The Secret Mission of the Terminator – Apple fan?

Thought you might enjoy this! Watch the ending!

Did you have a good summer break?

Hi all. Sorry about the radio silence over the past few weeks. Been extremely busy with projects and then away on holiday. I had an ultimatum from my kids….it was them or my laptop. So, no laptop or Blackberry was allowed on our trip to New York. Felt helpless…some of you may know the feeling!

(The Mistry Family at the top of Empire State Building, New York)

The weather was great, food was excellent and had a wonderful time with the family.

Anyway, I came across this rather strange chap on my holiday in New York. Check out the pictures below..…will make you laugh! This guy was actually serious and stood outside the American Museum of Natural History all day! Anyone know him? I was too afraid to ask how many offers he had so far!

(click picture to enlarge)

Hope you all had a fabulous summer!

EPM2007/2010 – Scheduling your Backups & Other Services

Applies to: EPM2007/2010 | Administrators

Already have Microsoft EPM deployed? Have you planned your SQL DB or Farm backups around other automated service run-times?

The system services and where to set is shown below. 

Item	Service	Where to Find/Set?
1	Resource Capacity	: PWA > Server Settings > Additional Server Settings
2	AD Synch for Enterprise Resource Pool	: PWA > Server Settings > Active Directory Resource Pool Synchronization
3	AD Synch for User Groups	: PWA > Server Settings > Manage Users > Active Directory Synch Options
4	SQL DB Backups & Maintenance plans	: SQL database server 2005/2008 Management Studio
5	OLAP Cube Build	: PWA > Server Settings > Cube Build settings
6	Message Queue Cleanups	: PWA > Server Settings > Queue Settings > Cleanup Interval Offset (for Project and Timesheet)
7	Email Alerts and Reminders	: PWA > Server Settings > Alerts and Reminders
8	Other SharePoint Timer Jobs?	: Any other SharePoint Timer Jobs for example Farm backups
9	Custom Jobs?	: Any other custom event jobs including integration with other systems

I would recommend designing a good schedule which incorporates the services/functionality used in your deployment. Remember, the run times will depend on your deployment i.e. data, system performance etc. You may have to go through few iterations to get to an optimum schedule that works for your organisation. An example is shown below.

(click picture to enlarge)

Hope this helps!

SQL Server 2005/2008 – Latest Patches and Planned Updates

Here is some info received from the Microsoft SQL Server team regarding the planned updates;

• SQL Server 2008 SP2. Microsoft targets release in Q3/CY2010.
• SQL Server 2005 SP4 release is planned for Q4/CY2010. Extended support for SQL Server 2005 will be available through 4/12/2016.  Please see http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/ for specifics.

Latest CUs (post current Service Packs);

• SQL2005: SP3 CU#9 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980176/en-us)
• SQL2008: SP1 CU#7 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979065/en-us)

Note: Install current Services Packs prior to latest CUs.

Current Service Packs;

• SQL2005: SP3 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=ae7387c3-348c-4faa-8ae5-949fdfbe59c4&displaylang=en)
• SQL2008: SP1 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=66ab3dbb-bf3e-4f46-9559-ccc6a4f9dc19&displaylang=en)

Link between project management excellence and long-term success

Here is an interesting article that I found very enlightening.

This is extract from ‘Closing the gap’: The link between project management excellence and long-term success is an Economist
Intelligence Unit briefing paper, sponsored by Oracle. The Economist Intelligence Unit conducted the survey and analysis, and wrote the report.

(click picture to download copy of paper)

Note: The report was based on a survey of 213 senior executives and project managers worldwide and in-depth interviews with nine executives and project management experts in the fields of industrial manufacturing; architecture, engineering and construction; aerospace and defence; mining and metals; pulp and paper; and utilities, oil and gas.

Conclusion

To be successful, companies should consider the following best practices;

• To maintain a competitive advantage and ensure that projects generate maximum value for the company, business leaders must link every project management decision, from the choosing of projects to the way teams will measure outcomes, to the strategic goals of the organisation.
• Training, mentoring and other development activities for project management professionals should be tied to specific skills gaps and career planning.
• To prove that a project was a success, it is necessary to measure more than timeliness and adherence to budget; companies should also measure outcomes against project goals, determine whether the project delivered bottom-line results and assess the satisfaction of clients and stakeholders with the project.
• A lessons-learned database, in which project teams document project challenges and how they were handled, is a valuable tool for avoiding mistakes in the future.
• Leaders who continue to focus on improving project management strategies and methodologies as the economy rebounds will garner the greatest long-term success.

Hope this helps in understanding the relevance and importance of structured Project Management processes within the organisation.

Project 2007 – Visual Reports, create stunning Project Reports!

Applies to: Project 2007

Struggling to analyse project data? Want to easily extract Microsoft Project data to Excel? Want to create stunning Project Reports?

You can launch Visual Reports via the Reports menu button on the toolbar within Microsoft Project 2007 (standard and professional).

Note: Also refer to my earlier post ‘P2007 – Analysis Toolbar, where is ‘Analyze Timescaled data in Excel’?’.

 

(click picture to enlarge)

 

All of the templates you see listed in the dialog are example templates that are shipped to help get you started. If you create a new template and save it in your templates folder it will also show up here. You can even choose to include templates from another location such as a public share. Ideal for setting reporting standards. When you create or edit a template you can specify which project fields and custom fields to include in the template.

The following table shows the list of Visual Reports, grouped by category;

Name	Type	Description
Task Usage
Cash Flow Report	Excel	This report shows a bar graph with cost and cumulative cost amounts illustrated over time.
Resource Usage
Cash Flow Report	Visio	This report shows planned and actual costs for your project over time. Costs are broken down by resource type (work, material, and cost). An indicator shows if planned costs exceed baseline costs.
Resource Availability Report	Visio	This report shows the work and remaining availability for your project's resources, broken down by resource type (work, material, and cost). A red flag is displayed next to each resource that is over allocated.
Resource Cost Summary Report	Excel	This report shows a pie chart that illustrates the division of resource cost between the three resource types: cost, material, and work. Refer to example report in my earlier post ‘What Are My Project Costs by Resource Type for Next Period? Part 2’.
Resource Work Availability Report	Excel	This report shows a bar graph with total capacity, work, and remaining availability for work resources illustrated over time.
Resource Work Summary Report	Excel	This report shows a bar graph with total resource capacity, work, remaining availability, and actual work illustrated in work units.
Assignment Usage
Baseline Cost Report	Excel	This report shows a bar graph with baseline cost, planned cost, and actual cost for your project illustrated across tasks.
Baseline Report	Visio	This report shows a diagram of your project broken down by quarter, then by task. This report compares planned work and cost to baseline work and cost. Indicators are used to show when planned work exceeds baseline work, and when planned cost exceeds baseline cost.
Baseline Work Report	Excel	This report shows a bar graph with baseline work, planned work, and actual work for your project illustrated across tasks.
Budget Cost Report	Excel	This report shows a bar graph with budget cost, baseline cost, planned cost, and actual cost illustrated over time.
Budget Work Report	Excel	This report shows a bar graph with budget work, baseline work, planned work, and actual work illustrated over time.
Earned Value Over Time Report	Excel	This report shows a chart that plots AC (actual cost of work performed), planned value (budgeted cost of work scheduled), and earned value (budgeted cost of work performed) over time.   Note: My example above include only Earned Value and Planned Value.
Task Summary
Critical Tasks Status Report	Visio	This report shows a diagram showing the work and remaining work for both critical and non-critical tasks. The data bar indicates the percent of work complete.
Assignment Summary
Task Status Report	Visio	This report shows a diagram of the work and percent of work complete for tasks in your project, with symbols indicating when baseline work exceeds work, when baseline work equals work, and when work exceeds baseline work. The data bar indicates the percent of work complete.
Resource Status Report	Visio	This report shows a diagram of the work and cost values for each of your project's resources. The percent of work complete is indicated by the shading in each of the boxes on the diagram. The shading gets darker as the resource nears completion of the assigned work.
Resource Summary
Resource Remaining Work Report	Excel	This report shows a bar graph with remaining work and actual work for each work resource, illustrated in work units.

Enjoy reporting! You can contact me (pj@projectsolution.co.uk) if you have any queries or want a demonstration of the reporting capabilities of Microsoft Project 2007.

Cumulative Update Package 9 for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3

 

Cumulative Update Package 9 for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3

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Cumulative Update Package 9 for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3