Thursday, August 17, 2006
Project Server
From here on out, you're going to read a lot, in this blog, about Microsoft Project Server 2003 and my experiments with the 2007 version. Why? Because it is what I'm doing with my day... supporting an MS Project Server implementation, that is, not just blogging. My blog serves as a place where I can stick the odd note or two... things I want to be able to find again. Pointers to other things on the Internet.
I'm not going to try to explain everything that Project Server is, but if you're interested in knowing more, I will start by saying that it is a very complex product that Microsoft has provided. Supporting it is something of a risky proposition. There are many things that one can easily do wrong in a hurry, and if you have real project managers depending on Project Server as a repository, and their managers depending upon it to provide enterprise-level performance status and resource usage reports, doing something wrong, in this day of Sarbanes Oxley, could have them and maybe you as well testifying to angry government officials, stock holders, and maybe a jury.
Project Server uses a number of Microsoft core technologies. Of course, it runs on the Windows Networking operating system. It also employees Microsoft's heavy-duty SQL Server database; SharePoint, a portal building application; Internet Information Server, Microsoft's web server; and then extends itself to desktop client applications such a Project Professional and Excel. SQL or SharePoint alone are products that one could devote a whole professional lives supporting. Project Server sits on top of these and does so, largely with a web interface for the working public. This web interface is very similar to SharePoint, but let's admit that the way SharePoint works is very different from the look and feel of Microsoft's Office applications: Word, Excel, and so on. It has to be as it resides entirely on a web server and the user's only access to it is via a web browser like Internet Explorer. It is frequently said that Project Server is Microsoft's fourth version of the project server product, but that it still looks and feels like version 1.0. There seem to be many rough edges and unpleasant surprises for those who try to implement it.
That said, there is nothing that does what Project Server does better, and it does a lot. Microsoft has a great support network for professionals who are building with this product. I can get questions quickly answered by knowledgeable people on the Microsoft newsgroup, Microsoft.Public.Project.Server, which I can easily access via Google Groups. While you might thing that being a difficult product to support means that those who do support it make big bucks, and you might be somewhat correct in that thinking, the problem is that the tricks we have learned for avoiding traps will probably become unnecessary when the release of the next version of Project Server, Microsoft Project Server 2007, eliminates some of those traps.
Still, project management is a great an ennobling profession. Project Server helps to manage some of the normal headaches of complex products. The future looks bright for project management professionals and Microsoft, at least for a while, will have an undisputed lead in providing the tools we need.
I'm not going to try to explain everything that Project Server is, but if you're interested in knowing more, I will start by saying that it is a very complex product that Microsoft has provided. Supporting it is something of a risky proposition. There are many things that one can easily do wrong in a hurry, and if you have real project managers depending on Project Server as a repository, and their managers depending upon it to provide enterprise-level performance status and resource usage reports, doing something wrong, in this day of Sarbanes Oxley, could have them and maybe you as well testifying to angry government officials, stock holders, and maybe a jury.
Project Server uses a number of Microsoft core technologies. Of course, it runs on the Windows Networking operating system. It also employees Microsoft's heavy-duty SQL Server database; SharePoint, a portal building application; Internet Information Server, Microsoft's web server; and then extends itself to desktop client applications such a Project Professional and Excel. SQL or SharePoint alone are products that one could devote a whole professional lives supporting. Project Server sits on top of these and does so, largely with a web interface for the working public. This web interface is very similar to SharePoint, but let's admit that the way SharePoint works is very different from the look and feel of Microsoft's Office applications: Word, Excel, and so on. It has to be as it resides entirely on a web server and the user's only access to it is via a web browser like Internet Explorer. It is frequently said that Project Server is Microsoft's fourth version of the project server product, but that it still looks and feels like version 1.0. There seem to be many rough edges and unpleasant surprises for those who try to implement it.
That said, there is nothing that does what Project Server does better, and it does a lot. Microsoft has a great support network for professionals who are building with this product. I can get questions quickly answered by knowledgeable people on the Microsoft newsgroup, Microsoft.Public.Project.Server, which I can easily access via Google Groups. While you might thing that being a difficult product to support means that those who do support it make big bucks, and you might be somewhat correct in that thinking, the problem is that the tricks we have learned for avoiding traps will probably become unnecessary when the release of the next version of Project Server, Microsoft Project Server 2007, eliminates some of those traps.
Still, project management is a great an ennobling profession. Project Server helps to manage some of the normal headaches of complex products. The future looks bright for project management professionals and Microsoft, at least for a while, will have an undisputed lead in providing the tools we need.
