Note to self:

Here are some packaged solutions available to help make the user community aware, prepared, and excited.

	Office Online SharePoint Help
	Office SharePoint Server 2007 Training built on SharePoint Learning Kit Here is a screen capture video showing how it works. The SharePoint Learning Kit (SLK) is government SCORM compliant, and can be used to deliver and track any training that uses the SCORM XML course definition. The Office SharePoint Server 2007 training is skinned and contains courses for SharePoint users.
	SharePoint Internal Buzz Kit The Internal Buzz Kit is designed to help you generate demand for your newly deployed SharePoint Server 2007 sites, increasing your Return on Investment. You may need to revise some of the pieces in the Kit, depending upon your particular deployment environment and company policies. You may download all the materials in one file, or download them separately

Interesting.  Is this the "official" blog icon?
Not terrible.

http://office.microsoft.com/global/images/default.aspx?assetid=ZA102499971033

Bigger

See it in action here: SharePoint 2007 Help and How-to

For humans: ÿ-L

For computers: %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

So cool.

Command line source: Shutting Down Computers and Logging Off Users: TechNet

A great post by Gabriel: Valuing the Undervalued Solution Model

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml;jsessionid=R13ZGBCSYGIIUAKRGWDSELQBKE0YIISW?id=R0806D&referral=2341

Eric mentions an interesting document he co-authored about SharePoint as a social networking platform.

Here is a direct link to the Word doc.

Admittedly, I haven't read to far into this site, but I'm link blogging it because, hey, even Squirrels need a little SharePoint now and then:

SharePoint for Squirrels

Often an engineering team is asked to predict the future amidst uncertainty.

One way to efficiently drive estimation meetings in this environment is to use the Program, Evaluation, and Review Technique (PERT).

Here is the official article that describes this: Use a PERT analysis to estimate task durations

You can expose the PERT Analysis Toolbar by right-clicking anywhere in the toolbar and enabling "Pert Analysis":

You can then click on the PERT Table button and you get the resultant table:

This is also available through the Tables menus: 

Note: The PERT Table is using the fields Duration1, Duration2, and Duration3 and renaming them.  If you are also using these, your values will show up here, and changing the values in this table will change them wherever else you are using Duration1,2,3.

You can now quickly go through the meeting asking questions like: "How long do you think this is likely to take?" (expected)  and "If that obstacle or constraint is removed, then how long would it take?" (optimistic) and "If that assumption doesn't play out, then how long would it take?" (pessimistic).

When you are done with the session, click the Calculate PERT button and using the default weights (1:4:1) Project will update the Duration field with a calculated duration.

I recommend having the notes field open and documenting the pivot points of the conversation for each task. Split the Window, the show the Notes pane:

1. Window:Split
   
2. Right-click in the entry pane, and select Notes
   

See also:

• More on advanced PERT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PERT
• Article that shows alternative PERT visualizations: http://www.mindtools.com/critpath.html
• Interesting article on approaches to estimating: http://tynerblain.com/blog/2006/04/28/where-did-you-get-that-estimate/ 

I was asked recently about summary tasks showing sums of work columns that were too large.

This is caused by summary tasks that have carried their resource assignments from when they were non-summary tasks.

Steps to Reproduce

Here is how it occurs.

1. Create tasks and assign resources
   
2. Insert a new task amidst the others and assign a resource
   
3. Indent the new task using the button
    
   In the above shot, notice that the summary task is now larger than the sum of its children

Resolution

Even in the web 2.0 world, often times the most cost effective way to set up a collaboration mechanism is an email distribution group.  How often do you see:

It's our old friend MailTo.

If nothing else make the email addresses hot.  Such as <a href="mailto:thisappsup">THISAPPSUP</A>

But wait, for not that much more effort, how about this.  They click on the link, and instead of just firing up an email, it gives it a little more structure:

Maybe not web 2.0, but at least web 1.1:

Here is the mailto code: 

<a href="mailto:thisappsup?Subject=Support Request for This App&amp;Body=This App Support Team, I need help with This App">THISAPPSUP</a>

This way you can help give a little structure to the mail request. Even though the sender can still change things, it will still help speed things up and structure it more.  It will also help differentiate sources of the mail if mail groups are used for multiple purposes.  For example, you could include a reference to the page from which the mail is being sent, or a version number.

Note: The email addresses in this post are purely fictitious. The links will initiate an email message, but don't expect that the example recipients will actually work. :)

See also: MailTo Protocol