There are a couple of times you want to turn off the automatic site provisioning in Project Server and it is pretty easy to do by going to Server Settings / Project Site Provisioning and turning selecting the Allow users to manually create project sites in Project Server option. This is a good option when you have a program or large project with a number of sub projects, or when you have a large number of small projects which don't require worksites. In a typical case you would have a PMO admin or someone who has the right to create workspaces who would create workspaces when needed for Project Managers.
Creating the settings as above will stop automatic provisioning, but it only goes part way - and more importantly it creates an annoying notification whenever people publish a project. This is annoying to users, but it is also annoying when you are trying to publish a number of projects programmatically because there is no way in VBA to dismiss that message.
But there is a solution to making this notification go away.
For the group (the Project Managers in our scenario) that you do not want to see this notification, deselect the global security setting for Manage SharePoint Foundation. This will disable the notification for the members in that group.
One thing to be careful about is changing the group permissions during working hours. If you have a large number of users, changing group permissions can take a while to work its way through the system and you might find that some users lose access to the system while that is happening, so plan to do this when you don't have many active users.
Posted on March 2, 2012 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
A neighbor left this bike (a 1974 Raleigh LTD 3 Three Speed) out on the curb for dead a while back. With good reason. The tires were flat and rotted, the seat was covered in black tape, wheel bearings were completely out of adjustment and it was pretty dusty and dirty. But I cleaned it up a bit, put on new tires, brake cables and pads, and fixed the springy seat. Now it's just the thing for riding around town. It is the only bike I have with a kickstand and is still too ugly for anyone to bother stealing.
Raleigh built versions of this bike for decades and sold them around the world. This one was actually built in their factory in Malaysia, and is near to the end of the line for this sort of bike. The ten speed craze knocked the three speed to its knees in the 70's and then mountain bikes buried the three speed a decade or so later. However, there does seem to be a trend towards a bit more diversity in bicycle types lately, so the three speed may rise again despite the obvious lack of carbon fiber and aluminum alloy.
Posted on July 27, 2011 9:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Posted on June 28, 2011 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Now 5 reasons not to:
Posted on June 28, 2011 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I was recently trying to set a number of different project level custom fields using VBA and got tired of finding and editing all the parameters so I wrote a small wrapper function that you may find useful:
Private Function setPField(ByVal field As String, ByVal newValue As String, ByRef proj As Project)
pfield = FieldNameToFieldConstant(field, pjProject)
proj.ProjectSummaryTask.SetField FieldID:=pfield, value:=newValue
End Function
It does two things. First it converts the field name into the field constant. This way you can supply the name of the field. Then it uses that field and sets the text value. It might not seem like much but it does make it easier for me to reuse this function, than having to search through a longer statement and find out what I need to set. To use it just supply the field name, the value and the project like this:
setPField field:="My Custom Field", newValue:="foo", proj:=ActiveProject
Posted on April 28, 2011 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Just a bit of snow on the first day of the year somewhere near the deep end of Lake Tahoe.
Posted on January 4, 2011 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
If I multiply 51,249,876 by 3 (thus using all the nine digits once, and once only), I get 153,749,628 (which again contains all the nine digits once). Similarly, if I multiply 16,583,742 by 9 the Pg 16result is 149,253,678, where in each case all the nine digits are used. Now, take 6 as your multiplier and try to arrange the remaining eight digits so as to produce by multiplication a number containing all nine once, and once only. You will find it far from easy, but it can be done.
Select here to see solution
If we multiply 32547891 by 6, we get the product, 195287346. In both cases all the nine digits are used once and once only.
end selection.
Posted on December 26, 2010 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Some people have found that only a certain number of tasks can be put into the timeline view.
Fortunately Heather has posted a workaround"
To fix this issue you’ll have to re-create your timeline view, to do this:1.Take a screenshot of your timeline view so you can remember how you had the tasks arranged.
2.Remove the timeline view from the current view by going to the View tab, Split View group, and un-checking timeline.
3.Go to File – Organizer and delete Timeline from the right side (the box that says the name of your project)
4.Go to the View tab, Split View group, and check Timeline.
Your timeline view should be working again and you will now be able to add tasks to it.We have fixed this issue in the Project 2010 June Cumulative Update. You can install that from here support.microsoft.com/kb/2075992/ This update won’t fix any corrupted timeline’s but it will prevent future ones from getting corrupted.
I'm posting this here so I can find it again!
Posted on November 29, 2010 3:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
One of the things that I missed in the last version of Excel for the Apple Mac was that VBA was dropped. If you read this blog you will know how useful VBA can be for automating a bunch of different things. So when I loaded up Excel 2011 the first thing I did was test out the VBA. Yep, it works.
The rest of the application looks like it got polished up as well and at first glance seems easier to work with than 2008. It doesn't make my fan turn on immediately either, so I'm much happier using it on my old macbook.
Posted on November 16, 2010 11:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
I've been building a few Project Server 2010 reports with Report Builder 3.0 lately and have had to deal with missing values in iif statements. Unfortunately you can't test for the missing data in the iif statement as it evaluates all the expressions first so you need to test for missing values earlier.
The easiest way to do this I've found is to use code in the Report definition. Right-clicking on the body of the report (not the table or chart) brings up the report properties. Clicking on the Code tab brings up a box where you can enter your custom code.
In this case I want to make sure that at least a 0 is returned so I wrote this function
public Function NullToZero(Byval x as long)
If not x > 0 then
return 0
else : Return x
End if
End Function
Then simply use the function in your expression like this:
=code.NullToZero(Fields!TaskWork.Value)
Posted on November 5, 2010 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Behavior of how assignments units are computed has changed significantly between Microsoft Project 2010 and earlier versions. I've been seeing this question in forums recently and think that this post by Heather O'Cull:
blogs.msdn.com/b/project/archive/2010/04/29/assignment-units-in-project-2010.aspx
explains it better than anything else I've seen or could write. Long time users of Project should definitely read it to make sure they are aware of the new behavior.
Posted on November 2, 2010 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I've worked on a few books about Microsoft Project in the past and know how difficult it can be to get all of the information into a concise form. Gary Chefetz and Dale Howard have made an art of it with their series of books on Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server. Yesterday I finally got a copy of their latest:
Implementing and Administering Microsoft Project Server 2010 for Project Managers
It follows in the same tradition of their previous books giving complete commentary about the new features. But beyond that, and what many other books don't do, is it gives solid guidance about why and when you might want to make use of a feature and how you would use the software to reach your goals.
MSProjectExperts builds their books around roles. This one is intended for Project Managers and it focuses primarily on the configuration and administration of Project Server to enable project and portfolio management. But also includes chapters on how to install and deploy Project Server across an organization. If you are going to use Project Server effectively this book is a must read even if you are not going to be administering the tool as it tells you what is possible and recommended.
I also find that it has enough in it for a Project Manager with little IT support to get the application up and running and sustained.
The advice given about use of the tool and issues with the organization is spot on. There are a couple of items I'd state differently but those are just minor personal preferences. I think there is still room for clarification in some areas - for example, I think that the timesheet and task status section could start with a better introduction - but the information is all there.
Once again I find myself giving it my highest recommendation. If it saves even one mistake or travel down a wrong path it will be well worth it. Go buy it now!
Posted on August 5, 2010 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)