SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans

Apologies for the lack of updates on the blog, the Christmas / New Year holidays have been really busy.  Anyway, just a quick blog post to announce that I will be presenting at this years Microsoft Project Conference in Phoenix, Arizona in March this year.

My Company: Corporate Project Solutions	Microsoft Project Conference 2012 Full Session Details

If you are attending the conference and you would like to meet up, just let me know.  You can contact me here.

Further Details:

Session Title: Integrating SharePoint and Project Server 2010 – Deployment Approaches, Integration Options and making the most of the SharePoint Enterprise Features.

Track: Deployment, Administration & Developer

Level: 300

Audience: IT Professionals, Developers & Consultants

Products: Project Server 2010 & SharePoint 2010

Now that Project Server 2010 is built on top of SharePoint 2010 Enterprise, a new series of options are available with various choices around implementation.

Although integration was possible between Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise and Project Server 2007, this was not seen as a standard implementation for many companies and those implementing this approach were defining the rules.

Corporate Project Solutions is one such company who have been taking advantage of these SharePoint Enterprise Features for companies such as ID Business Solutions and ARM to deliver tight integration along with Business Intelligence (self-service dashboards), Document Management and Collaboration.

Solutions created with this approach provide a level of visibility and collaboration previously unseen by these clients and genuinely provide business value for all stakeholders and management / reporting lines.

As a Senior SharePoint Architect who has moved into the Project Server arena in the last 3 years, I initially made many assumptions in the way Project Server works based on the fact it was built on top of SharePoint.  This presentation discusses the deployment approaches / configurations of programme and project sites.  It outlines 4 options, how they support business intelligence and the pros / cons of each implementation in relation to the project management maturity of the client.

However, during trialling of various implementation approaches, CPS has found a number of pitfalls that do not conform to what is encountered in a SharePoint-only implementation. This demonstration discusses some key difficulties and how to provide a solution that is in accordance with Microsoft best practice and supportable.

Section One – Implementation approach definitions:

Option 1 – Out of the box Project Web Access and Project Sites

Option 2 – Project Web Access as installed with Project Sites customised outside of the standard Project Server 2010 configuration

• Allow custom styles to be applied
• Full use of Search capabilities
• Site Content Types can be utilised to centrally control key lists such as Risks, Issues, Actions and Deliverables
• Workflows can be attached and rolled out by Content Type
• Lists can be updated whilst projects are in-flight centrally as project management maturity evolves.

Option 3 – Project Web Access as installed with centralised lists for all projects / programmes

• Allows all dashboards to be kept in sync as project maturity evolves
• Project and programme roll up dashboards can be implemented using standard out of the box list views and filter web parts (Enterprise Feature)
• Business intelligence reporting becomes easier due to all lists being in sync for all projects / programmes o Reporting is always comparing apples with apples.

However, depending on the approach taken various pitfalls need to be taken into account such as loss of client / server integration features between the Project client and Project Server, cross project security etc.…

A demonstration of each option will show the power and pitfalls of each approach as they are discussed during the presentation.

Section Two: Maintaining consistency and integrity between SharePoint and Project Server

The focus here will move to customisation options using Enterprise Features, taking account of Microsoft best practice.

Examples include:

PSI Web Service integration

• Resource Synchronisation between ERP and Project Server solutions

Project Server Event Handlers

• Linking tasks to SharePoint data and keeping them in sync via Project Server Event Handler

Business Intelligence

• Reporting Services in SharePoint Integration mode and SharePoint Enterprise filters for parameters.
• Complementing the standard BI options of Excel Services & PerformancePoint provided as part of the out of the box Business Intelligence Center site template.

Look and Feel customisation

• Customising the look and feel and adding jQuery to Project Web Access whilst maintaining best practice and supportability. (I.E. Without modifying the Master Page, Page Layouts or using SharePoint Designer)

Section Three: Breaking the rules – discussing key differences between Project Server and SharePoint and how they can be overcome.

For the final section of the presentation, we shall discuss how Project Server doesn’t conform to the techniques that SharePoint consultants use during implementations:

• User Profile Service versus the Resource Pool
• Permission Model
• Project Server vs. SharePoint – Browser compatibility comparisons
• List content types vs. Site Content Types
• Attaching workflows to Risks and Issues

Conclusions

In finish off we shall tie the three separate sections together to discuss end-to-end implementations utilising the most appropriate features of SharePoint and Project Server allowing clients to achieve the best possible solution with the options available.