Project versioning and back-up on Project Online: vote on UserVoice!

Since Project Online was launched back in 2013, there is no more back-up and restore feature available.

UserVoice proposed to introduce again this feature strongly used by Project administrators. You can vote here. I had the opportunity to write a review on this idea on Erik's blog. You can find the review here.

I recently added a new idea on the UserVoice page for versioning projects. This is kind of related but the versioning should be accessible to the users (like the sharepoint versioning), not like the initial back-up/restore feature. Moreover the scope should be extended to the new Project Service platform and not only Project Online.

What do you think? Would you vote for this idea?

Renewed as MVP Business Solutions/Project for the 5th time!

Short post, big news! I've been renewed for the 5th time as MVP Project (Business Solutions). You might have noticed that after a year of transition, from now all MVPs will be renewed on July 1st. I do hope this will give me the opportunity to go to the MVP Summit, to finally meet my fellow colleagues I'm talking with since 2014 through email.

I'm now (again) Microsoft P-Seller for Project!!

Back in 2014, I wrote this post "I'm now a Microsoft P-Seller for Project!!" which was surprisingly one of the most popular on this blog, talking about being nominated as P-Seller Project for Québec province. I don't know if it is due to some spamming on the blog or because there is only a few blog talking about being P-Seller, but anyway, it was a successful article!

Going to the point, back in France, I'm now again P-Seller for South-West French area for Project.

I’ve located this text, which explains the program:

"The Microsoft P-Seller (former VTS-P) is a select group chosen from the elite in Microsoft’s partner community, whose focus is to augment Microsoft’s internal Technology Specialist team. Their primary role is to communicate the value of Microsoft Solutions to customers and to provide architectural guidance for Enterprise Integration solutions. The Microsoft P-Seller program was designed to create a deeper relationship with Microsoft Partners, the Product Teams at Microsoft Corporate, and Regional Microsoft Offices, in order to provide highly skilled solution specialists to Microsoft customers. It is designed to enable a high performance team of partner-based resources to deliver pre-sale activities and resources to empower customers and help them meet their solution and integration needs."

I now get access to information on the Microsoft corporate network such as knowledge bases, technical articles, training materials, and other resources. I also get guest access to Microsoft facilities, and priority for participating in Microsoft marketing events. This is a really great opportunity, I'm proud to be a part of this elite community, and I look forward to all that comes from it. 

Project roadmap

Hi Folks!

EDIT (2015 October 9th) : we have been asked by Microsoft not to share this roadmap on social media. Consequently I removed the screenshots and just let my introduction. Do not hesitate to contact me for a 1-1 presentation.

I'm excited to share with you the Project and Portfolio Management roadmap which has been presented last week. This was an excellent session done by Yuval Stern, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft for Office 365.

This roadmap was really dense and we had insights of the Microsoft strategy for Project. We also has some nice imageries so we can provide to our customers and partners a vision of what is ahead and get prepared. It is indeed a key factor of success for addressing our customers' needs and expectations to well understand Microsoft strategy and be proactive in terms of service offer.

So for those who missed the session, here is a quick catch-up session. I share with you below a few screenshots in order to make the roadmap more concrete. Note that it is only a long term vision for the PPM Microsoft solution. There are not committed features for future updates/versions and no release dates can be announced yet.

We can summarize the roadmap within 7 keys points:

1. Redesigned user experience
2. Agile
3. Program management
4. Financial management
5. Out-of-the-box reports
6. Native apps across devices
7. Planner and wunderlist

Reawarded as MVP Project by Microsoft for the 2nd year!

Last year at the exact same time, I was awarded as MVP (Most Valuable Professional) Project by Microsoft.

I'm proud and honoured to have been reawarded this year for the second time. After experiencing the MVP Project community for one year now, I am so excited to share again our insights, discussions, ideas, complaints, questions with this skilled community incredibly support by our Project Group at Microsoft!

See more information here:
https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/Overview

O365 Roadmap - Project focus

Coming back from the TechDays 2015 in Paris, I've been reading a couple of articles about O365 which is going to be a particular target for MS developers and innovation in the coming years. I've ended on this roadmap which lists "updates that are currently planned for applicable subscribers. Updates are at various stages from being in development to rolling-out to customers to being generally available for applicable customers world-wide". 

If you search for "Project" updates, you'll find 4 interesting updates. Obviously being a MVP has some advantages and I already heard of those improvments to come. But the question was more about the NDA on those new developments which prevents me blogging. Now it is public, let me summarize for you what you can expect about Project.

1. Apps for Project Pro for Office 365 write support

Apps for Project Pro for Office 365 will be able to write-back and update the project plan. 

2. Capacity Management capabilities in Project Online

Resource Managers can benefit from configurable color coded heatmaps to better predict the utilization of   their resource pool in Project Online. These heatmaps will also support seamless drill-down capabilities all the way down to individual resources and their assigned projects. 

3. Multiple timeline bars in Project Pro for Office 365

In Project Pro for Office 365 you will be able to create multiple timeline bars within the Timeline view. You will also be able to set a custom date range for each timeline bar in order to just highlight a certain time period of the project in the Timeline view. 

4. Resource Engagement Workflow in Project Online

Project managers, working in Project Pro for Office365 can systematically place resource requests in order to build their project teams.  Soon thereafter, Resource managers working in Project Online willbe able to view, modify, accept or reject those requests. Also, decisions made by Resource managers  will be available to Project Managers within Project Pro for Office 365 to review and plan accordingly.  

Do not hesitate to drill down into the several updates in the list, particulary around O365 which will for sure have a positive side effect on the Project word, such as the O365 notification pane or Power View integration in Excel Online.

I'm now a Microsoft P-Seller for Project!!

It’s official, I’ve been nominated and accepted by Microsoft as a P-Seller for Project (formerly called Virtual Technology Specialist)! I’m extremely excited to be considered among the elite in the Microsoft Partner Community, and I look forward to learning more about the program and helping businesses find value using Microsoft Project.

One of the first questions I had during this process was “What is a P-Seller?”

I’ve located this text, which explains the program:

"The Microsoft P-Seller (VTS-P) is a select group chosen from the elite in Microsoft’s partner community, whose focus is to augment Microsoft’s internal Technology Specialist team. Their primary role is to communicate the value of Microsoft Solutions to customers and to provide architectural guidance for Enterprise Integration solutions. The Microsoft P-Seller program was designed to create a deeper relationship with Microsoft Partners, the Product Teams at Microsoft Corporate, and Regional Microsoft Offices, in order to provide highly skilled solution specialists to Microsoft customers. It is designed to enable a high performance team of partner-based resources to deliver pre-sale activities and resources to empower customers and help them meet their solution and integration needs."

Here are the 3 key points to keep in mind about the P-Seller role:

Figure 1 : overview of the P-Seller role

1 - Contributes to MS sales and pre-sales technical support capacity:

The Partner Seller (P-Seller) is a Microsoft Partner resource acting as an extension of the Microsoft sales team in the capacity of sales and pre-sales technical support. The appropriate P-Seller has the ability to position, demonstrate, design and implement Microsoft solutions.

2 - Provides subject matter expertise for key technology areas:

Designed to help Microsoft scale out its sales and technical pre-sales efforts by enabling Microsoft partner resources to help drive and accelerate pipeline velocity and customer deployment.

3 - P-Seller resources are deeply integrated into Microsoft’s sales team:

P-Sellers engage wth AM/OM/SSPs on Sales Opportunities providing SSP and TSP deliverables which include -Sales & positioning presentations, Technology & Strategy briefings, product demos and technical follow up. P-Sellers are provided access to the same demo content and presentations as Microsoft SSP's and TSP's.

I now get access to information on the Microsoft corporate network such as knowledge bases, technical articles, training materials, and other resources. I also get guest access to Microsoft facilities, and priority for participating in Microsoft marketing events.

This is a really great opportunity, I'm proud to be a part of this elite community, and I look forward to all that comes from it. 

MVP Project!!

It is with great pride I announce that I have been awarded as a Microsoft® Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Project for the first (hope not the last) time. 

The Microsoft MVP Award is an annual award that recognizes exceptional technology community leaders worldwide who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with users and Microsoft. The idea behind this award is to give some recognition to folks that have volunteered their time to write books, create documentation, run user groups, and generally spread the word as advocates for the development platform.

I'm even more honoured that we are just around 60 MVPs for Project wordwide and as far I could see on the MVP website, I'll be the only one in Canada.

Now let's go on and continue sharing my experience and knowledge with the community!