Looking for several companies / consultants to test FluentPro Project Migrator - bulk MPP migration software for Project Server 2010

We've completed development cycle and are very close to complete internal testing cycle for FluentPro Project Migrator software that allows to migrate projects (MPP files) from other EPM systems (Attask, Daptiv, EPM Live - any system that can save to MPP) and from any Project Server 2010 PWA instance (in case of PWA - we support project-level and task-level metadata migration as well) into Project Server 2010 PWA.

We are looking for 5 to 10 companies to be a first beta-testing users. In return for the participation in test and feedback, you will receive one license at no cost right after public release (March 2012 at Microsoft Project Conference 2012 ).

Product is implemented as add-in for Project Professional 2010.

Please send your contacts to beta (at) fluentpro.com with potential problem / task that you have and after review we will send you copy of software installation package and links to several video on how to use the software.

We plan to distribute version on March 1, 2012. There will be 2 versions - Lite with some limitations and Pro without any limitations. Product will be distributed independently and as part of FluentBooks Pro package.

Preview video is available here:

Distributing project templates in Project Server 2010

Recently, we've implemented solution for template distribution to multiple PWA instances.

One of our customer had a multiple PWA instances ( really not recommended solution) and as result  problem of updating project templates from one centralized location to multiple PWA. They do it every 2 weeks, and problem of updating 20+ PWA with 10 templates each.

FluentPro has a product  - FluentPro Project Migrator (releasing soon) that supports migration of projects (MPP files with all metadata) between PWAs; And it supports project templates migration as well.

All that we had to do it to add ability to support a configuration script that will instruct product how to iterate thought multiple PWAs.

It took us only about 1 day to implement this solution with help of existing product and customer was spending 8-10 hours every month for this operation for last 14 month.

Great optimization of process.

Project Server 2010 : Working with Master Projects and Sub-projects from PWA programmaticaly

Recently, we had one project that required ability to create master and insert multiple sub-projects from PWA.

Unfortunately, PSI in Project Server 2010 does not support this functionality at all (you can read more here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee767706.aspx )

So there are 2 options:

• Manual insertion: Let user insert it in Project Pro. It can be problematic if we are talking about inserting let's say 35 sub-project
• Automate it

Both scenarios require user to have Project Professional installed.

To eliminate any manual work and reduce the human factor, we've developed a solution that does this as listed below:

1. When user click on a button on ribbon in PWA, window to capture user input for projects is shown;
2. User input is captured and "normal" projects are created using PSI based on specific EPTs; Special metadata (set of project level custom fields with XML data) is updated to provide instructions for add-in to build a relationship.
3. Master project automatically opens in Project Professional from PWA; Project Professional has add-in installed that using metadata inserts projects as sub projects, does save and publish for all projects. 
4. Biggest problem for Project Pro add-ins  that try to automate operations is suppressing the different dialog windows from Project Pro so it is an automated process with minimum or no user interaction required.

Not ideal solution (dependency on Project Professional and cost of license) - but worked out for us to solve the problem.

If you have similar problem direct your developers to this post so they can follow the "flow" or contact us and we might be able to help you.

FluentPro Audit Lite if available for Free download

FluentPro Audit Lite is available for FREE download from our website.

Quick overview of functionality:

• Audit changes in Enterprise Custom Fields
• Audit changes in Enterprise Lookup Tables
• Project creation and deletion
• Audit changes in projects (Project level custom fields, tasks add / delete)
• Application tracks Who, What and When
• Application is implemented as set of event handlers

Enjoy!

Customers, please install Cumulative Updates and Service Packs!

Customers - PLEASE install cumulative updates and service packs. You can wait for 3-4 month to make sure that CU is stable but PLEASE install them from time to time.

Working on environment - customer installed PS in 2010 and it was never patched. 14.0.4763.1000

Announcement of FREE Audit software for Project Server 2010

I am happy to announce that this Friday FluentPro will release a free edition of FluentPro Audit Lite product for Microsoft Project Server 2010.

FluentPro Audit Lite logs / tracks changes of:

• changes to custom fields (add / delete)
• changes to lookup tables (add / delete)
• changes to projects (project level fields)
• creation and deletion of projects

All changes are logged to SharePoint List; you can then export to excel, create views and build any type of reports as well as protect the list with permissions if required.

Software is absolutely free; although if you need more detailed level of audit, FluentPro Audit Pro will be available for purchase during February 2012.

Check out FluentPro Software website - www.fluentpro.com starting next week (Feb 6th, 2012) and get FREE Project Server 2010 audit software.

Strange bug with Project Site permissions for team members

I was playing for a while with permissions for Project Sites and discovered strange way how the project server assign permission if User is a team member.

I have a project with 3 resources; All resources are Team members. Resources are assigned to one task.

If I go to Project Site -> Site Actions -> site Permissions, I will see that users have permissions and are members of Team members group.

Then I go to PWA-> Server Settings -> Project Web App Permissions and uncehck View Project Site permission in a list:

Then I go to  PWA-> Server Settings -> Manage Catagories -> MyTasks and for Team MEmbers category set the View Project Site to DENY:

Project Selection setting is default with option "User is on that project's Project Team":

 After saving, if I go to Project Site -> Site Actions -> Site Permissions, nothing changes. Deny DOES NOT  WORK.

Still you can disable that by creating additional category that will say deny for ALL project or for that selected Project and then permission disappear:

New category:

Deny: 

Selected Project:

And resulted permissions:

It looks it is a problem not with Deny but with "User is on that project's Project Team" criteria.

I can reproduce it on different CU and after SP1. 

Any ideas?

Getting Started with Project Server 2010 - Part 2

This video demonstrates how to modify Project Site template, create Project Plan Template and configure EPT to use these templates for creating projects.





Part 1:  http://www.projectserverblog.com/2012/01/getting-started-with-project-server.html

Getting Started with Project Server 2010 - Part 1 - Post Installation Steps

This video demonstrates some recommended post-installation activities to start the use of Microsoft Project Server 2010:

• Configuration of Enterprise Calendar
• Custom Fields
• Notifications
• Security for Project Delete
• Time tracking configurations and Time Periods
• Configuration of Administrative Backup.

Part 2: http://www.projectserverblog.com/2012/01/getting-started-with-project-server_15.html

Note: You might want to install the free edition of our Project Server 2010 Configuration Audit Software - FluentPro Audit Lite. It is absolutely free to use and easy to install.

Project Sites - modify and save as template

This video demonstrates how to modify project site, save it as Project Site template and configure EPT to use this template to create projects.