Archive for December, 2007
Creating the Perfect Plan
27 December 2007Introduction
Okay, so there is no such thing as the perfect schedule, but there are good and bad practices for creating a schedule using Microsoft Project. Some other tools don’t allow some of these bad practices, but Project just goes ahead and lets you do it – this allows lots of flexibility but if you’re not exactly sure what you are doing then it can lead to some “interesting” results. So here’s my list of best practices for using Project, and this might get you a little closer to the perfect schedule. There are a couple of tools which will help with some integrity checking of project plans, either for Project Server or for the client, post a comment or email me if you want further details and prices.
Learn the formula that Project uses to schedule
Project uses the following formula for calculating the schedule; Work = duration * units. Learn it, understand it, do the algebra and enjoy it! Without this understanding you will always be frustrated with Project.
Set the Project Start or Finish date
Instead of placing a constraint date on the 1st task in a project to define when the project starts, set the Project Start date or Finish Date as required.
Figure 1 - Set the Start or Finish date of the project
All tasks should be linked
Following on not linking summary tasks, every task such have both a successor and predecessor, except of course the last task and first task. Thinking about these relationships help you identify the relationships between the tasks.
Minimise the use of constraint dates
Using constraint dates stops Project from dynamically scheduling the project schedule. Instead, learn to use the different task types and scheduling options, including FS, SS, FF and SF types, plus lags times (in terms of days, % of the task durations and –ve / +ve lags). Sometimes it really is necessary to use constraint dates, (e.g. Must Start On), but learn how and when to use them, and read and understand the scheduling messages that Project gives you.
Note that if you manually type in a Start date, or drag a task on the Gantt Chart, then a constraint type of Start No Earlier Than is applied to the task.
Figure 2 - Define the Task Dependency and lag
Instead use deadline dates
Deadlines are very useful, but not often used – so instead of setting a constraint, set a deadline instead, and project will warn you if you’re going to miss the deadline.
Figure 3 - Set the deadline and project will tell you if it won’t meet it!
Learn about task types
There are three task types, fixed effort (the default), fixed work and fixed duration. If you don’t understand what they mean, then I suspect you don’t understand the scheduling formula of Work = duration * units either.
Milestones tasks should not have resources assigned to them
Again, I see this with customers and it really is bad form. Milestones should identify a point in a project (often a deliverable, e.g. “code complete”), and hence don’t need resources assigned to them.
Don’t assign resources to summary tasks
In fact, don’t assign anything (costs, resources, % complete etc) to summary tasks. Summary tasks are just that, summaries of the tasks below, so if you manually change any of the values then the values of the summary tasks won’t make sense, so don’t change them!
Don’t link summary tasks
How many times do I see customer’s doing this? It won’t cause corruption if you do, it’s just that really you should only link actual tasks, rather than summary tasks. So instead of linking summary tasks (which are often phases in a project) consider creating a milestone exit task and a start task for each phase.
Project Auditing tools
There are various commercial auditing tools available. The following screen shots give you an idea of their potential.
Figure 4 - Server based auditing tool
Popularity: 2% [?]
New Resolve feature for TFS Next
27 December 2007I noticed this on the TFS Version Control Site, and thought this might be interesting for those using Team Foundation Server. For our group sometimes there are some issues with the Resolution of conflicts when checking in. The proposed interface looks good to me. Love to hear other feedback!
Popularity: 1% [?]
Few AJAX Articles on SharePoint
25 December 2007I found these cool links while trying to find about AJAX. For some unknown reason my custom AJAX based webparts are not working on SharePoint 2007 sites. I was looking for fix so find these links
http://daniellarson.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!D3543C5837291E93!934.entry?wa=wsignin1.0
http://www.virtual-generations.com/2007/02/22/smartpart-for-sharepoint-aspnet-ajax-support/
http://blogs.claritycon.com/blogs/george_durzi/default.aspx
http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/archive/2007/02/26/using-the-ajax-control-toolkit-in-sharepoint.aspx
http://www.capdes.com/2007/02/microsoft_office_sharepoint_se.html
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/mike/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=3
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941955
Updated Articles on ASP.NET AJAX with SharePoint - Updated SDK
ASP.NET AJAX in Windows SharePoint Services
Overview: ASP.NET AJAX and Web Parts in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Installing ASP.NET AJAX Extensions in Windows SharePoint Services
Walkthrough: Creating a Basic ASP.NET AJAX-enabled Web Part
Popularity: 2% [?]
Microsoft Project 2007 - Baselines and Updating Project Progress
25 December 2007Saving and using Baselines
You should save the baseline when:
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You have developed the project plan as fully as possible. (However, this does not mean that you cannot add tasks, resources, or assignments to the project after work has started, for this is often unavoidable.)
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You have not yet started entering actual values, such as a task’s percentage of completion.
p to 11 baselines in a single plan. (The first one is called Baseline, and the rest are Baseline 1 through Baseline 10.) Saving multiple baselines can be useful for projects with exceptionally long planning phases in which you might want to compare different sets of baseline values. For example, you might want to save and compare the baseline plans every month as the planning details change. To clear a previously set baseline, click Clear Baseline on the Tools menu, Tracking submenu. To learn more about baselines in Project’s online Help, type create baseline.
Three ways to update project progress
Overall Project Progress
The simplest approach to tracking progress is to report that the actual work is proceeding exactly as planned. For example, if the first month of a five-month project has elapsed and all of its tasks have started and finished as scheduled, you can quickly record this in the Update Project dialog box.
Task updates using % Complete and Actual Start
After work has begun on a task, you can quickly record its progress as a percentage. When you enter a completion percentage other than 0, Project changes the task’s actual start date to match its scheduled start date. It then calculates actual duration, remaining duration, actual costs, and other values based on the percentage you enter.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Installing SharePoint Service Pack 1
25 December 2007Source :
The SharePoint Farmer’s Almanac
How to install WSS and MOSS SP1
Service Pack 1 for SharePoint is here. The SharePoint Team blog has a great full length article on all of fixes and tweaks. You can read it here Announcing the Release of WSS 3.0 SP1 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1.
Read Full Step by Step Article here
http://blog.richfinn.net/2007/12/13/WSS3MOSSServicePack1AppliedSuccessfully.aspx
Popularity: 1% [?]
Documenting Work Standards
25 December 2007Corey Ladas has a post about document work standards. This got me to thinking, how in our kanban we might document our work standards. Our issue is that we are going all electronic. We will have an overhead display to flash the kanban boards.
I had never thought about using information radiators for your standards in the way Corey suggests. Since the group at Corbis uses physical Kanban boards, Coreys comments make sense in that situation. For our situation, I want to try using a Wiki (as Korey suggests) and tying that into our reports somehow.
Since we have the latest version of Sharepoint, I'll experiment using that wiki, and somehow tying it into our Reporting Services reports. I'll report back on that. I'd love to hear what others are doing.
Popularity: 1% [?]
You receive an error message when you create, save, or open a report in Project Portfolio Server 2007 after you install SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2
21 December 2007
Popularity: 1% [?]
Project 2007 stops responding when you click a list that is contained in a field
21 December 2007
Popularity: 1% [?]
SharePoint User Management
21 December 2007A great . Great Article on SharePoint User Management. I was forced to mention it here on my blog.
rePoint is a platform for building and deploying collaborative solutions. It is a centralized web portal that tracks content and documents as well as users, audiences and teams. One of the major challenges for the SharePoint IT administrator is to understand and effectively manage SharePoint user access along with the multiple directory services that co-exist within the corporate network, including numerous web applications, sites, and multiple authentication servers. Since an increasing number of companies are deploying SharePoint on a global enterprise network, connecting a large number of users and in the process creating a structure of corporate hierarchy-based users as well as a formidable social network, user access must be regulated and managed effectively.
This article provides a detailed look at how users and security are managed and configured within SharePoint. It will give you a systematic overview of SharePoint architecture, user authentication configurations, and user security groups and permissions, and explain the differences between Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). This article is written for the latest SharePoint version 3 release.
Popularity: 2% [?]
How to verify versions number after applying Service Pack 1 (SP1)?
21 December 2007A common question asked after successfully installing SP1 is how do you verify the version numbers of the components updated.
To verify individual Project Server 2007 DLL (and Office Servers) please refer to this knowledge base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936984
Overall after you applied SP1 versions are either: 12.0.6211.1000 and 12.0.6218.1000 for Project Server.
| Component | Version | Sample |
| Project Professional | 12.0.6211.1000 |  |
| SharePoint Central Administration -> Operations -> Servers | 12.0.0.6219 |  |
| ReadServerVersion PSI method using ProjTool from the SDK | 12.0.6218.1000 |  |
| T-SQL query in the Published database: SELECT WADMIN_VERSION_BUILD FROM MSP_WEB_ADMIN |
62181000 |  |
For more information of Service Pack 1 for Project Server 2007 read this.
Thank you to Jim Corbin for helping out put this together.
Popularity: 1% [?]