Highlights
- Schedule Enhancements
- Reorganised Gantt Interface
- Enable or Disable Document Uploads
- Document Storage Management
- Custom Traffic Light Fields
- Notification Alert Prior to Scheduled Maintenance
- Subscribe to Amplify Newsletter
- User Confirmation Before Archiving
- Issues Resolved
Schedule Enhancements
We have given the much-awaited facelift to Amplify's Schedule feature. It is now possible to view the overall schedule progress of all tasks on the Gantt chart, monitor schedule progress on the initiative dashboard, and watch Amplify automatically create summary tasks and update progress on imported external schedules.
Here are the new capabilities in a nutshell.
- Summary Progress Calculation: Previously, the summary progress was calculated by taking the average of total progress of all direct sub tasks of the root initiative. The progress of tasks belonging to the sub initiatives was disregarded. This design gap has been addressed in this version. Amplify 19.8 takes all items under the parent tasks - the direct sub tasks, child tasks and their dependent tasks or milestones, into account while generating Automatic Progress Summary. On the rolled-up schedule of a root initiative's top-level Summary task, the average of total progress of all sub initiatives including that of the direct sub tasks will be displayed.
- Schedule Progress widget on Performance Dashboard: You need not navigate to the Gantt chart to view overall schedule progress. You can view it on the Performance Dashboard of your initiative. Schedule Progress widget on Performance Dashboard displays the overall progress of the entire tasks within your initiative, provided, you have enabled Summary Tasks and have the Automatic Progress for Summary Items setting on. This widget will not display if you are recording schedule progress manually.
- Overall Progress widget renamed as Percentage of Benefits Delivered: The Overall Progress widget on the Performance Dashboard shows the overall percentage of the benefits delivered, however, this could easily be misconstrued as showing overall schedule progress. To avoid further confusion, we have renamed this widget as Percentage of Benefits Delivered.
- Update Progress and Duration Removed: You are no longer required to update the progress and duration after importing schedules from external systems. If you are using Amplify version 19.8, simply upload your externally maintained schedule, save it and forget it. Once you import a schedule, Amplify creates relevant Summary items and updates the progress and duration automatically.
Reorganised Gantt Interface
Gantt interface is tidied up to offer more screen real estate for the chart itself.
Here is what has changed.
- Icons in place of Tools and Download Excel Template buttons.
- Save Schedule button renamed as Save.
- Import button has moved to the right of the top bar and do not show the name of the schedule like before.
- Update Duration option is displayed as a check box on the top bar right
- Zoom options displayed as drop down list with selectable options.
- Schedule Type, Zoom options, and Show Baseline has moved to the left of the top bar
- Update Duration, Tools, Download Excel Template, Import Schedule, page resize, and Save buttons are displayed on the right of the top bar.
One Month Look Ahead on Gantt
If you have been using the One Month Look Ahead widget on Performance Dashboard, you'd be happy to see this feature on the Gantt interface. We have moved this widget from Performance Dashboard to Gantt interface. Just select One month lookahead from the Date filter.
Enable or Disable Document Uploads
The Document Upload feature is made configurable in Amplify version 19.8. A new classifications setting, Enable Documents has been introduced which can be used to allow or restrict users to upload documents. When this setting is not configured at a classification level, the icon is hidden on the interface. Please note that disabling this setting only affects the document upload function. It will not stop users from uploading schedules, importing benefits or costs, performing integrations, or importing users. The schedule uploads and the cost/benefit imports are not stored in the system by default.
To enable document uploads:
- Go to Administration>Classifications.
- Select a classification.
- Select Enable Documents.
Document Storage Management
Performance degradation due to increasing database space consumption is slowly becoming an area of concern for some of our active users. A large amount of temporary and unused documents uploaded to Amplify are automatically stored which is leading to this situation. We have introduced a few control measures in this version that would ensure that your database space is not being used up by unwanted files and only those documents that you designate as required, are stored in the system. In short,
- Schedule uploads or cost/benefit imports are no longer saved, unless explicitly nominated by you. You need to Enable Documents to be able to nominate a document.
- Integrations will only store one associated document.
A toggle button has been implemented on schedule upload and integration interfaces. Documents that you upload will be stored in Amplify only if you set this toggle on. Going forward, integrations will only have one associated document, and this will be the last document that was uploaded.
If you are an administrator user, you can get quick a snapshot of your Document Status on the Amplify Status tab of Administration interface. You will be able to view:
- the total size of all documents in the system
- a breakdown of the size of documents per category. Documents are internally categorised as:
- Schedule uploads
- Import (cost/benefit imports)
- Attachments (all documents uploaded explicitly on the documents tab)
- Integrations (split into benefit, initiative, cost, return, user, task)
- Logo (navigation and report logos)
- Report
- Map
- User Avatar
You could also delete all but the last schedule/import documents per object (Initiative/Benefit etc.,)
Custom Traffic Light Fields
Among the custom fields of control type text box, select box, etc, we have now added a new control of type Traffic Light. This control allows you to create a Traffic Light custom field. Traffic Light custom fields can be used to display project status, workflow status, or anything similar, where you would rather use distinct colours as indicators. A Traffic Light custom field has configurable options just like a custom field of type, Select Box or Multi-select Box. Each option has a label and value. Value of a Traffic Light field option can be a colour of your choice. You can create several options with different values and colours within a Traffic Light field; give this field a name, and specify a ranking for each of its options. The Traffic Light custom field can be mapped to any classification. A common use case would be to use a custom Traffic Light field in place of Amplify's standard status indicator fields, because that way you can have more options and colours of your choice to represent various statuses of your initiative.
To create a traffic light custom field:
- Go to Administration>Classifications.
- Select Custom Fields.
- Click Define a New Custom Field.
- Add all required information.
- Select Traffic Light in the Control drop-down field.
- Click Create Field.
- Map the field to any classification.
-
While configuring options, specify a name and colour for every option. Option with the lowest ranking would be of the highest priority.
Notification Alert Prior to Scheduled Maintenance
Upgrades and maintenance activities are important and unavoidable, and it is best to prepare the users ahead of time before a planned downtime. We have made this task easier for you in this version. All users of Amplify version 19.8 and above, will see a notification on their interface that alerts them about an upcoming Amplify upgrade or a scheduled maintenance period. We configure these settings for you so that as to give all users ample time to save their critical work or plan for the downtime.
Subscribe to Amplify Newsletter
Amplify's monthly email newsletter provides a snapshot of what you can expect in the latest release. Previously, our newsletters were emailed from the headquarters to selected key users. With version 19.8, the email mechanism is automated and integrated with Amplify so that every user who has subscribed to Amplify's newsletter will automatically receive an email on every new upgrade. All new users are subscribed to the newsletter by default. You can unsubscribe any time by removing the setting on My Account page.
My Account page has undergone a makeover. We made it more contemporary and intuitive. You can change your avatar, subscribe to Amplify newsletter and do all the usual tasks on this page.
User Confirmation Before Archiving
Archiving is a crucial action. We have received several reports of inadvertent archiving of key portfolios and project components. Restoring complex hierarchies is difficult and time-consuming. To prevent accidental archiving, we have installed a new layer of confirmation in Amplify 19.8 version. Clicking on Archive function from the hamburger menu or from a register will cause the following message to display.
The confirmation message is informative and has buttons that allow you to proceed or cancel the operation. Nothing happens until you click Archive on this message. If you are unsure about this step, click Cancel and Amplify cancels the entire operation. Archive confirmation message is implemented for initiatives, benefits, measures, risks and goals.
Issues Resolved
Issue key | Summary |
AMP-8242 | Variance Not Displayed within an Objective or Goal |
AMP-8273 | Benefit forecast not calculated when the measure is not measured |
AMP-8306 | Switching classifications can cause the stage-gate process to fail under certain circumstances |
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.