MS Project and Project Server 2010 Dec CU

The December Cumulative Updates (CU) for Project and Project Server 2010 and 2007 have been released.  Details can be found on Brian Smith's blog, update contains number of fixes of Project Server and Project both so better run the CU on test environment prior to deploy on production.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/2011/12/14/microsoft-project-server-and-sharepoint-server-2007-and-2010-december-2011-cu-announcement.aspx

You can also join in January the TechNet webcast covering both Project Server 2010 and Project Server 2007 Dec CU.

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032493964&culture=en-us

Happy patching.

Read More

MS Project and MS Project Server 2010 OCT CU

The October 2011 Cumulative Updates for Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010 have now been released. The 2007 Server packages that were withdrawn for a short period are now re-built and available. For details you can visit Brian Smith blog where all the links of the server roll-up packages are also available.

As Project Server 2010 is now based on SharePoint Server 2010 Microsoft strongly recommend that you install the Project Server 2010 Server Rollup Package as there are a large number of individual server packages for SharePoint Server. The Project Server 2010 Server Rollup Package contains all the patches released in this Cumulative Update for SharePoint Foundation Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 and Project Server 2010.

And last, always try the updates on the test environment first, untill then happy patching.

Read More

August CU for Project and Project Server 2010

The August 2011 Cumulative Updates for Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010 have now been released. However there is a delay in server roll-up package due to late issue identified with the Sharepoint Foundation CU, and thus delays the release of the server roll-up packages. The server rollup patch is the preferred patch because it contains the fixes for all of the server technologies used by Project Server 2010. 

This delay does not affect the August 2011 Cumulative Update for Project and Project Server 2007.

Description of the fixes and and to download individual server package of Project Server 2010 can be found at the following link:

Individual Project Server Package:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2553047

For Project 2010 hotfix package:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2584056

My advice, as always, is to test any CUs with a recent copy of your production database before deploying into production to prevent issues with your production server.

For more details, visit Brian Smith blog.

Happy patching.

Read More

Project Server 2010 - SP1 Features in detail

In continuation to my Project Server 2010 SP1 announcement blog, i have just discovered in detail about few of the 'great' fixes the SP1 will bring based on the huge requests of the users. And they are:

1. Time-phased support for manually scheduled tasks
2. Improvements to project scheduling in Project Web App

Time-phased support for manually scheduled tasks:

Microsoft introduced the manual scheduling or user-controlled scheduling in Project 2010, which is a collection of features designed to give you more control over how tasks are scheduled. This gives you more control over your schedule but one of the areas you didn’t have control was editing timephased data for them. With Project 2010 SP1 you can now edit timephased data for manually scheduled tasks on the Project Client and Project Server. For more details, see this.

Improvements to project scheduling in Project Web App:

With introduction to the ability to create/edit Project schedule through Project Web App. One of the limitations though was that the only way to edit projects that contained Fixed Work or Effort Driven tasks was to use Project Professional 2010. Project Web App only allow you to edit or create project with Fixed Unit tasks. With Project 2010 SP1 you can now edit project plans containing Fixed Work tasks and Effort Driven tasks in Project Web App. For more details about this new fix, click this.

I am sure most of us, Project Server Consultants, were eagerly needed the above fixes as often it was hard to convince the users about limitations of scheduling through Project Web App. 

Until the next post, happy Projecting ... :)

Read More

Project Server 2010 SP1 Release date

Microsoft revealed this week that it is on track to ship the first service pack for Office 2010 by the end of June. Office 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) will be made available for the Office productivity suites, the Office Web Apps, and SharePoint 2010, and will provide functional changes as well as bug fixes, Microsoft says. And with this release, Microsoft will also be officially supporting Google's Chrome browser in the Office Web Apps.

SP1 releases for both Office client suites and SharePoint server products will be made available. All language versions of SP1 will release simultaneously. Initially, Service Pack 1 will be offered as a manual download from the Download Center and from Microsoft Update, and no sooner than 90 days after release, will be made available as an Automatic Update.

• Outlook fixes an issue where “Snooze Time” would not reset between appointments.
• The default behavior for PowerPoint "Use Presenter View" option changed to display the slide show on the secondary monitor. 
• Integrated community content in the Access Application Part Gallery. 
• Better alignment between Project Server and SharePoint Server browser support.
• Improved backup / restore functionality for SharePoint Server
• The Word Web Application extends printing support to “Edit Mode.”
• Project Professional now synchronizes scheduled tasks with SharePoint task lists.
• Internet Explorer 9 “Native” support for Office Web Applications and SharePoint
• Office Web Applications Support for Chrome 
• Inserting Charts into Excel Workbooks using Excel Web Application 
• Support for searching PPSX files in Search Server 
• Visio Fixes scaling issues and arrowhead rendering errors with SVG export
• Proofing Tools improve spelling suggestions in Canadian English, French, Swedish and European Portuguese.  
• Outlook Web Application Attachment Preview (with Exchange Online only) 
• Office client suites using “Add Remove Programs” Control Panel.

For more details, go through the MS official update site: http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2011/05/16/announcing-service-pack-1-for-office-2010-and-sharepoint-2010.aspx

Look forward to SP1..

Read More

Project/Project Server 2007/2010 - April CU released

This is to announce the release of  April CU of Project and Project Server 2007/2010, which is now available for download. There is one KB for server roll-out package still need to be published, for further details see the Brian Smith blog about the CU and to download browse the MS admin blog.

The webcast, Information About Microsoft Project and Project Server Cumulative February Update, about the Cumulative Update detail will be on 10th May and you can click here to register to attend the webcast.

NOTE: Microsoft strongly recommends testing within a NON-Production environment prior to rollout. Feel free to open a support incident at http://support.microsoft.com if you run into any issues with the installation.

Happy patching!

Read More

Microsoft Tech.ed North America 2011

The 19th annual Microsoft Tech·Ed North America conference provides developers and IT professionals the most comprehensive technical education across Microsoft's current and soon-to-be-released suite of products, solutions and services.

The four day event at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia offers hands-on learning, deep product exploration and opportunities to connect with industry and Microsoft experts one-to-one. If you are developing, deploying, managing, securing and mobilizing Microsoft solutions, Tech·Ed is the conference that will help you solve today's real-world IT challenges and prepare for tomorrow's innovations.

Below are the Project and Project server sessions going to be held in the event:

Topics	Speakers
SharePoint Governance and Lifecycle Management with Microsoft Project Server 2010	Scott Jamison, Christophe Fiessinger
Application Lifecycle Management: Microsoft Project Server 2010 and Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010, Better Together	Ed Blankenship, Christophe Fiessinger
INT Best Practices Troubleshooting Microsoft Project Server 2010 Deployments	Brian Smith

For more details of the event, please browse: Tech.Ed North America 2011

Read More

Project Professional 2010 - Interactive Guide

Folks, i would like to share the treat with you :)

This is for those who recently moved to the Project 2010 from Project 2007 and struggling to learn the ribbon menu of Project 2010 to find out the where the toolbar menu and commands are. Since Microsoft has revamped its office family products  with the new ribbon based outlook, it usually takes some time to learn the new places for all the activities you use to perform in Project 2007 and the new and improved actions of Project 2010.

To speed up this learning period, i recently came across with this great interactive Project 2010 guide published by the Microsoft. It lets you select the activities of Project 2007 and shows you the new place for those activities in Project 2010. You can find the setup here, once you will install and run the guide it will be open for you in IE. If you like to download the workbook on desktop to use in offline mode, you can download it from here, though its not as interesting as the hosted one but will still server the purpose.

Hope it will help you to speed up your Project 2010 learning.

Happy reading ...

Read More