★ EPM Solutions Central ★

Six Reasons for a PMO

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:29:00 +0400

1.    Consistent Methodology – The bane of many organizations is when departments and groups develop home-grown and non-consistent ways of completing projects. Some processes may work beautifully, some may work terribly; the point being that none are consistent with each other or across the organization. A common project management methodology is needed and PMO allows the company to speak the same language and follow consistent processes.
2.    Economies of Scale – It’s not uncommon for a company to have numerous time-sheets or project management applications, each with its own financial cost for implementation and training personnel. A PMO implements affordable and sustainable enterprise-wide solutions.
3.    Objective Opinions – Departments running their own projects can sometimes be compared to a fox watching a hen-house. Project sponsors may be looking for the current status of a project, but a departmental project manager may stretch the truth just a bit so that their department is viewed in favorable light. A PMO provides an unbiased and objective opinion regarding the status of a project. This is invaluable to project stakeholders and executives.
4.    Perpetual Improvement – A PMO is always on the lookout for new and better ways to get things done. They have the benefit of aggregating lessons learned from previous projects and the missive of implementing those best practices across the organization. Additionally, there are countless opportunities for project managers to continue their education and bring new-found knowledge to their companies.
5.    Transcends Departments – “Why can’t we all just get along?” is a common refrain in many corporate environments. One department may go head to head with another department over unrealistic demands or unreasonable timelines. A PMO can mediate their heated conversations and keep everyone focused on the bigger picture. Members of the PMO can facilitate sessions between departments for the purpose of identifying root cause and coming up with alternatives.
6.    Reduces Cost – Benefits of a PMO as described above are all realized at the bottom line as unnecessary tangible expenses are uncovered, such as paying for multiple versions of the same software. Such are removed from the income statement. Real savings derived from resources being able to do their work faster will appear as net income. The value of everyone getting along better is Priceless !

The Enterprise Social Network

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Thu, 3 Feb 2011 22:11:00 +0400

Yammer is revolutionizing internal corporate communications by bringing together all of a company’s employees inside a private and secure enterprise social network. Although Yammer is as easy to use as consumer products like Facebook or Twitter, its enterprise-grade software is built from the ground up to drive business objectives. Enables users to communicate, collaborate, and share more easily and efficiently than ever before. It reduces the need for meetings, increases communication across silos, surfaces pockets of expertise and connects remote workers.

Key Features:

Enterprise Microblogging - Start a conversation, read posts, and actively collaborate with your coworkers in real-time.
Direct Messaging - Create a private dialog with one or multiple co-workers.
Files, Links, and Images - Upload and share documents with co-workers, groups, or your entire company.
Groups - Create and join private or public groups and collaborate in small teams within your network.
Communities - Create communities for working with partners who are outside of your network .
Profiles - Upload a picture and fill in your expertise, past work experience and contact information to become discoverable across your organization.
Company Directory - Use Yammer to connect with employees in other departments.
Knowledge Base - Each conversation is archived and fully searchable so you can find what you need from your company's knowledge base.
Administrative Tools - Keep your Yammer network running smoothly with a suite of admin features built to increase control.
Security - Message privately and securely in the cloud. Your security is Yammer's top priority.
Topics - Tag content and messages in your network to make content easy to organize and discover.
Applications - Install third-party applications into Yammer to increase the functionality of your network.
Mobile - Connect to your network anywhere, any time. Download free iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Windows Mobile applications.

Force Rebuild of the Project Server Reporting Database

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Mon, 6 Dec 2010 13:22:00 +0400

Background

The Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Reporting database can become corrupt at times causing general queue job failures when publishing projects when invoking the Reporting message processor throwing exceptions that cite FOREIGN KEY constraint conflicts. Sometimes these are spurious and random in nature, and you can correct them simply by forcing a rebuild of the Project Server 2007 Reporting database.

Resolution

To force a rebuild of the Project Server 2007 Reporting Database, follow these steps:

Logon to Project Web Access with Administrator credentials
Select Administrative Backup from the Database Administration section on the Server Settings Page in Project Web Access
In the Items for Backup section of the Backup page, select the checkbox for Enterprise Custom Fields and then click the Backup button and click the OK button when prompted by the system
Select Administrative Restore from the Database Administration section on the Server Settings Page in Project Web Access
Choose Enterprise Custom Fields from the Choose Item selector on the Restore page
Click the Restore button and then click the OK button when prompted by the system

Allow time for the reporting rebuild job to run. You can track the state of this job on the Manage Queue page.

Discontinued features and modified functionality in Microsoft Project Server 2010

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 08:16:00 +0400

Applies to: Microsoft Project Server 2010

If you are familiar with previous versions of Microsoft Project Server, the following sections describe features and functionality that have been discontinued or changed in Microsoft Project Server 2010.

Project Portfolio Server changes

Project Server and Project Portfolio Server are no longer two separate products. Relevant portfolio functionality from Project Portfolio Server has been merged into Project Server 2010. The following Project Portfolio Server 2007 features and functionality were discontinued or changed for Project Server 2010:

Application portfolio management This includes tracking and managing applications.
Audit Trail Workflow activity was previously made available from the Audit Trail link in the Workflow module. In Project Server 2010, this information is available in the Workflow History list, which can be accessed from the Additional Workflow Data link in the All Workflow Stages section.
Benefits estimating This includes estimating and tracking financial and non-financial benefits.
Organizational hierarchy and aggregates This includes a security-based hierarchical data grouping and aggregation. In Project Server 2010, departments have been added to enable hierarchical data grouping based on organizational structure.
Dynamic charting This includes the Chart Wizard, which allows for ad-hoc interactive chart creation, including bubble chart modeling. In Project Server 2010, Excel Services support has been added, providing a new method of dynamic reporting.
Financial management This includes time-phased budget, actual, and forecast cost tracking. In Project Server 2010, use custom fields and Excel Services to enable cost functionality for simple estimation, tracking, and forecasting costs. Solutions for more complex estimating, tracking, and forecasting costs are offered by Microsoft partners.
Insight analysis This enabled users to get specific details into the factors that impact a specific portfolio selection.
Decision dashboard This enabled users to make selection decisions supported by a rich dashboard with live grouping and charting.
Sensitivity analysis This enabled users to take a portfolio selection through various what-if scenarios and figure out how close a project was to being selected.
Snapshotting and versioning This enabled users to create cost, resource, and benefit snapshots at any given point in time. In Project Server 2010, reporting and base-lining can be used to capture data snapshots.
Surveys This includes flexible, user-definable survey forms, on subjects related to risk, architectural fit, and operational performance.

Other changes

In addition to the portfolio functionality changes, the following list describes other changes implemented in Project Server 2010.

Outlook add-in The Outlook add-in for Project Server has been discontinued in Project Server 2010. The existing add-in can still connect to Project Server 2010, however it has not been updated for this release. Instead, Project Server 2010is integrated with Exchange Server, so that users no longer need to download a separate COM add-in. The timesheet functionality that was present in the Outlook add-in has been discontinued.
Activity plans and personal projects included the ability to create and manage activity plans, also known as lightweight projects, and personal projects from within Project Web Access. Instead, Project Server 2010 supports editing any project on the server using a rich, new grid control in Project Web App.
Color indicators on the My Tasks page Color indicators on the My Tasks page have been replaced with the text from the tool tip for the indicator, paired with a background color for the text.
Data analysis The underlying technology used for data analysis in previous versions, Office Web Components, has been discontinued. In Project Server 2010, this technology has been replaced with Excel Services.

SharePoint Workflow Conductor 1.5 - Bamboo Solutions

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Mon, 8 Nov 2010 07:28:00 +0400

Asking for Credentials

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 23:31:00 +0400

Whenever you need to enter credentials, you can either use Get-Credential or a low-level PS API function like:
$c = $host.ui.PromptForCredential('Log on', $null, 'test\user', 'target')
$c
You should note that the low-level function will allow you to set dialog captions and a custom message. For a custom message, you should replace $null with your message string.

Shortly on this site

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 17:32:00 +0400

Stellar Products for Hard Drive Data Recovery Software & Services.

Please stop by again for details.

CheckIn Documents Using Powershell

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 15:40:00 +0400

function CheckInDocument([string]$url)

{

$spWeb = Get-SPWeb $url

$getFolder = $spWeb.GetFolder(“Shared Documents”)

$getFolder.Files | Where { $_.CheckOutStatus -ne “None” } | ForEach

{

Write-Host “$($_.Name) is Checked out To: $($_.CheckedOutBy)”

$_.CheckIn(“Checked In By Administrator”)

Write-Host “$($_.Name) Checked In” -ForeGroundColor Green

}

$spWeb.Dispose()

}

Here’s an example on running the function:

CheckInDocument http://SP

Virtual Migration Environment for Project Server 2010

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:28:00 +0400

The Virtual Migration Environment (VME) Guide for Project Server 2010 is available in Microsoft TechNet. The VME is a virtual Project Server 2007 migration environment that can be restored to a virtual machine in Hyper-V Manager in Windows Server 2008 R2. This guide describes how to use the VME to migrate your Project Server 2003 data to Project Server 2007, which is required for upgrading your data to Project Server 2010. This guide provides the following information:

Overview of the VME
How to restore and configure the VME on a virtual machine
Pre-migration tasks
Migration tasks
Post-migration tasks
How to plan to upgrade your data to Project Server 2010 after completing the migration on the VME

The VME also provides useful migration scripts that can assist you in the migration process.

The VME image is available for download from the Project Server Virtual Migration Environment download package page in the Microsoft Download Center.

Lightening Conductor 2010 Express Web Part - SharePoint 2010

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:03:00 +0400

The Lightning Conductor 2010 Express web Part provides a current site collection rollup web part that is easy to configure for both aggregating the content and displaying it. If aggregate content across site collections is required, check the full version of the Lightning Conductor 2010.

PDF for SharePoint 2010

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:44:00 +0400

Adlib offers document conversion, recognition and publishing within a SharePoint environment.
•Convert Microsoft Office files to PDF
•OCR (Optical Character Recognition) scanned document images to make them text-searchable
•Combine multiple documents with table of contents, indexes, page numbers, watermarks and timestamps
•Rapidly deploy using out of the box rendering workflows
•Create flexible document transformation business processes based on metadata

Webinar: Go with the Workflow: PDF for SharePoint 2010 from Adlib Software on Vimeo.

Microsoft Security Updates for June 2010

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:03:00 +0400

MS10-032 - Addresses vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows (KB 979559)
MS10-033 - Addresses vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows (KB 979902)
MS10-034 - Cumulative update of ActiveX Kill Bits (KB 980195)
MS10-035 - Addresses vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer (KB 982381)
MS10-036 - Addresses a vulnerability in Office Web Components (KB 983235)
MS10-037 - Addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 980218)
MS10-038 - Addresses vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office (KB 2027452)
MS10-039 - Addresses vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office (KB 2028554)
MS10-040 - Addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) (KB 982666)
MS10-041 - Addresses a vulnerability in .NET Framework (KB 981343)

Connect to Wireless Acces Point - Windows 7

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:39:00 +0400

Tips for everyday Office tasks

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:36:00 +0400

7 ways to organize your email

6 ways to ensure your email gets read

9 tips to manage your files better

12 tips for creating better documents

12 tips for creating better presentations

6 ways to streamline your tasks in Outlook

5 ways to collaborate successfully on a virtual team

4 ways to take control of your email Inbox

Save time with quick computer shortcuts

Create incredible documents more easily using Office 2010

5 good computing habits

Vacation checklist

Back up your data

Conversation View - Outlook 2010

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:46:00 +0400

Office Web Apps

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:41:00 +0400

Harmonie Support for Microsoft Outlook 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Puts Enterprise Users on the Same Page

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:37:00 +0400

Harmonie Support for Microsoft Outlook 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Puts Enterprise Users on the Same Page

List Bulk Import

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:32:00 +0400

Import both metadata properties and attached documents.
Allow users to map fields between source and destination lists.
Provide value mapping for choice and lookup fields (i.e. source:Yes = destination:True).
Import Excel, CSV or text delimited files.
Import data into existing lists that already have data.
Check for duplicate existing records, then skip the duplicated record or update with new data.
Works with many lists including Document and Picture Libraries.
Automatically import sub folders and create same hierarchy in the target document library.
The ability to automatically rename files to avoid overwriting of existing files.
Import parameters can be saved and re-used for subsequent import runs.
Option to run in the background with scheduled intervals.
Post-import log file provides summary of success and failure records.
Import one SharePoint list to another, even across sites, and from MOSS/WSS v3 to SharePoint Server 2010/Foundation 2010.
Import data from a database table or view into a SharePoint list.
Import versions of Issues Lists and Document Libraries.
Import files from network folders into SharePoint Document and Pictures Libraries.
Supports ASP.NET 2.0.
The Bamboo Attachments Clean Up Application allows you to automatically clean up attachments that are deleted during a normal import update process. Primarily for those users using Bulk Import as a syncing tool, this application moves them from the primary recycle bin to the secondary recycle bin, keeping your database from growing due to large deleted items.
Now supports importing from MOSS/WSS 3 to SharePoint Server 2010/SharePoint Foundation 2010.
Now supports import to and from Hyperlink (URL and Description) and Image column types.
Automatically empty the SharePoint list you are importing to before importing.
http://store.bamboosolutions.com/sharepoint-list-bulk-import.aspx

Common Engineering Criteria Scorecards

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:42:00 +0400

Microsoft server products comply with the common engineering criteria.

Scorecards report each server product’s compliance status for the established common engineering criteria.

Link: http://browse.eppmsolutions.com/scorecards2010

Query Version - SQL Server

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 15:58:00 +0400

Run the following Transact-SQL statements:

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('productversion'),

SERVERPROPERTY ('productlevel'),

SERVERPROPERTY ('edition')

SharePoint troubleshooting

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 22:44:00 +0400

A significant part of building a product is actually proving it works the way your customer expects. Doing so you inevitably perform debugging and performance testing. Issues are expected and tackled until satisfaction. It`s all a standard approach where troubleshooting exists, but as a part of the development.

The real purpose here, of SharePoint is to serve your clients. Maintaining and supporting a living environment is a vital necessity. Troubleshooting your clients` issues needs to be your top priority beside anything else. But doing so might not be as easy as it sounds. So we`re going to take a look at few ideas on troubleshooting from that perspective.

The following scenarios are brief examples of various client issues with conditional obstacles for the one doing the support. Those may be due to various onsite arrangements or possible environmental limitations.

Online evaluation

Quite often clients issues are related to lost permissions to content, lost data or certain inability to perform a task. At ground basis you need to be prepared where to look at first. Usually basic support can be performed by a site collection admin that only has the online access to the SharePoint portal. It`s quite limited area as it goes for clearing back-end issues, but we`ll take a look at what can come in handy when it`s a frontend case.

Check effective permissions action

When utilized it can right on the spot identity access levels and reveal those user suspects. Bad thing is that it`s only available for MOSS, but for WSS 3.0 it`s always a close alternative to use that tool.

Audit logs

You do have when in MOSS only, but that`s the only trace you can find on the SharePoint portal itself. There are several reports all as downloadable content. The important task here is to have those auditing configured in advance. True to say it`ll cause a performance impact, but having it set on sensitive data will payoff. Audit settings are configured per sitecollection.

Usage reports

Deserves to be mentioned as it might bring additional idea of what a particular user has been doing. The down-side is that you need the usage reports turned on and collecting data.

Recycle Bins

For missing data always check the sitecollection root recycle bin. Most of the data can be restored back throughout it. Or at least it`ll get you the user that decided to go for a clean-up.

Backtracking

A client should never know what is going on behind the scenes. But that`s only in a better reality. Your users are still capable of causing that SharePoint to mishandle. I`ll skip discussion about how you need to treat code exceptions, but in our case we`ll assume that an user breached expectations, and got one. You having the main responsibility for generic maintenance need to troubleshoot it. It might be an easy one, but how do we start? Log files .. correct, except that we are not looking into an immediate case that just had printed its logs. What we`re looking for is buried in thousands of lines within our daily logs.

I`ll skip some definitions of various logs that are available within a SharePoint environment, assuming you are well known with them.

So our entry point is nothing else but the system`s Event Log, where perspectively we had an Error message debriefing what happened. Rarely it`s enough to solve the case. What we`re looking for is how to gather more data. A logical continuation would be to realize how that issue was caused. For that reason we`ll need to find what exactly the user made to produce it. And there`s the fun part. As long as you are on the same machine, there`s an IIS logs, where all incoming request are kept. Digging through them will give you an entry point for SharePoint to play with. The matching we are looking for is the date-time of the event, but keep in mind that IIS logs might have been exported with UTC timing. Your IIS have a separate log file per each webapplicaton and you need to search them all. A near match in few seconds difference will give you the user`s playground. Now simply redoing the issue will generate you enough data in all other logs (at their very end)(SharePoint logs would be essential here as well) so you can tackle the issue accordingly.

Microsoft Project - Hide the Resource Percentage Assignment

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Mon, 7 Jun 2010 08:13:00 +0400

In Microsoft Project, when you assign a resource to a task, that resource's name is displayed to the right of the Gantt bar. But, when you assign a resource at any percentage other than 100%, you also see the assigned percentage. You can modify the Gantt bar style to display only the resource initials without the percentage, whether it's 100% or not, by the steps below:

1. View your Resource Sheet and type the names of each resource into the Resource Initials field

2. View the Gantt Chart

3. Choose Format: Bar Styles from the Menu bar

4. Select Task

5. Click the Text tab

6. Click the drop-down arrow next to Resources and choose Resource Initials

Now, when you view your Gantt Chart, the entry that is listed in the Resource Initials field on the Resource Sheet is what will be displayed next to each Gantt Bar.

Enhanced User Tasks Web Part

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:40:00 +0400

Flexible data source: Tasks can be aggregated from the whole site collection, from the current site or from all sites below the current site.
Support for various list types: Various SharePoint list types, e.g. issues etc. can be added to the query by ID.
Filtering: Tasks can be filtered for not started, in progress, waiting for, delayed etc.
Sorting: Tasks can be sorted by priority, due date, title etc. ascending or descending.
Field Selection: You can choose specific fields to display, e.g. Link to source site, source list, document link etc.
User scope: The user or group who’s tasks should be shown can be selected. By default tasks of the current user are shown. All user tasks can be also displayed.
Data amount: The amount of task items to display can be limited to a given value.

Copy List Item Extended Activity

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Wed, 26 May 2010 11:02:00 +0400

This custom action presents a potential security issue. Because it runs as SHAREPOINT\system it can copy file/items to any site in the farm. A user with access to create SPD workflows on any one site, can set this activity up to copy to sites that he does not have access to. If you do not want this behavior i suggest you remove this activity from DPWorkflow.Actions file, located in [SPHive]\TEMPLATE\1033\Workflow\ folder.

Feature Matrix

Feature	List Items	Files	Notes
Copy Item	X	X
Move Item	X	X
Overwrite Item on Destination		X
Specify Destination Subfolders		X	when copying/moving files in and out of doc. libs, path to a sub folder can be specified as the destination (ex. http://moss/site/doclib/subfolder)
Copy/Move File Attributes		X	when copying/moving files in and out of doc. libs, any attributes that exist in destination lib. are also set
Copy/Move Item History		X	List item history is never kept, file version history is always copied/moved
Copy/Move Item Attachments	X
Copy/Move Item Cross Site	X	X
Copy/Move Item with Person Fields Cross Site	X	X

New Features

1. Added Copy List Item Extended Activity
2. Added Send Email Extended Activity

If you are having trouble seeing new actions in Sharepoint Designer, follow recommended steps.

Download

Import: Stsadm operation

kanav@kanavgupta.com (Kanav Gupta) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:06:00 +0400

Import: Stsadm operation (Office SharePoint Server)" (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261866.aspx) have been updated with new functionality for the url parameter that is included in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products. Also, the existing description of the parameter has been corrected.