Highlights

• Integrations Moved into the Hamburger Menu
• Linked Select Custom Fields
• Breadcrumb Drop-down Menus in the Program Model
• Program Model Date Enhancements
  • Program and Project Dates
  • Cost Start and End Dates
  • Schedule Dates
• More Features on the Gantt
• Properties tab Shows Project Owner
• My Measures Removed from Personal Dashboard
• Issues Resolved 

Integrations Moved into the Hamburger Menu

The Integrations feature has been moved from the top navigation bar to the hamburger menu. 

Linked Select Custom Fields

Amplify custom fields allow for all kinds of data input formats - text, text area, traffic light, radio, selectable, and multi-selectable controls to store and manage supplementary data. But, it lacks one specific feature- the ability to handle linked data.

Imagine this: you want to incorporate two fields on the Project's Properties dashboard - Country and city. When the user chooses a particular country, the City field should display the associated cities. 

This version introduces a new type of custom field to help you set up linked data entry fields. 'Linked Select' fields are custom fields that contain two lists and attaches each parent list value to one or more values in the child list. When users select a value in the first field, the associated list of options in the other becomes available for selection in the second field. Read more about linked select custom fields here.

Breadcrumb Drop-down Menus in the Program Model

The standard breadcrumb shows only two levels -Program and Project. There is no way for users to see the associated reporting group unless they go into the hierarchy view.

With the new breadcrumb menu, you no longer have this problem. Each breadcrumb item is an expandable menu showing the reporting groups available at each hierarchy level. You can quickly locate and switch to a sibling reporting structure by clicking on the menu options. 

For more information, see About Breadcrumb Menus.

Program Model Date Enhancements

Previously in the program model, the program and project dates did not relate to the items they contain. Projects could have benefits, costs, tasks and risks which are outside of the project dates. The fact that all these objects can exist outside of its project span affected the system's usability.

We are introducing the following changes in this version.

• A Project's dates will always span its benefit, cost, and schedule data.
• A program's dates will always span its projects.
• It will be possible to set cost start and end dates.

Program and Project Dates

You can set the start and end dates of a project while creating it, but after that, you cannot alter the dates manually. Once you start adding project items, it is these items that will dictate its duration. When you add or update the term of benefit, cost, or the task, the project dates will be automatically updated.

Similarly, when a program is created, it just assumes the duration from the beginning to the end of the current year. But, as you add projects within, its duration changes as the duration of the projects. 

The Gantt has been enhanced to be the single place where you can view and manage all item durations within the project. 

Cost Start and End Dates

You will notice the start and end date fields at the end of the New cost page. 

 On the cost profile page, you only have to select the month and year. Amplify sets the first day of the month as the start date and the last day as the end date. If you do not select any value in the start and end date fields, the project’s start and end date will become the cost’s start and end dates. 

You can add or modify dates using the cost profile page or integrations.

Cost dates are also baselined.

Schedule Dates

The project's dates on the Properties dashboard will match the dates on the corresponding schedule item.

Gantt Shows More Items

Gantt will now show costs, goals, resource demand, and capacity in addition to tasks, milestones, risk review dates, and impacts when accessed within the program model configuration. It will also feature two dummy milestones named "Start Date" and "End Date", set to the project's start and end dates.

Everything is configurable using the options available in the Features menu. If you do not want to display something, you can hide it by clearing the corresponding check box. 

Gantt will now allow you to view and manage the duration of schedule tasks, milestones, impacts, costs, goals, risk review dates, resource demand and capacity. You can drag the bars to adjust the start and end dates or edit the left-hand side grid values.

As the dates are all interlinked, any changes to the overall schedule duration will update the project and program durations. Read more about this in the article, Understanding Program and Project Dates. The dummy milestones are in place to ensure that if a user creates an initiative that's a year-long and then creates a milestone, the initiative duration will not be changed to span just that one day.

Properties Tab Shows Project Owner

You can now view the project owner name on the Properties dashboard. The Owner field will display the user's first and last name along with the avatar. 

The field is editable inline like all the other data entry fields on the dashboard.

My Measures Removed from Personal Dashboard

The My Measures option has been removed from the Personal dashboard. This is a complex function and is not widely used. The enterprise register will still show the Measures menu to access shared measures.

Issues Resolved