Accessing Project Sites in Project Online / Project Server 2013

There are few changes that are related how users access Project Sites in Project 2013 compared to Project Server 2010.

Before, in Project Center on a ribbon there was a button - Project Site. User was able by selecting a line in a list of project click on it and you will get the new window with project site open.

In Project Online this button is gone from ribbon from Project Center.

But - you still can access the Project Sites - and I would say that this was made even easier.

When you click on Project name, you get to the screen with all project related information and there are 2 ways to access the associated Project Site:

First one is button on Ribbon and second one is link  "Project Site" on the left side of navigation menu.

Enjoy!

Swtching Security Mode in Project Server 2013 Preview (On-premise)

As you know, by default Project Server 2013 has the SharePoint permission mode which is simplified if we compare it with Project Server mode. Some users, might benefit from it, some more advanced users might want to switch back to Project Server mode.

There is an article on TechNet how to change http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219486(v=office.15).aspx

So, quick summary: You have to run a powershell command - Set-SPProjectPermissionMode

Switching from SharePoint to Project Server mode:
Set-SPPRojectPermissionMode –Url http://projectserver2013/pwa -AdministratorAccount fluentpro\sp-farmadmin -Mode ProjectServer

Switching from Project Server to SharePoint mode:
Set-SPPRojectPermissionMode –Url http://projectserver2013/pwa -AdministratorAccount fluentpro\sp-farmadmin -Mode ProjectServer

Replace http://projectserver2013/pwa with you PWA URL and fluentpro\sp-farmadmin with your domain name \ user name.

Why there is no switch in UI like in Project Online? I have no idea - but this would be a good suggestion to Microsoft to add this into Central Administration in PWA settings.

Enjoy!

Project Online Preview - Project Server 2013 - Changing permission mode from SharePoint to Project Server

As you might know, by default Project Online has the SharePoint mode which is simplified if we compare it with Project Server mode. Some users, might benefit from it, some more advanced users might want to switch to Project Server mode.

There is a document on MSDN that compares two modes: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp161361(v=office.15)

So, how do you switch from SharePoint security mode to Project Server security mode?

When you created online tenant, you will have several sites available for you and one is SharePoint Administration Center. URL should look like following: https://<tenantname>-admin.sharepoint.com

You have 2 ways getting there:

• Enter the URL
• Click on the Admin link and selecting Project from your PWA Screen (visible If you are the Administrator)

Screen should look like following one:

To change the mode:

1. Select project (checkbox) 
2. Click on Project Web App button on ribbon and select Settings. 

On the screen please select the "Classic Permission Management" radio button which is Project Server Permission mode and click OK:

Important: Please note that changing modes clears all previous settings.

You can read more about SharePoint permission mode here: Plan SharePoint groups in Project Server 2013.

You can read more about Project Server permission mode here: Plan groups, categories, and RBS in Project Server 2013 Preview.

Enjoy!

Best way to evaluate Project Server 2013 / Project Online? Move you configuration and data from Project Server 2010!

This week Microsoft released the Project Online - a cloud edition of Microsoft Project Server 2013. This means, that companies can start evaluating online edition that offers ways for easy scaling and start saving on investments into hardware and software. You can start paying monthly for resource that you use only, no maintenance, no hardware, no software licenses, no electricity bills.

Companies who currently using Project Server 2010 and considering the Project Online as potential destination should evaluate the the Project Online from different angles:

• User Interface
• Usability
• Scaleability
• Performance
• Support of existing configuration
• Load testing

Some of this can be addressed with just out-of-the box functionality, but companies will face a reasonable issue  - How do we test Project Online with our configuration settings and with our data (projects, resources) from existing Project Server 2010 or Project Server 2010 instance?

FluentPro Software has a solution for this - FluentPro Cloud Migrator that allows migration of configuration and data from Project Server 2010 to Project Online.

There are 2 editions available - Free and Pro; Free Edition migrates everything except project sites content and security, Pro Edition can migrate all settings and data and you can use it after Preview.

You can download FuentPro Cloud Migrator from our website - www.projectmigrator.com.

Development of SharePoint Apps for Project Online / Project Server 2013

Over last several month our company was involved in development of SharePoint App for Project Online for  one of the partners. Development is completed and shortly application will be published - but it was a tough journey.

If you are interested in development of SharePoint App for Project Server  2013 / Project Online - please feel free to contact us, we believe that we can help you - we've completed all steps, we know problems, constraints and can make this development successful.

Project Server 2013 and Project Online are available

Great news - Microsoft released preview versions of Microsoft Project Server 2013 and Project Online - Cloud-bases edition of Microsoft Project Server 2013.

FluentPro is focused on developing tools and products for Project Server family and we announce several utilities:

1. FluentPro Cloud Migrator Free Edition - software that allows migrate your existing 2010 PWA with data to the Project Online Preview so you can evaluate it with real data. Read more: www.projectmigrator.com  
2. FluentPro Cloud Migrator Pro Edition -  paid version of software that allows migrate your existing 2010 PWA with data to the Project Online Preview and supports migration of project sites and security. Purchase of this version will provide free upgrade to versions available at time when Project Server gets RTM version. Read more: www.projectmigrator.com   


We working hard on moving rest of our products to Project Server 2013 platform and developing several new exciting applications for Project Server 2010 and Project Server 2013 / Online.


Stay tuned!

FluentPro FluentBooks news

Our team was working very hard on new features for one of our major products - FluentPro FluentBooks V.2.5.

In this blog post, I would like to highlight major changes and improvements that were made:

1. We've added bulk edit for resources in MS Excel with ability to assign a security group membership to user - imagine when you have new customer without AD and they gave you list of 500 users asking to import  them. Now this is extremely easy.
2. Migration of Project Sites - template, risks, issues and all documents libraries.
3. Migration of SharePoint workflow on Project Sites
4. Migration of settings for task and time tracking, periods and all related settings.
5. Migration of OLAP settings
6. Portfolio analysis migration (Drivers, Prioritization, Analysis)
7. Migration of Resource Plans and Project Team.
8. Migration of security settings and permissions
9. Improvements to documenting functionality
10. Simplified UI and wizards
11. Advanced error handling
12. Software stabilization, bug fixing and testing on multiple configurations from our customers / performance optimization.

Updates for software will be available in July. All current customers will receive update automatically.

P.S. Same time with V.2.5 release we plan to release new editions of FluentBooks for configuration and data migration.

Stay tuned!

Documenting Project Server 2010 Configurations

In our product, FluentBooks we support functionality to generate configuration documentation in Project Server 2010. We continue working on improving the output and recently released version with more advanced documenting functionality.

It is great feature for consultants to deliver a configuration documentation and it is generated in seconds instead of hours and days of work.

You can check video how it works and how documentation looks like here:



You can learn more about FluentBooks on our website: http://www.fluentpro.com/productsfluentbooks.html

Microsoft Project Conference 2012 results

Thank you Project Conference 2012 attendees who visited our booth and my session.

We had very successful Project Conference 2012:

• over 150 demos of products were performed
• over 150 potentials customer contacts collected
• great interest from government agencies and Fortune 50 companies
• we made an agreement with one of the leading EPM partners to include Audit Pro, Project Workspaces, Project Dashboard and Status Report as package installed by default for all their new and existing Project Server 2010 customers
• great interest in FluentBooks as configuration management software from consultants
• great interest in FluentBooks bulk edit functionality from business
• great interest for Audit Pro from business
• collected ideas from customers for new functionality for Audit Pro like monitoring and logging SharePoint events
• several visitors said about Project Workspaces that it is "ahead of time"

Project Team - special thank you for great conference, speakers, exhibitors and incredible assistance with all preparations.

Session PC325 at MPC12: Project Server 2010 configuration management, migration, merge and documenting

Wednesday, I will presenting on Microsoft Project Conference 2012  about configuration management in Project Server 2010 and how it can be improved and optimized with our product - FluentBooks.

Link to session: Session PC325 

When: Wednesday, March 21,  5:00PM,  North 223

I would be glad to see you there!