I am sure you are all following my recent advice and actively following this TechNet RSS: Newly published content for Project Server 2010 https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=186461 New and updated content typically appears Thursday night (Seattle time/PDT) and today take a note of the following important articles our technical writers have put together: Plan for Project Server 2010 Web Parts

Thanks to Guillaume from TPG for pointing this out, and for Rob for digging out the answer.

Following this post in January: Latest Microsoft Project RSS Feeds – January 2010 and with the Microsoft Project 2010 excitement and enthusiasm as well as the multiplication of blogs, please find attached my latest OPML files (collection of RSS feeds I subscribe to from all regions of the world); I use this to stay on top of news and announcements around the product. It’s also exciting to see how many more blogs, RSS keep appearing every day. A very encouraging

Dear all – I will continue posting developer-related information to this blog, but there was a lot of “other” content that would not fit perfectly here. So I have created a new blog on https://blogs.msdn.com/jkalis/ where I continue posting Project 2010 relevant information and top of mind thoughts Few are there already If you are interested, please add https://blogs.msdn.com/jkalis/ to your favorite RSS aggregator. Thanks! Jan

Bonjour, in case you have missed it we made an important announcement today: Microsoft Office 365: The Power to Think Big and Be Small, to Be Big and Act Fast . How does it impact the Microsoft Project world? Check this post from Arpan: Enabling Better Collaborative Project Management with Office 365 and Project Professional 2010 More information on the official Microsoft Office 365: https://www.office365.com ; sign up for Beta!

Today, Kurt DelBene announced Office 365 , which we believe will define the future of productivity. Office 365 is a new cloud service that brings enterprise-grade productivity to everyone. This is an important announcement for the industry and Microsoft. I encourage you to watch today’s global press conference about Office 365 on the Microsoft News Center ( www.microsoft.com/presspass ). I wanted to blog about this news to explain what it means for Microsoft Project 2010. As many of you know, we offer Project Server 2010 cloud hosting through numerous partners that many customers are already taking advantage of today. With SharePoint Online as part of Office 365, we now deliver great collaborative project management in the cloud through the Project Professional synchronization to SharePoint just as we do today for our on-premise customers.

With the recent release of Microsoft Project Server 2010 (PS) last May and its rapid adoption by customers, a recurring question I have seen and been asked is how can I integrate Project Server 2010 with application X? Where application X can be a combination of the following: Application Type Typical Scenario Application Example Accounting (ERP) Import financial information, and WBS SAP R/3, MSFT Dynamics SL and AX, Oracle etc. Billing/Invoicing (ERP) Export PS timesheet information to generate invoices, a classic in IT charge back and or service organizations SAP R/3, MSFT Dynamics SL and AX Human Resources Import resources information like skills, RBS, billing rate, etc.… SAP or custom systems Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Transfer customer service work information to PS MSFT Dynamics CRM, Siebel etc. Ticketing, Maintenance, Keep the Light on Import work performed in these other app. into PS via Statusing API or push project plan and assignments to another app. to track the execution System Center Service Manager, Remedy etc.… Time tracking, time sheeting Import data into PS to have full view of resources execution SAP CATS, etc. Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Transfer tasks and assignment to a team of developers MSFT Team Foundation Server, etc. Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Yes I have seen customer bring PPM data from competitors product in our stack due to the ease of use of our platform and the enhance collaboration and reporting capabilities with SharePoint 2010 IT PPM competitors The following Microsoft Project Server data type/entities are typically synched : Project Server Data Type/Entities Description Projects Projects can be tied to portfolios, programs, WBS, etc. Tasks Tasks are associated to WBS, work items, work package etc. Resources Resources typically are synched from Active Directory and additional information like skills/role come from another system etc. Task’s Status A common scenario where task updates are made in another system and needs to be transferred to PS the ChangeXml API Timesheets Timesheet data is typically transferred out of PS to another system for billing, etc. Lookup Tables Import LT data definition from another system. And there are more I have seen or heard but basically they revolve around the above application types. So how do I interface PS with these other mission critical applications (also referred to as Line Of Business Integration or LOBI) within my organization? This is obviously a very broad topic and this blog post is by no means exhaustive but let me try to get you started in answering this question. Well as you can guess IT DEPENDS! The biggest challenge and the most complex part of such integration is clearly defining the scenario , documenting what data will be transferred between the two systems, what’s the “master” and what’s the “slave”, exception handling (if an update is rejected what happens for instance? If a task is deleted what happens? etc.) The second phase is implementing the bridge and for that as mentioned in this recent post: Microsoft Project Server 2010 Integration with SAP you have two options: either use an existing partner solution that is publically available (search here for instance: https://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/partners.aspx or BING it) or you can build your own connector and in that case look at the Microsoft Project 2010 Software Development Kit . Points to consider when integrating PS with LOB (by no mean exhaustive): What’s the specific use case ? Interface scalability and performance – was on a recent call with a partner who realized their interface to another system did not took too long to process updates… What PS data entities (Project, Task, Resource, Lookup Table) needs to be updated and transferred? How is the custom data mapping defined? Interface logging and monitoring – would expect any solution whether its of the shelve or custom made to provide visibility of data updates so that it can be easily monitored and maintained File format required to transfer data 9XML, CSV etc.)? Can validation rules and business rules be easily created and modified? What are the additional Custom Fields required in PS to enable the transfer? Are there existing partner solutions available or do I need to build a custom interface ? Reporting requirements for this interface? KPI, dashboards etc.

I have been following the activities of several competitors on the various digital channels for the past few months and I find it an honor to see how competitors are mimicking our product names, messaging and positioning to sell a product clearly different from ours… On one hand it’s always a good sign to see copycats and people mimicking a leader, but on the other hand I am worried that customers get confused and abused with a brand that is not Microsoft and potentially a product of lesser value that does not meet their business needs. Similar to politics it’s interesting to see competitors make inaccurate statements and for instance compare their offer against an older version (yes 2007 is “passe” and 2010 is OUT) or when they compare their server/online offering to our desktop product, so easy and cheap but so wrong…I am hopeful that in this day and digital age customers will hopefully find out the truth. So watch out for vendors using “EPM”, “Project Server”, etc… and do a thorough evaluation before signing the check! To sum it all, get the real Microsoft Project Server and Microsoft Project or at least look at our latest stack before making a purchase decision. We are transparent and offer free trial, so go to https://www.microsoft.com/project for the product information you need! Happy purchase decision

Another great new case study thanks to Joyce and Tad: https://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000008422 Great job MS IT! Microsoft IT, which manages technology resources for the global software company, wanted to improve the consistency of decision-making processes across planning governance bodies. Assisted by Microsoft Services consultants, Microsoft IT implemented Microsoft Project Server 2010. It used Project Server 2010 to plan its fiscal year 2011 new-program budgets and will expand that scope. It is also building workflows, dashboards, and other customizations using Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and complementary technologies. With Project Server 2010, Microsoft IT is consolidating its toolset to reallocate training budgets and cut support costs. It is also improving the quality and visibility of its IT project portfolio planning, more effectively tracking benefits through projects’ life cycles, and establishing a single source of truth for reporting on project management data. Favorite Quotes : My number-one benefit is cost reduction. Using Project Server 2010 to simplify our toolset, we have been able to reallocate our training budget for next year. All employees can use Project Server 2010 to see the strategy more easily—to see why certain programs are chosen, and how each program benefits each line of business. With all of our project data available in Project Server 2010, we save people time when they’re looking for information. Also check out the picture on Arpan’s blog A Great Week at the PMI Global Congress , good to see lots of attendees at the Microsoft Project booth compared to others For more Microsoft Project Server case studies go here: https://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Search_Results.aspx?Type=1&Keywords=”project%20server”

An invitation for all European , Middle East and African Microsoft Project 2010 & Microsoft Project Server 2010 customers to join us in Barcelona, Spain on November 16 – 18, 2010