Did you get the chance to explore the Project server Database, if yes then I am sure that you wonder why there are 4 databases created for each instance of the PWA. I will not answer why but I will till you in brief what is the purpose of each

1. The Draft database contains tables for saving unpublished projects from Project Professional and other applications. Project Web Access does not show project data in the Draft database.
2. The Published database contains all of the published projects as well as enterprise resources, the enterprise global template, and other project templates. Published projects are visible in Project Web Access. The Published database also contains tables that are specific to Project Web Access (timesheets, models, views, and so on), and global data tables (outline codes, security, and metadata).
3. The Archive database saves backup and older versions of projects and other data.
4. The Reporting database is the staging area for generating reports and OLAP cubes. Data in the Reporting database is comprehensive and is updated nearly in real time. The Reporting tables are optimized for read-only report generation.

For more details please read this article

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms513875.aspx

Best Regards

Bilal Okour

Microsoft announced the latest Infra Structure update and it contains a fixes to the claimed bugs.

For more details please visit MSDN Official blog for Project 2007

To download this infrastructure you can follow this link . Install Infrastructure update for Project Professional

Best Regards

Bilal Okour

I have some implementations of the EPM where I used the Forms authentication to authenticate the EPM users. I have wrote my notes and would like to share it with you regarding this

Why to go for Forms Authentication

1. Some of the EPM users are not part of the organization domain
2. There is no Active Directory
3. The user can not access the organization domain

Why NOT to go for that?

Well, do you want me to speak technically or from implementation prospective?

I guess you said both?

• Technically
  1. leakage of information for MS Sharepoint Forms Authentication as it is not embedded by default
  2. Poor user control functionality.
  3. No out of the box tool for editing users online
• Implementation
  1. Poor approach to design the security Rules for passwords
  2. Most of the customer forgot their Forms Passwords but they don't do the same with AD passwords
  3. Accordingly getting the users accounts locked, this is not the issue, the issue is the poor approach to get them back.
  4. Integration with Outlook is another bad thing, once you open the outlook and entered your AD password you will get asked to enter your forms credential. Most of my users consider it as a double job that they don't like

Best Regards

Bilal Okour

I was away from my lovely blog for the last two months, That was something that is not under my control where my movement to my new work got 100% of my time. Now I am going slowly back to track and found some good time to blog.

I will resume by continue writing about according to the best practice that I got through my experience in implementing MS EPM solution.

Best Regards

Bilal Okour

Another good article about Backup/Restore your EPM Server

http://blogs.msdn.com/project/archive/2006/12/08/backup-and-restore-project-server-2007.aspx

Best Regards

Bilal Okour

This link is interesting

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;951648&sd=rss&spid=11388

Best Regards

Bilal Okour

  The Workshop for MS EPM titled as "You Road Map To  Project Management using MS EPM Solution" has started as scheduled on 18th of May 2008. IT Managers, Project Managers and IT Professionals from big companies like NBK bank, Burgan bank, Diyar United, Alargan Intr. Real Estate, Safat, PACE  and some other companies in kuwait

Actually this post is created for those who attend to post their questions, I will try my best to answer them. Besides, you can leave your comments, feedback or share your ideas with the others. to do so you need to click on "Add Comments".

Best regards

Bilal Okour

Yes, MS EPM is now hitting hard in Kuwait and a lot wanted to start utilizing the power of it. As a series of increasing the awareness and importance of this solution I have conducted a lot of sessions in different large events in Kuwait

The MS EPM flight is landing in MIC (Microsoft Innovation Center, Kuwait) now and the seats are so limited :)

You can download the invitation letter from my blog (please follow this link to download), fill it and email it back to the email address mentioned in the invitation document itself.

The Workshop title will be :: Your Road Map to Project Management using MS EPM Solution and the workshop will cover the following topics (spanned into 5 days, 3 hours a day, 6-9 PM)

Day 1

Getting Started with Office Project Server 2007

Initiating Projects

Planning Projects—Context and Framework

Day 2

Planning Projects—Scope and Schedule Management

Planning Projects—Staffing Management Plan

Planning Projects—Resource Assignments

Day 3

Planning Projects—Cost, Risk and Other Management Plans

Executing Projects—Processes, Resources, and Deliverables

Executing Projects—Manage Timesheets and Personal Settings

Day 4

Monitoring and Controlling Projects—Context and Framework

Monitoring and Controlling Projects—Tracking Task and Project Progress

Day 5

Monitoring and Controlling Projects—Measuring Performance and Reporting Progress

Closing Projects

Complete Life Cycle case

For more information you can

Call me at +965 7205246

Email me: bilal@arabilla.net

Or post a comment here

Best Regards

Bilal Okour

I guess so many people are happy with the windows authentication features that comes with MS Project Server and found it very easy to setup and to use. But did they know that there is another way of authenticating users, i am sure that they knew but they never think when and how to use it

First let me focus on facts about each and when each one is recommended to be used?

Windows Authentication

• It authenticates users against the AD that the Project Server is joint to. So, it can use only one AD. So if all of your users belong to one domain then this will be your right choice.
• Roles and groups (or any AD classification) are not used in EPM, remember that the post title is all about Authentication, not authorization. Authorization is run through the security model embedded with the Project server itself.
• Project Server users list and the AD users list are not linked or in synch. You need to schedule synch job from within Project Server itself, this means if a user became inactive then this will not be reflected in the Project Server. (needless to say that if the user became inactive or blocked in AD then he/she will not get authenticated to AD but he can be still used as a resource in Project Server)

Forms Authentication

• Conceptually, it is very similar to the AD authentication, except that Membership Provider will be used instead of AD
• More flexible to contain users regardless of the AD they belongs to and even if they don't belong to.
• Difficult (or not straight forward to setup) to setup and maintain the users credentials.
• No synch tool is available out of the box except for the "PjFormsAuthUpgrade" tool that comes with Project server

I will be posting more articles about Forms authentication, be tuned

Best Regards

Bilal Okour

The confusion of how to use the EPM in the right way is common everywhere. The main two player in this environment (Project Managers & Team Members) find sometimes difficult to understand why the EPM is not reflecting the progress information for any published project. To understand this you can take it simply like this

1. PM :: Publish the project to PWA (Using Project Pro)
2. Team Resource :: Submit the progress update to his PM (using PWA)
3. PM :: Approve the updates received by his resources (using Project Pro) 
4. PM :: Apply the approved updates to be reflected into the plan  (Using Project Pro)
5. PM :: Adjust (if required) and then Publish the project plan again to PWA (using Project Pro)

The picture below can tell this in a better way

Best Regards

Bilal Okour

  Yes, I mean it, 45 sessions that touched the latest related to Microsoft were shown at the biggest event in  Kuwait. I hope you did attend your favorites topics and get the maximum benefits.

Now back to my sessions, the two rooms allocated for my sessions were full. I was expecting that due to the extensive registrations on my sessions during the registration time. At a moment I said, thanks God, I did good preparation for such an audience. It would have been a big loss if I did not do so.

The first session were about administrative part of EPM, the 2nd and 3rd were about the best practice  for Project Managers and the other main players in EPM environment.

Last one, it was supposed to be about Monitoring and Controlling, but I was able to cover part of it only, the rest inshalla will be conducted in the future in a separate session

I have announced www.pmroad.com as the first community for Project Managers in Kuwait. also I announced the start publishing of a series about the best practice in EPM on my blog

So, my recommendation for you "From now and over, don's miss any event related to the main communities in kuwait (dotNetboom, ProRangers and msexperts) and expect it to be always BIG by default"

Best Regards

Bilal Okour

Dear All,

Please consider this as an invitation to attend the "Microsoft Technology Day" organized by MSExperts.net community  in Kuwait. This is considered as one of the largest event for IT people in the Gulf area where 45 session will be running in series and parallel. 20 speakers from Middle east & Africa.

I will be conducting a series of 4 session covering Microsoft EPM under the Title of

Your Road Map To Project Management using Microsoft EPM Solution

The schedule for my session will be like the following

Session 1 Block 1 (10:15 AM - 11:15 AM)
Your Road Map To Project Management : Start Your Project

Session 2 Block 2 (11:30 AM - 12:30 PM)
Your Road Map To Project Management : Planning for your Project ( Part 1 )

Session 3 Block 3 (01:15 PM - 02:15 PM)
Your Road Map To Project Management : Planning for your Project ( Part 2 )

Session 4 Block 4 (02:30 PM - 03:30 PM)
Your Road Map To Project Management : Monitor & Control Your Project

So, I will be waiting for you there on Sunday 30 of March 2008

You can register through http://www.msexperts.net

Best Regards

Bilal Okour

Only today I have took the sharp decision to move to new company, big, challenged and in a role of MIS Manager.

   In my new position I will be responsible for designing and implementing Management Information systems based on Microsoft Technologies. I am still new to the new company so I can not till more about it except that I am very optimistic for this movement I made.

For my x-company, I had to admit that I got impressed of the company style and reputation. I met hundreds of professional people there and made good connections. So I would like to say that I feel proud that I worked in Agility.

Note: Needless to mention that the photo in this post is NEITHER my new office NOR my old one, it is just a one I took from the web. enjoy !

Best Regards

Bilal Okour, Kuwait, 4th March 2008

The following Status Definitions are available:

• In Progress. The Timesheet is built by the team member. Data may be saved. Nothing is submitted.

• Rejected. The Timesheet is rejected by a Timesheet Manager.

• Submitted. The Timesheet is sent to the first-level Timesheet Manager for review.

• Acceptable. The Timesheet is accepted by a Timesheet Manager and is sent to the next approver.

• Approved. The Timesheet is approved by a Timesheet Manager at any level.

• Error. An error occurred when the Timesheet was processed.

Best Regards

Bilal Okour

Yes, this true because it happened with me, after installing WSS 3.0 SP1 I started installing Ms Project Server 2007 SP1, exactly in step 5 it stopped and threw an exception tilling that the Microsoft Office Project Server Events Service was not able to get started !!??

After searching completely the "Whole Internet" I found one post talking about this issue

please check this url

http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx?&query=service+stopped&lang=en&cr=US&guid=&sloc=en-us&dg=microsoft.public.project.server&p=1&tid=f733dcea-a6ad-4b0e-8b88-9abe22737e2a&mid=a61247e3-026c-4988-954c-6000c2186305

and what I came to know that this service trying to access the Internet address

http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/CodeSignPCA.crl

but the network setup did not allow this (this is true and expected for the ideal and secure network). I was sure that this is my issue that stopped me from completing my work in the last 2 days.

So, the only solution suggested by my colleagues in Networks and Systems department is to allow Internet Access in complete during the installation of SP1 then remove it

It work, yes, but for me I consider this a stupid bug regardless of the person who wrote the code unless it is a policy to catch the people who are using the unlicensed copies. Again I considered it as a bug because it did not report this to the event log.

Best Regards

Bilal Okour

Hi folks

I found this article good for the people who are going to deploy Project Server 2007 in a stand alone computer

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/c9531164-2705-4233-84d1-78bd728dd7611033.mspx

Best Regards

Bilal Okour

Dear All,

Thanx only to God ...

and our first Community open Day went very successfully with 110 person attend. The initial feedback we received I can summarize it as the following