I've Moved

It's been a while since I've blogged. I'm going to start again (hopefully on a more consistent basis) but won't be posting here.

Please find me at http://docupoint.wordpress.com instead.

I'll see you on the other-site.

Requirement Gathering

Requirements gathering can be challenging at times. Sometimes discussions just go of tangent. Here are a few of the things I have found helpful.

Pre-requirement Gathering - Prior to engaging users for requirement gathering sessions:

1. Overview of the solution that they're looking at - applicable if you're pitching a solution and are gathering requirements for it. Give a good overview of what it is capable of and as much as possible, relate to generic challenges faced by most organisations.
2. Give out an agenda, describing what the requirement gathering sessions are for, how long it will take, any preparation that might be required (current processes, forms, etc.).

Requirement Gathering Agenda - When conducting a session, I find that this is a good guideline:

1. Introduction - Get the users to give an overview of the company (if you haven't already) and where they fit into the organisation, what their department/business unit does and what their role is within that.
2. Current state – what their day to day activity might look like, what are the things/processes that they are/business unit is involved in. Sometimes you get some valuable information or can derive certain things, i.e. users are disciplined, quick to learn, tech savy, etc. Not everything that they're doing today is evil or bad! Somethings may require minor tweaks, others revamp/overhaul.
3. Current problems/issues faced with the lack of process/systems - favourite time where you listen to all the challenges, be careful not to go into solution mode (both you and the user). Just document the issues and problems.
4. Requirements - What they want in the solution. Gather both functional and non-functional requirements. Try to ensure that users can distinct between 'must haves' and 'nice to haves'. Always validate with users.
5. Wrap it up - let them know what the next steps are. Whether it'd be a follow on workshop, deliverable document, follow up calls to validate items.

Some of the items here have been incorporated from the Microsoft BVPS engagement model.

Opening the Enterprise Resource Pool from Ms Pro

Really good forum answer that addresses a "mystical" problem I had been facing.

Thanks to Chak from www.epmcentral.com.

Error
"Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 is required for this action. ensure that your copy of Project Professional 2007 can connect to this server. If both of these conditions are true and you still get this message, contact your system administrator for assistance"

Solution
FYI, reason beyond the error: MPP file extensions are setup to open with default application MS Project. You have both the versions of MS Project Pro installed on your machine. In your case, your MPP file was setup to open with default application MS Project Pro 2003. (You can verify it by opening the any MPP file from your local machine. You will see the MS Project Pro 2003 will launch by default. But now you may see 2007 as you already fixed the issue.) When you are trying to open resource info from PWA, your machine is trying to invoke MS Project 2003. So, you are seeing the error ""Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 is required for this action. ensure that your copy of Project Professional 2007 can connect to this server" When you ran the Diagnostics, it re-register the Project Pro 2007 application and sets as the default application as MS Project Pro 2007 to open MPP files. So, now you able to open the MS project 2007 by invoking it from PWA.

For the full thread. Click here.

Project Server 2007 Help

Recently I've been looking around for some references, guides and helps for Project Server 2007. Found some of the following resources and they seem quite helpful.

Learn about available roles in Project Web Access

Project management quick reference guide for Project 2007 (note: this is for Project 2007 and does not include working with Project Server 2007)

The quick reference looks neat, if I've got time I'll update it to reflect working on Project 2007 in a server environment.

The Archive Database in Project Server 2007

The archive database in project server 2007 isn't really a database that facilitates a functionality of archiving projects. The archive database is the database used to backup projects to and restore projects from.

The projects will still exists in the Draft and Published Databases.Looks like archiving of projects will still need to be done in a way as described in this link.

Another interesting information on the backup of databases is the backup is an all or nothing process but the restoring of a project can be done on an individual basis.

Project Server 2007 Pre-migration Checklist

I've recently been involved in our in house project server 2003 - 2007 migration. Below is a useful list in helping build a checklist and identifying possible issues with migration.

• Checking for check-out projects
• Checking for Projects that have been externally edited
• Checking for projects with pending status updates
• Checking for duplicate Enterprise Resources
• Checking for duplicate Enterprise Resource used in projects
• Project Version should be at least ‘Project Server 2003 SP2A’
• Enterprise Global should not be externally edited
• Checking if the Enterprise Global is checked out
• Checking of the Enterprise Global is locked
• Checking if the default language on the Web tables database and Project tables database and Project tables database should match
• Checking if Resources have comma in their names
• Checking if required enterprise resource custom fields do not have values
• Checking if a resource custom field has a value which is not in the lookup table definition
• Checking if Enterprise resources are externally edited
• Checking if there are Enterprise Resource Duration custom fields with value lists
• Checking if Enterprise Resource Duration custom fields contain valid values
• Checking if Enterprise Custom Field names do not contain leading or trailing spaces
• Checking if the Migration Administrator Account exists in Project Server 2003

More information at the link: http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/9d828b0a-8361-4580-aa67-fe931281803c1033.mspx?mfr=true

Working with Outlook and Project Server

If you didn't know, you can sync your task in Project Server to your Outlook. The Project Server 2007 Outlook Sync works with Outlook 2003/2007.

So what is new in the Outlook Sync in Project Server 2007.

Outlook Sync for Project Server 2003:



Outlook Sync for Project Server 2007:


So now you can have your tasks sit the the Outlook Tasks instead of cluttering up your calendar! The rest of the options are the same. You can create a task from Outlook and have that created in Project Server, it's still a one way creation of task and you can sync updates and progress of the task back.

Project 2007 Certifications

Recently I attended a Live Meeting on the latest Project Certification offerings from Microsoft based on the new EPM 2007 solution stack.

There's a total of 3 exams to take in becoming a MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional. In short you need to do an exam on Project Professional 2007 and a Project Server 2007 one before doing the final one which is a combination of both on an enterprise level. Below are the links to the recorded webcast and datasheet on the certifications.

• Recorded Webcast (about 45minutes)
• Microsoft Office Project 2007 Certification Datasheet

Project Professional 2007: Saving to Project Server, "save job 0% complete"

If you're using Project Server 2007 and when you try to save a project and you get, "save job 0% complete". You can do 2 things:

1. Check your Queue under "Personal Settings > My Queued Jobs" and see what the issue is. If there isn't any error. You can then ask the administrator to check in the Global Queue, which is "Server Setttings > Manage Queue" to try to retry the jobs.
2. If all else fails, try restarting the Queue Service. It's called Microsoft Project Server Queue Service. Restart that and you should be on your way!

Project Server 2007 Overview Presentation

Thank you for those who came to MOSSIG and stayed on for my session, I know we were running out of time and your presence was very much appreciated by myself and the MOSSIG board.

You can retrieve my presentation slide deck at the MOSSIG Site or you can click here to get to the slide straight away.

There were a few interesting questions that were raised during the session. One of them was since Project Server 2007 is built on SharePoint, how does search work. From a logical perspective and mind you I've not tested this yet; I think:

1. All Project Workspace information (Risk, Issues, Deliverables) will be searchable if it has been included in the search settings.
2. I'm quite sure project plans and tasks may not be searchable as they sit in seperate databases unless the Business Data Catalog was configured to go get the information from the Project Server database, but why would you do that? Wouldn't it be better to built reports around this information? Resources can search for their task within their own "My Tasks".
3. Although Project Server is built on top of SharePoint it does not store the data of Project Server in it's Content DB's, perhaps the configuration of project server on sharepoint but not the actual project information (i.e. project plan, tasks, assignments, actuals, updates, resource information).

I'll probably do a role based presentation (business focused) the next time at MOSSIG on how the different roles (Executives, PM, Resources) would interact with each other on the an EPM solution! I just need a faster machine!

MOSSIG: Project Server 2007 Overview

Finally decided that I will do a brief overview of Project Server 2007. So in this overview session I hope to talk about the new features and capabilities of Microsoft Office Project 2007, including the new system architecture, new server side API, improved timesheet capabilities, new project and program management functionality, and sophisticated reporting capabilities that will enable your organization to capture and understand work more effectively.

Depending on the response from the audience, I'll arrange and see if we can get other prominant people out there to come and share their experiences and gotchas when dealing with this technology.

Will all you Project Server Gurus please stand up?!

Want to know about Microsoft's Internal Intranet Implementation?

Jonathan Lewis is the IT Manager for Microsoft Australia. This month Jonathan will be taking some time from his very busy schedule to come down to Melbourne and tell us all about Microsoft's internal Intranet implementation which used SharePoint.

When: 22nd August 2007
Where: Microsoft Innovation Centre, Level 5, 4 Freshwater Place, Southbank

For more information please go to this link: http://www.mossig.net/default.aspx

I'm also scheduled to present on Project Server 2007, so if you want to hear more on the latest offering in Project Server 2007, do come!

I'll provide more information on the topic when closer to time.

Project Server 2007: "You must have the valid Analysis Services database name and cube name."

I know how long you took to setup analysis services (if you did a server farm environment deployment with App and Web Server on a separate box and SQL on another) and now you run into this error when you try to create a new view and connect to the cube.

You get the fallowing error: "You must have the valid Analysis Services database name and cube name." It's not the best feeling in the world.

I took a look at this link, they said that it's all about enabling "Access data across domains" in Internet Explorer (Tools > Internet Options > Security > Trusted Sites > Custom Level). I just say add the PWA URL to your Trusted Sites.

I tried that and it didn't work. I'm quite sure the full working solution would be:

• Ensure Office Web Components are installed.
• Install Microsoft Core XML Services (MSXML) 6.0
• Install Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services 9.0 OLE DB Provider
• Ensure that PWA URL is added to your Trusted Sites

The MSXML and OLE DB can be downloaded from here.

Talking about Microsoft's oPhone

Very amusing video I stumbled across on.

Too good not to share!


Video: Microsoft's oPhone

Microsoft EPM 2007 Evaluation 180 days

Microsoft Project Server 2007 and Microsoft Project Professional 2007 180 day trials are now available for download.

You'll just need to register and then you'd be able to download it.

Once you've downloaded the software you can get some good resources on planning and deploying Project Server 2007 from Microsoft Technet.

Appreciation - 2007 Microsoft Office System Technical Beta Tester

I got this Certificate of Appreciation in my mail last week. The cert is signed by Bill Gates (more like printed). Was involved in some beta testing on the 2007 Microsoft Office System.

It's kinda of cool. I only have a few issues (not to be ungrateful):

• The paper and printing quality is quite shocking (I could scan and print for you, probably one which is of better quality than the one I received!)
• I believe it's not that hard to do a little personalization, like address me instead of "Valued Beta Tester". I thought Microsoft Word had a mail merge feature.

MOSS 2007 Beta Experience

I've been wanting to post about my experience in implementing and deploying MOSS 2007 Beta. This wasn't the easiest of things to do really. Today, that implementation has gone out as successfuly case study and we're looking into deploying MOSS 2007 for production in the near future.

10 of the valuable things I've learnt while implementing MOSS 2007 software in the beta stage and this could be quite a standard thing with most beta products (Microsoft Office 14?):

1. We definately need to set the users expectations right and let them know of the risks that are involved in deploying and implementing a beta software.
2. It's a learning curve for all parties involved and time spent on certain things which would normally take less time could take more than expected.
3. The users will need to identify certain areas they are keen to explore and try to focus on a particular area so that there is value at the end of the implementation.
4. I believe it's not so much a best practice or optimizing performance but trying to get a certain concept or idea correct at this stage.
5. Very important is to foster a close relationship with the client and keeping them updated on what's going on even of the bugs and faults the software is causing. Some of them love seeing this!
6. Keeping up to date with the beta newsgroups, blogs and other sources of information do help.
7. Lots and lots of testing and finding alternative ways and methods to achieve the same end result!
8. Using the software in it's beta stage for some aspect of the project (used it as repository for project documents) helped the users get familiar and helped the team learn! Of course we also kept the documents in some other repository just in case.
9. We musn't be afraid to break the software as it's in it's beta stage and we need to discover the "breakability" of it so that we can;
10. Report bugs!

Those were some of things I've learnt and I believe the most annoying thing was when the software wasn't behaving as it was suppose to it was always a matter of... "was the software mucking up because it's in beta or was I mucking up that the software wasn't doing what it was suppose to..."

It was a good experience at the end of the day!

be a friend to your customer

Of recent when working with clients I've realized to focus on customer relationship building where the process begins with having an emotional (in a good way) element when you establish a connection with your clients.

So what is good relationship building?
Developing and maintaining a win-win partnership where both parties gain, is the essence of a good customer or client relationship. When you have a good and trustworthy relationship with your clients, you're on the path to growth and profitability. Why do I say that? Well, your customer serves as an important reference for new prospects. Their happiness and level of satisfaction serves as a marketing tool (I've seen this happen). Also, the time taken to attract a new client is shortened which might lead to lower costs for repeat business.

The ability to build good customer relationships depends on three things:

• product knowledge
• people skills; and
• your attitude

Building the relationship
To engage a customer, you need to have good product knowledge, so read all the material you can possibly get on your product, and I think using it is definately a plus! By having the right information and tools on the product, you will feel empowered to handle most questions.

Your soft skills or people skills, and your positive attidude help you in connecting with the customer. Show your sincerity in identifying what your customers value.

I hear this term quite often where "listen to your customer as opposed to merely hearing him". Where you seek to understand them from their frame of reference. Listen carefully to what they say and notice hints they about their interest.

Maintaining the relationship
To maintain good customer relationship, we need to store some data on customers' interest in order to target them selectively. I also believe that simple gestures like sending a greeting card or a thank you card do help strengthen the relationship. Also attending to their complains and attending to them punctually also do help.

Relative links in WSS 3.0 Quick Launch

Been working on WSS 3.0 recently and discovered the not so MOSSY part of it. I created a subsite within the site collection and noticed something about the Quick Launch. Adding links into the quick launch is not a problem. The problem was when you wanted to save it as a site template and reuse it somewhere else.

E.g. I have a site http://servername/division/departmentA. I've done that site and have links within the site to point to specific lists. e.g. "/division/departmentA/lists/Issues."

The problem was if I saved this template and tried to create a new site. The Quick Launch links would be persistent which is "/division/departmentA/lists/Issues". So how do I get it to point to my new site I created.

As pointed out by Rai Umair (the legend!), remove the starting slash! The working link entered in the link textbox should be "lists/Issues" (Note: no slash and link pointing from site only, without the inverted commas). Now after you press OK and come back to the page you will see that the link will change to look like the original one but it still works in new sites based of the Site’s Site Template.

One of the many things that drive you insane till midnight and someone fixes it at 1am! Try it!

Backup Script for SharePoint 2007

Thanks (Muchos Gracias) to a posting on MSD2D by Herman Vargas and my colleague, Mario Barajas for translating all the comments that were in Spanish. I've managed to modify the script for a SharePoint 2007 backup. Not the best out there, but it's something.

I have not tested the script fully and assume that it would work. The script keeps the 5 latest backup copies. You can modify the following to suit what you need:

C_BackupPath : The path where the backup resides
C_NamePrefix : Prefix of the filename of the "backup prefix". Example: SharePoint_20070228
C_SiteURL : The URL of the SharePoint Site to be backed up
C_SharePointBin: Path to the Bin directory of Sharepoint installation
C_MaxBackupPerFolder: Number of XML Manifest per C_BackupPath folder.

Below is the .vbs script:

' Description:
' Tool for planning and automating files/entries
' Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
'
' Will generate file entry names with the following style: MOSS_YYYYMMDD
' E.g.: SharePoint_20070228
' If there are more than 5 entries in the directory, then it will choose the one with the oldest date and will delete it

Option Explicit

Const C_BackupPath = "C:\Backup"
Const C_SiteURL = http://sharepointserver/site
Const C_NamePrefix = "SharePoint_"
Const C_SharePointBin = "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Bin"
Const C_MaxBackupPerFolder = 5

Dim fso, folder, filedate, f, file
Dim sBackupPrefix
Dim CntXml
Dim DeletedBackup

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

if Not fso.FolderExists(C_BackupPath) then
WScript.Echo "The folder " & C_BackupPath & " does not exist!"
WScript.Quit
end if

Set folder = fso.GetFolder(C_BackupPath)
filedate = now
Set f = Nothing

' Counts the number of XML manifests that are in the directory
CntXml=0
for each file in folder.files
if lCase(right(file.name,4)) = ".xml" then
CntXml=CntXml+1
end if
next

'WScript.Echo "CntXml... " & CntXml

DeletedBackup=""
' If it is greater than the maximum
if CntXml > C_MaxBackupPerFolder then

' Looks for the older entry/file
for each file in folder.files
if lCase(right(file.name,4)) = ".xml" then
if file.DateLastModified < deletedbackup =" lcase(Mid(file.name,1,Instr(1,file.name," filedate =" file.DateLastModified">"" then
for each file in folder.files
if lcase(mid(file.name, 1, len(DeletedBackup)))=DeletedBackup then
Set f = file
f.delete
' WScript.Echo "Deleting..." & file.name
Set f = Nothing
end if
next
end if

end if


Set folder=nothing
Set fso=nothing


' Assigns a name of the new file
sBackupPrefix = C_NamePrefix & year(now) & right("00" & Month(now),2) & right("00" & day(now),2)

Dim objShell
Dim strcmd

Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

strcmd = C_SharePointBin & "\stsadm.exe -o backup -url " & C_SiteURL & " -filename " & C_BackupPath & "\" & sBackupPrefix & ".bak -overwrite"

objShell.Exec(strCmd)

WScript.Echo ""& C_SharePointBin & "\stsadm.exe -o backup -url " & C_SiteURL & " -filename " & C_BackupPath & "\" & sBackupPrefix & ".bak -overwrite"

WScript.Echo "Backup of site collection successful"

Set objshell = nothing