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*** Update – should probably have mentioned this more prominently – but this DOES NOT affect schedule dates – just the display date ranges in Resource Plans. When I re-read it after posting I realised this might look quite alarming*** This was an interesting issue that Adrian Jenkins finally cracked – and I had seen postings on the forums and we had some internal customer cases.  It appeared to be related to time zones as the problem had only occurred in Europe and Eastward.  So if your time zone is left of Greenwich (Sorry – UTC) you probably don’t need to read any further.  But as this may work in reverse also – might just be worth seeing why this happened. In my example below, I have my server and SharePoint farm running at UTC+2 – Athens, Bucharest and Istanbul (and others of course).  I’ve also set the regional settings to Greek (but don’t have the language pack) – just so the date format is the same format as most people this affects are using.   If you are in the Resource Plan and want to change the date range and say you select 1/12/2011 to 31/12/2011: you will find when clicking OK that the actual dates are set to 30/11/2011 and 30/12/2011 Looking behind the scenes we can see that the actual date (and time!) saved is midnight.  This is persisted in the User Properties table – as it isn’t setting the resource plan start and end date – just the current window of dates that you wish to review.  Worth remembering that there can be stuff before and after these dates… but back to the plot.  These dates are stored in a numeric string representing the number of milliseconds since 1/1/1970.  Between selecting, saving and recalling there is a conversion according to the current time zone and basically it thinks that at midnight on whatever day you choose (assuming you are UTC+X)  – it was still yesterday at UTC! In reality the time stored is the UTC time taking in to account the time zone difference – so in my example I set 1/12/2011 (it assumes time of 0:00) but what was saved was actually 2 hours earlier 30/11/2011 22:00. Easy workarounds – either put in the day after you really want – or add a time value to the string.  So I could enter: and this would then give me the right dates. This shouldn’t affect anyone West of Greenwich – however, if I put in a time here in the Pacific Time Zone that was after midnight UTC – such as 5pm, then my date would go forward to the next day! Sorry for any confusion this has caused.  I should also point out that although I am specifically talking about the date range for the resource plan view this could also affect other pages too – but generally only dates persisted as part of a view.  Rest assured that in my testing it does not affect dates entered in the schedule grid.

Full story over on Microsoft Project Server and SharePoint 2007 and 2010 August CU 2011 Announcement and a slight delay on the server rollup packages for 2010 (a week or so), but the Project and Project Server 2010 package is there if you are waiting on a fix and want to get started on your testing.  Don’t forget SP1 too!  More details of SP1 can be found at https://blogs.msdn.com/b/project/archive/2011/06/28/announcing-the-release-of-service-pack-1-sp1-for-microsoft-project-and-project-server-2010.aspx and the downloads listed at https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2510766 . Q&A from the SP1 TechNet webcast can be found at https://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith/archive/2011/07/11/project-server-2010-sp1-and-june-cu-questions-and-answers.aspx .

If you have the setting to allow personal tasks to be added to the timesheet then they of course could come from the user.  But what about the ones that haven’t been entered by the user and appear to have the same name as tasks that were in projects that they had already started work on?  We have had a few questions on this behavior so thought it worth a blog posting. So here is my timesheet – and I have 5 tasks in the “Project BriSmith TS Blog” project, and I’ve spent an hour on each – so I’ve entered the time and saved my timesheet. (Status is “In Progress”) Later on I go back to my timesheet and things have changed! So what happened?  The task names give you the clue, and the Project Manager (me) has followed through on his action for each of the tasks.  Basically if a task gets deleted while a timesheet is in progress then we do not delete the time that is already entered but instead the task gets changed to a Personal Task.  A couple of interesting things to note though – the task name is actually cached as part of the timesheet (in case it gets deleted!) so the spelling mistake was actually corrected in the plan for the “Correcttting the spellling” task – but the cached version is still shown.  This would be the case for any re-named task – as long as the resource was still assigned.  If I click through to the task I see the current name published from the plan – correcting the spelling:   The next thing to note is that if I delete and re-create a task then as far as project is concerned this is a new task (with a new unique GUID) so it shows up as a Personal Task (keeping the original entered time) and also as the new task. The 4th task is interesting – I unassigned myself from this task and then re-assigned – so this is actually a new assignment – but as far as the timesheet is concerned it still shows it related to the project.  Also if I had published after de-assigning I would have seen a Personal Task and then after re-assigning and publishing this personal task would be gone and the project task back again (along with the entered time).   This surprised me a little – so I had to take a look behind the scenes.  It appears that as long as you don’t assign this task to anyone else, then you will get the same GUID for the re-assignment – but if you re-assigned to someone else, and then added back the original resource then the GUID would change and the timesheet would show the same behavior as the deleted and re-created task – both a Personal Task with the already entered time and the ‘new’ project task. The 5th task just got deleted so no longer exists so my recorded time now shows against Personal Tasks.  And finally the untouched task is still there as expected. So if the Personal Task does really relate to a task that has been re-created in some way then the resource should copy the time entered across the the project task and delete the personal task (Remove Task in the ribbon).  If it has been removed for good then the personal task is a record of the time spent – and should remain (depending on your time recording processes). This is the behavior when the timesheet is “In Progress”. If it is approved then the Project name and Task name are persisted even if the task is deleted. Other actions can lead to this behavior – if the project is saved back to the server (save as) over the top of an existing plan then all tasks and assignments will be replaced by identical ones – and any tasks in progress will change to Personal Tasks in the timesheets.  Also before we fixed the bug with Save for Sharing in the June CU this would change the GUIDs too – and have the same effect. All the above behavior assumes that Single Entry Mode is turned off.  With Single Entry Mode turned on then the Personal Tasks do not appear – the tasks just go (along with the time entered into them) – and also any task name changes reflect immediately in the timesheet (it is a direct link to the task, rather than a placeholder in the timesheet).  The re-assignment to the same task, even though it maintains the same GUID does not keep the entered time.  Single Entry Mode keeps the My Tasks and Timesheet view in Sync and Personal Tasks are never seen on the My Tasks view.

Yes it’s fast approaching, and thanks to Microsoft Project 2010 a nice visualization of the upcoming Rugby World Cup 2011 matches schedule in New Zealand. A lot more information on the official site: https://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/fixtures/poolstage.html And yes I will be cheering for a few teams! Task Name Duration Start Finish Rugby World Cup 2011 36 days Fri 9/9/11 Sun 10/23/11    https://www.rugbyworldcup.com 36 days Fri 9/9/11 Sun 10/23/11    Pool A, B, C, D 16 days Fri 9/9/11 Sun 10/2/11    Quarter-Final 2 days Sat 10/8/11 Sun 10/9/11    Semi-Final 2 days Sat 10/15/11 Sun 10/16/11    Bronze Final 0 days Fri 10/21/11 Fri 10/21/11    Final 0 days Sun 10/23/11 Sun 10/23/11

The Project 2007 SDK download includes E-R diagrams of the major tables and views in the Project Server Reporting database. The Project 2010 SDK download does not include the Visio diagrams, although it does have the new RDB_Field_Selector.xls tool, along with the Project2010_ReportingDB.chm schema reference. You can easily create database diagrams by using either Visio Professional or Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. For example, with a Visio diagram, you can see the relationships between the timesheet tables: If you have Visio Professional 2010 and access to a Project Server 2010 Reporting database, you can reverse engineer the RDB to new database diagrams. Use the Visio diagrams in the Project 2007 SDK download as an example. With the Reverse Engineer Wizard in Visio, select the Microsoft SQL Server driver, and then create a new data source, for example: … and then follow through the wizard to select the tables and views you want for each diagram. In the Project 2007 SDK, there are four E-R diagrams: EPM User Views:  this is a very crowded page, suitable mainly for printing on a large sheet of paper. EPM Relationships:  shows the main relationships between the views in the previous page. Timesheet Tables SharePoint Data:  shows the links from tasks and projects to the Issues and Risks views. To create diagrams using SQL Server Management Studio, expand a Project Server Reporting database, right-click the Database Diagrams folder, and then click New Database Diagram . Select the tables you want, and SQL Server arranges them in a useful manner so that relationship lines don’t cross. Following are the timesheet tables in the Project Server 2010 Reporting database: Hover the mouse pointer over a relationship to show the relationship details.Database diagrams can help you derive T-SQL queries to build reports. Note:   When you create enterprise custom fields with lookup tables, Project Server creates additional views in the RDB, and can also create more column pool tables as required, for that instance of Project Web App. For more information, see  Custom Fields and the Reporting Database in the Project 2010 SDK.

We are happy share Microsoft Project 2010 presence at the upcoming SharePoint Conference 2011 ! The Microsoft SharePoint Conference is the most comprehensive event in the world dedicated to SharePoint and related technologies taking place in Anaheim, CA, October 3-6, 2011. Facts: Technical pre-event “ Project 2010 Technical drill-down for SharePoint Partners ” 7 breakout sessions directly covering Project 2010 2 booths in the expo hall staffed by Project experts Lots of great swag … … and more! Project 2010 Technical Pre-event Date: Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 Audience: IT Professionals, Architects and Developers from SharePoint Silver and Gold competent partners Keynote Speaker: Arpan Shah , Director of Project, Microsoft Corporation MVP Speakers: Dux Raymond Sy , SharePoint MVP, PMP and Scott Jamison , SharePoint MVP and Certified Master, Microsoft Speakers: Christophe Fiessinger and Jan Kalis , Senior Technical Product Managers; Steven Haden , Microsoft Consulting Services Senior Consultant Full agenda of the technical pre-day: 8:00 AM 8:30 AM Breakfast and Registration 8:30 AM 9:00 AM Keynote: Microsoft Project Opportunity Arpan Shah 9:00 AM 9:30 AM What it takes to become a Gold Project and Portfolio Management Partner Dux Raymond Sy 9:30 AM 9:45 AM Break 9:45 AM 10:45 AM SharePoint Lifecycle Management with Project Server 2010< Scott Jamison; Christophe Fiessinger 10:45 AM 11:30 AM Project 2010 Key Capabilities – Demos, demos, demos! Jan Kalis 11:30 AM 12:30 PM Lunch 12:30 PM 2:15 PM Project Server 2010 Architecture and Administration Overview Christophe Fiessinger 2:15 PM 2:30 PM Break 2:30 PM 4:00 PM Building Solutions on Project 2010 Jan Kalis; Steven Haden 4:00 PM 4:15 PM Break 4:15 PM 5:00 PM Q & A Panel with Arpan Shah, Dux Raymond Sy and Scott Jamison More details and registration here .   Project 2010 Breakout Sessions Session Title Abstract Speaker SPC106 Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010 Overview In this session we will highlight the key investment areas for Project 2010, demonstrate the Microsoft Project and Portfolio Solution which is built on top of SharePoint 2010 and introduce you to Microsoft Project Professional 2010, the world's most popular project desktop scheduling tool. We will also demonstrate business intelligence dashboards, portfolio analysis and demand management. Jan Kalis SPC242 Leveraging Project 2010 with Office 365 for Project Management Success Microsoft Project 2010 has proved to be instrumental in driving project management success for many organizations. In this session, we will discuss how to effectively create a Microsoft Project Plan, create a SharePoint-based Project Management Information System (PMIS) with Office 365 and integrate Microsoft Project information with SharePoint 2010. In addition, we'll cover best practices around empowering a project team to share relevant information, facilitate better collaboration and build project management dashboards in SharePoint. All PMP certified attendees will earn 1 PDU for attending this session. Dux Raymond Sy, PMP, MVP SPC262 Project 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Better Together With the release of Microsoft Project Server 2010 which is built upon SharePoint Server 2010 project management has reached new heights of flexibility, and power. Project Server 2010 provides a natural growth story to SharePoint 2010 advanced capabilities. In this session,  we will cover project portfolio management tools and how they can help any organization by providing insight into resource utilization, portfolio execution and alignment with strategic objectives. Tad Haas SPC273 SharePoint Lifecycle Management Solution with Project Server Is SharePoint becoming an important part of your company’s overall IT offering? If so, it's likely that you have a need to better manage SharePoint business requests. Join industry expert Scott Jamison as he discusses the importance of SharePoint Lifecycle Management from an IT governance perspective. In this session we'll demonstrate how business users can make special project requests through a form in Project Web App, and how Project Managers can monitor and assign resources, evaluate priorities, and manage their overall project portfolio more efficiently. Christophe Fiessinger; Scott Jamison, SharePoint MVP SPC275 Solving Agile and PMO Problems by Integrating Project Server 2010 with Team Foundation Server 2010 Do your Project Managers and Developers need to play nicer together? In this session, we'll discuss how integrating Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server 2010 allows you to enable development and project management teams to collaborate and communicate more effectively by using tools that they are most familiar with. In addition, we will conduct demos and share real world stories and best practices from customers. Christophe Fiessinger SPC313 Best Practices for Deploying Project Server 2010 on SharePoint Farm Are you interested in deploying Project Server 2010 but don't know where to start? In this session we will provide you with an overview on how to deploy Microsoft Project Server 2010 in a SharePoint 2010 Farm. Specifically, we will discuss how to deploy Project Server in an existing or separate farm, asses the proper capacity planning, and how to tackle upgrading and migration. Christophe Fiessinger SPC378 Project 2010 Development for SharePoint Developers Microsoft Project Server 2010 is built on SharePoint 2010 and offers a wide variety of customization options. In this session we will provide you with resources and real-world best practices  to help you get started with Project 2010 development. In addition, we will discuss the similarities in development between SharePoint 2010 and Project Server 2010. Steven Haden; Jan Kalis Full SharePoint Conference 2011 session agenda here .

The Guide to creating SharePoint Composites includes a 73-page download that explains SharePoint Composites. To quote from the download, “A SharePoint Composite combines data, documents, and business process in a useful, productive way. … A SharePoint Composite is a ‘do-it-yourself’ business solution.” The SharePoint Composites.docx handbook includes a detailed introduction along with common design patterns that can help provide ideas on how to integrate and present data for collaboration and BI, by using SharePoint. Although the Office 2010 integration points section includes only a brief mention of Microsoft Project, the handbook overall is a useful introduction to the concepts. For those who work with Project and Project Server, the handbook can help to expand your view of what is possible – as well as what is useful.  Similar terms you might have heard in the past include mashup and OBAs (Office Business Applications). The SharePoint Composites handbook extends those ideas specifically for SharePoint-based solutions.

This post is a reminder that Microsoft Online Services has maintenance scheduled for this weekend. Office Communications Online has a two hour maintenance window on Saturday, 8/27, between 1AM GMT and 3AM GMT. During this time, the service may be unavailable for a 10 minute period. We will deliver minor patch updates to the  Americas  Region BPOS Exchange Online service on Friday, 8/26, between 4AM and 10AM  GMT , and Saturday, 8/27, between 4AM GMT and 10AM  GMT . We expect minimal customer impact during this time. Between 3PM GMT Saturday, 8/27, and 3PM GMT Sunday, 8/28 , the billing portion of Microsoft Online Services will undergo planned maintenance. While we’re updating the system, the following services won’t be available: Purchasing new subscriptions or addition of additional licenses Conversion of trial to paid subscriptions/offers Viewing of monthly charges or final invoices Viewing or modification of credit card or invoice information.   The following services will NOT be affected by this maintenance:  All product services (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Office Communications Online) Managing existing BPOS subscriptions Thanks for your patience while we make important service improvements. 

Microsoft Project Conference 2012 is the premiere Microsoft-led event to share Project and Portfolio Management best practices and connect with your peers from around the globe. Project Conference will be held in Phoenix, Arizona on March 19 – 22, 2012. Do you have best practices you would like to share on Microsoft’s Project Portfolio Management (PPM) offering? Do you have success stories you would like to share with attendees? Are you passionate about Microsoft Project & Project Server? If you do and are interested in presenting next March, you are invited to propose content for delivery at Microsoft Project Conference 2012! Action Propose titles & abstracts at https://projconfcallforcontent.deregistrationservices.com/ Complete all the required fields carefully so we can better evaluate your entries. Deadline for Submissions: September 30th, 2011 Acceptance Timeline:  Notifications will be sent out by November 15, 2011 Audience Project Conference hosts a mix of audience including audiences including Microsoft PPM practitioners, IT Professionals and Developers, as well as Decision Makers and Business Managers. Breakout Sessions Breakout Sessions are the main content delivery modality at Project Conference other than the keynote sessions. These breakout sessions are lecture-style presentations located in rooms seating anywhere from 100-400 people and are 75 minutes in length. They typically include slides, demos, and a Question & Answer period, and they are recorded and distributed in the MyPC virtual event platform. Content Tracks Business Values & Insights will showcase customers across industries and experienced partners, all sharing success stories and PPM best practices.  Product Session will showcase production information, how to best enhance your project portfolio performance, and solutions that enhance out of the box capabilities and provide integration with line of business applications. Deployment and Administration focuses on deployment, configuration, administration best practice as well as developer sessions on how to extend the out of the box desktop and server products to fits your specific business needs. Travel & Expenses Complimentary passes will be provided for all selected speakers.  Any travel costs including airfare, hotel, etc. will be the responsibility of the speaker. Questions If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the Project Conference Speaker Team at pcspkr@microsoft.com . All proposals will be responded to by November 15, 2011.

I was reviewing a case yesterday and just checking the behavior of SharePoint permissions in Project Web App after an upgrade from 2007 to 2010 – either in place or a 5 database  – thought this might be useful information to blog about.  In 2007 in the Project Web Access site the users would be added directly to the site with SharePoint permissions based on their roles.  These permission levels were identifiable by their names which would be like Project Managers (Microsoft Office Project Server).  In the Project workspaces these same permission levels would be used, and the users again added directly based on their roles within the project.  So this generally be a small subset of the overall user population – just those added as resources on the plan, and potentially others depending on the use of the View Project Workspace permission within categories. Here is the start of the list of permissions on the PWA site – Project workspaces will be similar although the permission levels may be different. In 2010 in Project Web App we now use groups within the /PWA site and the users are added in to these groups rather than directly to the site.  The groups are named Project Managers Group (Microsoft Project Server), Team members group (Microsoft Project Server) etc.   Some individual user accounts will be present in PWA as shown below (blanked out) – these will be site collection administrators and other farm admins. For the Project sites (formerly called workspaces) we still add the users directly, but we have new SharePoint permission levels which are named similarly to 2007, but we have dropped ‘Office’ from the product name – so they are now like Readers (Microsoft Project Server), Web Administrators (Microsoft Project Server). If you upgraded from 2007 to 2010, either in place or 5 DB then you will retain the old permission structure – but also get the new ones too.  So for example you would see all your users individually in the Project Web App permissions, as well as them belonging to the respective groups.  At the Project Site level you would see the users but with both Permission Levels applied – so they might have Web Administrators )Microsoft Office Project Server), Web Administrators (Microsoft Project Server). All of this is the expected behavior and none of this will break anything, although I admit it may look unusual having the two sets of permission levels.  Also it does not leave any security issues as in 2010 if I remove someone from a Project plan then they get taken off the site with both sets of permission levels – and if I inactivate a user they are removed both at the individual level from PWA and also removed from the group that 2010 would have put them in – so all is good.  If you really wanted to then you could delete the permission levels with (Microsoft Office Project Server) in the names, and also remove the individual user permissions on PWA (apart from the site collection admins of course).  Worth checking that the groups contain the members you expect first just in case for some reason the sync hasn’t populated the groups yet.