Project Server technical bits

Just came across the joys of "enable/disable preview features" in office 365 SharePoint Admin. My users were reporting that they were unable to refresh published Project Online reports in their browser.  They received the following message:                       This workbook contains external data connections or BI features that are not supported. The issue was caused by a setting in the SharePoint Online Admin Portal (Admin | SharePoint | Settings).   Selecting Enable Preview Features (see below) allows users to refresh Project Online Reports using oData feeds in their browser.   As a reminder, the following two elements also need enabling if you haven't done so already: user group permissions: Site collection features:  

This post is the first of a series to highlight the apps available for Project Server and Project Online from the SharePoint store  ( https://store.office.com/search.aspx?productgroup=SharePoint&qu=tpg ) and direct via your local TPG office. The first of this series will look at the s imple plug-and-play apps that all users of Project Online can make use of quickly and easily.   T hese are: Risk Matrix  Milestone Trend Analysis (MTA) WBS Chart viewer Next we will focus on the challenge of  Resource Request Supply and Demand by demonstrating our more recent TeamLink and TeamManager apps. Team Manager App is a Resource Manager/Owner app for allocating resource supply to Projects and BAU activities and monitoring demands against commitments Team Link App is a PM tool for monitoring Project demands vs the supply provided by the Resource Managers  Finally I will highlight some of the benefits of our integration tools when used i...

Looks like the peeps over in Redmond have been busy making some changes to the Project Online UI I get the feeling they're not quite finished yet as the icons have gone crazy!!

Reporting in Project Server  Yes I know you have PWA for showing a cross-project view of the world, but it's not the most customisable is it. With Project Centre and Project Schedule views being the primary value add of Project Server, it's a shame is just not a bit more... useful!  You could show milestones, have easier filter options (one click not 4) that kinda thing. So lots of people ask "can I have Project Centre, but in a report please". OK, here you go... This is made up of just a couple of components: 1) a simple oData feed to the Project View table 2) some formulas to do the drawing 3) Slicers to drill down into the portfolio 4) Status date grid highlight (where set on the project) - this is done using another grid formula The report shows a couple of example view options (date periods to show), handled by the formulas This can then be published onto any SharePoint site as a Portfolio view, e.g. IT Customer Portal, reducing  enjoy!

Finally!  Microsoft have redesigned O365 into a meaningful portal to all Office Online products However the upgrade does seem to have caused some authentication glitches along the way! And by the way if you have lost your Site Admin bit, its here...

Have I been waiting on this patch :) Project Server August Cumulative Update 2014 looks like a biggy guys.  If you use Timesheets, or Task Status Updates, or even just Baseline, this patch is the place to be.  Looks like the Scheduling/Project Calculation Service has had a rework.... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2883083 Project Pro 2013 August Cumulative Update 2014 also looks significant for anyone saving projects OUT of Project Server or working with Protected Actuals http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2883080

** Update ** Having looked at the data, the general rules are now  Dont use TAP flag unless it is explicitly for the Team Assignments functionality (which no-one uses anyway) And if you want to use Generic Resources on Resource Plans using FTE planning, make sure (for now) that they have some capacity, and design this out of your capacity planning reports. Generic Resource Capacity in times gone by I have picked up the habit of using the "Team Assignment Pool" flag on Generic Resources to avoid setting the Max Units to 0% and still have zero capacity for the resources in the RDB.  This was a throwback to the heady days of PS2007 and its complete lack of stability (0% resources used to cause havoc when using the Assign Resources dialogue in MS Project). It looks as if this is a habit I am going to have to break. Today I have found a new issue in Resource Plans on PS2013 where setting the Team Assignment Pool OR setting Max Units to 0% on a resource has a negati...