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Project Server 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh

Treb has some VERY Important info on Beta 2 TR.

Don’t get TOO excited. It is not available yet but what he has posted is the installation instructions you will need once it is released.

WooHoo! Three New Project Server Bloggers!

I talked to the other members of the team I am on within Microsoft Consulting Services and some of them have agreed to start blogging!

Meet Dr. Ed Hanna, Reid McTaggart and Kermit Llaurador

This is a great week for Project Blogging! These are three of the smartest guys I know and they will be sharing their thoughts with us. I'm very happy about this! :-)

Convince Reid to Blog!

My coworker\team mate Reid McTaggert just guest posted some great stuff over on the Evil Dr Porkchop (Treb Gatte’s blog). He posted how to use custom field formula to have a custom field automatically show which phase a project is in without using any VBA. Very cool!

Now we need to convince Reid to start his own blog!

Comment here or email me! The world needs more Project\Project Server bloggers and Reid would make a great addition!

I will add a blog on my account on TypePad for anyone that wants to blog about Project or Project Server!

Microsoft Project Blogging Tools Project…Wanna Help?

I have started a GotDotNet.com workspace for the creation of a set of tools to help Project users post changes in their projects to their blogs. If you would like to help check it out here.

Everyone with an interest in helping out is welcome to join. Tell your friends (provided your friends are the frightening combination of both developer geek and Microsoft Project geek!)

Blogging your Project: All Old Things Become New Again

Back in March of 2004 I talked here about how I saw blogs being used in the future by project managers. I wrote that I hoped that they could be used for quick status reports and information sharing with the team and the stakeholders. Before me there was even the very cool and sadly not still maintained “A Klog Apart”, post that was from 2002 that talked about the same thing.

Not only am I hearing more about this now I even saw a magazine article about it last week (though I cannot find the magazine).

Now it has even come up on a project I'm working on now. In it there are several project managers making changes to their specific schedule within a master schedule. They are looking at a process for having the PM that makes a change that impacts another PM communicate that change in some way so it was not a surprise to the impacted PM.

The idea was brought up that a simple blog could be used and subscribed to by those interested in what was happening with a specific project. The PM could create blog posts and note when certain tasks moved or dates were impacted and then list the tasks impacted. The PMs that subscribe would then be able to see this information. This was brought up as opposed to email because the project is already seeing large amounts of broadcast email that do not always pertain to everybody included in the broadcast. A Blog Post-RSS Reader scenario ensures that you are only getting the 'stuff' you are interested in.

I'm thinking now about how cool it would be if there was a Project addin that would allow a PM to select a task and generate a blog post that showed the task name, new dates and a list of its Successors. Hey! I think I just found my newest side project. All I have to do now is learn VB or C#. LOL

Any volunteers to help me on this one? It seems like we could leverage the Word 2007 Blogging feature. But it also seems like it is not too very hard to support the various blogging formats. Is there a blogging application developer out there that would like to build this as an addin for their tool? I would be happy to help with the Microsoft Project side of the code.

New Project Server 2007 Content…oh and I’m NOT Dead!

     

There is new Project Server 2007 content up and ready to be consumed!

First there is the Project Server TechNet Center where you can find a ton of new documents and guides about Project Server 2007. Everything from extranet deployment advise to installation guides to site planning guides to documentation on the new queuing system.

One interesting section on this page is one called "Scenarios and Solutions" where you can find a link to a page with Visio diagrams detailing several Project Server 2007 deployment scenarios. These layout scenarios for various types of deployments ranging from timesheet system to program and portfolio management scenarios. Very interesting stuff.

Lastly, just to dispel the rumors, I have not been trapped in a mine shaft or locked in a car trunk. Just busy and lacking the will to write. Hopefully I can snap out of it and get back into the habit. There are a ton of new things to touch upon with 2007 coming out and I'm hoping to start laying them out here shortly.