projectified-old

New Project Server Blog!

Gord Schmidt (a long time contributor to the Project and Project Server newsgroups) has started a great Project Server weblog at http://www.domorethanmanage.com/

This blog concentrates on development in and around Project Server.

If you are doing any kind of customization around Project Server you NEED to check this out!

What is wrong with PowerPoint?

OK I have to ask. What is really wrong with PowerPoint. Tufte and those that agree with him keep saying things like “PowerPoint makes it hard to create good presentations” or “PowerPoint enables the creation of poor quality presentations” or “PowerPoint is a poor quality tool”. But what I never hear is solid examples of what exactly about PowerPoint makes it hard. Why is it poor quality? On what criteria is it being judged?

And more importantly I want to know what a “good” tool would look like. What features would a ‘good’ tool have that make it easier to create good presentations.

Another good discussion point to bring up is what is a presentation? Is it just a PPT file you find on the Internet or is it someone speaking with a PPT file up on the screen? Can you judge the quality of a speaker\PPT presentation just by looking at the PPT file? And is it fair to judge the quality of PowerPoint as a presentation tool by just looking at PPT files that were designed to be delivered with a human talking over them?

And just for those that have flamed me over the Tufte post: this is not about him per se. I'm over the post removal thing now. I just want to understand WHY he and others think that PowerPoint is to blame for poor quality presentations.

New Position...And a Changed Old One

Things have been a little hectic for me as I have started a new job. I'm now a senior trainer and PM and MS Project consultant for Electronic Arts. I will be helping with their efforts to improve their use of project and resource management and also their use of PM tools like MS Project and Project Server.

I am still doing work for QuantumPM however. A great company with some of the most talented people I have ever met or had the pleasure to work with. If any of you EVER need a consulting company to work with for your Project Server deployment you could not do better than to contact QuantumPM (www.quantumpm.com) I’m still assisting QPM with support but now my main focus is squarely on EA.

So hopefully, now I can be a little less distracted and get back to posting a bit more. :-)

Invalid Node Name Error when Re-Activating an Inactive Resoruce in Pro

I have seen several people on the newsgroups get this but I never had anything to help them until today.

The problem was that you get the error below when you check out an Inactive resource from the Enterprise Pool and then try to Activate them (uncheck the Inactive box on the Resource Information dialog) inside of Project Professional.

Project Server was unable to process the request.

An invalid node name parameter was specified.

The workaround for this is to Activate the resource from inside the Modify User page within the Admin area of Project Web Access.

Microsoft is aware of the issue and I think it is only a matter of time that it finds itself into a hotfix or Service Pack down the road.