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145 posts from: Jack Dahlgren's Project Blog

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Shutting down automatic site creation in Project Server 2007 and 2010

(Indexed 2012-03-03):

There are a couple of times you want to turn off the automatic site provisioning in Project Server and it is pretty easy to do by going to Server Settings / Project Site Provisioning and turning selecting the Allow users to manually create project sites in Project Server option. This is a good option when you have a program or large project with a number of sub projects, or when you have a large number of small projects which don't require worksites. In a typical case you would have a PMO admin...(truncated)...

Top Ten Reasons to Install Microsoft Project 2010 Service Pack 1

(Indexed 2011-06-29):

The Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010 Service Pack 1 were released today. You can read about it here:announcing-the-release-of-service-pack-1-sp1-for-micros...(truncated)... entice you to read the article and get yourself up to date (after a reasonable testing period of course) I present my list of the top ten reasons to install SP1. Without out it you face these potential problems:Saving a file in the Project 2007 format can corrupt the file.Project is very slow to respond when you sych...(truncated)...

5 Good Reasons to use Earned Value and 5 Reasons not to

(Indexed 2011-06-29):

You are getting paid based on it - when your work is tied to a schedule of payments for a set of measureable work it is just a short step away to set up earned value, and it offers a great way of knowing if you are profitable and on schedule. You are getting paid to do it. This usually means that you are a professional and it shouldn't be too difficult for you. The organization values your efforts.You are cash constrained - while earned value does have schedule performance indexes and is intimat...(truncated)...

Setting Microsoft Project Level Custom fields using VBA

(Indexed 2011-04-29):

I was recently trying to set a number of different project level custom fields using VBA and got tired of finding and editing all the parameters so I wrote a small wrapper function that you may find useful:Private Function setPField(ByVal field As String, ByVal newValue As String, ByRef proj As Project)pfield = FieldNameToFieldConstant(field, pjProject)proj.ProjectSummaryTask.SetField FieldID:=pfield, value:=newValueEnd FunctionIt does two things. First it converts the field name into the field ...(truncated)...

Project Server 2010 Timeline Issue

(Indexed 2010-11-30):

Some people have found that only a certain number of tasks can be put into the timeline view. Fortunately Heather has posted a workaround"To fix this issue youll have to re-create your timeline view, to do this:1.Take a screenshot of your timeline view so you can remember how you had the tasks arranged. 2.Remove the timeline view from the current view by going to the View tab, Split View group, and un-checking timeline. 3.Go to File Organizer and delete Timeline from the right side (the box tha...(truncated)...

VBA returns in Excel 2011 for Mac

(Indexed 2010-11-18):

[Image]One of the things that I missed in the last version of Excel for the Apple Mac was that VBA was dropped. If you read this blog you will know how useful VBA can be for automating a bunch of different things. So when I loaded up Excel 2011 the first thing I did was test out the VBA. Yep, it works.The rest of the application looks like it got polished up as well and at first glance seems easier to work with than 2008. It doesn't make my fan turn on immediately either, so I'm much happier usi...(truncated)...

Project Server and Report Builder 3 Null Value Error

(Indexed 2010-11-06):

I've been building a few Project Server 2010 reports with Report Builder 3.0 lately and have had to deal with missing values in iif statements.Unfortunately you can't test for the missing data in the iif statement as it evaluates all the expressions first so you need to test for missing values earlier. The easiest way to do this I've found is to use code in the Report definition. Right-clicking on the body of the report (not the table or chart) brings up the report properties.Clicking on the Cod...(truncated)...

Trouble with Assignment Units in Project 2010?

(Indexed 2010-11-03):

Behavior of how assignments units are computed has changed significantly between Microsoft Project 2010 and earlier versions. I've been seeing this question in forums recently and think that this post by Heather O'Cull: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/project/archive/2010/04/29/assignmen...(truncated)... explains it better than anything else I've seen or could write. Long time users of Project should definitely read it to make sure they are aware of the new behavior.

The Best Project Server 2010 Book

(Indexed 2010-08-06):

I've worked on a few books about Microsoft Project in the past and know how difficult it can be to get all of the information into a concise form. Gary Chefetz and Dale Howard have made an art of it with their series of books on Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server. Yesterday I finally got a copy of their latest:Implementing and Administering Microsoft Project Server 2010 for Project ManagersIt follows in the same tradition of their previous books giving complete commentary about the n...(truncated)...

I know I know

(Indexed 2010-05-26):

There is something seductive about knowledge, and one's reaction to it can border on addiction - or perhaps there is no such border. This was illustrated by my trip last weekend to the San Mateo Maker Faire where the subtext of each exhibit is "how?". How do I make a robot, how do I knit, how do I shoot flames out of a 40 foot steel sculpture? Certainly some people go to the fair for the spectacle or the society or to pay $7 for a hot dog, but I believe most are driven by that fundamental questi...(truncated)...

Taking and Passing the PMP Exam Part 16 How I passed the PMP Exam

(Indexed 2010-03-12):

I'm getting a bit out of order here because I just passed the exam without finishing my series on how to pass, but I'd like to jot down a few impressions of the exam while it is fresh in my mind.First. You can pass (or fail) a large number of questions by knowing (or not knowing) the positive from negative in Earned Value calculations. SV = EV - PV, CV = EV - AC, SPI = EV/PV, CPI = EV/AC so for variances a negative number is BAD and for indexes a number less than 1 is also BAD. We all know that...(truncated)...

Project 2010 to be released May 12, 2010

(Indexed 2010-03-11):

Latest news is that Office 2010 (and Project, Visio and Sharepoint 2010) are on track to release to manufacturing next month. Unless something unexpected happens, they are supposed to be released to businesses on May 12, 2010. Regular users who don't have enterprise agreements will have to wait until June for the software.I'd expect that they would be on MSDN at the May 12 date as well if history is any guide.To keep sales from completely stalling while people wait for the next version, Microsof...(truncated)...

Rebuilding the Project Management Web

(Indexed 2010-03-02):

I started this blog five years and a million visitors ago. In that time a lot has changed. Blogs have come and gone. Twitter was invented. Communities have died and new ones have been born. So with the 5 year anniversary coming up in April I thought it would be good to explore and remap the landscape. I'm approaching this in a random fashion. I'll review a site, then ask the owner which site they like best, and continue until I reach a barrier or run out of energy. I'll also inject a few of my f...(truncated)...

PM Web #001 - Glen B. Alleman's Herding Cats

(Indexed 2010-03-02):

Introduction:First in a series of reviews of Project Management web resources. For the full list click here "Herding Cats"Herding Cats is Glen Alleman's blog about Project Management. The sub-title "Ideas, Comments, and Resources about Project Management from field experiences" fits pretty well. Glen focuses heavily on the experiential side of things and likes to write about what is proven to work in his years of experience - primarily in large and expensive projects. There are a few common the...(truncated)...

New Fields in Microsoft Project 2010

(Indexed 2010-02-02):

To accomodate the new features in Project 2010 there have been some new fields introduced. Here they are with some idea of what they are used for:

Project 2010 Tips and Tricks Webcast

(Indexed 2010-01-30):

In case you missed the live event, here is the link to the webcast I did earlier this month:http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/epm.aspx?tab=We...(truncated)... covers how you can best use some of the new functionality in Project 2010 including the new interface, the team planner view, the timeline view and using active tasks to do scenario-based planning. Active tasks fill a big hole in Project and allow you to do what-if analysis in a quick and intuitive way.Go take a look!

Microsoft Project 2010 Tips and Tricks Webcast

(Indexed 2010-01-10):

I'm doing a free webcast on some of the new ways to work with MS Project 2010 on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 8:00 AM Pacific Time. You can register in advance at this link:http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.a...(truncated)... post the slides after the presentation.

Books to Consider – Decision Making

(Indexed 2010-01-08):

I'm in the business of improving project management. That generally means there needs to be change in an organization. One of the most difficult things is getting people to decide to change. This book helps: Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions Gary Klein This book covers the topic of what Klein calls Naturalistic Decision Making which is defined as making decisions in a natural setting one with which departs from the ideal by being under time pressure, with high stakes, inadequate in...(truncated)...

PMP Certification Exam Experience Requirements Spreadsheet

(Indexed 2010-01-06):

One of the most tedious parts of applying for the PMP exam is filling out the application. It requests a bunch of information about each project you have worked on. The worst part is that it presents it one screen at a time, so it is difficult to figure out how many hours you have entered in what domain. On top of that, you may find yourself stuck in it trying to dig up a phone number or address for the contact person and finding your session timing out.To help with this I've put together a spre...(truncated)...

Missing the bus...

(Indexed 2009-12-18):

I see that the Project Management 3.0 bus has already left. Project Shrink - "the real challenge will be a social one"Ed Lawler - writing about "Management" but same ideaShim Marom - a bit tongue in cheek...Craig Brown - talks briefly about leadership in a 3.0 world.But don't worry, I'll come up with something which is mine alone! Look for it the day the sun returns to work.

Death and Rebirth

(Indexed 2009-12-18):

Look how long this blog has been dormant! With the Winter solstice approaching I am reminded that darkness can again turn to light so I'm making an early New Year's resolution to post weekly once again. This is the first of those posts.I've been digesting a lot of claims and ideas about the future. Things like cloud computing and Project Management 2.0 come to mind. One of those is a technology, a capability which may allow new practices. The other is a bit more foggy with a shifting definition....(truncated)...

Virtual Machines and Project 2010

(Indexed 2009-08-14):

It should come as no surprise that the hardware requirements of the Office 2010 suite continue to expand. The relationship between ever-increasing hardware capabilities and software which takes advantage of those capabilities is as inseparable as that between the chicken and the egg, One way to attack the problem is pretty simple, make a thin client and put all the computing burden on the server. This is the approach that netbooks take. They have enough power to do basic tasks and rely on web-ba...(truncated)...

Iterating through Microsoft Project Subprojects

(Indexed 2009-07-30):

Master Projects in Microsoft Project don't always behave the way you expect, especially if you are trying to iterate through all the tasks in them. The reason is that the file doesn't really contain the subprojects, it merely acts as a shell to display them. So if you are writing some code which has to work on a master project you need to take this into account.The simplest explanation is an example. The code below will start with a master project, then find the list of subprojects, open each on...(truncated)...

Project 2010 is coming...

(Indexed 2009-07-18):

Or at least the build-up is beginning. The latest post by Keshav Puttaswamy on the Microsoft Project Team blog gives out a few details. I'll repost them here and give my attempt at translation.What is Project 2010?Project 2010 builds on the Project 2007 foundation to provide an end-to-end work management platform. The key investment areas are targeted at letting you choose the right tools that can evolve with you:Enhance user experience and appeal Fluent user interface User controlled scheduling...(truncated)...

Taking and Passing the PMP Exam - Part 15 - PMBOK version 4

(Indexed 2009-06-18):

Long time readers may recall how I despise adore PMP certification, but I'm still going through the process. And there is a new twist, PMBOK Version 4 has been released. If you have not taken the PMP exam by now, chances are you will be tested on the latest version. So a discussion of what has changed is in order.The place to start with anything is understanding what was the intent. This can conveniently be found in the project charter. And the PMBOK v4 tells us what they were after:Remove confl...(truncated)...

Seeing Other Scheduling Software

(Indexed 2009-05-20):

Project, this is hard to say because, you know, we've been together for so long. I mean, I was there when you graduated from High School back in '98 and started getting "fully featured" with some of the stuff that other tools had. With your interoperability and automation you won me away from them. And baby, your looks haven't changed at all since then. You should have no problem attracting other customers, especially with that surgery on your menus that is planned for next year.But this summer,...(truncated)...

Project Server 2010 Technical Requirements

(Indexed 2009-05-13):

The key points: 64-bit only running on 64-bit Windows Server 2008 or 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2 with a 64-bit SQL Server 2008 or 64-bit SQL Server 2005 to hold the databases.IE 7 or IE8 as the browser - IE6 is being dropped in July 2010.(Update: Just noted that IE ONLY is supported by Project Server 2010. Sharepoint Server will be supporting "other" browsers (Firefox and Safari) but it does not appear that cross-browser support will be in Project. See Christophe Fiessinger's Blog )As most peo...(truncated)...

Project 2010 and Project 2007 Service Pack 2 Release Dates

(Indexed 2009-04-18):

The latest news is that the next version of Microsoft Office Project will be with Office 2010 which will be released, quite coincidentally, in the first half of 2010. According to Microsoft's Chris Capossela: Were announcing that Microsoft will begin releasing new versions of Office-related products this year. Exchange 2010 will be the first product in this lineup, entering beta for customers to download today. Exchange 2010 will become available in the second half of 2009. Office 2010 includin...(truncated)...

Migrating Projects from Project Server 2003 to Project Server 2007

(Indexed 2009-04-09):

Migrating from previous versions of Project to newer ones has always been difficult. The change from Project Server 2003 to Project Server 2007 is probably the most difficult so far, and until now you have been on your own figuring it out. A lot of sleepless nights have been acrued.But if you have not migrated yet (and you will have to fairly soon as support for Project Server 2003 fades away) you are fortunate to have a new guide to help you through it. Microsoft has enlisted Quantum PM to put ...(truncated)...

Date Math - DateAdd, ProjDateAdd in Microsoft Project

(Indexed 2009-01-30):

I just ran into someone having trouble making a custom formula in Microsoft Project. They were adding a duration to a date by using a + sign. For example:[Finish1]+[Duration1]The result they got was years in the future and was unexpected. The reason for this is that Duration is stored in minutes. The duration of an 8 hour day is 480. Dates, like Finish1, are stored as a serial number which is counting from 1/1/1900, making today 39842. When you add those two numbers together, each minute is trea...(truncated)...

Project Management Office and the Monorail

(Indexed 2009-01-24):

[Image]With the current economic situation examples of government public works projects such as the WPA (Works Progress Administration) are in the air and it got me thinking about what the biggest benefits of such projects are. It seems to me that the most lasting impact is on public infrastructure, things like dams and roads that enable everyone to progress, but which would not be possible unless some central organization provided them.I think the same thing is true of PMO's. The biggest value ...(truncated)...

Project Server OLAP Views Errors

(Indexed 2008-11-26):

Just a warning about special characters. Don't use them if you want your Project Server Analysis views to work correctly:Avoid all of these:Data source : / * | ? " () [] {} Level . , ; ' ` : / * | ? " & % $ ! - + = [] {} Dimension , ; ' ` : / * | ? " & % $ ! - + = () [] {} All other objects . , ; ' ` : / * | ? " & % $ ! - + = () [] {}

Microsoft Project Undo Levels and Macros

(Indexed 2008-07-19):

One of the new features of Project 2007 is that it allows more than one level of Undo. This is of great comfort to those of us who have made more than one error while working on a file. It also has a benefit for those who automate microsoft project with VBA or VSTO as typically there are many things done during the execution of a macro. In Project 2003 this often meant that macros were irreversible unless you somehow built your own log of the changes and then went back through it to restore thin...(truncated)...

Microsoft Project Server Infrastructure Update

(Indexed 2008-07-16):

The long awaited fixes to Project Server 2007 and Project Professional 2007 have been released today (July 15, 2008). Microsoft is calling it an infrastructure update rather than a service pack. I suppose this is because it covers a things like sharepoint and other office server infrastructure rather than a specific application.What ever it is called, Project Server and Project Professional users will find a lot to be happy about. Among the fixes for Project Server are:Timesheets and My Tasks st...(truncated)...

The Cashmere Bikini

(Indexed 2008-06-25):

There once was a King who asked his two tailors for the finest materials in the land... Oh forget it...Recently a couple of EPM research reports have crossed my inbox. The first is Gartner's Magic Quadrant for IT Project and Portfolio Management and the second, The Changing Face of Project Management based on research done by Loudhouse Research and promoted by CA. Both of these reports rubbed me the wrong way as they seem to be missing the obvious and recommending that the "best" choice is the m...(truncated)...

Long Now Orrery

(Indexed 2008-06-18):

[Image]Everybody leaves off Pluto. This eight foot tall model of the solar system is part of the Long Now project which started around the idea that people think and act in timeframes which are very short. This orrery and a clock are designed around a 10,000 year life span in order to start people thinking about the long term.However the object itself I find to be a bit of a tech fetish item, a modern worship of metallurgy and craftsmanship that bears a definite 2nd Millenium stamp.Details about...(truncated)...

VBA and Visual Basic For ... to ... statements

(Indexed 2008-06-17):

Most of the Microsoft Project or Excel macros I write include looping through a collection of tasks or resources or assignments and use the a For Each ... Next loop, but that doesn't mean we should neglect the For ... to ...Next statement.This statement uses a counter which you set to determine how many times it runs. The syntax is as follows: For counter = start To end [Step step][statements][Exit For][statements]Next [counter]counter is the number of times that the loop will run. It is a requi...(truncated)...

VBA to VSTO Tutorial Part Two - Adding a Command Bar and Buttons

(Indexed 2008-06-13):

In my previous tutorial on using VSTO to create a Microsoft Project Add-in, I covered what is necessary to create an Add-in which displays a simple form but most of the time we don't want the form to show up every time. A better way to do this is to add a tool bar (aka: CommmandBar) and some buttons / icons (aka: CommandBarButtons). This way if your add-in is installed it can have its own toolbar which users can click if they want to perform some action or display a form. Project 2003 and Proje...(truncated)...

Speaking in Gibberish and Writing Constantly

(Indexed 2008-06-10):

This article in Scientic American hints at some potential health-related impacts of blogging (all positive by the way). According to the article:expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery.Now, I'm not certain how "expressive" an article about VBA and VSTO can be... so it may not be helping me much at all, but it may help YOU to...(truncated)...

Project Management Immaturity Model

(Indexed 2008-05-30):

I usually save the humor until Friday, but Crispin (Kik) Piney sent me a copy of his Project Management Immaturity Model which lists the maturity levels that other models such as CMMI and OPM3 leave out. Read it and learn how the familiar 5 levels:5: optimising 4: managed 3: defined 2: repeatable 1: initial are extended into a full nine levels with the addition of:0: incompetent -1: obstructive -2: antagonistic -3: psychoticDownload the Project Management Immaturity Model PDF

Making the move from VBA to VSTO in Microsoft Project

(Indexed 2008-05-30):

One of the most useful features of Microsoft Project is the ability to automate actions with it. Primarily this is done by writing VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) code, or by just recording a macro and then editing the VBA code that the macro recorder produces. But a few years back Microsoft came out with VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office) which allow you to more easily write code to automate office applications within Visual Studio which is their main line programming environment.For a l...(truncated)...

Office VBA for Mac After 2008

(Indexed 2008-05-14):

For those who work on Apple Macs there was some good news today. Microsoft announced that it is bringing back VBA support for the Macintosh version of Office. Support will be coming in the versions after 2008. Here is the text of the announcement:VBA Returns to Future Versions of Office for MacThe Mac BU also announced it is bringing VBA-language support back to the next version of Office for Mac. Sharing information with customers as early as possible continues to be a priority for the Mac BU t...(truncated)...

Analyze Microsoft Project Resource Usage Data In Excel

(Indexed 2008-04-02):

The "Analyze Timescaled Data In Excel" add-in which ships with Microsoft Project has a couple of limitations, the first is that it is not easy to find, and the second is that it is task-based only, so if you want to export resource data you are out of luck. In this post I'll show how to write your own code to export resource timescaled data and use what you have learned to export almost any sort of timescaled data you can think of.What is Timescaled Data?Project is different from other applicati...(truncated)...

Download Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

(Indexed 2007-12-12):

Microsoft has released Service Pack 1 for the Microsoft Office 2007 Suite.Download it here:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyI...(truncated)... fixes cover a bunch of different applications and platforms, so it will take some consideration in rolling it out.Good luck!

Microsoft Project Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Release Date

(Indexed 2007-12-09):

How the tables have turned. At the Seattle Project Conference, Microsoft hemmed and hawed about the release of Service Pack 1 mumbling about March and April. At the Madrid Project Conference word is that they came out and stated it will be December 11... this year. One can only hope that this was hastened by the questions posed at the Seattle conference, but in any case it is good news for those who are suffering. The snarky among us would say, "Install immediately, it CAN'T be any worse!" but I...(truncated)...

Microsoft Project VBA - the Instr function

(Indexed 2007-12-09):

The Instr function is used to find out if one set of characters (string) is contained in another. It can be used in VBA macros (in Word, Excel, Project etc.) and also in Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server Custom Field Formulas. In Project this can be used to find out if a task name contains some special coding. For example perhaps you have used a special naming convention to separate time tracking tasks from other tasks and you need to roll them up separately. By using Instr you don'...(truncated)...

Project Server 2007 Service Pack 1

(Indexed 2007-11-09):

So... the good news is when pushed for an answer in front of his boss, Mike Angiulo finally gave a date for the long awaited release of Microsoft Office Project Server 2007. The bad news is that the date is in March or April of 2008, more than a year after the release of Project Server.Details and a critical (but I'm hearing accurate...) write up of the announcement and the Project Conference can be found hereI hope that Mr. Angiulo will exceed expectations and deliver early. It would be a celeb...(truncated)...

Views and Tables in Microsoft Project

(Indexed 2007-08-30):

There is often some confusion about the difference between a view and a table in Microsoft Project. This should help clarify the difference between the two.A view consists of a number of potential elements: A screen (the right side typically, but may include splits. Also includes any special formatting for that screen such as modified barstyles etc.)A table (the data displayed on the right sideA group (optional)A filter (typically "All tasks" but may be anything you want)Different views may acce...(truncated)...

OpenProj First Look

(Indexed 2007-08-07):

[Image]Projity is introducing a new free MS Project compatible scheduling program which they bill as "a complete open source desktop replacement of Microsoft Project". I have tried the beta briefly (https://www.projity.com/openproj/) and I like what I see. While it looks very much like a clone of MS Project, it strips down some of the complexity from the interface and makes some common tasks easier (viewing a stacked resource graph for example). It opened my MS existing MS Project 2003 .xml file...(truncated)...

Project Professional 2007 File Lockout bug

(Indexed 2007-07-27):

Just a friendly warning that using the red X in the upper right corner to close a project professional plan which is on Project Server may lock you out of the project altogether. This bug was present in Project Professional 2003 but was fixed in a service release. Looks like it is back with this version. For now, be sure to use "File / Close" to close a project.I usually don't post much about bugs, but since this one can be avoided it is worth noting.

All your models are belong to us

(Indexed 2007-07-26):

I was writing a note to someone about the use of PERT and Monte Carlo simulation in Microsoft Project and it made me think about how willing people are to accept simple models. As Box and Draper said "All models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful*" (frequently paraphrased as "All models are wrong. Some models are useful"). The margin of error in almost any schedule is going to be in the range of several percent. Building a probabilistic model of th...(truncated)...

Microsoft Project 2003 and 2007 Cross Version Compatibility

(Indexed 2007-07-03):

There are many questions about which versions of Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project server are compatible. Here are the general rules:Project 2000 connects to Project CentralProject 2002 connects to Project Server 2002Project Professional 2003 connects to Project Server 2003 and Project Server 2002Project Professional 2007 connects to Project Server 2007No other connections are possible.Project 2007 was redesigned in a number of ways to make it more efficient and improve performance. These ...(truncated)...

Top Ten Mistakes Made by a New PMO Manager

(Indexed 2007-06-02):

It being Friday, it seems a good time to add to the store of project management humor. The following is from William Duncan:Top Ten Mistakes Made by a New PMO Manager (with tongue mostly incheek):10. Selling his/her house to be closer to the new job.9. Buying stock in her/his new employer's company to demonstratecommitment.8. Failing to understand that PMO stands for "Project Managers areOpposed."7. Believing what was said about senior management commitment duringthe interview process.6. Be...(truncated)...

Travels in the Western Region - Bad Day at Biomat

(Indexed 2007-05-12):

Part I, In Which We Introduce the Main Characters and Serve Them With a Crushing Defeat.Blaze Novacaine took a long draw on his cup of chai and stared off into the distance. He blew a cloud of hot steam into the cold morning air. "Can it do it?" he asked. "Hell if I know" said Jeff Plank as he poked at the coals of last night's campfire trying to rekindle them, "but there is only one way to find out". Blaze glanced at Jeff out of the corner of his eye. The twinkle in his eye hiding the trepida...(truncated)...

On the Other Side of the Mountain

(Indexed 2007-03-17):

The MVP summit is over. The past two days were spent in Room 2668 with the Project developer team. At this stage in the development cycle spirits are high and there are a number of good ideas floating around. Most importantly, the team seems to be reaching out to really try to understand their (current and future) user base. This is a marked change from what happened in Project 2007 where large portions of the design were already predetermined and the team charged straight ahead ignoring any and...(truncated)...

The Lifeless Project Life Cycle

(Indexed 2007-03-15):

"Project Life Cycle" is a misnomer as far as I am concerned, but digging around the origins of that term brings up some interesting ideas. Why is it that "Life Cycle" was chosen? There are plenty of other things which are cyclical which do not bear the first name of "Life". Motorcycles, Bicycles, Kreb cycle, Stirling Cycle, Ring Cycle ... you can keep rolling on from here endlessly. But Project Life Cycle is different from other cycles. It insists on LIFE. What is LIFE? Stripping out the concept...(truncated)...

This is the way that they worship their god

(Indexed 2007-03-15):

[Image]Stand before him and clothe thy body in red. Offer unto him thy technology, screens great and small glowing with the holy light. Polish thine head until it reflects verily like the convex back end of a stainless steel milk truck. And when thou has done so, chant the incantations at a sharepoint service. Invoke replication across a broad server farm. SELECT * from Authors. Tie the unholy scripture in broad ribbons woven with HIS icons. And when he has left the stage, endure penance as the ...(truncated)...

Cramming for the Microsoft Project 2007 Certification Exam

(Indexed 2007-03-14):

I mentioned that last week I was up in Seattle. I was there working on one of the new Microsoft Project certification examinations. It was an interesting experience with a great group of people, but it was grueling. Every potential question was scrutinized by a panel of obsessive experts at a number of levels. I don't think more than a handful escaped without some change of formatting or wording and almost 20 percent needed heavy reconstruction... which I got to do at days end... Glad it is over...(truncated)...

Eight Miles High - Microsoft MVP Summit

(Indexed 2007-03-13):

On my way up to Microsoft for the second week in a row. This week should be a bit less grueling if not less fattening.It is the time for the almost annual Microsoft MVP summit. This means a few days of executive briefings, meetings with the project groups and breakfast, snacks, lunch, snacks and dinners and snacks. This year Bill Gates will be delivering the key note. The past two were Ballmer with his bombastic Blah bla bla blaaah blaaah blah! so it will be a nice change. And what I hear is tha...(truncated)...

Project Management Consulting at Pcubed

(Indexed 2007-03-02):

I've started working at Pcubed in their San Francisco office. You can now officially put me in the category of Project Management Consultant. With almost a whole two weeks under my belt I'm noticing a few differences between being an internal or "captive" consultant in a staff position and being an external consultant. Very briefly they are:Introductions are more frequent and elaborate.You are surrounded by people who understand the same things you do.The client businesses are diverse, their pro...(truncated)...

Microsoft Project 2007 Bugs - Project Server too...

(Indexed 2007-02-17):

So far there are a few bugs popping up in Project 2007 and Project Server 2007. Most are not showstoppers and wouldn't keep me from using it. If you run across one, Microsoft has set up a site for reporting bugs and issues. Just log in here:https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=235and log your bug. The prize is that if there are enough of them filed we get a service pack sooner than later :-).

Microsoft Project 2007 Import Problems

(Indexed 2007-02-07):

There are a couple of problems importing data into Microsoft Project 2007. The first one is that importing an Excel 2007 file (in the new .xlsx format) does not work. The import appears to get hung up on some of the header information and from there you are stuck. The work-around for this is simple. Save from Excel into Excel 2000-2003 format and open that file in Project.The second relates to importing .MPX files from other applications. At least a couple versions back, Microsoft started walkin...(truncated)...

VBA Writing to a text file (MS Project, Excel)

(Indexed 2007-02-06):

One common question is how do I write from an office app like Excel or Project to a text file. I have the code embedded in a few samples here, but this short sample shows it most clearly. There are just a couple of steps. Use FreeFile to create a file. Open the file for Output, then write or print into it. Finally close the file. Here is the commented code to do this:Sub WriteToATextFile'first set a string which contains the path to the file you want to create.'this example creates one and store...(truncated)...

Taking the PMP Exam - Appendix B - Contract Types

(Indexed 2007-02-06):

Understanding the type of contract you are working under or to use on your project is one of the more important elements of Project Management. After all, the contract sets the scope and compensation and what could be more essential than that? However, different circumstances require different types of contracts. The different types of contracts allow more or less flexibility, and allocate different amounts of risk to the contractor and owner. There is usually a cost associated with assuming ris...(truncated)...

MS Project VBA - Trim Function

(Indexed 2007-02-03):

Solving a recent custom field formula problem required reaching into the toolbox and pulling out the trim() string function. Trim is one of the simplest string functions. It does one thing and does it well. It just strips any leading or trailing spaces from a text string. So if you have a string like this:myString = " There is space in front and in back "you can use:trim(mystring)to return "There is space in front and in back"The problem was that converting a Microsoft Project Unique ID to a...(truncated)...

Principles vs. Rules

(Indexed 2007-01-29):

On the Critical Chain Project Management group I was suspected of being unprincipled because I made some disparaging remarks about rules (My view is that operating based on rules is less effective than operating on principles. Project Management is not one-size fits all.).It prompted me to clear up some of the definitional issues. So first a few definitions I'm sympathetic with. First Rule:A prescribed guide for conduct or actionAn authoritative statement of what may or may not be done.Dominion:...(truncated)...

Microsoft Project 2007 Released

(Indexed 2007-01-20):

First thing this week the Microsoft Office Project 2007 was released, and already Dale Howard and Gary Chefetz at ProjectServer Experts have a book out. I'll post a review as soon as I get my hands on a copy, but if it is as good as their other books it is going to be worth reading. Amazon has it available to order, but it does not appear to be shipping yet. Congratulations Dale and Gary!

Using a ComboBox in a Microsoft Project Userform

(Indexed 2007-01-20):

I got a question from someone who wanted to create a userform which would set some values in project. It was to be populated by some preset values. So here are the basics:The first thing to do is to create a form. Going to the Visual Basic editor, you would choose "Insert / UserForm". This creates a blank userform and should display the toolbox.[Image]Drag a combo box from the toolbox onto the form. It will be called "ComboBox1" if it is the first one. You can rename it using properties (and you...(truncated)...

Back from the dead

(Indexed 2007-01-19):

Bill Raymond of PCubed has gotten back in the saddle with a new site after letting his old blog go dormant (search this site for "Everyone Loves Raymond" for a link to it) and it is good to see him back. Bill starts out with a video covering some of the features of Project 2007. I have a few articles about the new Project 2007 features here, but never dreamed of video.Great to see you writing again Bill!

The best Project Management article I've read this year

(Indexed 2007-01-12):

Yes, so the year is still young, but if you don't take some time and read Hal Macomber's article on the pain of adopting new ideas you are missing something. It may not apply directly to that you are doing, but the beginning of the year is a good time to take stock of what you have been doing and whether it really needs some change. Start planting the seeds now for change to occur over the year.

Podcasts for Project Managers

(Indexed 2007-01-12):

Hmmm... podcasting? I thought you don't listen to podcasts? Well, today I did. I started with one from Cornelius Fichtner (www.thepmpodcast.com) and also one from Dina Henry Scott (controllingchaos.com). I'm not sure why, but they make me want to put on one of my own. Perhaps I'll give it a try when I find something to say...Until then, you can check out those two and see if they float your boat. My one comment to both Cornelius and Dina is that they are a bit long. Time is always of the essence...(truncated)...

Theory of Constraints and Wholesale Adoption

(Indexed 2007-01-11):

I'm listening to a podcast (from www.thepmpodcast.com) about Critical Chain Project management and hear from Allen Elder the familiar contention that when implementing Critical Chain in an organization "Pilots don't work". The reason given is that people are judged on a different system. I've heard this from almost every critical chain consultant that I know of, but I don't believe it. The contention is that people being "graded" on a different scale can't exist in the same organization. Of cour...(truncated)...

Taking the PMP Exam - Part 14 - The Examination Specification

(Indexed 2007-01-09):

OK it is up on the PMI reading list site now, so no need to purchase it anymore, and purchasing it would be a mistake as it is of little use once you pass the exam. It is also surprisingly thin. So what do you get from it? A couple interesting things. The first is that it gives the reasoning behind switching from the "old" PMP test to the "new" one. The new exam is a direct response to PMI's attempt to align with some commonly accepted practices for testing and certification. They cite ISO 17024...(truncated)...

Taking the PMP Exam - Part 13 - How the PMP Exam is constructed

(Indexed 2006-12-21):

Like any project, the PMP examination required that some sort of scope be set. The document which set the scope for the project is the Project Management Profession Examination Specification. I covered this in Part 12 if you need the full reference or want to know how to obtain it. In most cases the thing which is being produced has at least a passable resemblence to what was specified. In this case, one which is supposed to be exemplary of project management, it is reasonable to expect that the...(truncated)...

Glen's Book List

(Indexed 2006-12-20):

In the small world of Project Management Bloggers, the thing which most passes for a year-end tradition is Glen Alleman's book list. You can find it here:Books of 2006It is definitely worth taking a look at. My reading is a bit more eclectic. If I get around to it I'll post a few things, but don't wait up.

Taking the PMP Exam - Part 12 - The PMP Examination Specification

(Indexed 2006-12-20):

No sooner do I mention that the references available on PMI's eReads and Reference section are dated than they publish a notice stating they will be removed and replaced with two references. The first is the ALL IMPORTANT PMP Examination Specification. According to a helpful comment from Oliver Lehmann, a PMP Trainer in Germany, this new book lays out the bones of the PMP Examination much better than I have been doing. This makes sense since it is the blueprint for the new exam. I will dig into...(truncated)...

Taking the PMP Exam - Part 11 - PMO's Programs and Portfolios

(Indexed 2006-12-19):

I think that passing the PMP exam requires attention towards the context that the PMI believes Project Managers exist in. That context is a hierarchy of strategic plans (at the top), portfolios of programs or projects, projects and subprojects. Other than the clear break between strategy and project, one can imagine that the stones at the top of the pyramid are the same as the stones at the bottom, but since PMI takes the time to call them separate and different you had better know why. Let's st...(truncated)...

Taking the PMP Exam - Appendix A -Exam Guides

(Indexed 2006-12-13):

I've mentioned that I'm planning on taking the PMP exam by reading nothing but the PMBOK, but there are a number of exam guides and prep course books out there so I'm going to list them here for the use of anyone who thinks they need them. One thing to be very careful about is to get a version which targets the current exam. It should state that it is for the PMBOK Guide 3rd. Edition. With that out of the way, here are the books I've glanced through and some background on them.PMP Exam Prep, Fif...(truncated)...

How to Change Cell Background color in MS Project

(Indexed 2006-12-12):

Changing the background color for a task cell in Microsoft Project is now a two-step process:Step 1 - Upgrade to Microsoft Project 2007 - you just can not do this in Project 2003 or earlier.Step 2 - Rightclick on the cell, choose "font" and set background color and pattern.Sadly there are still only 16 colors to choose from, but they are getting there.

Taking the PMP Exam - Part 9 - Areas of Expertise

(Indexed 2006-12-12):

The PMBOK claims that effective project management requires drawing upon 5 areas of expertise.:The Project Management Body of KnowledgeKnowledge of the application area, standards and regulationsUnderstanding the project environmentGeneral management knowledge and skillsInterpersonal skillsThese are not intended to be discrete - they overlap substantially. In fact I think they overlap to the point where there are really only three... but that is just my opinion. In an act of grace and kindness t...(truncated)...

Taking the PMP Exam - Part 8 - What is Project Management

(Indexed 2006-12-10):

Time to suspend disbelief again or more correctly prepare your mind for acceptance of the gospel...What is Project Management? The PMBOK tells us that the goal is to meet project requirements through the execution of project activities and project management is applying knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to those activities. I'd argue that the there is a component which is not strictly related to "activities" but let's discard that idea for now.. With this definition in place what is import...(truncated)...

Taking the PMP Exam - Part 7 - PMBOK Introduction and What is a Project

(Indexed 2006-12-10):

We finished the Preface and now it is on to the introduction. Usually this sort of stuff is unimportant, but remember, we are reading the PMBOK for clues on how to pass the PMP exam. Understanding the Project Management "Bible" will help give the necessary context for study, notes and answering exam questions. As with any test, you have to understand the test from the point of view of the test giver. THe better you understand their ideals and how they think, the easier it will be to recognize wh...(truncated)...

Taking the PMP Exam - Part 6 - Downloading the PMBOK

(Indexed 2006-12-10):

Switching to a Windows-based computer cleared up my edit problem. Now let's start from the start. It is my hypothesis that you can pass the PMP exam with only experience and a careful reading of the Guide to the PMBOK. So, throwing experience out of the window for a moment, let's take a look at the Guide to the PMBOK. I'll be going through it chapter by chapter and hopefully compiling study guides along the way, but knowing what the PMBOK is and what it isn't is a good first step.The current ver...(truncated)...

Taking the PMP Exam Naked - Part 8 - What is Project Management

(Indexed 2006-12-08):

Time to suspend disbelief again or more correctly prepare your mind for acceptance of the gospel...What is Project Management? The PMBOK tells us that the goal is to meet project requirements through the execution of project activities and project management is applying knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to those activities. I'd argue that the there is a component which is not strictly related to "activities" but let's discard that idea for now.. With this definition in place what is import...(truncated)...

Taking the PMP Exam Naked - Part 7 - PMBOK Introduction and What is a Project

(Indexed 2006-12-08):

We finished the Preface and now it is on to the introduction. Usually this sort of stuff is unimportant, but remember, we are reading the PMBOK for clues on how to pass the PMP exam. Understanding the Project Management "Bible" will help give the necessary context for study, notes and answering exam questions. As with any test, you have to understand the test from the point of view of the test giver. THe better you understand their ideals and how they think, the easier it will be to recognize wh...(truncated)...

Taking the PMP Exam Naked - Part 6 - Downloading the PMBOK

(Indexed 2006-12-02):

Switching to a Windows-based computer cleared up my edit problem. Now let's start from the start. It is my hypothesis that you can pass the PMP exam with only experience and a careful reading of the Guide to the PMBOK. So, throwing experience out of the window for a moment, let's take a look at the Guide to the PMBOK. I'll be going through it chapter by chapter and hopefully compiling study guides along the way, but knowing what the PMBOK is and what it isn't is a good first step.The current ver...(truncated)...

MS Project 2007 - Changing Working Time

(Indexed 2006-12-01):

For the past few versions of Microsoft Project (Project 2000, Project 2002, Project 2003) the changes to the desktop application have been fairly minor. But Project 2007 shows that some attention is again being paid to the desktop user. One of the more subtle changes that has been made is to add more functionality to the "Change Working Time" feature. This is the way that a user sets and modifies calendars. Go to the tools menu, select "change working time" and the new dialog looks like this:[Im...(truncated)...

Microsoft Project Tips: Hiding Resource Percentages

(Indexed 2006-11-29):

Once in a while the resource percentage showing on the task bar becomes too much. If you are wondering what I mean, take a look at this screen shot:[Image]See how each resource has the percentage shown after it? That happens whenever the resource is not assigned at exactly 100% to the task. When you update your schedule with actual work it is very likely that the resource will not longer be at a perfect 100%. The simple answer is to change the barstyle so that the text shown is the Resource Init...(truncated)...

Taking the PMP Exam Naked - Part 4 - Customer Satisfaction

(Indexed 2006-11-28):

No word yet from PMI on fixing my login/connection problems, but then there was a long weekend...To entertain you all in the meantime I have a random search that brought someone here. It is perhaps my bad habit to let my imagination run loose on search results (check here for what I pulled out of a series of search results from an AOL user).In this case someone, somewhere (in Virginia) was searching hard from their PDA to get background on the phrase: 'pmp project manager useless hated'.I'll lea...(truncated)...

MS Project 2007 Change Highlighting and the Interim Plan

(Indexed 2006-11-18):

Microsoft Project 2007 has a new feature called "Change Highlighting". It shows how a change to one task affects others which have dependencies on it. For example, the screenshot below shows how changing Task A from one day to two days affects the start and finish dates for all the other tasks:[Image]The blue highlighting shows the fields which have changed due to the first change. This is certainly very useful, but it is missing a few things. First, we don't know whether the change was a good c...(truncated)...

Microsoft Project 2007 VBA Help now Available Online

(Indexed 2006-11-14):

Microsoft Project 2007 (and the rest of Office 2007) were released over the weekend (Nov. 12, 2006) and while it will take until early next year to make it through the retail channels you can at least get started with perusing the help files. The last version of Office started a trend towards on-line help which I feel is somewhat inconvenient when you are not working on a network, but at least it allows them to keep the help up to date. And as a side benefit, it is available to all, even if you ...(truncated)...

Review Me

(Indexed 2006-11-13):

Sure, $20 comes in handy. That is what reviewme.com is paying for this post. If you want to quit reading now, you have my permission. Otherwise, you can read about why I think this might not be such a good idea in the long run. Or maybe not. Just rest assured that not a word about Microsoft Project or Project management will follow. Except the news that Project 2007 hit "RTM" and is ready to download if you have an MSDN subscription...ReviewMe.com is a company which hopes to match advertisers w...(truncated)...

Project Scheduling with Excel

(Indexed 2006-10-27):

For the "I Hate Microsoft Project" crowd some new hope glittered today with a couple of posts on making Project schedules and charts in Excel. The secret is using an xy chart with error bars (my version uses formulas and conditional formatting and can do resource profiling but doesn't look nearly as clean. The post and example files are at Process TrendsThen Dick Kusleika chimed in and added progress lines. His example is here Daily Dose of Excel. A couple other approaches are referenced in his ...(truncated)...

Going Square

(Indexed 2006-10-27):

Presentation Zen is slowly dropping the rounded corners on all the images. Now it is safe for me to read again! You should give it a try too if you have any sort of presentation to make... ever. Garr Reynold's most recent post is about how there is more to presentation than logic, reason and facts. I have to agree. Project is mostly fact, reason and logic free, but you still come here to read it don't you?Now what sort of appeal do I need to make to get you to tell your friends to come here too?...(truncated)...

Project Management by Microsoft

(Indexed 2006-10-26):

At the 2006 PMI Global Conference a few days ago, Microsoft announced three new Microsoft Project 2007 Certifications. The details are a bit hazy as Project 2007 won't be released until next year, but the basic idea is that:Three new certifications will be introduced to address the needs of people using the Microsoft Office Project 2007 desktop and the EPM solution. The credentials are designed to be incorporated into training programs that provide a progressive career path and promote high stan...(truncated)...

Project Managing the World

(Indexed 2006-10-26):

In someways it appears that the US administration is starting to treat the situation in Iraq as a "PROJECT". They are talking about setting up mutually agreed upon milestones for achieving "security" (forgive me for the "quotes". I just use them when way a word is being used by someone else doesn't match the way I would use it)But it is curious to me that it has taken this long to get to the point where scope is being defined. As far as I can tell from comments made this morning, there is not ag...(truncated)...

Microsoft Project VBA the Rod Gill way

(Indexed 2006-10-20):

Rod Gill has put out a new book which covers most of what you need for Microsoft Project VBA programming. As far as I know it is the only book about VBA that I know of. The last edition of Tim Pyron's "Using Microsoft Project" was so full that the VBA chapters were moved to an addendum on the web so it is great to see a book dedicated to just VBA. The book moves from the most basic concepts through creating some useful macros and userforms. It even offers an updated version of something very sim...(truncated)...

Swimming to Cambozola

(Indexed 2006-10-12):

I swam a bit more than a mile today. Swimming in a pool is among the most boring of activities as the scenery never changes and there is no talking with your head underwater. A mile is about 70 laps of the pool. In a way it is similar to a long project. Of course with every project people develop ways of coping. Most swimmers I know dream up one scheme or another. For longer sets I calculate the fraction complete to keep my mind occupied. Other people count strokes to build a rhythm, but perhaps...(truncated)...

Agile - a rat on a skewer

(Indexed 2006-09-30):

Steve at Google has posted something thatlooks like it is getting a fair amount of attention. The basic thesis is that Agile is just a pretty handkerchief for the consulting wizards to wave over a hat as they make their client's money disappear but that Google has discovered the "good" agile in the form of free food and public recognition for shipping yet another beta thingie. According to google steve, google project management consists of task queue, an endless trough of tasks to choose from.T...(truncated)...

Project Server authors breaking radio silence

(Indexed 2006-09-01):

Or at least poking the periscope above the water. This week sees 3 new Project Server authors (presumably on a dare from Brian Kennemer). For some reason all of them have double letters in their names just like Brian...Dr. Ed Hanna http://projectified.typepad.com/dr_ed/: I'm expecting good things from Dr. Ed. His writing is very clear and is based on real issues people have. I think this is the most useful kind of writing even if I do not indulge in it myself :-) His first post is about how thin...(truncated)...

Waiting for Project 2007 - tick tock tick

(Indexed 2006-08-30):

Is it just me who thinks things are moving slowly? I know they have to tie the release into the release of Office 2007 which was pushed out just like Vista, but the public presence and excitement around Project 2007 seems almost non-existant after what was going on earlier in the year. No one I know seems to be doing anything active with the beta. Maybe it is just summer and things will pick up in the fall. Looking at what I've been writing here I'm as guilty as anyone. The annual abalone dive s...(truncated)...

Microsoft Project Performance Limitations

(Indexed 2006-08-11):

Someone was wondering the other day whether the limit on tasks in project would be constrained by the possible number of Unique ID's. They were concerned that the unique ID might be stored as a 16 bit number and that they could conceivably reach it over time. I am reasonably certain that the unique ID is at least a 32 bit number but since it is not documented, I thought I'd do a little test. To test it I tried to construct a project with more than 2^16 tasks (2^16 = 65536)My approach was to code...(truncated)...

AOL Breach of Privacy and what it really means

(Indexed 2006-08-09):

Over last weekend AOL released a datset containing about 20 million search requests and results. This amounts to a couple of gigabytes of information. In the thought that perhaps I could find what people were looking for in regards to project management I downloaded it last night and took a look. I was not prepared for what I found.The data is full of names and stories. Many of them are quite sad, and many have enough personal information to find out almost precisely who the person is. It is bot...(truncated)...

PMI Practice Standard for Scheduling Required Components

(Indexed 2006-08-04):

In reviewing the PMI Practice Standard for Scheduling I came across their proposal for which components would be required for a schedule to be considered "minimally acceptable". The good news is that most of these fall out of any modern scheduling tool such as Microsoft Project or Primavera Project Planner.The bad news is that at least if you use Microsoft Project you need to use "Physical Percent Complete" methods to update your schedule. The recommendation is that the concepts of earned value ...(truncated)...

PMI Practice Standard for Scheduling

(Indexed 2006-07-25):

Just got an email announcing that the PMI Practice Standard for Scheduling is open for comments and recommendations. This would expand on Chapter 3 of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). I think this is a good thing, but I'm a bit worried that it is becoming more and more prescriptive rather than descriptive. It is pointed out in one of the screens you need to pass through to gain access to the document that the PMBOK and the practice standards are intended to be "stan...(truncated)...

Biggering and Biggering

(Indexed 2006-07-19):

At a certain point projects get too big for some people and they just can't handle it anymore. One example is Windows Vista which has slipped extensively over the past year or so. And to the people on the inside (and to any number of people on the outside) the slips have not been unexpected. Philip Su, who was involved deeply in the development writes: They knew months in advance that the schedule would never work. So they told their VP. And he, possibly influenced by one too many instances wh...(truncated)...

PMI Program Management Certification

(Indexed 2006-07-14):

In a quiet summer the PM world is buzzing with news of a new PMI certification. Moving beyond the territory of the PMP (Project Management Professional) the Program Management certification would be for those who are leading programs. The role of which is defined as:Program managers are responsible and accountable for the coordinated management of multiple related projects directed toward strategic business and other organizational objectives. These programs contain complex activities that may s...(truncated)...

Project Management takes a Summer Vacation

(Indexed 2006-06-28):

Not sure if the other project management writers are on a permanent vacation or not, but I haven't seen much in the way of new work in the past month or so.[Image]Personally I've just been resting on a branch waiting for the winds to start blowing again.In the mean time, if you are bored, take a close look at the bugs.

Changing Cell background color in Microsoft Project

(Indexed 2006-05-25):

Yes, along with multiple undo, the ability to format cells with a background color and pattern will be here in Project 2007 which has an expected release date sometime in early 2007. The Beta2 release was yesterday and a new SDK was released (find it here).I'll be working through this stuff over the coming weeks, but some of the best things are the simple ones. For example this bit from the table of VBA Object Model Changes:Cell, CellColor property, CellColor as PjColorNew for Cell object. Backg...(truncated)...

Microsoft Project 2007 Example Project Templates

(Indexed 2006-05-03):

Lidiane's Microsoft Project 2007 Blog announces some of the new templates to be included in Proj 2007. From the titles you can see that the targets are getting deeper into HR, Marketing, IT and Legal areas. I hope these templates are more useful than the ones in earlier versions. My opinion is that they are so basic that they might almost be dangerous - dangerous in the sense that an inexperienced user might mistakenly follow them line for line. But, I'll not talk anymore about that. I'm an inex...(truncated)...

Adding tasks to MS Project using C#

(Indexed 2006-05-03):

Eric Landes has a brief code snippet on using C3 to automate project here:Corporate Coder : Project 2003 Adding Tasks via C#All I can say is that C# is slightly less than elegant in the way it handles optional parameters.For what an idea of what I'm talking about, here is how to invoke FileOpen:m_ProjectProApp.FileOpen ( "MyProjectName", missingValue, missingValue, missingValue, missingValue, missingValue, missingValue, missingValue, missingValue, missingValue, missingValue, PjPoolOpen.pjDoNotOp...(truncated)...

Microsoft Office Project 2007 Webcasts coming up

(Indexed 2006-04-28):

Treb's blog notes that there are a couple of interesting webcasts coming up. The first is an overview of Office Project Server 2007, presumably covering what you need to know about how all of the server and client processes tie together. The description states:"Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 has a new architecture, enabling the system and solution to provide new functionality and capabilities. This webcast provides an overview of the architecture of Project Server 2007, and looks at how th...(truncated)...

The most valuable project management tool

(Indexed 2006-04-24):

At least in my opinion it is not Microsoft Project. I'm starting to think that trust is the most valuable tool in the Project Manager's bag. I'm not sure where talks about that in the PMBOK though. The more uncertain part of Project Management is the people side of things. I'd go on, but time is tight. Llet me know what you think is most important contributing factor to a successful project.

Microsoft Office Project 2007 Beta expected this spring

(Indexed 2006-04-11):

According to Lidiane, the public beta will be available this "spring" which means sometime in the next couple months. The best way to get the beta is to sign up here http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx and they will let you know when it is ready. Considering the large number of changes in this version it is probably worth your time to check it out in advance.

What is Project Scope

(Indexed 2006-04-02):

There is considerable discussion on the Newgrange discussion list about what scope is and what it isn't. While I find it interesting enough to dip in and read a couple of arguments in the debate about it I think I have skipped more than I have read so I feel out of place commenting on it there. In my opinion scope is simple. It is the definition of what you are going to do. That is inclusive of meeting whatever specifications have been agreed upon and the work necessary to deliver on that agreem...(truncated)...

So soon?

(Indexed 2006-03-28):

My registration expired this morning. But if you are reading this it is all better now. It is hard for me to believe this site has been up and running for almost a year now, serving up PMBOK downloads, PMP Certification, MS Project Macros and the occasional flower pot manufacturer. Keep the clicks coming folks so I can give you another year of the same old stuff!

2007 = 2007: Microsoft Office Project 2007 Delayed

(Indexed 2006-03-25):

There is a reason why they decided to call it Project 2007. Seems that they are slipping the release until 2007 corresponding to the slip in Vista. Some more information here:http://www.microsoftmonitor.com/archives/014509.htmlSince Vista most likely will require a new PC due to heavy hardware requirement, I guess they are thinking that most office users (read corporate IT) would hold off on an upgrade to office until the Vista dust settles. Or at least that is what I think they may be thinking.

Schedule Assumptions

(Indexed 2006-03-23):

Have you ever thrown out an old project schedule? Have you ever had to start from scratch? Have you ever had to look at a schedule with no supporting documents and tell if it is "OK" and be unable to say more than "well, it depends"? If you have been managing projects or schedules then I guess the answer is yes. At least once. And one of the key reasons is that the assumptions made are either wrong or are missing.This might even be true of some of the schedules for projects you are currently wor...(truncated)...

A question of Tolerance

(Indexed 2006-03-17):

Tolerance is usually defined as being an allowed variance from a set standard. Just about every profession has some tolerance or ranges of tolerance. For example, buildings are designed to standards which allow certain deflections of floors (Deflection of l/360 is one common tolerance for beam design). The floor can bend by that amount before it is considered a problem.Projects also have certain tolerances. How firmly fixed is the end date of your project? Is there any leeway one way or the othe...(truncated)...

Project 2007 - No UI in sight

(Indexed 2006-03-10):

But we can see some of the changes in the Office 2007 User Interface here:Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface Blog : Picture This: A New Look For Office It would be nice to see Project get a big makeover like this, but I'm afraid it isn't going to happen for 2007. Good to see the changes they made to Excel though.

Springtime is when young mens fancies turn to ... Project Management Blogs?

(Indexed 2006-03-09):

[Image]Nope, they don't. Brian is talking cowbell, the Microsoft Project blogs are so dead they don't show up in my bloglines feed along with countless other favorites, Glen seems to be taking a rest after a spurt of post-review entries last week. David A. is happy to be showing off his badge and taking in concerts. Clark Ching is awaiting TV shows and laughing about books. Summer seems unlikely to be any better. Sound like we need to wait until cold fall weather drives people back into their ca...(truncated)...

Using Wikipedia to Promote Office 2007 and Project 2007

(Indexed 2006-02-25):

I guess it should be there, but it just seems odd that such a thing is in an online "encyclopedia" Microsoft Office 2007 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Free PMBOK Download - oops

(Indexed 2006-02-22):

I was wrong. Apparently there ARE still copies out there on the web for download. For example, here are a number of results which suggest that the 1996 and 2000 versions are still out there on many unsecure sites.http://www.google.com/search?q=inurl:pmbok.pdfI suppose this should not be a surprise. But users should not be reduced to copyright violation or pirating just to hear what PMI clearly believes are the "right" project management methods. If PMI's PMBOK is the project management "bible", ...(truncated)...

Not Project 12, Not Project 2006, Announcing Microsoft Office Project 2007

(Indexed 2006-02-18):

Looks like the newest versions are coming late enough in 2006 that it made sense to name them after next year.Also the version names seem to be growing every year, first they added Project Standard and Project Professional, now they are Microsoft Office Project Standard 2007 and Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 along with Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007. Quite a mouthful.Pricing data is here and you can sign up to be notified of t...(truncated)...

News from the Microsoft Project 12 team

(Indexed 2006-02-10):

DieterZ is moving on to a new position and is leaving the communication about the next version of Project and Project Server to Lidiane Souza. You can find her here:http://blogs.msdn.com/project/default.aspxThe only issue is that her latest post which states "Hopefully well be able to build a good community on this blog.. Sadly, comments are not allowed and there is no email address for her... Hopefully she will get this straightened out.

OMG that is like sooo cool

(Indexed 2006-02-07):

Dieter Z. points out some of the background behind multiple level undo which is now part of Project 2006 (keep the stories coming Dieter) and relates how a customer exclaimed "Oh My God..." when it was demo'ed at the recent project conference. Despite the extensive work required to implement this I'm guessing that the response was less an appreciation of the technical complexity involved than it was a recognition of the long unexpected - that is it was as if a teen-ager had just cleaned their ro...(truncated)...

Microsoft Project 12 / Project 2006 / Project ? Feature List

(Indexed 2006-02-07):

Microsoft is busy working on the next version of Project and Project Server. So far they have disclosed a few new features and improvements. This entry is a running list of what they have disclosed so far (limited of course by my available energy to gather and summarize). I'll try to keep it updated. If you have any other public disclosures of features let me know and I'll add them: Now the list in no particular order:Desktop Features:Multiple level undo - this has been asked for forever, but du...(truncated)...

Persistance of Vision

(Indexed 2006-02-07):

I was a judge at my son's science fair this last weekend. Besides being treated to a description of how an 8 year old could tell that rats prefer peanut butter to cheese because the rat caught in the peanut butter trap had bled more - implying it had got there first, there are some interesting results. Sometimes they are things which you already know, but are happy to get confirmation of (the laws of physics still apply), sometimes they are things you weren't sure of but are nice to know in case...(truncated)...

Microsoft Project, the scheduling software people love to hate and hate to love

(Indexed 2006-01-31):

You can look here for some of the fun that is being had:projectified: Glen is on a Roll! I've posted about MS Project haters in the past. They are quite common beasts after all. On the other hand, those that "Love" Microsoft project are as rare as unicorns. Brian sticks up for it just because he is righteous and works for Microsoft :-). I think part of the problem is that it has a complex soul. It is hard to get close to it without accepting it on its own terms. It also carries a lot of baggage ...(truncated)...

Good ol' rock

(Indexed 2006-01-31):

There is a Simpson's episode when Bart is confronted with a game of Rock, Paper Scissors (AKA: Jan Ken Poi, ro sham bo ...) and thinks to himself "Good ol' rock". Meanwhile his opponent is thinking "poor Bart, always chooses rock". So what does this have to do with Project Management? Nothing, except that often people go to what they are familiar with, to what they are told is going to be a winning solution or what they have won with in the past. Of course, what makes it funny is that Bart conti...(truncated)...

What does done look like?

(Indexed 2006-01-30):

I often see this posed as a clarifying question when people are discussing project milestones. In fact, I just saw it this morning as the results of a google search for it led some unsuspecting reader to my blog for an answer. Fortunately google knows all and tells all so I'm happy to pass it along:"What does "done" look like, you ask? It's when the hot dogs start turning realdeep red, and may start having bubbles form on them. They might also crack" Source:http://jweisz.org/food/mac_n_cheese.ht...(truncated)...

More Microsoft Project 12 features popping up

(Indexed 2006-01-26):

New MS Project 2006 features revealed at Project Conference held last week are making their way through the web. Bill Raymond posted a list of the top 10 on his blog here: MPA Blog. I'm interested to see that the first item:Client:Project Professional has some nice scheduling enhancements, but the client will remain mostly the same as Project 2003.is really not a feature at all, but a recognition of the relative lack of any new features. Of course there is one greatly anticipated feature on the ...(truncated)...

PMI Obfuscation and the PMBOK

(Indexed 2006-01-24):

PMI keeps a very tight control on the PMBOK(c). I've already mentioned that there is no such thing as a free PMBOK download, at least for several years. This is understandable as it is probably one of their key sources of income and only an idiot would give their works away for free... Um... oh, yeah, I have ads. Clickety click.But, as Glen has pointed out while PMI is controlling access into the PMBOK, they are also controlling access OUT of the PMBOK. He lists the 5 items referenced by the PMB...(truncated)...

One good thing about Project 2006 (AKA Project 12)

(Indexed 2006-01-23):

Jensen Harris says personalized menus are going away. You might know what these are but not what they are called. They are the menus which show "recently used commands" first and hide the entire rest of the menu. To me this was about as stupid as a real menu (one from which you pick food to eat) which only showed you what you had the last time you were there. Microsoft put them into Office (including Project) as an attempt to hide the clutter that feature bloat had caused. Unfortunately beyond l...(truncated)...

Evidence Based Management

(Indexed 2006-01-18):

Found this excerpt from Harvard business review which ties in to my recent "management science" post that many project management myths could use a bit of investigation and confirmation:Noise Filter: If medicine is the goose, could management be the gander? A short excerpt of the excerpt: "Stories are more persuasive, anyway. It's hard to remain devoted to the task of building bulletproof, evidence-based cases for action when it's clear that good storytelling often carries the day."

More on how NOT to skip NOT blank tasks in MS Project Macros

(Indexed 2006-01-17):

Clayton Scott read my post on skipping blank lines (also known as blank tasks) in project by using the statementIf Not Task is Nothing Then...He suggested that rather than using a negative that we use:If Task is Nothing ThenNext TaskEnd Ifbut the problem is that the Next Task within the If..Then statement is not recognized correctly by the compiler and the code won't compile. Clayton's intent was to simplify the code and remove the confusing Not from the statement. I think it is possible to remo...(truncated)...

Management "Science"and the PMBOK

(Indexed 2006-01-16):

Among a segment of the population the PMBOK has a bad name for a number of reasons (some content related, others regarding the organization surrounding it) but it does have one thing going for it and that is in the reduction of confusion. Prior to the PMBOK the acceptance of a common taxonomy across Project Management was spotty. Certainly there was strong development of many principles and techniques, but they were spread pretty widely. The PBMOK changed that.Now, I certainly don't agree with t...(truncated)...

Management "Science" and the PMBOK

(Indexed 2006-01-16):

Among a segment of the population the PMBOK has a bad name for a number of reasons (some content related, others regarding the organization surrounding it) but it does have one thing going for it and that is in the reduction of confusion. Prior to the PMBOK the acceptance of a common taxonomy across Project Management was spotty. Certainly there was strong development of many principles and techniques, but they were spread pretty widely. The PBMOK changed that.Now, I certainly don't agree with t...(truncated)...

The Schedule as a Symptom

(Indexed 2006-01-03):

The more I think about it the more I am convinced that many people see the schedule as the problem rather than a symptom of some other problem. Schedules even in the best case are an abstraction of the work to be done. They delineate the work to be done and place it in chronological order with some notion of the relationships between tasks and resources required. There is always some art involved in this representation and while some lovingly craft a beautiful still-life others are fingerpaintin...(truncated)...

More about working with the tasks collection

(Indexed 2005-12-07):

I've mentioned before that when looping through a collection of tasks in Project that there are a couple of holes you can fall in. This note gives an example of another problem you might run into and describes how to combine tests. The first problem is encountering a blank line. Many people insert blank lines in their project files to make the table easier to read, however when project references a task which is blank it will give an error. The easy way to do this is to test for it with an if .....(truncated)...

MS Project Tip - Creating User-defined Filters

(Indexed 2005-12-05):

One of the most common activities with large schedule files is filtering them down to show the most important tasks. In most cases, important means immediate and many industries (the construction industry for example) a 3-week look ahead schedule showing current and upcoming activities is very common.Project's built-in filters allow you to filter based on a date range, but the date range filter asks for user input and you need to select the time periods. There is no way to easily automate this ...(truncated)...

Excel Keyboard Shortcuts for date and time

(Indexed 2005-12-02):

If you are doing any formulas or VBA programming in excel, you probably know about the now() function which returns the current date and time. The problem with Now() is that it is always changing so often it is easier to simply enter the date you want to use. I used to just use the formula =now() and then cut and paste special. Fortunately there is a simple keyboard shortcut for doing this which you can use to insert the date and time anywhere you want (even within text).To insert the current da...(truncated)...

PM Aphorisms and a house built of straw

(Indexed 2005-11-21):

I've written before that project management types like aphorisms and numbered lists. It continues to be true. Part of the appeal is that aphorisms come with an assumption that they are universally true. As W. H. Auden stated:"The aphorist does not argue or explain, he asserts; and implicit in his assertion is a conviction that he is wiser or more intelligent than his readers"Thus, implicit in the form (and in the repetition and citing of others) is a false confidence that what is stated in aphor...(truncated)...

Oops - MS Project Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Recalled

(Indexed 2005-11-20):

Installing a Microsoft service pack right off the bat has always been a controversial thing, but the recent recall of Project Server SP2 is another black mark in the minus column. Seems it screws up outline codes. Read this knowledgebase article (KB# 909947) for the details.

Formatting Task Links in MS Project

(Indexed 2005-11-18):

Someone asked if it is possible to hide the dependency lines (links) in Microsoft Project. By going to the format menu and selecting "layout" you can turn them off for all tasks. But there is a workaround for formatting them individually which can hide or highlight links. To do this we rely on the behavior of project to use the first applicable barstyle as the one which controls the link color.What this means is that if the first barstyle in the list applies to all tasks and is blue, then all th...(truncated)...

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