Category: Microsoft Project

Teams Apps for Project and Roadmap

There have recently been a couple of apps introduced into Teams that consolidate the Microsoft Teams experience around collaboration and especially Project Management.  These are the Project App and the Roadmap, which when added to the Planner App, ensure that all of the modern applications designed by Microsoft specifically aimed a Project Managers are now […]

Displaying the current plan and multiple baselines

Project has the ability to hold 11 baselines, and I’m often asked to devise a process whereby my client can track the current plan, the original plan, and any approved changes (design changes and the like). So, here’s the theory and the process. Once the project has been scheduled, and prior to execution, the project […]

Auto Calculate

Recently one of my customers was having an issue with Project not “behaving”correctly.  As I was demonstrating how Project works, he was doing the same but without anything updating on his project.  I don’t often see this problem and so it took me 30 seconds or so to work it out. Here’s an example of […]

Managing Sprints in Project

Introduction This is the second in a two part series covering the Agile capabilities of Microsoft Project. In the first article, we discussed Kanban boards. Now we will look at Microsoft’s Scrum implementation, or, to use the Microsoft terminology, Sprint Projects. What is a Sprint Project and a Sprint? A Sprint Project is a Microsoft […]

Using Row Level Security to Auto Filter your Power BI Reports

Without a doubt I think Power BI is one of the greatest tools Microsoft has released in the last few years, it truly has revolutionised and democratised data (oh no, I’m beginning to sound like a Microsoft employee).   What I really meant to say is that it’s made accessing Project Server data really easy […]

Using Kanban Boards in Microsoft Project

Introduction There has been a lot written over the last year regarding Microsoft’s foray into the world of Agile Project Management by way of new improvements into Microsoft Project. This article provides an update based upon one of the latest versions, discusses what’s changed recently, and provides a walkthrough on setting up and using the […]

Modifying the Menus in Project

Modifying the Menus in Project Over the years I have run hundreds of training courses and one of the issues I often hear from people is the complexity of the ribbon, because there are simply too many icons, and people aren’t sure which ones to use at which stages during their project management process.  Additionally […]

Project Server Work and Capacity graphs in Power BI

A lot of my work now revolves around producing Power BI reports using the Project Server oData feed (you can find my reporting pack for Project Server here) , and of course one of the main goals is to produce great looking work and capacity graphs, so let’s have a look at how to do […]

Resource work and capacity graphs in MS Project

A customer posed the challenge earlier this week of producing a work and capacity report using the Reports feature in MS Project.   Using the existing Resource Overview Report I was happy with getting the total work per resource from the project, as this is already available as a graph on the Resource Overview report.  You […]

#ESC2017 – Take Project Server from 0-60 in 1 Hour

European SharePoint Conference 2017 At the back end of last year I was honoured to be able to speak at the ESC2017, the second time I’ve spoken at the ESC.  The title this year was taking Project Server from 0-60 in one hour…  so what does that mean. In a nutshell what I was able […]

#Project Server #Power BI Content Pack with Currency parameter

Microsoft have very recently released their latest content pack for Project Server and details can be found on the Project Support Blog and the Tech Community Blog. Whilst the new content pack is a big improvement on the previous one, it still requires some work if you are NOT working in English or US Dollars!  […]

#Agile in #MSProject #Scrum #Kanban

Microsoft Project has long been considered as a tool that can only be used with structured , rigid tasks.  Typically this type of project is known as a Waterfall project (despite various blogs showing you how you can use Project to manage an “agile plan”, for example the MPUG publish one here).   I’m pleased […]

Link to Planner from MS Project #MSProject #ProjectOnline #MSPlanner

There has been some speculation that Microsoft might provide a link between MS Project and Microsoft Planner for quite some time, and now it seems that they’ve done it. From the Task tab, you should be able to see the Link to Planner button (highlighted below). You can only link a single task to a […]

Portfolios, Programs and #Projects: What’s the Difference? #PluralSight course released.

I’m happy to announce that my latest course “Portfolios, Programs and Projects: What’s the Difference?” has just been published at PluralSight It’s a really short course of 35 minutes in length, but gives some great examples of different project management terms, not just the 3Ps (portfolio, program, project).  If you are confused about project management […]

Multiple Date Formats #Project

If like me, you’re based in the UK and you deal with organisations based in Scandinavia  (and others of course) you cannot fail to notice that our Scandinavian colleagues tend to specify dates using the day (Monday = day 1, Tuesday = day 2 etc) of the week and week numbers (W27) and then display […]

MVP Again

Happy to note I’ve been re-awarded as an MVP for Microsoft Project again, for the 9th year running 🙂

When is a day not a day? #Project #MSProject

I’ve been meaning to write about Durations for a while, and was inspired to get a move on when I read fellow MVP and cousin Dales Howard’s blog on trusting the schedule. During every training session and Project Server consultancy engagement I always talk about hours, minutes, days and calendars, starting times and finishing times […]

New Projects always start on 12th October 2009 #MSProject

One of my customers recently commented that his projects always had a start date of 12th October 2009… After some investigation it became apparent that it was the way he was creating the project file.  Most people will just open Project and a new file (by default Project1) is created, and when you press Save […]

Predecessor Drop Down list #O365 #MSProject

One of the nice things about the Project Server licence model is the occasional new feature which magically appears.  As of this morning when I was updated to the Version 1704 (April 2017 for those who like long names) I’m now able to use a drop-down list to select predecessors and successors in the tables […]

How to calculate %Planned #Project #Project Server

One of my customers recently wanted to calculated %Planned for each task (and therefore each project).  They had done a little research on the net but the formula they found didn’t work in Project Server, only MS Project. So what is %Planned? In it’s simplest form, %Planned = duration to date / duration * 100 […]

Editing Enterprise Calendars #ProjectOnline #ProjectClient #MicrosoftProject

Introduction Over the months and years I’ve seen a tonne of issues regarding the ability, or inability to edit Enterprise Calendars.  I started a blog about this a while ago https://applepark.co.uk/issues-with-multiple-project-server-accounts/ which provides some troubleshooting issues.  This blog is an update to that and I’ll try and keep it updated as I find out new […]

Project 2016 (change 1) – Online status next to name

In this series of blogs, I’m going to try list the differences between Project 2013 and Project 2016 – I’ll be comparing the Professional versions so if you’ve got the standard version then not every change will impact you.  Also, I’m not going to be concerned with UI changes (unless they are significant), rather I […]

Overriding Dependencies

I came across an issue the other day whilst dabbling in a demo project update.  The issue was that I couldn’t set the actual start date on a successor task that was before the predecessors finish date; effectively the dependency was overriding the ability to reschedule the task.  Entering the Actual Start date for T2 […]

This might just save your life!

So perhaps the title of this blog is a little over the top, but I had a customer recently who needed help when their .mpp file became corrupt due to a VPN issue (I think the file was left open on the file server when the VPN link was terminated)!  We couldn’t easily fix the […]

Project Conference 2014 slides and demos available

Update – 140717 – The recordings of the sessions are now available on Microsoft’s channel 9 (here and here) and in case they go “missing”, here and here too!  They are labelled PC301 and PC232 when searching in the folder. I was lucky enough to attend and present at the Project Conference 2014 in Anaheim, […]

Working with Teams in Project Server 2013

It’s been a while since I last discussed Teams and Team Resources, and having learnt something new recently (kudos goes to Eric Uyttewaal who is always very willing to share his expertise) I thought it was time to re-visit the topic. Introducing Teams The Team feature was introduced way back in Project Server 2007, and […]

Sharing and Collaborating with Microsoft Project

Back in March this year, I presented a webcast for Microsoft called Sharing and Collaborating with Microsoft Project.  If you’re interested in watching it, it’s available here, and the slides can be downloaded separately from OneDrive if you want to re-use them (please credit me if you do use them!). Save and Synchronise Inactive tasks […]

Project Conference 2014 slides and demos available

I was lucky enough to attend and present at the Project Conference 2014 in Anaheim, California.  This is the bi-annual Project “love-in”, comprising a mixture of customers, Microsoft folks, partners and  MVPs, and the 4th or 5th that I’ve attended (and spoken at).  There were some great sessions, and the focus really was on Project […]

The Ribbon–where has Show Change Highlighting gone?

Change highlighting is beautiful, but there are times when you do not want to display it, for instance when you want to print the view.  Now, of course, you can just hit CTRL-S to save the schedule, and of course that removes any change highlighting and of course clears the stack so that you can […]

TechEd Europe

In case you missed the announcements, TechED Europe is happing in Madrid from the 25-28th June.  Though I’m not speaking this year, I will be on Microsoft’s Project stand, and will also be signing my book at the O’Reilly stand.  I’ve a tonne of discount codes available for my book, so please stop by and […]

Using Cost Resources–best practise

Cost resources are a very useful feature of Project (and also therefore of Project Server), but there is at least one rule you need to follow. Rather than telling you how to use cost resources, I’ll point you at the an article from Microsoft which explains their use (and because links sometimes get broken, I’ve […]

Project 2013 Reports–reason enough to upgrade

One of the greatest things about Project 2013 is the new reporting section.  The old tabular reports have been pulled, leaving us with Visual Reports (which were first introduced in Project 2007) and the new reports feature, called, wait for it, “Reports”. I’m going to concentrate this blog just on the new Reports feature. Introduction […]

The next version of Project – unscrambling the products…

I’ve recorded my experience of installing Project Pro for O365 using click 2 run (C2R) over a public WIFI (<2mbs) – parts 1&2 of this video are available on YouTube below. <120818> UPDATE – part 2 of the video (installing Project Pro for O365 using click to run) is available on YouTube here Please note, […]

TechEd Europe–Amsterdam, 26-29 June.

Update – just so you know I was there…     Just to say I’m going to be at the “ask the experts” stand at TechEd, answering questions on Project, Office and O365.  It would be good to put some faces to names, so please drop by to say hello. http://europe.msteched.com/ Enjoy,  Ben.

TechEd Europe–Amsterdam, 26-29 June.

Just to say I’m going to be at the “ask the experts” stand at TechEd, answering questions on Project, Office and O365.  It would be good to put some faces to names, so please drop by to say hello. http://europe.msteched.com/ Enjoy,  Ben.

Monte Carlo Risk Analysis

The majority of projects I’m involved in concentrate more on people and process than anything else (some customers really want to think “tools, tools and tools” and I need to reset their thinking in order to increase the chances of a successful implementation).  If analysing and managing RISK is a major part of your Project […]

How to automatically change the colour of a task name

This requirement came from a customer more as a general query rather than a full demand, but I thought it should be an interesting enough problem to invest some time in. Changing the font, colour, or any of the other options available under Format | Text Styles can only be done automatically for a certain […]

Displaying the Day count for a task

A customer on a recent training course asked if how he could create a view that didn’t display dates, but rather showed the day number from the project start date, that each task started on. Depending on whether you want to include working days or not, the formula is different; for example, assuming the project […]

Understanding Departments in Project Server 2010 (part 2)

Resource Departments In my last blog I introduced the concept of departments.  Let’s now look at how departments can be used with resources.  When project server is installed an Enterprise Custom Field is created called Resource Department, and this is associated with a lookup table called Department.  This can be a multi level lookup table, […]

Understanding Departments in Project Server 2010 (part 1)

Introduction This is an introduction to Departments, where they are used and how they are set up.  I intend to follow up this post with a drill down into the specific use areas of departments over the next few posts. Departments are a really useful new feature in Project Server 2010, and they (alas) add […]

Optimistic and Pessimistic views on a single gantt

This is a nice little trick, that I’ve used several times at client site to slow both optimistic and/or pessimistic durations on a single gantt chart.   This really is a great view to help senior management understand what might happen on a project, and we can show the cumulative effect of both bringing tasks in early […]

New website and blog

Apologies for those who’ve read my blogs before, but as I’ve created a new web site I wanted to make sure all my blogs are in one place, so I have replicated them here.  All future postings will be here only.  Please bookmark or set up an RSS feed for this site by clicking on […]

MPUG Presentations – Monthly reports and Managing Resources

After presenting and helping co-ordinate MPUG (Microsoft Project User Group) meetings in Manchester and London, UK, we’ve decided to widen our potential audience to WW by presenting the next two topics over the internet as part of MPUG’s WebNLearn series.  The two sessions being delivered are as follows…. WebnLearn UK: Using Microsoft Project to provide […]

Windows and office upgrades – off topic

This is off-topic for my normal postings, but I just wanted to congratulate MS on the ease, over the last year or so that I’ve migrated my laptop to from Vista etc… I’ve currently got a Dell Latitude D830, which is 2.5 years old.  I originally bought it because I needed something with a bit […]

UK TechDays – videos

As previously blogged, I was recently invited to speak on Project 2010 at the Microsoft UK TechDays event in London.  The video of this even it now available on the web, so I’ve linked it in here – http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/gb/details/87773848-1cd2-4104-9545-ef5fea84edd7  Sharing the session with me was David Parker.  David, like me, is an MVP, but his […]

User Controlled Scheduling – watch the webinar here

So, on 25th Jan I ran a webinar for Microsoft on Project 2010, and some of the features around User Controlled Scheduling.  We had over 100 people logged on, and the feedback score was a whopping 8.25 out of 9.00 – so I was very pleased with that.  If you missed it, the link is […]

2010 Videos on Microsoft.com

This is oldish news, but I didn’t see it on any other blogs, plus it gives me a chance to direct you to my own contribution, so click here to learn lots about Project 2010….  http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/details/4d8af230-4c1a-4e93-8bad-7926c9ab1657    Enjoy.  Ben

Automatically setting the task Publish field to No

If you’re using assignments for team members, you’ll have noticed that completed assignments still appear on the My Tasks page, even when the resource has updated the task and the task is 100% complete.  This causes confusion for resources, and consternation for clients in general.  Completed assignments disappear after the pre-requisite number of days (30 […]

Project Professional Crashes on connection to Project Server

Several weeks ago a customer of mine was getting a fatal error with Project Professional 2007 when connecting to the server.  This was only happening on a single machine, and the usual re-installs/repairs didn’t fix a thing.  It so happened that the security settings where set to Very High (tools|macro|security), and resetting this to Medium […]

MVP

Just found out Microsoft have awarded me MVP (Most Valuable Professional) for Project – nice one!   https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/communities/mvp.aspx?name=ben+howard    Cheers,  Ben.

Milestones – done or not?

<Wolf Blass & Baileys!>   Every now and then something nice happens in EPM, something that makes life simpler!  This happened to me before Christmas (where did the last 8 weeks go to?) so figured I’d blog this now…, however,  to get this to work I have to break one of my golden rules of not […]

Changing the Project Manager

During the lifetime of a project it is sometimes necessary to change the Project Manager (due to a leave of absence).  The process to do this has changed between 2003 and 2007.  There are three areas to be concerned with 1.  Changing the Project Manager; Changing the status manager; replacing any PM resources. Before you […]

Team Assignments

One of the really neat features that will solve lots of business issues is the new team assignment feature.  Team assignments are a very easy concept to get your head around, but not particularly intuitive to set up.  Once set up though they really work well, just follow a few basic principles and you’ll never look […]

Resource Plans – How to use them with a rolling project plan

As discussed in my previous post EPM2007 allows for some new scenarios regarding resource management. This blog discusses using a resource plan in conjunction with a full blown project plan (termed an Enterprise Project), which enables us to perform rolling plan management. For the purposes of this blog I have defined an Enterprise Project as […]

How to plan and track operational resources and time

Resource Scenarios – How to plan and track operational resources and time (café latte) EPM2007 allows for some new scenarios regarding resource management, specifically regarding assigning resources to operational plans (and of course activity plans).  Microsoft have a specific type of project plan called an Activity Plan which can easily be is used for operational […]