Planning your project has never been easier, with Project 2010.

• Easier Planning with User-Controlled Scheduling

  With easier and more intuitive choices, Microsoft® Project Professional 2010 delivers better experiences so you can be more productive and realize amazing results. Individuals, teams, and the enterprise enjoy powerful, visually enhanced ways to manage a wide range of projects—simplifying planning, collaboration, and resource allocation. Read More…

• Enhanced Copy & Paste

  The copy-and-paste function is alive and well. In fact, it is even better than ever in Microsoft Project Professional 2010 because now you can copy and paste content and retain key formatting such as outline levels and column headings. It could be as simple as copying a task list from an e-mail message, or moving a complete plan from Project to Microsoft Excel 2010. Either way, with improved copy-and-paste capabilities in Project 2010, you will be more effective setting up project plans and communicating relevant project information. Read More…

• Intuitive Access With The Ribbon

  With the Microsoft Office Fluent™ user interface incorporated into Project 2010, you will find it much more intuitive to access relevant features and functions based on how you plan, track, and report on projects. Whether you are managing your tasks, resources, project information, or you simply need to communicate more effectively, the Ribbon serves up relevant commands in a manner that matches the way you work. The following is just one example of how easy it is to format your Gantt chart in Project 2010 for better communication. Read More…

• Add Key Milestones To The Timeline View

  One of the best new features in Microsoft Project 2010 is the Timeline view. The Timeline provides you with a high-level, “big picture” overview of the entire project. You can easily add key milestones or other key tasks to create a concise project summary for more effective communication to key stakeholders. When you are ready, you can send it off in an e-mail, add it to a presentation, or simply print it for an eye-catching, executive-style report. Read More…

• Add A New Column & Save as a Custom Table

  Quickly customize the information you work with by using the Add New Column feature.The Add New Column feature Microsoft Project 2010 helps you manage and communicate your project information. The default Gantt Chart view contains standard columns such as Task Name, Duration, Start, Finish, Predecessors, and Resources. But there will be plenty of times when you might want to add more columns, such as Work or Costs, and you can even save your modified view as a new table for future use. Read More…

• Manage Resources With The Team Planner

  In the Team Planner view in Microsoft Project Professional 2010 you can see at a glance what tasks have been assigned to resources. With a simple dragging motion you can change existing assignments to over allocated resources or assign currently unassigned tasks to available resources. In the Team Planner view you’ll find that managing resources just got a whole lot easier. Read More…

• Add Project Summary Tasks & Outline Numbers

  With Microsoft Project 2010 it’s easy to add a top-level summary task to roll up your entire project to one summary-level line. This lets you see the total duration, and start and finish dates for the entire project. You can even roll up other project details, like costs or work, if these fields are part of your schedule. In addition, you can add a project summary task to your Timeline view to create more effective presentations. An additional option is adding outline numbers for tasks, such as 1.1 or 1.2, based on the location of the task in your plan. Outline numbering updates automatically if you move or add tasks. Read More…

• Make Smart Scheduling Decisions With Task Inspector

  It’s likely that occasionally you’ll notice red underlines on dates in your Microsoft Project 2010 project plan. These indicate possible scheduling conflicts that will require your attention to resolve. You can use the new Task Inspector tool to help you identify precisely what is causing the problem, and to choose the best corrective action to take. For instance, in the following example, you can see that the Design phase is scheduled to end sooner than the Design Complete milestone, which causes a scheduling conflict. Read More…

• Sync With SharePoint

  With a simple click you can easily sync your Microsoft Project Professional 2010 project plan with Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 (formerly Windows SharePoint Services) for better collaboration with project stakeholders, including team members and executives. Users can view project information as a task list (similar to the Gantt Chart view) in SharePoint Foundation 2010, and syncing is bidirectional so project managers can send and receive task status updates—and all stakeholders stay informed. Read More…

• Focus On Data With AutoFilter

  Using filters and highlights in Microsoft Project 2010, you can quickly focus on specific parts of your project plan for further analysis and communication. Filters are used to apply specific conditions to a set of tasks—to eliminate from view the tasks that do not meet the condition; highlights focus on or emphasize tasks that do meet a set of conditions. Read More…

Other Resources

• View Project Demos
• Project Ribbon Guide
• Project 2010 Help
• Project Server 2010 Help

Overview

Tools used to administer and work with Project Server 2010. This release contains the Project Server Settings Backup and Restore tool (playbooks).

The Microsoft Project Server 2010 Server Settings Backup/Restore tool is part of the Project Server 2010 Project Resource Kit (PRK). It enables Project Server 2010 administrators to back up server settings from a selected Project Server 2010 instance to an XML or binary .playbook file. The tool can then restore the server settings to another Project Server 2010 instance. The data from the exported XML (or binary) file is what is imported to the target Project Server 2010 instance. This tool can be especially useful when you move server settings from a test to a production environment, but could also be used to generate a simple “playbook” of custom fields and views (for example, for different industries).

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg128952.aspx

Download Tool

Quick Details

Instructions

Follow the steps in this article to migrate your SharePoint websites from Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 on a server running Windows® Small Business Server 2008.

Migration Steps – Overview

In this section lists the steps necessary to install SharePoint Foundation 2010 on a server running Windows Small Business Server 2008, and then to migrate your WSS 3.0 websites to SharePoint Foundation 2010. Follow the steps in the order listed to migrate successfully.

• Step 1: Install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2)
• Step 2: Run the pre-upgrade checker for SharePoint Foundation 2010
• Step 3: Back up the existing data on your server
• Step 4: Back up the Windows Internal Database files
• Step 5: Uninstall Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and edit the Registry
• Step 6: Install Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 in Farm mode
• Step 7: Remove the default Web application in SharePoint Central Administration
• Step 8: Create a new SharePoint application in SharePoint Central Administration
• Step 9: Detach the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 database from Windows Internal Database
• Step 10: Connect the ShareWebDb database to SQL Server 2008
• Step 11: Remove the existing content database
• Step 12: Connect the ShareWebDb content database
• Step 13: Recreate the original internal website environment
• Step 14: Install Windows Small Business Server 2008 Update Rollup 4
• Step 15: Edit the site bindings for the companyweb site

Download Details:

Other Resources:

• Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008) – Overview
• Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010

This is something out of the character for my blog.

- Cash

“There is a saying, ‘it’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters’. It applies to every life situation including work,” blogger and CareerOne editor Kate Southam says.

“When it comes to dealing with difficult people at work the action you take can mean the difference between enjoying your job or laying awake at night dreading the sound of the alarm.”

Act now and tackle that troublesome coworker using some of these strategies.

The Steamroller

Steamrollers are generally hostile, aggressive, confrontational and feel they are always right. They can be the main cause of negativity in the office, and lead to anxiousness in others.

Resolution: Be up front and talk to them. Tell them that this type of communication is ineffective and it’s best for the office if they treat future situations differently.

The Perfectionist

The Perfectionist has unrealistic expectations of how the end product should look, but nothing will ever meet said expectations. Because of this, perfectionists can be highly irritatable and unstable. This is generally due to their own insecurities.

Resolution: Don’t play into their hands. Stand up for yourself and be firm and decisive. If you think you have done an excellent job, say so. If and when they have a tantrum, do not stop them. Just walk away or ask them to have it elsewhere.

The Not-My-Jobber

Every office has one of these. If a given task isn’t written into their job description, they’ll avoid doing it, or try to palm it off to another coworker. This is mainly due to a lack of job satisfaction, and general laziness.

Resolution: You could go to the Not-My-Jobbers’ boss and get their okay to ask the Not-My-Jobber to help out. Be careful to keep a neutral or even upbeat tone. “Hi Mitch. I’m thinking of asking Helen to give us a hand with the invites for the party. Is that okay with you?” Most of the time the manager will approve. Now skip along to Helen with a smile and say, “I know it is not usually your job but we need a hand with the invites and Mitch asked if you would help out.” Confrontation is also a tool but don’t be hostile. “I realise that strictly speaking Helen this is not your job but we need a hand and we all have to pitch in from time to time.”

The Ice Queen

The Ice Queen is not to be trusted. They don’t see the point in wasting time communicating and being friendly to people below them as they don’t gain anything.

Resolution: The key here is not to play them at their own game. You do not want to act like this person. Be professional when you do have to interact. Never provide more information than you have to – they will use it against you – and whatever you do, always share your ideas before telling the Ice Queen.

The Rumourmonger

Due to the Rumourmonger’s feelings of a lack of control, they counter this by spreading rumours around the office. By doing this, they gain a sense of empowerment and feel they have regained that loss of control.

Resolution: If the rumour is about you then walk right up in the midst of the office and say “Hi Ted. There is a rumour going around that you are spreading lies about me being pregnant. I am sure you would never do anything that stupid or dishonest. Right?” Or you could do what HR would tell you to do and just confront them outright.

The Sacrificer

Sacrificers will come in early, stay late, and do whatever task is given them, no matter how busy they are. But it comes at a price. They’ll bitch and moan about their workload and feel that their hard work is unappreciated.

Resolution: If the Sacrificer limits him/herself to just telling everyone how hard they work then probably all he or she needs is a bit of public recognition. If she/he is really a good guy who is over worked then your comments will hopefully make them feel supported and get the boss thinking about shifting some of the Sacrificers responsibilities to someone else. Or if they’re just a jerk, you could just smile sadly at the Sacrificer and then ignore them. You will probably live longer.

The Eggshell

Super sensitive, Eggshells can misconstrue the tiniest of comments and twist it to their negative desires.

Resolution: The key here is to ensure that sourpuss Eggshells does not set the tone in the office. Get together with other co-workers to keep up the laughter, enthusiasm and energy. Be careful not to bully or shame the person but it is their behaviour issue so don’t let them contaminate everyone else.

The Resister

The Resister tends to be stuck in their own ways and thus oppose any change in the office without voicing an opinion. This may cause the Resister to subtly sabotage the change or avoid implementing it.

Resolution: Try and involve the Resister through the development and process of the change, if a major change occurs. If a minor change occurs, speak to the Resister about how they feel and on how to make them feel more comfortable with the change.

The Pessimist

The Pessimist tends to see the world as a glass half-empty, nothing or noone is ever really good enough hence the Pessimist is hard to satisfy.

Resolution: It’s hard to change someones perception on the world, therefore try and be the positive change in order to influence some positive habits.

The Criticizer

According to the Criticizer, if they say the world is flat, there is no point in arguing. The Criticizer always believes he/she is right rather than listening to another’s point of view.

Resolution: Stay strong and confident, be persistent on the Criticizer’s reasons and evidence as to why he/she chose that point of view and then explain yours.

The Crybaby

Getting your way always in the adult world is a sweet fantasy however in the real world the Crybaby lives that fantasy. They tend to withdraw, throw a tantrum or create a scene in public in order to get what they want.

Resolution: Crybabies tend to have a lack of support in their life, try and create a supportive environment to lower the tension and pressure.

The Self-Castigator

The Self-Castigator always sees the flaws in themselves, there is always a sense of self-doubt in many aspects of life including work which can lead to their own demise.

Resolution: Find a strategy that will build their self-esteem, either pay special attention to their work and encourage or give some importance to he/she rather than watching them fall.

The Scapegoat

Any mistake made or any problem caused, the Scapegoat tends to focus the blame on someone else except on themselves especially when they are in a negative mood.

Resolution: Give examples or evidence of how their mistakes were the problem, but don’t place full blame on the Scapegoat or they will continue to avoid any sort of responsibility to the problem.

The Micro

The Micro have a habit of putting every little thing under the microscope in order to focus on the little mistakes rather than the big picture.

Resolution: Have the Micro focus on a big goal or evaluate the main objectives of a certain assignment or project in order to train them to open their eyes a little wider.

– according to Gary S. Topchik, author of Managing Workplace Negativity and Kate Southam, blogger and editor of CareerOne.

Project 2010—Simple & Intuitive

Project 2010 offers easier and more intuitive experiences to help you select the right resources, collaborate with your team and meet crucial deadlines. Watch this demo to see how Project 2010 can help you effectively manage a wide range of projects and programs.

Project Server 2010—Unified Project and Portfolio Management

Project Server 2010, built on SharePoint Server 2010, delivers tailored work management solutions for individuals, teams, and the enterprise. Watch this demo to learn how Project Server 2010 can help your business deliver better performance.

User Controlled Scheduling and Project Professional 2010

Project Professional 2010 combines the flexibility and ease of Microsoft Excel with the power of the Project scheduling engine. Watch this demo to learn how user-controlled scheduling can help you create plans at any level of detail that’s right for your project.

Team Planner and Project Professional 2010

Whether you need to find a resource or change assigned tasks, the Team Planner View in Project Professional 2010 can help you quickly manage project work. Watch this demo to see how team planner uses simple click and drag to plan, move, or transfer resource assignments.

SharePoint 2010 and Project Professional 2010

Connect Project Professional 2010 with SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010. Watch this demo to learn how the new Task List Synchronization provides a simple and easy-to-use project collaboration environment for project teams.

More Resources

• Quick Start 2010 Training
• Books
• Instructor-Led Training
• Events

Yesterday went to one of my customer and was questioned about managing critical path in Microsoft Project. So here it is all for you my friend Craig. In the end of post an excellent video link is available which very clearly describes “Critical Path in Microsoft Project”.

You may wonder, “What ultimately determines the length of my project?” The answer is the critical path, which is the series of tasks that dictates the finish date of the project. If one task on the critical path moves, the end date of the project will move as well.

How does Project 2007 calculate the critical path?

Project 2007 defines critical tasks as those that have no slack (float). However, you can change when a task becomes critical. For example, you can make a task critical if it has one or two days of slack. This is helpful if you want to be alerted to tasks becoming critical when you still have a day or two of buffer.

Slack is determined by the early finish and late finish dates of the tasks in your schedule. An early finish date is the earliest date that the task could finish, based on its start date and scheduled duration. A late finish date is the latest date that the task can finish without delaying the project finish.

The difference between early finish and late finish dates determines the amount of slack. For critical path tasks (tasks that have no slack), the early finish and late finish dates are identical.

What is a critical task?

Tasks that cannot be delayed without affecting the project finish date are the critical tasks. In a typical project, many tasks have some slack and can therefore be delayed a bit without delaying other tasks or affecting the project finish date.

As you modify tasks to resolve overallocations, adjust costs, or revise scope, be aware of the critical tasks and that changes to them will affect your project finish date. Critical tasks make up the schedule’s critical path.

A task is critical if it meets any one of the following conditions:

• It has no slack (or float).
• It has a Must Start On (MSO) or Must Finish On (MFO) date constraint.
• It has an As Late As Possible (ALAP) constraint in a project scheduled from a start date.
• It has an As Soon As Possible (ASAP) constraint in a project scheduled from a finish date.
• It has a finish date that is the same as or beyond its deadline date.

A task stops being critical when it’s completed, because it can no longer affect the completion of successor tasks or the project finish date.

Highlight the critical path

You can show the critical path in the Detail Gantt view.

1. On the View menu, click More Views.
2. Click Detail Gantt, and then click Apply.

You can also show the critical path with the Gantt Chart Wizard.

1. On the View menu, click Gantt Chart.
2. Click Gantt Chart Wizard .
3. Follow the Gantt Chart Wizard instructions to format the critical path.

By default, the critical task Gantt and link lines are red.

Show only the critical path

1. Go to a Gantt Chart view, if you are not in one already.
2. On the View tab, in the Data group, click the Filter list and then click Critical.
3. To display all tasks again, in the Filter list, click No Filter.

To display all tasks again, in the Filter list, click All Tasks.

Tip To quickly see the list of tasks on the critical path, in the current view, on the Project menu, point to Group by, and then click Critical. The critical path tasks are listed together under the heading Critical.

What does the critical path show about your project?

By knowing and tracking the critical path for your project, as well as the resources assigned to critical tasks, you can determine which tasks can affect your project’s finish date and whether your project will finish on time.

The top sequence of tasks has no slack (also called “float”), and therefore drives the finish date of the project. All tasks in this sequence are on the critical path and are called critical tasks. In the Detail Gantt view of Microsoft Office Project 2007, critical tasks appear in red.

The lower sequence of tasks does not drive the finish date of the project, and therefore the tasks are not critical. In the Detail Gantt view, noncritical tasks appear in blue.

Total slack (or float) is the amount of time this sequence of tasks can slip before it affects the finish date of the project. In the Detail Gantt view, total slack appears as a thin teal line.

If it’s important for your project to finish on schedule, pay close attention to the tasks on the critical path and the resources assigned to them. If a critical task takes longer than expected or a resource is suddenly unavailable for a critical task, the project will not be completed by the original finish date.

A series of tasks is generally interrelated by task dependencies. Although there are likely to be many series of interrelated tasks in your project plan, the series of tasks that will finish the latest is the project’s critical path.

Note The critical path can change as critical tasks are completed or as tasks in another series of tasks are delayed.

Other Resources:

• MS Project Tutorial – Critical Path in Microsoft Project
• Learn more about critical path analysis
• Optimize the project plan to meet the finish date
• Project 2007 Help and How-to

This project management checklist uses the “pecking order” of questions with the more powerful questions (why, how and what) asked first, followed by the less, but perhaps more specific questions (who, where and when)

What:

• What (exactly) do I want to achieve?
• What really matters to me?
• What are the objectives and outcomes of the project?
• What issue/problem or opportunity is the project addressing?
• What resources have been allocated to the project?
• What are the risks involved in the project?
• What assumptions do you need to test?
• What is the budget for the project?

Why:

• Why is the organization investing in the project?
• Why have I been asked to manage the project?

How:

• How will the situation be different when the project is successfully completed?
• How do I contribute to the organization?
• How will changes to the project be reported and approved?
• How was the budget created?
• How was the project plan created (or the timescale for the project determined)?

When:

• When does the project start?
• When is the planned finish date?

Where:

• Where are the resources for the project?
• Where will the project team be based?
• Where is the project plan?

Who:

• Who is the sponsor of the project?
• Who cares about the project?
• Who is on the project team?
• Who is affected?
• Who knows most about the situation?
• Who can help with the solution?
• Who needs to be informed?

Above article is taken from The Happy Manager website.

Other Resources:

• Project Management Guidelines
• Project Management Model

Overview

The SharePoint Site Recycle Bin is a SharePoint Foundation 2010 solution package that when deployed to a Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 or Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 server farm enables administrators to create a snapshot of subscriptions, site collections and Webs as they are deleted through the SharePoint user interface, the SharePoint Administration Tool, the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell, SharePoint 2010 Central Administration, or SharePoint Designer.

This post was originally posted at Bill Baer > SharePoint Site Recycle Bin for SharePoint 2010

Instructions

• Use the Setup and Configuration Guide to deploy the solution, once completed
• Create a Site under Site Collections
• 
• Delete the Site which you created
• 
• This will trigger the solution to create a bak file for the deleted Site in the storage area
• 
• Now create a Blank Site to restore your lost or deleted Site.
• 
• Use the Restore procedure for Sites
• 
• Refresh your Blank Site page and Volla you have successfully restored your deleted Site.
• 

The big question for me is to see how feasible will this solution be  for Project Server 2010 Project Workspaces and will it be able to restore all Project Workspace data including Issues, Risks etc and then re-link to Project Schedule published in the Project Server.

Download Details

This solution is available at Codeplex website

• WSP Soluition
  SharePoint Site Recycle Bin (application, 37K)
• Documentation
  SharePoint Site Recycle Bin Setup and Configuration Guide

Keep following the blog for more exciting stuff !

Cash

This tool is designed to make updates to the web.config files for your FBA web application, central admin, and the STS virtual directory to support FBA.

This post was originally posted at Share-n-dipity > SharePoint 2010 Forms Based Authentication Configuration Manager by speschka

Just downloaded it and going to have try

Important

Take complete farm backup of your SharePoint,Its highly recommended by the author.

I am going to deploy this solution onto my test SharePoint HyperV environment and lets see how it goes.

Download here

How to configure instructions are included.

FBAConfigMgr.zip

Other Resources

• Configure forms-based authentication

The MOSSRAP Scoping Tool verifies connectivity requirements, permissions requirements, and other prerequisites for successful execution of the MOSSRAP toolset. This is done by remotely querying the servers in the SharePoint farm. This information is required before proceeding with the request process.

Description

The tool does NOT make any changes to the environment. It simply uses standard operations such as WMI queries, SQL queries, port queries and so on.  It is completely read-only.
The tool is serial in nature and only attempts to perform a single check against a single server at a time.  This means there should be relatively minimal network or target system overhead while the tool is running.  This also means it may take it several minutes to complete depending upon the size of the farm.

Who should run this tool?

The scoping tool must be run using an account that has:

• Member of the local Administrators group on every SharePoint server in the farm
• Member of the local Administrators group on every SQL server in the farm
• Read permissions to every site in the farm (this can be granted via the web application policy in Central Administration)
• Full permissions to the Central Administration site and the personalisation services for each Shared Services Provider (SSP) in the farm.
• Member of the sysadmin role on every SQL instance used by the farm

What areas it report on?

The scoping tool runs through below areas to collect data and create report:

• Port 135 (Netbios) Check to ensure port 135 is not blocked by a firewall.
• Port 139 (Netbios) Check to ensure port 139 is not blocked by a firewall.
• Port 445 (Microsoft-DS) Check to ensure port 445 is not blocked by a firewall.
• Farm Topology The Farm Topology Check determines the topology and components within the SharePoint farm which will be used to run additional tests.
• Farm Admin The Farm Admin Check verifies that the current logged on user has rights to access the farm which is required during your Risk Assessment from the tools machine
• Metabase Access The Metabase check ensures that the IIS metabase can be queried remotely
• Ping During the Risk Assessment network access to all machines is required.  This check attempts to ping the remote machines via the NetBIOS name.
• Remote Registry Access to the remote registry from the tools machine is required during your Risk Assessment.  This check attempts to open the HKLM registry hive via the remote registry service.
• Admin Shares Access to administrative shares is required during your Risk Assessment from the tools machine.  This check attempts to enumerate through the administrative shares by querying the Win32_Shares WMI class.
• Admin Access Access to the admin shares on the every server in the farm is required during your Risk Assessment.
• Query Logman Logman.exe is used during the Risk Assessment to collect performance counters from the tools machine.  This check ensures Logman.exe works against remote machines by running ‘logman.exe /query /s [machine]‘.
• Log Parser 2.2 Logparser.exe is used during the Risk Assessment to collect and display information.  This check verifies that LogParser 2.2 is installed on the local machine.
• Windows Update Service Running This check verifies that the Windows Update service is running as required by the MBSA component during your Risk Assessment.
• Latest Version of Windows Update Agent Installed The Automatic Updates service is used to ensure consistent application of Security and Critical Updates.
• MBSA Installed Microsoft Baseline Security Assessment (MBSA) is used during the Risk Assessment to determine missing hotfixes. This check verifies that MBSA is installed on the local machine.
• SysAdmin on Databases Checks to verify that the current user is a sysadmin on the content database instances.  This is required in order to run the SQL BPA.
• Server Service Running File and Print Services for Microsoft are required during your Risk Assessment for access to resources on the Servers and Nodes being checked. This check verifies that access to the Server Service is successful.
• OS Language (Tools) Determines if the installed operating system Language is English on the computer running the tool.  Currently, the tools machine must run an English language Windows Server operating system. Target systems may be non-English OS.
• OS Locale (Tools) Determines if the installed operating system Locale is English (United States) on the computer running the tool.  Currently, the tools machine must have Locale set as English (United States). Target systems may have non-English (United States) Locale.
• Correct .NET Libraries Installed .NET Framework version 3.5 SP1 must be installed to ensure Tools are able to perform properly.
• OS and SP Supportability Check Determines if the target operating system is supported or not.  A RAP cannot be conducted against environments running unsupported products.
• Separate Tools Computer Verifies that the tools computer is not a member of the farm being evaluated.
• Loopback Check Security Feature Determines whether the loopback check security feature is enabled.
• OS and SP RAP Supportability Check Determines if the target operating system and service pack have been tested for compatibility with the RAP. A RAP can be conducted against untested environments; however the RAP content is not validated or ensured to be functional.  The delivery should proceed at the risk of the customer.

Got my test SharePoint 2010 environment checked, surprised with the result 3 failure and 4 warnings not bad lol.

Download Details

Related Resources

• Risk and Health Assessment Program for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Datasheet