The Apple Watch disrupts, but is that enough?

For some it's a must-have, but others may want to wait before committing

Disruptive technology doesn't come along often, and is often initially dismissed because it's easy to ignore something you've lived an entire life without. But every once in a while a bit of tech comes along that makes it easier to do what you're already doing.

This is the Apple Watch.
I wasn't always sold on the concept. Aside from issues related to appearance/style, functionality, personalization, fitness tracking, and useful interaction methods, my big concern was this: What real-world problem would an Apple watch solve? Knowing the obstacles was one thing; solving those problems was something else entirely. I was skeptical.

The engineers at Apple not only understood those issues but figured out solutions. By the time Apple execs finished unveiling their vision for the modern watch last September, I was ready to give the technology a shot. As someone who's built a career around tech, I couldn't remember the last time a watch of any type inspired an emotional reaction.

Much of my excitement stemmed from the new technologies, especially the Digital Crown and Force Touch, both of which work wonderfully in the real world.

Crowning achievement
With the Digital Crown, Apple engineers turned a feature already present in watches into a scroll wheel for selecting options and quickly sliding through list views. It's used to access apps, very much like an iPhone's Home Button, when pressed. Double-pressing it switches between the last-used app and the Clock app; holding the Crown down activates Siri; and when you use it to scroll to the end of a list, it even becomes harder to turn. (That last feature shows the obsessive level of detail that's characteristic of Apple.)

Apple
Handing off scrolling and button-like functionality to the crown is so obvious -- in retrospect -- that it's amazing no one came up with the idea beforehand. This is typical Apple.

With Force Touch, the Apple Watch's Retina display can respond not only to touch and gestures, but can sense when additional force is applied to the screen. That extra pressure brings up additional options in supported apps: It can call up app settings, dismiss notifications, pause or end workouts, select audio and video sources in Remote, and customize Watch faces. The cleverness of Force Touch is that these actions would otherwise need their own onscreen icons, using up precious space in a device with limited screen real-estate.

Force Touch works so well in the real world that the technology has started spreading to other Apple products, like the latest MacBooks and MacBook Pro laptops. It's only a matter of time before iPads and iPhones get this, too.

Uniting and adding to these new technologies is a tried-and-true method that underpins the success of the Watch: Siri. On the Watch, Siri is used for all sorts of voice commands, like setting timers, checking weather, launching apps -- as well as for dictating messages. The Apple Watch relies on Siri for functions that would normally require a keyboard; without Siri, the Watch would fail.

These three technologies allow the Watch to stand above competitors' offerings. Physically, though, the Watch has the distinction of actually looking like a Watch -- and a nice watch at that. It's not embarrassing to wear, regardless of the occasion. Watch Bands can be removed and swapped out easily and the number of Watch/band combos continues to rise.

Apple Watch makes technology as fashionable as possible, more so than any previous attempts in the category from anyone else. But, while it (debatably) looks great -- especially for a wearable computer -- the key to usability (and success) is software: the Watch operating system, apps and ecosystem.
Fitness and notifications

When I got my Apple Watch in April, I was looking for it to do two things: be a fitness accessory/advisor and a notification system for important alerts. However, I underestimated the importance of apps. There are well over 4,000 now available, with more coming. Currently, apps have flaws -- many are still slow to load, and the display will often turn off before they load fully -- but that should improve significantly with native app support, which is coming this fall with the Watch OS 2.0 update. That update promises faster app launches and developer access to features not available to them now, including the accelerometer and the heart rate monitor. There will also be support for non-Apple Complications, and Night Stand mode (which works wonderfully with my favorite stand from Nomad).

In 2007, when the first iPhone was released, I wrote about a digital future where data is at your fingertips. That future is now; We're living the mobile dream, with devices like the iPhone designed with portability and instant access to all sorts of information. That also means a world in which our devices never shut up. In practical use, this is one of the areas the Watch truly shines: filtering digital noise.

The Watch is clearly the type of product that grows on you. I'm still using my iPhone; the Watch hasn't made it obsolete, especially because it relies on the phone for so much backend work. But when I pull the iPhone out, it's for different reasons now. I can quickly respond to texts, control music, check my calendar for upcoming events, track packages, check on the order status of Apple Store purchases, and get directions via the Watch without getting sucked into other apps -- which happens when I pick up the iPhone.

This is a big deal for me. The iPhone, with all it can do, is a gigantic time-suck, and it's easy to fall into the trap. The Watch is designed for short bursts of interactions, without the distractions inherent to a device that does just about everything.

Fitness tracking is still a huge deal for me, but as someone who uses the Watch to track running, basketball, and especially weight lifting, I'm not very impressed. While the Watch has excellent heart rate monitoring sensors, they only work well if you're using it to track an activity in which your arms wave about. In those cases, the Watch is spot on.
Weightlifters need not apply

Tracking activities like lifting weights or pushups is another matter, and here is where the Watch falls on its proverbial face. If you're an active weight-lifter and are in the market for a fitness tracker, this isn't it. When lifting weights, the heart monitoring is the worst feature of the Watch. It's supposed to monitor your heart rate every 10 minutes in normal mode, and every 10 seconds during a workout. But when Apple released the 1.0.1 update, it changed that behavior so that if the Watch senses movement in normal mode, it skips the heart rate reading. This is absurd. The opposite should occur: if the Watch senses sustained, increased movement, the correct response is to instantly check pulse rate to gauge exertion levels. (The inaccurate readings while lifting weights is a known issue and is supposed to be resolved with a future software update, but who knows when.)

Apple Watch BPM
What isn't disappointing, though, is that the Watch is more water proof than I thought. I've used the Watch in showers, hot tubs, and while swimming. I didn't dive beyond 15 feet, but I wore it while playing basketball in a pool, and I was in the water for hours. Do I recommend getting it wet? Not really, and neither does Apple. But you can. (The Watch is rated to survive 30 minutes at one meter's depth.)

The technology in the Apple Watch will, of course, improve with each successive software update (and each new generation of the Watch itself). Even so, the Watch already marks the first time technology as fashion has sold in large numbers. When I wrote my first iPhone review, I said that breakthrough products like this really leave an imprint in time, in which we can literally see the pivot point: before and after. Even though I'm disappointed in tracking an activity like lifting weights, the Watch is that kind of product.

The more people purchase and use the Watch, the more attention the device will get from third-party developers and service providers. There will come a point when the number of wearers will be hard to ignore forcing businesses and third parties to support the services those wearers expect, especially something like Apple Pay.

But is that today?

So, should you get one?

I'm in an interesting position regarding whether I recommend the Watch. At this point, you likely know whether or not you want a Watch. Apple has already sold more of them in a few weeks than all of the competition sold in years, and I'm clearly a fan (as are other Watch owners I know). But it's still too soon to know whether the functions and fashion it offers -- or will offer in future iterations -- will be enough to lure the hoards of new users that follow early adopters.

Two years ago I figured if an Apple Watch were ever released, it would be because Apple leaders were confident of its impact. I said then that I'd have to see it to believe it.

Well, I've seen it, I've used it, and I'm a believer: Despite the first-generation problems, you can have my Watch after you pry it from my cold, dead wrist.

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Software-Defined Networking will be a critical enabler of the Internet of Things

SDN will support IoT by centralizing control, abstracting network devices, and providing flexible, dynamic, automated reconfiguration of the network

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.

Organizations are excited about the business value of the data that will be generated by the Internet of Things (IoT). But there’s less discussion about how to manage the devices that will make up the network, secure the data they generate and analyze it quickly enough to deliver the insights businesses need.

Software defined networking (SDN) can help meet these needs. By virtualizing network components and services, they can rapidly and automatically reconfigure network devices, reroute traffic and apply authentication and access rules. All this can help speed and secure data delivery, and improve network management, for even the most remote devices.

SDN enables the radical simplification of network provisioning with predefined policies for plug-and-play set-up of IoT devices, automatic detection and remediation of security threats, and the provisioning of the edge computing and analytics environments that turn data into insights.

Consider these two IoT use cases:
* Data from sensors within blowout preventers can help oil well operators save millions of dollars a year in unplanned downtime. These massive data flows, ranging from pressure readings to valve positions, are now often sent from remote locations to central servers over satellite links. This not only increases the cost of data transmission but delays its receipt and analysis. This latency can be critical – or even deadly – when the data is used to control powerful equipment or sensitive industrial processes.

Both these problems will intensify as falling prices lead to the deployment of many more sensors, and technical advances allow each sensor to generate much more data. Processing more data at the edge (i.e. near the well) and determining which is worth sending to a central location (what some call Fog or Edge Computing) helps alleviate both these problems. So can the rapid provisioning of network components and services, while real-time application of security rules helps protect proprietary information.

* Data from retail environments, such as from a customer’s smartphone monitoring their location and the products they take pictures of, or in-store sensors monitoring their browsing behavior, can be used to deliver customized offers to encourage an immediate sale. Again, the volume of data and the need for fast analysis and action calls for the rapid provisioning of services and edge data processing, along with rigorous security to ease privacy concerns.

Making such scenarios real requires overcoming unprecedented challenges.
One is the sheer number of devices, which is estimated to reach 50 billion by 2020, with each new device expanding the “attack surface” exposed to hackers. Another is the amount of data moving over this network, with IDC projecting IoT will account for 10% of all data on the planet by 2020.

Then there is the variety of devices that need to be managed and supported. These range from network switches supporting popular management applications and protocols, to legacy SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) devices and those that lack the compute and/or memory to support standard authentication or encryption. Finally, there is the need for very rapid, and even real-time, response, especially for applications involving safety (such as hazardous industrial processes) or commerce (such as monitoring of inventory or customer behavior).

Given this complexity and scale, manual network management is simply not feasible. SDN provides the only viable, cost-effective means to manage the IoT, secure the network and the data on it, minimize bandwidth requirements and maximize the performance of the applications and analytics that use its data.

SDN brings three important capabilities to IoT:
Centralization of control through software that has complete knowledge of the network, enabling automated, policy-based control of even massive, complex networks. Given the huge potential scale of IoT environments, SDN is critical in making them simple to manage.

Abstraction of the details of the many devices and protocols in the network, allowing IoT applications to access data, enable analytics and control the devices, and add new sensors and network control devices, without exposing the details of the underlying infrastructure. SDN simplifies the creation, deployment and ongoing management of the IoT devices and the applications that benefit from them.

The flexibility to tune the components within the IoT (and manage where data is stored and analyzed) to continually maximize performance and security as business needs and data flows change. IoT environments are inherently disperse with many end devices and edge computing. As a result, the network is even more critical than in standard application environments. SDN’s ability to dynamically change network behavior based on new traffic patterns, security incidents andpolicy changes will enable IoT environments to deliver on their promise.

For example, through the use ofpredefined policies for plug-and-play set up, SDN allows for the rapid and easy addition of new types of IoT sensors. By abstracting network services from the hardware on which they run, SDN allows automated, policy-based creation of virtual load balancers, quality of service for various classes of traffic, and the provisioning of network resources for peak demands.

The ease of adding and removing resources reduces the cost and risk of IoT experiments by allowing the easy deprovisioning and reuse of the network infrastructure when no longer needed.

SDN will make it easier to find and fight security threats through the improved visibility they provide into network traffic right to the edge of the network. They also make it easy to apply automated policies to redirect suspicious traffic to, for example, a honeynet where it can be safely examined. By making networking management less complex, SDN allows IT to set and enforce more segmented access controls.

SDN can provide a dynamic, intelligent, self-learning layered model of security that provides walls within walls and ensures people can only change the configuration of the devices they’re authorized to “touch.” This is far more useful than the traditional “wall” around the perimeter of the network, which won’t work with the IoT because of its size and the fact the enemy is often inside the firewall, in the form of unauthorized actors updating firmware on unprotected devices.

Finally, by centralizing configuration and management, SDN will allow IT to effectively program the network to make automatic, real-time decisions about traffic flow. They will allow the analysis of not only sensor data, but data about the health of the network, to be analyzed close to the network edge to give IT the information it needs to prevent traffic jams and security risks. The centralized configuration and management of the network, and the abstraction of network devices, also makes it far easier to manage applications that run on the edge of the IoT.

For example, SDN will allow IT to fine-tune data aggregation, so data that is less critical is held at the edge and not transmitted to core systems until it won’t slow critical application traffic. This edge computing can also perform fast, local analysis and speed the results to the network core if the analysis indicates an urgent situation, such as the impending failure of a jet engine.

Prepare Now
IT organizations can become key drivers in capturing the promised business value of IoT through the use of SDNs. But this new world is a major change and will require some planning.

To prepare for the intersection of IoT and SDN, you should start thinking about what policies in areas such as security, Quality of Service (QoS) and data privacy will make sense in the IoT world, and how to structure and implement such policies in a virtualized network.

All companies have policies today, but typically they are implicit – that is – buried in a morass of ACLs and network configurations. SDN will turn this process on its head, allowing IT teams to develop human readable policies that are implemented by the network. IT teams should start understanding how they’ve configured today’s environment so that they can decide what policies should be brought forward.

They should plan now to include edge computing and analytics in their long-term vision of the network. At the same time, they should remember that IoT and SDN are in their early stages, meaning their network and application planners should expect unpredicted changes in, for example, the amounts of data their networks must handle, and the need to dynamically reconfigure them for local rather than centralized processing. The key enablers, again, will be centralization of control, abstraction of network devices and flexible, dynamic automated reconfiguration of the network. Essentially, isolation of network slices to segment the network by proactively pushing policy via a centralized controller to cordon off various types of traffic. Centralized control planes offer the advantages of easy operations and management.

IT teams should also evaluate their network, compute and data needs across the entire IT spectrum, as the IoT will require an end-to-end SDN solution encompassing all manner of devices, not just those from one domain within IT, but across the data center, Wide Area Network (WAN) and access.

Lastly, IT will want to get familiar with app development in edge computing environments, which is a mix of local and centralized processing. As network abstraction to app layer changes and becomes highly programmable, network teams need to invest in resources and training that understand these programming models (e.g. REST) so that they can more easily partner with the app development teams.

IoT will be so big, so varied and so remote that conventional management tools just won’t cut it. Now is the time to start learning how SDN can help you manage this new world and assure the speedy, secure delivery and analysis of the data it will generate.

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Can’t find all the tech people you need? The Blind Institute of Technology can help

The fledgling organization says there is a large untapped pool of talent waiting in the wings

Mike Hess is the founder and Executive Director of the Blind Institute of Technology, a Colorado-based nonprofit transitioning to be a national outfit, whose goal is to find tech roles for the chronically underemployed visually impaired community. Hess, who runs the organization with 40+ volunteers, including eight C-level executives on his board of directors, recently outlined his goals for Network World Editor in Chief John Dix.

Why did you start this organization and what is it about?

Mike Hess is the founder and Executive Director of the Blind Institute of Technology

I started in technology 18 years ago in the mid-90s and most of my career was in telecommunications. I started with US West as a mainframe developer and when US West Wireless started I thought that sounded fun so I moved over and that’s when I started expanding my technical skills. In the mid-2000s when VoIP became the latest craze I went and got Cisco certified and learned how to overcome those challenges, and then ultimately I ended up at Level 3 Communications.

Through all of that I noticed I was always the token blind guy in the organization, so I started doing some digging and came to realize the unemployment rate for the vision-impaired (VI) ranged from 70% to 80%. I found the numbers just staggering and I thought, I can make a difference by bringing awareness to executives here locally in Denver.

The first six to eight months was all about proof of concept. I kept knocking on doors, talking to executives, telling them about how I was able to overcome visual obstacles in environments just like theirs, so I was bringing credibility to the story. I was talking to them about the amazing candidates they were overlooking even as they were struggling to find talent. In Denver, unemployment within IT is less than two percent.

Was the focus to encourage employers to hire visually-impaired people or were you also out to encourage visually impaired people to pursue technology careers?

My initial focus was on awareness with a mission to impact unemployment. I didn’t start out to build a staffing or placement organization. That’s kind of evolved over the last two years.

Today BIT offers multiple programs designed to enable success in the workplace for both employers and the VI community. Our Education and Outreach Program (Art of Blinders) teaches organizations the true power of listening. These workshops help educate organizations about the innate assets a vision-impaired person brings to the workplace, and helps with organizational development by having participants practice listening skills while blind folded.

Our second program is Workplace Preparation. We provide technical assistance to organizations that are interested in learning how to make software accessible to consumers, or organizations that need technical assistance for a VI employee.

The third program is Certification and Training, so it is all about education. We have partnered with the Tuliva Academy in downtown Denver to offer technical certifications that are fully accessible in the classroom.

And the fourth program is Staffing and Placements. We have signed direct placement agreements and master service agreements with organizations for full-time employment, project and contract work.

Since we’re a 501C3 Nonprofit, organizations can donate to one of our programs to help us impact the unemployment within the vision-impaired community.

When you approach a large company, is it hard to get in the door or are they receptive to the idea and just haven’t thought it through?

When I talk to CIOs or CTOs I talk pure technology. I explain that bringing in technology to support visually impaired programmers adds less than one percent to software development lifecycle costs, and suddenly you have access to this large talent pool out there. Technically minded executives get this concept. Every organization is looking for scalability. When I explain how many millions of blind people there are, it’s kind of a no-brainer to start incorporating accessible technology in the workplace because it allows you to scale immediately.

Where I get more resistance is when I talk to HR types. Their goal is to mitigate risk, but I’ve found zero statistics that show that the visually impaired are any more problematic for organizations. As a matter of fact, all the testimonials and statistics I’ve found show that companies that have embraced the vision-impaired community have some of the lowest churn in the industry because, quite honestly, once I know my way to my office, I continue to walk that path. So I think the loyalty factor is a huge win for organizations.

So yeah, it’s kind of a mixed reaction, although the reason we’ve been able to grow is because when I talk to an executive I always ask if they can introduce me to two or three peers and they’re like, “Absolutely,” because what we’re selling is this amazing talent pool that they’re probably not tapping into.

How many people are visually impaired?

In Colorado alone there are 45,000 blind people between the ages of 18 and 64. And if 70%-80% are unemployed? Do the math. And the vision-impaired community has roughly the same level of higher education degrees as our sighted peers, which is about 20% percent of the population.

Then we look for the unemployed visually impaired that have what I call the AA standard. The first A is for attitude. Is your vision impairment an obstacle or is it a barrier, because if it’s a barrier, BIT is not the right organization for you. If it’s just an obstacle, and you’ve got the attitude that you can overcome whatever is in front of you, to me that is a great asset for any technical organization.

The second A is your aptitude. Do you have skills? We literally represent double master, double bachelor’s degree candidates that are just sitting on the sidelines right now chomping at the bit, waiting for a friendly organization to say, “You know what? I’m not worried about the accessible technology. I’m not worried about the perception. I’m just looking for a talented, loyal professional to help our group.”

What was it like for you to learn technology as a visually-impaired person? What kind of obstacles did you face as you pursued this career?

I think you’ll find a lot of vision impaired people can memorize copious amounts of information. When I was coding, my learning curve in the beginning was slower because I had to memorize large COBOL programs, although give me a couple of months and I was way more proficient because I knew exactly where to go to update my data division or go to my procedure division. I could do the correlating of data elements so much faster than my sighted peers because memorizing was secondary to them because they could just see what they were doing.

And because of my sight, I use a lot of tactile representations. For network topologies, for example, I would lay a document over a hard rubber mat and ask a coworker to use a pen to perforate around the shapes, giving me a tactical, three-dimensional layout.

So I leverage all my senses, I leverage every tool and technique I can. There’s actually a lot of science that quantifies how, if you use multiple senses during your transfer of information, your retention and recall go up exponentially. I’ve had high success of getting projects out on time and on budget and that is an anomaly within the IT network space.

When you were going to school for technology, was it hard to find adequate tools to help you learn?

In the early 90s IBM provided a grant to four community colleges and the program I attended was called Computer Training for People with Disabilities. It was designed to get people with physical challenges into technology organizations. There were screen reader and early speech-to-text software and other technologies, but when I first started the software that would help me had not yet arrived. However, there was another student there who had crippling carpal tunnel and so I said “I’ll be your hands, you be my eyes,” and for the first two months of the program that’s how we turned in our assignments. Today, 20 years later, the technology is so much better, thank goodness.

When you transitioned into the corporate world, did they have adequate tools for you?

Back then the technology was a lot more pricey than it is now, but organizations could write-off the investment and they were more than willing to do that because there was this boom in IT like we’re going through now.

Today the technology is so much better. One of the brilliant things Steve Jobs did with the i-devices, he went out and talked to the blindness community and made sure the very first i-device was completely accessible to the VI community. Now, for example, you have applications from companies like Salesforce that I can use to do everything a sighted person would do. The technology is 100% percent innate within iOS.

A lot of what we do now when we go in to talk to an organization is showcase the new capabilities. We say, “Here’s how the technology looks and feels, here’s some of the code you can implement, and here’s how our devices actually respond to that code.”

Are schools doing enough to prepare visually impaired people for tech roles?

In Colorado I’ve checked out all of the major universities, and the thing that saddens me is there’s not one program that actually offers an accessible technology class or tutorial. So BIT is going to be a game changer within the educational realm. We will challenge the IT programs to offer accessibility as a portion of its curriculum. Currently, Universities are not teaching anything about accessible technology. We believe that is important not just to have accessible technology available but teach students about using accessible technology. Therefore, graduates will know what it looks and feels like to code for accessibility.

We’re also partnering with a local technology school that has the curriculum for Cisco and Salesforce and Project Management certifications, and they’re going to be the first technical school in the country that is 100% percent accessible to the visually-impaired community.

So if we have a visually-impaired person reach out to us that has, say, a bachelor’s in English, we can say, “With that degree and with this certification, you’ll be able to line up for a project management role,” or something like that. So we can help them leverage their current skills, augment them with some additional certifications that are completely VI accessible, and then place them in an industry with the lowest unemployment rate out there.

Security is an interesting opportunity. A lot of healthcare organizations, for example, are building out security operation centers, and they’ve told us, “We just want the right personality. We’ll teach them the hard skills.”

Well, Mike, anything else that’s important to know about your organization that I haven’t thought to ask about?

I just want to reiterate that we have national reach. We’re completely connected with all of the blindness organizations nationwide, and this is of national importance and I know with community effort, with organizations who are just looking for talented, loyal people, BIT can absolutely be a brand name that they can come to depend on to help them get those resources out there nationwide.

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9 useful PowerShell tools

 Microsoft's mighty Windows administration framework gets even better with the help of these tools and materials. Almost all are free; the one for-fee tool is well worth the cost.

Why PowerShell?
Ah, PowerShell. A simple blue window and some text has transformed the world of Windows administration from a point-and-click GUI to scripts that automate everything, as well as provide log rotation and identity lifecycle management and which server receives which updates.

With everything in the newest versions of Windows Server accessible primarily via PowerShell and only secondarily (and sometimes even not at all) via the server's GUI, PowerShell knowledge has become a must. Sometimes, though, it is difficult to know whether you are proceeding correctly. Luckily, there are other resources available that will help speed you along in your training and your professional responsibilities.

In this slideshow, I will highlight 9 resources for immersing yourself in the PowerShell world. Whether you're writing scripts, working in a DevOps-oriented environment or administering software from vendors other than Microsoft using PowerShell, there is something for everyone in this group of resources. And best of all -- they are all free, save for one excellent paid product.

What are you waiting for? Let's dive in.

Dell PowerGUI
Presumably left over from Dell's 2012 acquisition of Quest, PowerGUI is a visual complement to PowerShell. It makes assembling scripts and getting things done in PowerShell as simple as selecting cmdlets that are appropriate for your task and then dragging them into place. Perfect for those who are new to PowerShell but have a basic grasp of its concepts, PowerGUI is an easy-to-use script editor that will probably advance your understanding of assembling more complex and advanced scripts quicker than anything else -- especially if you are a visual learner.

Perhaps the most useful features of PowerGUI are the Power Packs: Pre-built scripts that have been open-sourced by the user community and made available to other PowerGUI users. These range from adding users to managing switches; they can be customized and further improved upon, or simply baked into whatever script you are currently writing, saving the time it would take you to reinvent the wheel.

There was once a paid edition of PowerGUI with more advanced features, but that edition was rolled up into the freeware product. PowerGUI does not seem to have been updated for a while, but that does not make it any less useful, and since it is freeware, you have nothing to lose by adding it to your arsenal.

Sapien Technologies PowerShell Studio 2015
More advanced PowerShell developers and administrators need more advanced tooling, and PowerShell Studio 2015 from Sapien is the first place to look. When you first open PowerShell Studio, you are immediately reminded of Visual Studio and for good reason: PowerShell Studio is as much an integrated scripting environment as Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE).

Features include: Ribbon, remote debugging support, compiler features that let you turn scripts into executable files, support for multiple versions of PowerShell (useful for targeting scripts to different servers running different levels of the Windows Server operating system), source control for checking in and out script code and support for multiple developers. All of which make this an obvious choice for shops where administrators and developers work together on building advanced PowerShell scripts to handle a variety of scenarios.

At $389 per license, it is a little pricey. But considering all of the product's functionality, if you live in this part of the PowerShell world, it is well worth the cost of admission.

Amazon AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell
It's not just Microsoft that is jumping on the PowerShell bandwagon; even a competitive cloud service like Amazon Web Services recognizes that (a) Windows Server is huge, (b) lots of administrators are learning PowerShell, and (c) anything that lets administrators manage Amazon services more easily increases the likelihood that an Amazon server will stick in any given enterprise. Thus the AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell were born.

With AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell, you can manage virtual machines and service instances that are running in the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), or write scripts that automate the management of any workloads you have running in a variety of Amazon services. The tools install a bunch of cmdlets into your Windows PowerShell "sphere of influence" and let you manage and script tasks like backing up data from virtual machines in EC2 to the Simple Storage Service (S3) or logging and publishing metrics to the Amazon CloudWatch personal dashboard.

If you know PowerShell and you use Amazon cloud services, these tools will be a great addition.

Microsoft Script Browser for Windows PowerShell ISE
The problem: You want to do something in PowerShell. You know your outcome. But you do not know how to get there and, further, you have a sneaking suspicion that someone, somewhere out there on the Internet has already figured it out and probably would tell you for free. What if there were this free magic tool that would scour the TechNet Script Center -- probably the most authoritative source for PowerShell scripts on Earth right now -- and find scripts that purport to do what you need? That is exactly what Microsoft Script Browser claims to do.

It also includes a built-in Script Analyzer function that will read through your scripts and suggest improvements or changes to make based upon scripting best practices.

This tool plugs right into the Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment, which you get for free as part of Windows. You might need to install the feature on Windows client machines, but it should be installed by default as part of the basic Windows Server image.

Adam Driscoll's PowerShell Tools for Visual Studio
If you are more on the "dev" side of DevOps, then you probably use Visual Studio as one of your tools of choice. While Visual Studio has a lot going for it, it does not do a lot with PowerShell out of the box. That is where Adam Driscoll's PowerShell Tools for Visual Studio project comes in.

This project integrates within Visual Studio, brings syntax highlighting and colors to the IDE, and adds IntelliSense support for automatically completing syntax elements like variables, cmdlets and arguments as you type within a Visual Studio window. It also extends options for configuring Visual Studio projects so you can keep your scripting efforts organized and together, extends support for scripting arguments with the MS Build compiler and supports script debugging via breakpoint and breakpoint pane support. It also extends some testing features with Pester and PSate test adapters.

All in all, this is a free set of resources for making Visual Studio more PowerShell savvy. If you like this after downloading it, consider throwing Mr. Driscoll a few bucks for his efforts.

Microsoft Windows PowerShell Web Access, via Control Panel
PowerShell Web Access is like webmail but for PowerShell cmdlets. You log into a webpage that presents a Web-based console where you can run cmdlets, perform operations and do simple remote administration tasks right over the Internet. There's no need for PowerShell, extensions or cmdlets to be installed on the machine you are browsing with.

This means that yes, you can run PowerShell operations from your iPad if you have this feature enabled.
Best of all, it is free with a Windows Server license and is built right in. I do not see this in use a lot, but I think it is very handy. As the saying goes, "You might not need this until you need it, but when you do end up needing it, you need it very badly."

Be careful, though, as opening this facility up to users outside your network is just an invitation for security problems. Restrict access to the PowerShell Web Access site in IIS to only IP addresses local to your corporate network. Or even better, restrict that access to a few workstations on your local network and perhaps a static VPN address you can use to perform administration tasks remotely.

Free. Windows feature, installed through Control Panel / Add and Remove Windows Features.

PowerShell Training via the Microsoft Virtual Academy
With great power comes the need for a lot of training. PowerShell is a capable language that can do so much. It marries scripting with development and .NET programming. It comes with a universe of cmdlets. It has its own syntax. And while I have (and will continue to) explain PowerShell basics training on Computerworld.com, those pieces just scratch the surface of all there is to know.

Fortunately, the Microsoft Virtual Academy contains hours of video training on getting to know PowerShell, using it and making the language work for you. These courses include information from stars such as the father of PowerShell, Jeffrey Snover, and distinguished technologists who have made (new) careers out of understanding every nook and cranny of PowerShell. Perfect for lunch hours.

Master-PowerShell, an ebook from Dr. Tobias Weltner
If you are a visual learner, then video training is the best way to learn PowerShell. For those of us more language inclined, we can learn from Microsoft MVP Dr. Tobias Weltner in his free ebook cleverly titled Master-PowerShell. Weltner covers a lot of ground in his book, including variables, arrays and hashtables, the pipeline, objects, conditions, loops, functions, scripts, error handling, scope, text and regular expressions. Also included: XML, administrative work using the file system, Registry, processes, services, event logs, WMI and users. He even includes a chapter on .NET and compiling for the developers among us.

The book is hosted by Idera, a popular administrative tool developer, and can be found over on the PowerShell.com site, which is a useful community resource in its own right.

VMware vSphere PowerCLI
Like Amazon, VMware has figured out that, in some respects, making nice with your competitors for the benefit of your mutual customers is not a bad thing. To that end, VMware created PowerCLI, a command line-based environment for managing VMware vSphere resources that integrates PowerShell throughout.

The PowerCLI environment is basically a bunch of cmdlets that interact with vSphere and vCloud, and also provides interfaces based on C# and PowerShell for the various APIs that are exposed by the VMware products. If you are a VMware shop and want to get your hands on PowerCLI, head over to this link. Is it not great when everyone plays nicely together in the sandbox?

Freeware, with a free cmdlet reference available.

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Exam 70-490 Recertification for MCSD: Windows Store Apps using HTML5

Exam 70-490 Recertification for MCSD: Windows Store Apps using HTML5

Published: 01 August 2014
Languages: English
Audiences: Developers
Technology: ASP.NET MVC
Credit towards certification: MCP, MCSD

Skills measured
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below.

Please note that the questions may test on, but will not be limited to, the topics described in the bulleted text.

Design Windows Store apps

Design the UI layout and structure
Evaluate the conceptual design; decide how the UI will be composed; design for the inheritance and re-use of visual elements (e.g. styles, resources); design for accessibility; decide when custom controls are needed; use the Hub App template

Develop Windows Store apps

Implement search
Provide search suggestions using the SearchPane and SearchBox control class; search and launch other apps; provide and constrain search within an app, including inside and outside of search charm; provide search result previews; implement activation from within search; configure search contracts

Implement Share in an app
Use the DataTransferManager class to share data with other apps; accept sharing requests by implementing activation from within Share; limit the scope of sharing using the DataPackage object; implement in-app Share outside of Share charm; use web links and application links

Integrate media features
Support DDS images; implement video playback; implement XVP and DXVA; implement TTS; implement audio and video playback using HTML5 DRM

Create the user interface
Implement WinJS controls

Flipview; flyout; grid layout; list layout; menu object; WebView; item container; repeater

Implement HTML layout controls
Implement layout controls to structure your layout; implement templates and bindings; support scrolling and zooming with CSS3; manage text flow and presentation, including overflow

Create layout-aware apps to handle windowing modes
Use CSS3 media queries to adapt to different devices; respond to changes in orientation; adapt to new windowing modes by using the ViewManagement namespace; manage setting for an apps view

Program user interaction

Notify users by using toast
Enable an app for toast notifications; populate toast notifications with images and text by using the ToastUpdateManager; play sounds with toast notifications; respond to toast events; control toast duration; configure and use Azure Mobile Services for push notifications

Manage security and data

Choose a data access strategy
Choose the appropriate data access strategy (file based; web service; remote storage, including Microsoft Azure storage and Azure Mobile Services) based on requirements

Retrieve data remotely
Use XHR or HttpClient to retrieve web services; set appropriate HTTP verb for REST; handle progress of data requests; consume SOAP/WCF services; use WebSockets for bidirectional communication

Manage Windows Authentication and Authorisation
Retrieve a user’s roles or claims; store and retrieve credentials by using the PasswordVault class; implement the CredentialPicker class; verify credential existence by using credential locker; store account credentials in app settings

Manage Web Authentication
Use the Windows.Security.Authentication.Web namespace; set up OAuth2 for authentication; CredentialPicker; set up single sign-on (SSO); implement credential roaming; implement the WebAuthenticationBroker class; support proxy authentication for enterprises

Develop Windows Store apps

Create background tasks
Implement the Windows.applicationmodel.background classes; implement WebUIBackgroundTaskInstance; create a background task to manage and preserve resources; create a background task to get notifications for an app; register the background task by using the BackgroundTaskBuilder class; prioritise tasks by using the Scheduler namespace

Discover and interact with devices

Capture media with the camera and microphone
Use CameraCaptureUI to take pictures or video, and configure camera settings; use MediaCapture to capture pictures, video and audio; configure camera settings; set media formats; handle media capture events; implement advanced photo capabilities, such as sequence mode, thumbnails and focus mode

Get data from sensors
Determine the availability of a sensor (Windows.devices.sensors); add sensor requests to the app manifest; handle sensor events; get sensor properties; determine location via GPS; enable geofencing

Implement device access
USB; Bluetooth; Human Interface Device (HID); 3D printer support; Point of Service (PoS) devices

Program user interaction
Implement Play To by using contracts and charms

Register an app for Play To; use PlayToManager stream media assets; register an app as a PlayToReceiver; programmatically implement PlayTo functionality

Notify users by using Windows Push Notification Service (WNS)
Authenticate with WNS; request, create and save a notification channel; call and poll the WNS; configure and implement push notifications by using Azure Mobile Services

Enhance the user interface

Design for and implement UI responsiveness
Choose an asynchronous strategy between web workers and promises; implement web workers; nest and chain promises; make custom functions promise-aware; improve interface performance by using the Scheduler namespace

Implement animations and transitions
Apply animations from the animation library (WinJS.UI.animation); create and customise animations and transitions by using CSS; apply transformations; create animations by using keypoints; apply timing functions; animate with the HTML5 < canvas > element

Manage data and security

Design and implement data caching
Choose which types of items (user data, settings, application data) in your app should be persisted to the cache based on requirements; choose when items are cached; choose where items are cached (Microsoft Azure, Azure Mobile Services, remote storage); select a caching mechanism; store data by using indexDB, LocalStorage, and SessionStorage

Save and retrieve files
Handle file streams; save and retrieve files by using the StorageFile and StorageFolder classes; set file extensions and associations; save and retrieve files by using file pickers and the folder picker; compress files to save space; access libraries and KnownFolders, for example, pictures, documents and videos; manage appearance of the file picker; improve searchability by using Windows Index; integrate OneDrive with apps; compare files; manage libraries

Secure application data
Encrypt data by using the Windows.Security.Cryptography namespace; enrol and request certificates; encrypt data by using certificates; revoke file permissions

Prepare for a solution deployment

Design and implement a test strategy
Design a functional test plan; implement a coded UI test; design a reliability test plan, including performance testing, stress testing, scalability testing and duration testing; simulate in-app purchases

Evaluate and configure for Windows Store deployment
Configure app options to submit to the Windows Store, such as age restrictions, privacy statement, permissions, images and contact information; create application files, resource files and application bundles; verify application readiness by using the Windows Application Certification Kit (WACK)

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Exam MB7-702 Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 C/Side Development

Exam MB7-702 Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 C/Side Development
Published: 18 January 2013
Languages: English, French, German, Spanish
Audiences: IT professionals
Technology: Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013
Credit towards certification: MCP, MCTS

Skills measured
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below. The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area in the exam. The higher the percentage, the more questions you are likely to see on that content area in the exam.

Please note that the questions may test on, but will not be limited to, the topics described in the bulleted text.

Describe the data and process models (10-15%)
Explain the table types and characteristics
Explain the characteristics of master tables, supplemental tables, subsidiary tables, ledger tables, register tables, journal tables, document tables, document history tables and setup tables
Describe the standard data model and process model
Describe the data model diagram, describe standard data flow and typical data triggers

Preparation resources
Tables
Triggers
Design the data model

Implement master tables, pages and documents (10-15%)
Track participants
Develop participant tracking solutions, describe triggers and multi-language support
Manage seminars, instructors and rooms
Describe seminar management; explain a setup table, master tables and pages; design seminar management solutions; develop solutions to manage instructors and rooms; create seminar tables and pages

Implement documents
Describe registrations; design a solution for registrations; develop registrations; use objects as text files; describe multi-language functionality in text messages; explain document pages, page functions, virtual tables, temporary tables and system tables

Describe the table code
Describe seminar registration line table code, the seminar charge table, the seminar comment line table and pages

Preparation resources
How Do I: Work with the Payment Registration for incoming payments in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2
Page Designer walkthroughs

Implement posting and dimensions (10-15%)
Explain posting and develop a posting solution

Describe the journal, ledger, register, tables and pages; identify journal posting codeunits; explain the journal and document posting processes; describe the example posting routine, existing objects, and code comments; diagnose performance issues; create journal and document posting routines; create and modify codeunits, tables, and pages for a posting solution; complete the journal and ledger tables registration posting; create codeunits and pages for seminar journal posting; create tables and pages for posted registration information; modify tables, pages, and codeunits for resource posting; create codeunits for document posting

Integrate seminar management with dimensions
Choose dimension types, set up dimensions, describe the dimensions data model, design and develop integration of seminar management with dimensions

Preparation resources
Set up posting groups
Codeunits
Set up dimensions to mark transactions

Implement feature integration and role tailoring (10-15%)
Integrate seminar-management features
Modify tables that contain data, design and develop seminar feature integration
Enable the Navigate feature
Describe Navigate feature architecture, develop solutions for the Navigate feature, integrate objects with the Navigate feature
Explain role tailoring
Describe the RoleTailored user interface, Role Centre, actions, ribbon, activities, lists, charts and profiles
Develop the seminar manager Role Centre and department page
Design seminar manager Role Centre solutions, develop seminar management department pages
Create and design MenuSuite objects

Describe the fundamentals of the MenuSuite object type, explain the design levels, create and design MenuSuite objects, explain how searching functions by using the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 Windows client

Preparation resources
Navigation pane
Learn about the RoleTailored design
Walkthrough: Creating MenuSuites for the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Windows client

Create reports and manage statistics (10-15%)
Design and create a participant list report
Design and analyse solutions; differentiate between GUI design, functional design and table design; create seminar participant lists
Develop invoice posting batch jobs
Design and analyse solutions, create invoice posting batch jobs
Manage seminar statistics
Design and analyse solutions, add statistics to the Seminar Management module, create FlowFields of the Sum type, create seminar statistics pages

Preparation resources
Report design guidelines
Batch post purchase invoices batch job
SumIndexField Technology (SIFT)

Implement interfaces and Web Services (10-15%)
Automate email communication with participants

Explain how to implement automation and OCX controls to perform tasks by using other applications, describe file handling functions to import or export data, design and implement email capability

Explain Web Services
Explain Web Services architecture, SOAP Web Services, page operations with SOAP Web Services, extension codeunits and OData Web Services; handle user interface interactions

Develop a Web Service
Design, develop and test registration Web Services; create Web Services; create Windows form applications to test Web Services

Preparation resources
How to: Send email messages
Overview of Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Services
Web Service walkthroughs

Test and debug code (10-15%)
Test the seminar management solution

Describe test-driven development fundamentals; test features, codeunits and functions; explain transaction models for test functions; describe the use of ASSERTERROR in test functions; use handler functions; test pages; create and run a test runner codeunit; design and develop seminar management test solutions; create seminar management unit tests

Debug code
Activate the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Debugger, use breakpoints, run and track code

Preparation resources
Testing the application
Walkthrough: Debugging the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Windows client
How do I: Use the Debugger in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2

Optimise for SQL Server (10-15%)
Explain SQL Server integration and database tasks with Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Explain the advantages of using SQL Server for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, describe Microsoft Dynamics NAV tables and indexes in SQL Server, explain how to share data across companies, obtain a list of indexes and their definitions

Use collation, the SQL Server Profiler and the SQL Server query optimiser

Describe collation, order by sort, describe the value of the SQL Server query optimiser, gather SQL Server statistics, explain SQL Server Profiler terminology

Optimise a Microsoft Dynamics NAV application

Optimise SumIndexField Technology (SIFT) tables and indexes, describe the index usage query, define keys to improve performance, describe implicit and explicit locking, identify problems with NEXT, define suboptimal coding and other performance penalties, analyse index usage, optimise C/AL code

Explain data access redesign

Describe simplified deployment, explain decreased resource consumption, identify caching, describe performance improvements

Describe C/AL database functions and performance on SQL Server

Describe the GET, FIND, NEXT, CALCFIELDS, CALCSUMS, COUNT, SETAUTOCALCFIELDS, INSERT, MODIFY, DELETE and LOCKTABLE functions; explain dynamic result sets

Describe bulk inserts, locking, blocking and deadlocks

Describe bulk inserts; identify bulk insert constraints; describe locking, blocking and deadlocks; explain the benefits of avoiding deadlocks

Describe SIFT data storage in SQL Server

Identify SIFT data storage in SQL Server

Preparation resources
Optimising SQL Server performance with Microsoft Dynamics NAV
C/AL database functions and performance on SQL Server
SIFT and SQL Server

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QUESTION 1
Which of the following options best describe the core aim of utilizing a function trigger?

A. It forms an indicator which is set upon a record pending modifications in the table
B. It forms an indicator to alert you upon the page being opened and the record being recaptured
from the required table
C. It forms an indicator to bring to your attention that the page has been loaded yet the controls
are still unavailable
D. It forms an indicator which is set upon a new record being added to a table

Answer: D

Explanation:

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QUESTION 2
Which of the following posting groups will need to be included in a table if you are assigned the
task of creating a master table which represents entities with business associates?

A. Customer Posting Group
B. The Gen. Prod. Posting Group
C. VAT Business Posting Group
D. VAT Posting Setup

Answer: B

Explanation:

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QUESTION 3
Which of the following statements regarding Text fields is true?

A. The Item table can have a Text field of up to 256 characters.
B. The Item table can have a Text field with a minimum of 156 characters.
C. The Item table can have a Text field of up to 250 characters.
D. The Item table can have a Text field of exactly to 186 characters.

Answer: C

Explanation:

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QUESTION 4
Which of the following options states the correct amount of SumIndexFields one key is capable of
possessing in a FlowField?

A. A minimum of 10
B. Exactly 18
C. A maximum of 20.
D. A maximum of 22

Answer: C

Explanation:

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QUESTION 5
Which of the following statements regarding bulk inserts is accurate?

A. Bulk inserts on the tables increase the capacity for server calls thus greatly advancing
performance capabilities.
B. Bulk inserts would be implemented upon needing to find statements therefore greatly lessens
the period in which the table is unlocked.
C. Bulk inserts would be implemented upon needing to alter or remove statements on the table as
this greatly lessens the period in which the table is locked.
D. The bulk inserts enhance the scalability by accelerating the insert in the transaction therefore
this greatly lessens the period in which the table is locked

Answer: C

Explanation:

Exam 74-343 Managing Projects with Microsoft Project 2013

Exam 74-343 Managing Projects with Microsoft Project 2013

Published: 05 April 2013
Languages: English, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish
Audiences: Partners
Technology: Project 2013
Credit towards certification: MCP, Microsoft Specialist

Skills measured
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below. The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area in the exam. The higher the percentage, the more questions you are likely to see on that content area in the exam.

Please note that the questions may test on, but will not be limited to, the topics described in the bulleted text.

Initialise a project (15–20%)
Create a new project
Create a template from a completed project, create a project from an existing template, existing project, SharePoint task list or Excel workbook
Create and maintain calendars
Set working or non-working hours and days for calendars, set a base calendar, resource calendar and hours per day, apply calendars to project, task and resource levels
Create custom fields
Create basic formulas, graphical indicator criteria, lookup tables, and task and resource custom fields
Customise option settings
Set default task types, manual versus auto-scheduling, project options, calendar options, customised ribbon, and quick access toolbar

Preparation resources
Create a new project from another project or template
Change working days for the project calendar
Available fields reference

Create a task-based schedule (20–25%)
Set up project information

Define project start date, apply calendars and current date, enter project properties, display the project summary task on a new project

Create and modify a project task structure

Create and modify summary tasks and sub-tasks, rearrange tasks, create milestones, create manually-scheduled tasks, outline, set tasks as active or inactive

Build a logical schedule model

Set date constraints, deadlines, dependencies, links, duration equations, effort-driven tasks and formulas, choose a task type

Create a user-controlled schedule

Enter duration, set or change the task mode (manual or auto), display warnings and suggestions, use estimated durations and user-controlled summary tasks

Manage multiple projects

Create a shared resource pool, connect to a resource pool, create links between projects, resolve conflicts between linked projects, work with master projects and sub-projects, summarise data in master projects

Preparation resources

Set the start date or finish date for your project
Create sub-tasks and summary tasks
Link projects to create a master project

Manage resources and assignments (20–25%)
Enter and edit resource information

Enter and edit max units, resource types, resource rate table, cost per use, availability, resource group, generic resources and cost resources

Create and edit resource assignments

Use task forms, assign multiple resources, assign resources to tasks using units that represent part-time work, edit assignments

Manage resource allocation

View task and resource usage, view availability across multiple projects, change assignment information, level, replace resources

Manage resource allocations by using Team Planner

Display current resource allocations and assignments, manage unassigned tasks, resolve resource conflicts, level resource over-allocations, substitute resources

Model project costs

Enter and assign resource-based costs (work, material, cost), cost per use, fixed costs, accrual method, apply a resource rate table

Preparation resources

Enter costs for resources
Assign people to work on tasks
Enter rate-based costs for people and materials

Track and analyse a project (20–25%)
Set and maintain baselines

Use multiple baselines, baseline an entire project, baseline selected tasks, update a baseline

Update actual progress

Update percentage completion, actual or remaining duration, actual work, remaining work, status date, current date, actual start and actual finish, use actual work and usage views, reschedule uncompleted work, cancel an un-needed task

Compare progress against a baseline

Use date variance, work variance, cost variance and task slippage, show variance of the current plan against baseline (tracking Gantt), select a view to display variance

Resolve potential schedule problems

Display warnings, suggestions and task drivers by using Task Inspector and Task Path, identify resource over-allocations

Display critical path information

View the critical path in single or master projects, view total slack, display progress against baseline or deadlines

Preparation resources

Set and save a baseline
Overview: Track your time and task progress
Show the critical path of your project

Communicate project information (15–20%)

Apply and customise views

Use auto-filter, apply views, group, filter, highlight, create and manage tables, sort, customise views, share a view with Organiser

Share data with other applications

Import data from Excel, export data to Excel, attach documents or link hyperlinks to supporting information, copy and paste timeline and reports to other Office Web Apps, create and generate visual reports in Excel and Visio, export a timeline view to email

Configure and display reports and dashboards

Report progress status, save to PDF or XPS, display Gantt information, schedule or timeline, display data based on date range, create built-in dashboards and reports, change and customise built-in dashboards and reports, copy pictures, work with cumulative fields

Connect and share data with SharePoint

Sync to SharePoint, share plans and get updates through SharePoint, share project plans through SharePoint (bi-directional sync of tasks, progress and timeline elements), collect actual progress from a team through SharePoint

Extend Project 2013

Acquire Apps from the Office Store, save files in OneDrive, acquire templates from Office.com, automate frequent tasks with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)

Preparation resources

Export your project to Microsoft Excel
Add SharePoint task list data to Project Server 2013

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QUESTION 1
You use Project Professional 2013 to manage a project that has customer-required milestone
completion dates. You need to see graphically that your milestones have slipped beyond your
customer-required dates. What should you add to the project milestones?

A. a Must finish on constraint
B. a finish date
C. a deadline
D. a Finish no later than constraint

Answer: C

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QUESTION 2
You manage a project by using Project Professional 2013. Your project is updated with changes to
the baseline for selected tasks. You back up your project fife before you start your next tracking
cycle. After completing the tracking cycle, you notice that the baseline duration values on some
of the summary tasks are not correct. You need to correct these values before re-entering the
tracking data. You open the backed up version of the project schedule. What should you do next?

A. Manually update the summary tasks with the new duration values.
B. Reset the summary tasks to manual scheduling.
C. Ensure the tasks durations are of the same denomination values. Then reenter the tracking data.
D. Reset the baseline checking the Roll up baselines to all summary tasks option. Then reenter
the tracking data.

Answer: D

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QUESTION 3
You are a program manager. Your project managers use Project Professional 2013 to manage
projects. The project managers want to utilize the same resources across their projects. You need
to combine the projects, as well as the project resources, to see allocations across the projects.
What should you do?

A. Copy and paste all resource assignments into a Master file.
B. Share resources from an external resource pool.
C. Create a Master project and insert subprojects by using Link to project.
D. Open all projects in a new window.

Answer: B

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QUESTION 4
Your company uses Project Standard 2013 to track project progress. You need to accurately
calculate cost performance index (CPI) as a health indicator. Which three actions should you
perform? (Each correct answer presents part of the solution. Choose three.)

A. Ensure there is a value in the Status Date field.
B. Ensure there is a value in the Standard Rate field.
C. Ensure Task Dependencies exist in the schedule.
D. Enter actual progress information.
E. Level resources within available slack.

Answer: ABD

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QUESTION 5
You are a project manager who uses Microsoft Excel 2013. Your company decides to migrate all of
the current projects in Microsoft Excel 2013 to Project Professional 2013. They allow all
employees to spend 8 hours migrating each project plan. Your current and unique project plan
has 462 tasks with duration in days, and resources have been assigned and named. You have a
status meeting in two days. You need to provide your project's information by using Project
Professional 2013. What should you do?

A. Create a new project plan in Project Professional 2013 and use the Gantt Chart Wizard to
import from an Excel Workbook.
B. Rename the Excel file from .xlsx to .mpx, and open it by using Project Professional 2013,
activating the Mapping Excel Workbook feature. Map tasks, durations, and resources
assigned into Microsoft Project fields.
C. Open the Excel File .xlsx directly from Project Professional 2013, which will convert and map
tasks, durations, and resources assigned into Project fields.
D. Create a VBA macro by using the Excel Record Macro feature to import all tasks, durations,
and resources assigned from Excel into your new Project Professional 2013 project plan.

Answer: C