Who is Erik van Hurck?

Two favorite Project reports, Online edition

Four years ago I published the 3 favorite Microsoft Project reports post. And for the second year in a row it’s the most visited post on TPC. By far! And with two thousand views already this year, I’m expecting another clear winner this year (runner up “About percent complete” is good for almost half that amount of views).

It’s difficult to recreate good “ever green” content, it’s clear that the article has everything people look for. Maybe it’s the list of actions required for a successful report in Microsoft Project. Or maybe it’s because the article describes 3 reports I like the best.

Save to say I wanted to create a follow up article. This time I’m expanding my view to the cloud. More specifically, the Microsoft project management cloud solutions.

Product review: PMP Deep Dive

Hi Reader,
Welcome to a massively overdue topic on The Project Corner! Here is another Product review. This time we are taking a look at the PMP Deep Dive online training course from the Versatile company. And stick around till the end, because I managed to get you a discount :-).

Covid-19, raising awareness

Hi reader,

You might be thinking “hold on Erik is a Project blogger, what’s going on here?!”. And yes you are right, normally I would write about Project and Portfolio management, Power BI or Microsoft’s host of other cool applications (such as Teams and the combo with Project Online).

But, you must also agree with me that these aren’t normal circumstances anymore right?

The Netherlands is currently hit with closed schools, musea and other measures. We aren’t on complete lockdown yet, but who knows this might happen in the coming days.

That’s why I wrote this article to help raise awareness on the Covid-19 pandamic and share some reports and articles created by (hopefully) way smarter people then me.

Create a Power BI report that shows all files in Project Online

Hi reader,
I was recently asked by one of my clients to give them an exact number of all the files that were in the Project Online environment. The reason behind it was that the organisation wants to use Microsoft Teams to store all project related files instead of the classic Project Sites.

This is of course music to my ears! I get to play around with Power BI and the client is moving towards a future where Teams is available to all their teammembers. You might remember my previous video in which I share how to connect Teams with Project Online.

In this article I’ll share with you the steps I took to create this report. Then, at the end of the article I’ll share the video on how to do it. And as a final offer, I’ll give you the template I created so that you can do it even faster yourselves. Sounds goud? Here we go!

Project Home, Roadmap and now the new Project for the Web

At the time of writing there’s a considerable buzz happening around “something new” to the Microsoft PPM offering. You might have seen Project Home and Roadmap already. And just recently (as of October 2019) a new Project experience is introduced: Project for the Web.

And a little disclaimer: I started this post end of November 2019 but due to a busy work schedule, move to a new house and subsequent flu outbreak only got to finishing it today. So, as this is the first real post of 2020: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2019, and a happy New Year

Normally I would do an extensive blog update on how last year went. Sharing some numbers and talking about how my year was in general.

This year I wanted to share a short note with a little information on what has happened the last two months. Because updates have been scares during that time and I think it will take a little more time before I’m back in the game.

Book review: Microsoft Project 2019 Step by Step

The cover of the Step by Step book for Microsoft Project. Written by Cindy Lewis. — The cover

It’s that time again! Get ready for another book review in regards to Project and Project Management. And I got to say, it’s been a while! The last book I reviewed was by Eric Uyttewaal on Forecast Programming in June 2018.

Today I’m reviewing Microsoft Project 2019 Step by Step. It’s part of the well established book series “Step by Step” and as such we have high hopes on learning how to work with the tool Microsoft Project. The book was authored by Cindy Lewis, a name that should be familiar with you by now. But just in case it isn’t, lets you up to speed:

PowerApps baby steps – Model driven or Canvas?

Hi reader, welcome to part two of this new series on TPC. In the previous article I started with a short explanation on why I’m doing this set of articles on PowerApps. In that article I spoke briefly about the two different kinds of apps you can create: Model driven and Canvas apps.

In this article I’m diving in deeper and exporting the two options in more detail. In which instances would you choose a Canvas app over Model driven, and the other way around. Moreover, I’m keeping in mind that we are specifically interested in Project Management solutions.

PowerApps baby steps – Introduction

Welcome reader, in the introduction post about PowerApps on TPC. For those of you that are new to the blog: I’m a Microsoft Project (Online) consultant. And the blog you are currently on is my way of venting out ideas I got in the field, as well as exploring new fields of interest.

Previous series have been “About posts” (which were larger than usual explorations of single features within MS Project), the Flaw’s series that started it all and a currently frequently returning subject on the UserVoice items related to Project and Portfolio Management.

This is the first post in a new series in which I take my first baby steps into the world of PowerApps and related technologies (such as Flow, Forms and AI). I have played around with PowerApps before, and I have implemented multiple Flows at customers already. But I feel that I’m “not quite there yet” in regards to providing the best solutions.

In the series I’ll explore PowerApps solutions from a PPM consultants perspective. Exploring options that can help you in your daily life working with the Microsoft Project and Portfolio Management tool set (and yes that’s more than just Project and Project Online).

Lets begin!

The future of (Microsoft) Project and Portfolio Management

Let’s start with a little disclaimer, the following article is a brainstorm experiment by my hand. There’s no real crystal ball involved. This article is an exploration on where the world of Project and Portfolio management is heading.

Obviously, any prediction of the future will change that future because we are preparing differently for it. This was excellently described in the first chapters of Homo Deus a book I’m currently reading (and yes the inspiration for writing this article).

But, because it won’t happen exactly like I describe it doesn’t mean at all that we should not dream about the future. Or write these kinds of articles. There might even be a smart Microsoft employee that reads the article and picks it up and makes it reality.

Just a warning: I couldn’t find/use a lot of pictures for this article. Just chew through the text please :-).