Friday 18 November 2011

FREE Add-on to Un-Publish Completed Tasks – www.EPMAppStore.com


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Un-publish Completed EPM Project Tasks

Automatically set completed Project Tasks to not publish to Project Web App (PWA). Removes clutter of completed tasks from Team Member views (My Tasks & My Timesheets)
Get the Team focused on getting the work done and improve adoption of EPM!!

Get your FREE Download from; www.EPMAPPStore.com 

Thursday 17 November 2011

SharePoint Usage Survey Results from OpenText.com

Over 2100 people participated in their survey: how are Businesses Using SharePoint?

Some of the more interesting results include:

  • #1 Challenge is End User Adoption
  • 44% of companies lack a training program
  • 35% considering or using SharePoint in the Cloud

These results aren’t unexpected! I will share my take and field experience of this in a following post.

Microsoft EPM/SP 2010 – SP1, How it Impacts you & the Mystery behind Patching (FREE MPUG Webinar)

Intended Audience/Role: PMs, PMO and EPM/SharePoint 2010 Administrators

Description

Eager to upgrade to Microsoft EPM/SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1, but afraid of breaking something in the process?

Join veteran Microsoft EPM consultant, PJ Mistry, for this FREE 1.5 hour webinar discussing the ins and outs of Service Pack1. PJ will discuss how this will impact you if you are an existing user and thinking about upgrading and also the mystery behind the patching process. In this webinar, you will learn;

1. The key fixes and enhancements include in SP1.

2. Practical things you should consider and have in place before taking the leap towards patching.

3. Approach and best practices for patching your EPM/SharePoint environment. Applies to Service Packs and Cumulative Updates.

There are many myths and some uncertainty about how best to implement software updates for EPM/SharePoint. Attending this webinar will bring you a step closer to the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Pointing upRegister for Webinars

Pointing upAbout the Presenter

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PJ Mistry is the Director of Projects at Project Solution Ltd, based in Cambridge, United Kingdom. He is an avid evangelist of Microsoft SharePoint and Enterprise Project Management (EPM) with over 12 years hands-on field experience. His achievements include 10,000 user rollout of EPM and integration with SAP. His technical expertise has been a key ingredient in the development of some of the add-ons that fill the key gaps in the out-of-box offering/ capability of Microsoft SharePoint & EPM. To learn more visit: www.EPMAPPStore.com. Contact him at: PJ@ProjectSolution.com. Follow him on Twitter @EPMSolution or blog www.EPMGuy.com.

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Resource Management In SharePoint Using EPM Live’s WorkEngine (FREE Webinars)

Microsoft SharePoint is a widely used collaborative platform that is commonly deployed for content management and general collaboration. EPM Live’s WorkEngine adds additional value to your existing investment in SharePoint by providing enterprise resource management tools and capabilities right in a SharePoint environment (Foundation or Server).

The ability to effectively plan and allocate limited resources against all of your project and work demands requires tools for visibility, analysis and execution. Today, you can have such tools without implementing yet another expensive, standalone solution. WorkEngine provides capabilities that enable your SharePoint users to perform:

  • Resource capacity planning
  • Resource scheduling
  • Analysis of resource capacity vs. demand
  • Resource scenario modelling
  • Online time reporting and progress updates
  • Comprehensive resource reporting and dashboards

Join us to learn how resource management can be successfully performed by leveraging and extending existing Microsoft SharePoint technology. These capabilities are offered to be deployed in your own Microsoft SharePoint environment, or as an online/SaaS service.​

Pointing upRegister for Webinars

If you are unable to attend the webcast this Thursday we invite you to register for the encore presentation of this webinar on November 30, 2011.

  • Title:      Resource Management In SharePoint Using EPM Live’s WorkEngine
  • Date:     Wednesday, November 30, 2011
  • Time:     4:00 PM - 5:00 PM GMT (11:00a – 12:00p EST)
  • Register: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/276430014

Delivering Business-Critical Solutions with SharePoint 2010 – Microsoft Download

Siloed information and processes can limit business performance and consume IT resources. This white paper discusses how SharePoint 2010 can connect users to business data that currently resides in disparate systems, allowing solutions that streamline processes and result in better, faster decisions by your organization.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28133

Why People Micromanage? Learn to manage by exception using appropriate tools

Interesting Article by Ron Ashkenas in HBR;

Over the past few decades I've worked with hundreds of managers, and many complain that they work for micromanagers. But strangely I don't recall anyone who ever admitted to being one.

I was thinking about this incongruity while working with a group of senior managers from a manufacturing division who were trying to streamline their operational reporting processes. During the meeting, the team listed their various monthly reports and the review meetings that accompanied them.

From the discussion it became clear that the same data was being sliced, diced, and formatted in many ways and then being checked and rechecked by a variety of managers at different levels. In addition, ad-hoc reports were being created in response to particular questions raised by the regular reports. In other words, operational reporting had become a cottage industry that sucked up time and resources.

None of the senior managers found this process productive, and they knew that their people complained about being "micromanaged to death." At the same time, none of them felt accountable for having created this problem. Somehow this burdensome, costly culture of micromanagement happened unintentionally.

So if nobody's waking up in the morning intending to be a micromanager, then why do people still feel micromanaged? Let me suggest two mostly unconscious reasons:

Managers worry about being disconnected. As managers rise through the ranks, they often become concerned that they've lost touch with the actual work of the organization. Because they have less direct contact with the shop floor or customers, they start to feel isolated. One way of reducing this anxiety is to seek information in as many ways as possible — through reports, meetings, and one-on-one conversations. But since this attempt to stay connected is largely unplanned and driven by idiosyncratic anxiety, the result is that managers at different levels and functions end up looking at the same basic data in many different ways.

Managers stay in familiar operational territory. Many managers are unable to let go of their old job or their old ways of doing their job. It's the well-worn saying: "What got you here won't get you there." Many managers are promoted based on their ability to achieve operational goals, manage budgets, control their numbers, and solve problems. However, at higher levels managers usually need to dial down their operational focus and learn how to be more strategic. To do so, managers have to trust their people to manage day-to-day operations and coach them as needed, rather than trying to do it for them. For many managers this is a difficult transition and they unconsciously continue to spend time in the more comfortable operational realm of their subordinates.

When the unconscious need for more direct information converges with a manager's tendency towards operational focus, micromanagement is often the result. And when many managers operate this way, we end up with the complex micromanagement culture described above.

The good news is that once you discover these unconscious patterns, it's possible to do something about them. The divisional manufacturing meeting that I attended is a good example. During the discussion, managers began to confront their patterns — both individually and as a team — and agreed to eliminate or modify certain reports and reviews. They also agreed to continue holding regular meetings to recalibrate their information appetite.

The message here is that with every promotion, managers need to learn a little more about how to lead using an "instrument panel" instead of direct observation. In doing this, managers need to work together to standardize the cockpits — so that the instruments and information not only make sense to them, but don't become overwhelming for everyone else.

What's your experience with micromanagement?

Why People Micromanage - Ron Ashkenas - Harvard Business Review

Wednesday 2 November 2011

SharePoint 2010 SP1 and June CU Upgrade issues

I came across some issues after upgrading to June 2011 CU and wanted to share this with the rest of you. If any of these issues is a concern, then you should hold off applying June 2011 CU and apply Aug 2011 CU instead. See latest updates here.

There are some issues reported by end users on SharePoint 2010 SP1 and June CU. You may need to verify on your end. Here is the list of the potential issues for your reference from Harry Chen's blog.


1. Security validation error when people picker is on an infopath form.
http://ghamson.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/security-validation-issue-form-services-issue-with-sp1june-2011-cu-release-2-in-sp2010-sharepoint-msproject-projectserver/

2. Cannot provision new PWA sites through the GUI. Workaround is to create via powershell.  We have verified this is an issues on SP1 and June CU.
http://projectserverblogs.com/?p=4991

3. Unable to open Performance Point Dashboard Designer after SP1/June CU
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010general/thread/4c71d238-d4ff-4320-833b-47985b36a8e1

4. JS Bug in grouped view since SP1?
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010general/thread/ea9e87d5-5b5f-408e-a1bc-a6326ef458ad

5. SP 2010 Document Library Column "Show Filter Choices" is not ...
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010general/thread/70c6cc25-d1c9-42cd-8d3d-463252e4e1f0

6.Sharepoint Wiki Link Creation Failing
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010general/thread/d03f842b-71ae-492c-b083-2abde53068a9

7. SP2010 Column Filter causing Unable to display Web Part error and ...
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010general/thread/44cfd798-be7a-4436-8786-bd44049e7def

8. Security validation issue
http://www.infopathdev.com/forums/p/20173/70028.aspx

9. June CU Unique Permissions \ People Picker Issue - This has been confirmed in our environments and Microsoft claimed it will be fixed in August CU.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/eu/sharepoint2010setup/thread/7669d518-f7c9-4be4-9cd7-a1d5eae5ddd7


10. Update-SPProfilePhotoStore not working after SP1 + CU June 2011 - We are having issues to import pictures and it is an issue.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010setup/thread/b6f1789c-de63-429d-ab22-4bb5dd953770

11. BI status list display form missing source list after upgrade
http://sharepointconnoisseur.blogspot.com/2011/09/sharepoint-2010-sp1-and-june-cu-upgrade_14.html

SharePoint Connoisseur: SharePoint 2010 SP1 and June CU Upgrade issue #3 - Broken functions