Alternative to Project Server 2010 Playbook utility - looking for beta testers

Over last 2 years our company participated in over 50 Project Server 2010 implementation projects (small and big ones, clear deployments, upgrades and PWA instances merge) via partners and directly. There are 2 possible hosting scenarios - on-premise and hosted; but there is always a problem no matter where your are hosted: How to migrate configuration from one development environment (at customer or at your development / staging servers) to the test servers and then to the production servers and to make sure that everything is moved correctly.

Microsoft provides a really great and FREE utility - Playbook for Project Server 2010 (included into Project Server 2010 Resource Kit), that allows to do such migrations (backup and restore configurations). There are some issues - first of all warnings on use of Playbook on production environments and secondly - in more than 50% of cases we've used the Playbook we've experienced  errors and exceptions and crashes of different kind when restoring configurations.

To optimize our deployment experience and time we spend on deployment, we've developed alternative to Playbook - FluentBooks, that supports more granular selection of items for migration and migrates items that we had most of the issues with - Fields, Lookups, Views, EPTs and PDPs. We've used it in-house for last 6 month to perform most of our deployments and decided to release it as product for other companies.
Our experience shows that use of FluentBooks allows to optimize process and cut time spent by consultants and PPM partners for configuration migrations between servers (we estimate savings over  hundred of hours for "busy" Project Server 2010 consultant within 2-3 years period) and will remove significant amount of "pain" associated with those migrations and deployments.

Quick overview of our FluentBooks functionality:

• FluentBooks support migration of Custom Fields, Lookup Tables, Views, EPTs and PDPs between Project Server 2010 environments the same way as Playbook does but we allow user to select elements that he wants to migrate (not just custom fields)
• FluentBooks is build with using PSI calls only, no database read / write operation.
• FluentBooks provides functionality for comparison of environments for difference - for example Dev and Test and you can visually see the difference and generate difference configuration.
• One great features that users can benefit from is migration of data and projects from external sources (Excel, SharePoint lists) -  FluentBooks support migration of projects (without schedules) with attributes from one environment to another (all projects with all values in project level custom fields).
• FluentBooks support import of project information with attributes and fields from Excel; it will create enterprise custom fields and lookup tables as well. It means that you can import projects from/to EPM Live, ATTask and other systems
• FluentBooks implements 2 level of validation of elements - same element UID or just same Name (in addition to other matching attributes to element)
• You do not need to deploy solutions remotely anymore - send a free version of utility and configuration to customer and they can deploy configuration without your participation
• FluentBooks work over internet (if Project Server 2010 is available via HTTP); Only NTLM authentication is supported as well as Kerberos authentication.
• FluentBooks will be licensed per user and will be tied to machine.
• Migration of Security Settings, Workflows, Timesheet / Tasks settings and other settings are not supported at this version (we plan to add Security Configuration and resource migration later functionality later but we will not replicate 100% of Playbooks functionality).
• FluentBooks is not replacing process of creation of configuration, development and customization in Project Server 2010 PWA via Server Settings - it helps to move and deploy configurations and data.

Possible usage scenarios:

• Migrate configuration from development server to test server (Project Server 2010 PWA)
• Compare 2 PWAs
• Merge configurations of 2 PWA
• Migrate projects and project information (without schedules) between PWA
• Import and export projects from Excel or from SharePoint list to PWA

We've done the internal testing and  Beta 1 testing with our partners - limited number of Microsoft PPM partners. Right now we are looking for about 10 more companies / consultants to participate in Beta 2 testing. Every company / consultant  selected to participate will receive one free license of the software for use after commercial release (we plan to release FluentBooks end of December 2011).

Please leave your comment on this blog post with your company name and email and we will contact you on your participation in Beta 2 testing.

How to repair broken PDP in Project Server 2010 / SharePoint 2010

Sometimes there are situations when you have a web part that you cannot delete or it gives you errors so you even cannot see your PDP.
There is a tiny trick: add "?contents=1" or "&contents=1" (depending where you are) and you will see a page with list of all web parts on your page. And you can delete web part that creates all those issues

Lookup error after update to SP1 + June 2011 CU

We've upgraded one server to SP1 and CU. As result - when clicking on any field with lookup table receive unexpected error:  http://screencast.com/t/tOoIionuv

Project Server 2010 - One or multiple PWA instances?

In our Project Server 2010 practice we work with various customers and see their deployment strategies, problems and great things. Today, I wanted to cover one of the major issues that big companies without centralized PMO are facing.

The problem (challenge) is - Should organizations create one PWA for entire organization or several PWA per business unit or department?

Our recommendation is ONE PWA.

One of our customers had 2 departments that started implementing project server about the same time but independently. Now - the challenge is to merge the data. 150 projects total, project sites, duplicated custom fields and names, different document library structure. It is a significant effort that is way more complex now than to have several joint meetings to discuss the approach, attributes and structure.

If fact, this was driven by requirements to isolate data between departments and this is a task for Project Server 2010 consultant / consulting company or qualified Project Server 2010 Administrator to configure security in a way that it will isolate data.

Analysis of pros and const for one PWA:

Pros:

• Executives can see all the information in one place.
• In future, departments that will start using PS (for example HR) will re-use existing approaches, practices. This significantly reduce time and investments required to start using Project Server
• Ability to overview entire resource pool in the organization and do cross-departmental resource planning
• Ability to do the cross-departmental dependencies in projects.

Cons:

• Slightly more complicated security configuration
• Anything else?

I would recommend using additional PWA for test / staging environments if there is no additional hardware available (recommendation is still to have staging / development environments as separate farms).

Feel free to comment or ask questions - I will be happy to answer.

Related blog posts:

Distribute templates to multiple PWA: http://www.projectserverblog.com/2012/02/distributing-project-templates-in.html

Merge PWAs with help of FluentBooks: http://www.projectserverblog.com/2011/12/merge-2-project-server-2010-pwa-with.html

PowerShell and Project Server 2010

FluentPro released PowerShell snap-in for FluentPS library that allows you to manage and perform actions with most of the objects in Project Server 2010 with the Powershell. Project, Tasks, Resources, Workflows, Security - just write code in PowerShell and you can automate project server activities.

You can see sample code on http://www.projectserver2010blog.com/2011/08/projectserver-2010-psi-from-powershell.html and download it from http://fluentps.codeplex.com/releases

SSRS Reports Client Side printing

From time to time we are facing customers who cannot print SSRS reports on their PCs from SharePoint or Project Server.

Solution: Install the RSClientPrint.cab file.

You can find detailed description at http://www.kodyaz.com/articles/client-side-printing-silent-deployment-of-rsclientPrint.aspx

Project Server 2010 Quick Launch shows project sites

Some of our customers complain that they can see list of all Project Sites that is added below the Libraries / Shared Documents on the left navigation in PWA.

To disable this please go to Server Settings -> Look and Feel section  (on the right) -> Quick Launch -> and uncheck the "Show menu items from MicrosoftSharePoint Foundation" checkbox.

This should solve the problem

BeMo Lite for iPhone V1.1 just released

Yesterday we released small update for BeMo Lite for iPhone – Every BeMo Lite for iPhone users will be get their application updated via App Store with this latest fix (v1.1)

Please continue to send us your feedback we are starting to be working on some new requested features for next release

Blank Installation of Project Server 2010 with SP1 - Excel Services not working

Today faced problem described in several other blogs about problem with Excel Services not working when you upgrade Project Server 2010 to SP1 (exisiting or new).

The reason for the error is if there is no root site collection in "yourdomain/" (that was my case, I created just PWA) Excel services in not working and giving the JavaScript error starting with  "http://<your_domain>/_layouts/EwaStringsHandler.ashx/en-US?......."

To resolve - go to Central Administration and create blank site collection at the root of your SharePoint Server and refresh the excel report - it will start working immediately.

BeMo Project Intelligence and FluentPro launch the world’s “first-ever” iPhone App - client for Microsoft Project Server 2010

FluentPro (www.FluentPro.com) and BeMo (www.bemopro.com) are proud to announce the launch of the world’s “first-ever” iPhone App for Microsoft Project Server 2010 – bringing the power of the world’s most versatile Enterprise Project Management platform to the palm of your hand, now available on Apple’s iPhone and iTouch.

FluentPro, together with our partner, BeMo, leading Microsoft Project Server 2010 hosting provider, have taken EPM to a new level of personalization by expanding from web-based to wireless.

Now project managers and project team members can connect to their Microsoft Project Server 2010 instance without the need of a browser.

In addition to the new iPhone application, FluentPro and BeMo are also working on similar apps for iPad, Android and Window’s 7 mobile platforms, making wireless access available to a wider range of EPM professionals.

App can be purchased from App Store for $9.99 only.