SharePoint for Project Management

Free Webinar: Exploring the top 10 reasons to upgrade to SharePoint 2010!

2010-02-22T08:37:00.000-08:00

Thursday, March 04, 2010 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (Eastern Time)

(Approximately 60 Minutes Long)

i3solutions is one of only two partners from the DC Metro Region selected for the Technology Acceleration Program (TAP) for SharePoint 2010. In June 2009 i3solutions was invited to send our developers to Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond to work with the SharePoint product team on an early release of the new version of SharePoint.

This advanced experience has given our consultants the opportunity to develop an intelligent understanding of the new SharePoint 2010 environment and more effective methods for designing solutions that capitalize on the benefits offered by this product. SharePoint 2010 builds on the successes of features in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 with innovative new advances in metadata management, faceted searching, and social networking that will enhance information sharing and collaboration in organizations across multiple sectors.

Join i3solutions as we explore the top 10 reasons to upgrade to SharePoint 2010!

Thursday, March 04, 2010 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (Eastern Time)

Register Now!

Access and SharePoint - Another Qiuck Hit from SPC09

2009-10-21T08:26:00.000-07:00

Access has been Microsoft's "end user" database product for well over a decade. It allows users to easily create sets of tables, forms, and reports.

With the 2010 release, Microsoft is introducing Access Web Services. Essentially, this allows you to take an Access database and convert it (not merely upload it) into SharePoint site, with virtually all of the functionality intact. Tables are converted to SharePoint lists. Macros are converted to JavaScript and SharePoint workflows. Even your forms and reports display virtually identically.

What's more, this isn't a one-way ticket - it is a round-trip. You can re-open the site in Access to tweak it, or have full "access" to the functionality that doesn't convert (either by product limit or your choice).
Integration now also exists for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Visio.

From Woody Windischman Notes on the conference

Quick SharePoint 2010 Hits from around the SPC09

2009-10-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/10/19/sharepoint-2010.aspx
SharePoint 2010 New features overview - Describing SharePoint 2010 in 1 Sentence, 8 Categories and 40 Feature Areas

SharePoint 2010 - Ratings by Christophe

The ratings service uses a ratings control seen here that uses two star displays. The first display shows the average rating. As you hover your mouse over the stars the colour changes to yellow to reflect the rating you’re about to assign via a mouse...

ratings service uses a ratings control seen here that uses two star displays. The first display shows the average rating. As you hover your mouse over the stars the colour changes to yellow to reflect the rating your about to assign via a mouse...";

SharePoint 2010 - Lookup Columns by Christophe
In SharePoint 2010 you can choose to display multiple columns from the lookup list.
SharePoint 2010 you can choose to display multiple columns from the lookup

SharePoint 2010 Web Content Management

From Andrew Connell's blog:

New in SP 2010:
Content Organizer
Ratings
Metadata Everywhere!
Web Analytics
Video and Rich Media

BI in SharePoint 2010 --Sandra Tersteeg

Imagine a page on your site with information coming from any line of business application displayed in a graphical dashboard with live, up-to-date data and the ability to drill into the details and filter any way you like. Sound exciting? Then you are going to love the new products coming out with the 2010 wave.

Microsoft's PowerPivot (previously known as Gemini code name) has officially hit the world in two versions, one for SQL Server and the other for SharePoint. PowerPivot allows you to drill-in, filter, and sort on any category of data in your charts. Imagine the power of Excel's Pivot Table now inside of SharePoint.

The example provided into today's breakout session was a chart coming from PerformancePoint, a Visio diagram showing a map of the U.S. color-coded based on the data, and an Excel chart, all bound to live data.

In addition to the stunning visual charts, also available is a web part displaying the profile of the owner of the page with their image and contact info along with a Notes Board allowing for viewers to add their own comments.

All the data on this dashboard is live and the page refresh is seamless. SharePoint hardly misses a step.

Another cool functionality that was demonstrated is a timeline slider that allows you to view the data in the visual chart as it progresses through time by sliding it across with your mouse.

Co-Authoring in Office 2010

2009-10-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

Here is an update on CO-Authoring in Office 2010

Highlights from each product

OneNote

When changes have been made by one author, another author is able to view it within seconds afterwards.
It's highlighted in green and the page title is bold, just like Outlook bolds an unread email.
Even when multiple authors make changes to the same area such as adding a new row, merging takes care of integrating the changes appropriately.
You can search for changes based on a particular author.
Page versioning is supported and by turning it on, right-side tabs will display allowing you to step through the history allowing you to right-click and restore to a previous version.
Much easier to create a new notebook in a SharePoint site by utilizing previously accessed sites.
Simultaneous editing occurs the same between editing in OneNote and editing in the SharePoint site web application.

Word

Rich view of the document in the SharePoint web application without opening in the Word client, as well as the ability to edit.
When changes occur from another author, a bubble notification pops up alerting you of that and an icon in the status bar at the bottom appears allowing you to click on it and see the user and their profile details.
The paragraph being edited will show-up within the paragraph being edited with the user's name to the left. If you try to modify the same text, Word won't allow you to until the other user moves on.
Also along the bottom status, "Updates Available" will appear letting you know there are changes that have been made. By saving, the changes come through and are highlights so you know exactly what the changes are.
In the document Navigation (know as Document Map in 2007), the section that is being modified by another author will pop-up with their name.
Automatically populates with recent SharePoint sites to allow much more efficient saving of the document.

PowerPoint

Same as Word above, with the exception of editing which requires the client.
When modifications are made to the same item in a slide, users receive a notification alerting them of the conflict and allows them to review the changes. They can then decide to accept or reject.
Publish the slides to a presentation with a link so that people can view directly from the slideshow and not the edit mode.

Excel

Same as Word, including the ability to open and edit within the SharePoint web application, including tabbed spreadsheets.
A row of data entered by one user, other columns can be updated by another user.

From the Microsoft Office SharePoint Blog

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/GetThePoint/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=273

Building a Project Management Information System (PMIS) in SharePoint

2009-10-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

A lot of people are using SharePoint to help the project management process. Time and Time again I see organizations stand up out of the box team sites and call it project management. While SharePoint is a great step forward in collaboration and sharing of information, the team site really only touches the surface of what we as project managers need to do to truly manage a project.

In this series I am going to discuss the use of SharePoint as a Project Management Information System (PMIS). I will cover some concepts and details on how to use the out of the box features and functions to create a PMIS. At the end of each major post I will also cover some 3rd party products and how they can be used to enhance and or accelerate your PMIS. I will also cover new features for SharePoint and how they can be used to enhance the solutions. This information will become part of the posts once Microsoft releases me from my NDA.

Now it is important to note that even though I am going to cover a lot of items in this series, there is no one tool or process that is right for everyone. There are many different ways to mange projects they range from broad frameworks like PMBOK ,Prince 2, Critical Chain, Lean and Extreme, to process Based management like CMMI and ISO.

This series does focus loosely on the PMBOK methodologies but the concepts and principles presented here should be easily adaptable to the other methods. This Series also focuses on single project execution not portfolio management (which I will cover in another series).

I love SharePoint as a PMIS because of its Flexibility. With SharePoint I can take any organization, no matter where they are in project management maturity, and build a PMIS that allows them to change, grow, and evolve the PM practices over time. Because you can do this over time you can plot a path to any level of maturity. It works especially well for those who are lower in the maturity scale because you can use simple systems and expand them as you are ready.

Since the majority of my experience lies in the realm of managing complex and large software development projects, most of the examples that you will see are focused on this. I will also be focusing on using SharePoint lists to manage items. These lists are not intended to replace good project documentation, but to allow users to manage items that will be eventually converted to formalized documents.

Before we get into the SharePoint details I want provide some PM fundamentals. I promise in this series I will try to keep the Project Management soap box speeches to a minimum.

Introduction to Project Management Information System Fundamentals

The Project Management Institute defines a Project Management Information system (PMIS) as an integrated approach for the management and distribution of project information. This system does not necessarily have to be electronic but in my experience it is rare to see a good PMIS that is purely in the paper world.

What is a PMIS?

A PMIS contains all the information required for the stages of a Project:

Initiating
Planning
Executing, Managing and Controlling
Closing

The framework you implement should provide a way for:

Collecting
Organizing
Storing
Processing
Disseminating project information

It also should provide the basis for assessing the status of the project with respect to time, cost, and quality.

Things to consider in the stages

Initiation (Think it through):
This is where you look into an idea or requirement to see if it is desirable to turn it into a project. The focus at this stage is on what might be done and whether it is required.

This stage determines the nature and scope of the development. If this stage is not performed well, it is unlikely that the project will be successful in meeting the business’s needs.

In this phase, the project manager can use the PMIS for:

Preliminary budget, labor requirements, and financial structure.
Preliminary schedule
Approval cycle, including defining the Scope of work and presenting the information to the stakeholders

Planning (Plan it Out):
In this Stage the detailed planning and analysis happens and the system is designed. Controls should be in place that ensure that the final product will meet the specifications of the project charter

In this phase, the project manager can use the PMIS for:

Detailed schedule, detailed task analysis, project working calendar
Cost management planning, detailed work breakdown structure, integration of control procedures.
Resource planning, including labor/material/equipment requirements, availability of resources, and resource leveling
Obtaining sign-off - This includes establishing baselines for scope, schedule, and cost.

The main goals of this stage are:

Communication - This is the point where everyone with an interest should be made aware what you are intending to do
Realistic figures - costs and timescales are as accurate as possible

Execution, Manage and Control (Time to Do it):
Once the project is under way, the project team collects and enters current information. The project team compares the actual to the baseline plan to track project progress. The PMIS should provide cost and schedule forecasts to help the PM to develop scenarios concerning alternatives and corrective actions. It assists the project manager and stakeholders in investigating opportunities for reducing costs and accelerating schedules.

In this phase, the project manager can use the PMIS for:

Materials management, which includes expediting orders, tracking deliveries, and controlling inventories.
Cost collection, which includes collecting actual costs, extracting accounting data, and summarizing cost data.
Performance measurement, which includes monitoring project status, analyzing variances, assessing productivity, and forecasting trends.
Records management, which includes controlling artifacts, tracking contracts, and records management.
Reporting, which includes revising budgets, modifying schedules, analyzing alternatives, and recommending actions?

Closing out (What Did We Learn):
During this phase, the project manager and the team can use the PMIS for reviewing requirements to ensure that the project has met all of its contractual requirements. We need to properly organize this information because it provides a comprehensive set of project archives, which includes contract performance review, productivity analysis, final project report, and historical archives.

The 1st step is often the Hardest Step
For project managers, the 1st step is the most major step… deciding to implement a PMIS. The next step is to determine the uses of the PMIS to make certain that it will meet the needs of the project manager and stakeholders based on how you execute projects and how you should be executing projects.

Is it a project?

A few simple rules I like to use when identifying whether something is a project:

Is there a set of tasks or activities with a start and end point?
Are there well defined objectives?
Are specific resources needed to be assigned?

Not everything can be defined as a project. Some processes may be developments of existing operations or an extra task for a team or individual. A project is an operation to achieve particular outcomes, usually involving many stages, often involving many resources and with an end point. It is not 'business as usual' type of activities.

Throughout these posts my intention is to give you a blueprint to create a PMIS with share point 2007. Once the NDA for SharePoint 2010 has been released I will also include new features and functions that can enhance your project management information system by using SharePoint 2010.

In the post in this series I will be covering each Phase one by one.

Next post: Project Initiation (Think it through) with your SharePoint PMIS.

If you would like to provide feedback you can:

Post a comment on the blog
Email me at PRC@i3solutons.com
Tweet me- @SharePointLinc

Free Webinar: Combating a Weak Economy With Strong Proposals

2009-08-03T09:24:00.000-07:00

Transform SharePoint into a Platform that Manages Performance and Increases your Win Rate

Is your proposal team agile and able to rapidly respond to the changing market? Are you winning all the opportunities you should be? Are you bidding the proposals you should be? Are you producing proposals at a fast enough pace and to a strong degree of quality?

If not, you might be facing tough issues like:

• Managers spending too much time coordinating assignments and chasing down documents

• Documents are stored in multiple locations everywhere • You do not know which is the latest version

• Content is duplicated and often rewritten each time

• Content is out of date, no longer relevant, and used over and over again

Ready to have the ability to organize, monitor and manage individual proposals and the proposal process?

i3solutions SharePoint Proposal Resource Center Solution provides individual sites for collaboration on each proposal, as well as the ability to build dashboards that present information across all your proposal efforts!

Ready to have a proposal process that coordinates and interfaces with you line of business applications? The i3solutions SharePoint Proposal Resource Center has helped organizations decrease their turnaround time for proposals, eliminate redundant work, and increase your win rates.

The solution is built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to provide a central repository for all proposal related documents and to establish a collaborative forum in which to create, track and modify proposals.

Join i3solutions as we explore how to utilize SharePoint to create a dynamic and robust Proposal Resource Center!

Where:

Online Web Seminar

When:

August 7th at 1 PM (EST)

Go here to Register

SharePoint 2010 Test Drive

2009-07-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

Today I got a chance to test drive the SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010. There are a ton of new features and functions. I wanted to take a few minutes and tell you about some of them

SharePoint 2010
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/default.aspx
A new SharePoint 2010 sneak peak…and the new Overview Video by Tom Rizzo.

“Value Pillars” This is the central pitch around SP2010
Connect and Empower People
Heavily pushing on multiple devices: multiple Browers (IE, Safari, Firefox); mobile

Cut Costs with a Unified Infrastructure
One platform with multiple solutions

Rapidly Respond to Business Needs
Quickly skin SharePoint and “mash it up” business processes

Nicest new features in my opinion
After takeing it for a spin and playing with the features here are the ones that I liked and saw good potential in impacting a Project Managers world:

Live Editing of text on page in Office 2007

This is a critical factor in document creation and collaboration! Imagine that I am working on a requirements document in SharePoint. I open it up and start working. Meanwhile Steve the BA on my project opens it up and starts working. Each section of the document I work on is locked and Steve can see it visually (green bracket with my name associated with it). As Steve changes items those sections are locked to me. At anytime that is good for me I can sync this changes with a simple click of a button. It is cleaner – nicer and not forced (it does not interrupt me with prompts or other distractions!) I did it in Word and powerPoint

Content Controls

This allows me to go into a document and create SharePoint Tasks directly in the document. When they complete the task and attach the created document. SharePoint takes the task document and integrates it into my document. So imagine if you will that I am writing a design document that is sensitive in nature. I have section that requires a person outside my team to write a blurb. I can assign the task and not have to give them access to the document itself. This is very powerful! I can also kick off workflows with content controls.

Visio web integration

Now I create a process diagram and use it visually show the progress to the user on the diagram – without the need for the user to have Visio and it can pull data from LOB apps or SharePoint

Upload images as content is seamless

No more upload to a picture library then add to a webapart – do it all in one step

Browser Support for Firefox and Safari

I saw no difference

Office Ribbon everywhere!

All the apps including SharePoint now have the ribbon. Easy access to commands and functions that are relevant

Nicer BDC integration (now BCS business catalog service)

Read – Write
Easier managemen

Clientless web version of Office

Acconding to the keynote speach at the partner conference all windows live accounts will have access to use the web version of Office 2010

More to come Later!

Linc

Filtering SharePoint calendar by Start Time

2009-07-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

Trying to filter WSS 3.0 calendar list by Start Time column. This column doesn't appear in filtered columns list. I found solution that is a workaround, but at least it solved my problem. So,

Let's go step by step:

Open Calendar list settings.
Add new column called (by example) Begin.
Choose "Calculated" as a type of new column.
In the Formula field insert the following formula:=[Start Time]
Select Date and Time as data type of new column.
Clear check from "Add to default view" checkbox.
Save the new column.
Now you should be able to use the column called Begin instead of Start Date when you need to filter calendar list.

SharePoint 2010 Promotional Video

2009-07-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

Received this today from Microsoft - I though it was entertaining.

I am getting ready for the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Confrence where I will get a preview of SHarePoint 2010 - This is your chance to give me questions to try and get answers to. Submit them here!

Getting Started with the Project Mangement Template

2009-07-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone on the overwhelming response to the template! Hundreds of downloads already!

This next video goes through how to get started with the template. I walk you through the process I use to initially set up a project to start managing it.

YouTube Videos:

Please use the template and give me feedback

If you have not already Join our LinkedIN Group: SharePoint for Project Management

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2062948

You can download the template by registering at HTTP://www.i3solutions.com/PMO

A small number of people have trouble downloading the file - if you are one of them send me an email at PRC@i3solutions.com and I will email you a zip file with the template and instructions.

Linc

Released! Free Project Management Template for WSS 3

2009-06-29T16:02:00.000-07:00

This is my Project Management Template for WSS 3.0

You can download the template by registering at HTTP://www.i3solutions.com/PMO

Dont forget to join our linkedIN Group - SharePoint for Project Management at
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2062948

This template is not meant to be the end all - be all PM site. My intention was to show some of the things that you can do with SharePoint and Project Management. It is a good starting point for most organizations that are just getting started

Once again a Special thanks to EndUser SharePoint and Path to SharePoint Blogs for providing great material and concepts used in the template.

Some of the features added to this template are:

Expanding / Collapsing Left Navigation

Tabbed Navigation, Google Charts and Print Web Part Functions

A Series of Dashboard Pages for common KPIs (generated with google charts) based on the Task Lists

Here is an Introduction Video for the template:

You can also get the videos on YouTube

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvMmce9w7dk

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyRPczliw4U

Take it for a spin and let me know what you think

Linc

Comming Soon - Free PM SharePoint Template

2009-06-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

I will be releasing a free SharePoint Template for a basic Project Mangement site with some added bells and whistles!

I will be Demoing the template at the SharePoint Users Group of Washington D.C.’s conference on June 26-27 ( http://www.sugdc.org/ ) If you are at the conference stop by and see it. If not I will be releasing it for general consumption the week of July 13th

What elements make a good Project Mangement Resource Center in SharePoint?

2009-06-25T11:50:00.000-07:00

What elements make a good Proposal Resource Center in SharePoint?
On a High level I would say that:
• Enables the sharing of proposal related documents through all stages
• Uses shared task assignments, calendars to support collaborative communications
• Enables real-time strategic and tactical decision making
• Uses workflow processes to monitor and discipline teams
• Makes data retrieval and related internal communications virtually instantaneous
• Reduces the cost of training project management staff
• Improves compliance by creating a comprehensive audit trail

What do you think on a detailed level this means in SharePoint?