rest… http://epmsource.com/2012/08/01/project-online-hidden-gem-click-to-run/

Back to the products…

I’ve tried to summarise this is a table below, including the relevant 2007/2010 products.

So, we’ll now support a couple of scenarios, on-premise or online.

On-Premise

On-Premise means installing on a client site, and is typically what we’ve always done – the products you’ll use for this are

Project Server 2013 and one of Project Professional 2013 or Project Pro for Office 365

Online

If you buy online, then of course the server and databases are held in the cloud.  Accessing data online is either via Project Professional 2013 or Project Pro for Office 365 – the products you’ll need to use for this are

Project Online and one of Project Professional 2013 or Project Pro for Office 365

What’s the difference between Project Professional 2013 or Project Pro for Office 365?

Initially nothing, however, with Project Pro for Office 365, because it is a subscription service, you will always get the latest version, (service packs, updates, future releases etc) and you can install it on multiple PCs (Alex’s blog mentions 5).  With Project Professional 2013 you are restricted to that version, so when the next version of Project comes along (say in 2016) you’ll need to buy the new version to use it.

What else is WOW?

In truth, there is much to be wowed by, but for now I really think it’s worth noting that Microsoft have widened the browser support for PWA (Project Web App) – this is really big given the opportunity to access Project Online from anywhere and any device (I had a quick look via my Windows 7.5 phone – awesome).

Browser Support – Project Web App (PWA) for Project Server 2013 now supports the following browsers (minimum level). 

• Internet Explorer 8

• FireFox 10

• Safari 5

• Google Chrome 17

For more information, the blog posting announcing the new Microsoft Project is here – http://blogs.office.com/b/project/archive/2012/07/16/announcing-the-new-microsoft-project.aspx and the Microsoft Project Preview is at http://www.microsoft.com/project/en-us/preview/default.aspx

Good luck, and enjoy…

Ben.

Just to say I’m going to be at the “ask the experts” stand at TechEd, answering questions on Project, Office and O365.  It would be good to put some faces to names, so please drop by to say hello.

http://europe.msteched.com/ 

Enjoy,  Ben.

http://europe.msteched.com/

Enjoy,  Ben.

The majority of projects I’m involved in concentrate more on people and process than anything else (some customers really want to think “tools, tools and tools” and I need to reset their thinking in order to increase the chances of a successful implementation).  If analysing and managing RISK is a major part of your . . . → Read More: Monte Carlo Risk Analysis]]> <ipa>

The majority of projects I’m involved in concentrate more on people and process than anything else (some customers really want to think “tools, tools and tools” and I need to reset their thinking in order to increase the chances of a successful implementation).  If analysing and managing RISK is a major part of your Project Management process, then one of the tools that I saw at the Project Conference 2012 might be of interest – it’s a Monte Carlo risk analysis tool that plugs into Project 2010 called Full Monte and it was certainly demonstrable.

If you are in the UK, then Tony Welsh will be demonstrating this tool in July at the following locations…

Manchester – UK – De Vere Village hotel, Ashton-under-Lyne – July 3, 2012 – http://www.village-hotels.co.uk/hotels/manchester-ashton/welcome

Windsor – UK – Copthorne Hotel – July 4, 2012 - http://www.millenniumhotels.co.uk/copthornesloughwindsor

and you can Register here: http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e5tas7igh0xumkxq/start

There are many other events that Tony is presenting out, so if you live in a different part of the world then probably best to email him directly.  If you attend the UK event in Manchester, I’ll see you there.

Tony’s can be contact below…

Tony Welsh

President, Barbecana Inc.

twelsh@barbecana.com

www.barbecana.com

Regards,  Ben.

So, you know who you are, and I said I’d write this up…  For everyone else, this is a simple formula with graphical indicators to show the “Deadline cushion” between a deadline date and the Finish date of a task. . . . → Read More: A small formula for my friends in Finland]]> <Tazza (and Led Zeppelin (Dancing Days) on the radio, thank goodness for BBC 6 Music)>

So, you know who you are, and I said I’d write this up…  For everyone else, this is a simple formula with graphical indicators to show the “Deadline cushion” between a deadline date and the Finish date of a task. Also, I’ll include the “deadline cushion” visually in the Gantt chart (as well as the Entry table).

1st off, we did this in MSProject 2007. I haven’t tested in 2010, 2003, 2002 etc, but it should work just the same.

1. Insert a task level custom field of type Number (eg Number 1), change the name (Deadline Cushion) and customise it with the following formula.

IIf([Deadline]<>4294967295,(Projdatediff([Finish],[Deadline])/[Minutes Per Day]),999999999)

2. This formula is pretty basic, Deadlines are set (by default) at 17:00, milestones are set (by default) to finish at 08:00 – therefore sometimes you’ll notice that even though tasks finish on the same date, the times might be different and hence the formula will not return a zero.  You could easily check for this.  Also, assuming that there is not a deadline, the formula returns 999999999 (a large number) rather than an error. 

3. We can display a graphical indicator based on the returned value.  The tests are run sequentially, so make sure they are entered in the order below.  Note that there is no Image for the test “equals 999,999,999.00”

4. Once completed, we can test by putting the relevant deadlines in MS Project.  I’ve highlighted the deadlines and tasks on the Gantt chart.

5. Finally, we can highlight the cushion value if it is –ve, by editing the bar styles as per the below.  I’ve also included the deadline cushion value in the inside text field.

6.  Finally, the display in the Gantt chart now shows…

Good luck and Enjoy….