19th December Patch Release

Fixed

• Metadata Bulk Edit: Addressed an issue with the bulk edit upload functionality to ensure accurate updates.
• Status Report: Enhanced layout for status reports when the Cortex assessment is displayed.
• Schedule View: Fixed an issue where resetting and applying filters in the schedule view did not function correctly.
• Schedule Roadmap Dashboard: Resolved a problem with printing when the timeline was set to six months or less.
• Project Progress Calculation: Corrected the calculation of project percentage completion to accurately reflect progress when all schedule tasks are marked as complete.

13th December Release

Linking Status Report RAG Status to Project Status

You can now link the status report RAG status to the project status, enabling alignment between reporting and the project lifecycle while strengthening governance processes. This ensures that status updates in reports directly inform the project’s overall status, providing greater transparency and consistency across the portfolio.

For example, you can link the On Hold RAG status to the On Hold project status or the Completed RAG status to the Closed project status. This mapping ensures that the project status is aligned with the RAG status defined in the status report, improving portfolio-level visibility.

When a status report RAG status is updated to a value linked to a project status, the system triggers an approval workflow. A decision request is assigned to the portfolio administrator to review and confirm the change before it is applied. If no portfolio administrator is set up, the approval request is sent to the Project Manager. This workflow ensures that status changes are deliberate and comply with governance processes, giving the PMO oversight of critical transitions such as pausing or closing projects.

To link a status report RAG status to a project status, application administrators can update the status report RAG definitions from the metadata page and associate them with the corresponding project status.

This release also includes a new feature to further strengthen project governance: the ability to assign approvers to specific stage gates. This enhancement allows organisations to enforce a more rigorous review and approval process for critical checkpoints in the project lifecycle, ensuring that the PMO has direct oversight and input on project progress.

When an approver is assigned to a stage gate, the system will automatically generate a decision request once the Project Manager (PM) marks the stage gate as complete. Until the approver formally approves the gate, its status will remain marked as "Pending." If the request is rejected, the PM has the flexibility to address any feedback and resubmit the stage gate for approval.

For stage gates where no approver is set, the process remains straightforward: the PM simply indicates when the gate is complete, treating it as a declaration rather than requiring additional validation. This allows organisations to differentiate between routine and critical stage gates, maintaining efficiency while reinforcing governance where it matters most.

Project administrators can set approvers to stage gates by navigating to the Stage Gate configuration page and editing the stage gate definition.

Fixed

• Schedule Plan: Task durations were miscalculated by including weekends, even when weekends were excluded from the project plan.
• Workhubs: Archived programs were incorrectly displayed on the Workhub workspace.
• Actions Status: Actions and decisions with multiple assignees did not update to Completed when all assignees had completed their actions.
• PDF Export: Actions and decisions were not appearing in PDF exports.
• Delivery Teams: Creating teams with references matching previously deleted teams failed.
• Adding Sub-Projects: Adding multiple sub-projects at once only added the first project in the list when using the user interface.
• Project Templates: A validation message now prevents saving a project template without a template key.

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5th December Patch Release

New - Project Completion Measurement Using Scheduled Task Hours

In July this year, we enhanced the application to automatically calculate the percentage completion of projects based on the progress of scheduled tasks. The method involved assigning a weight to each task based on its duration relative to the total duration of all tasks, then multiplying this weight by the task’s percentage completion. The overall project completion was determined by summing these weighted percentages.

This release introduces an alternative approach to calculating overall project completion. Instead of relying solely on task duration, users can now choose to use the number of hours assigned to each task as the basis for calculation. 

Here's how it works:

• Each task is assigned a weight based on its allocated hours relative to the total hours assigned across all tasks.
• This weight is then multiplied by the task's percentage completion.
• The overall project completion is the sum of these weighted completions.

This method is particularly advantageous in scenarios where the duration of a task does not accurately reflect the actual effort or time invested. For instance, consider a task involving the monitoring of a compliance certification process. Although the task duration is set to three months, reflecting the time it takes for the regulatory body to review and respond, the actual effort required from the project team is minimal—perhaps just a few hours each week to check on the status and respond to any inquiries. Using hours as a basis for calculation allows for a more precise representation of effort and progress, enhancing project management accuracy and resource allocation.

To calculate your project's completion percentage using task hours instead of duration, simply switch between the two options using the toggle in the Gantt View toolbar.

Fixed

• Schedule Task Auto-Calculate Error: Resolved an issue where removing the auto-calculate flag on a schedule task caused an error in the schedule dialog.
• Resizable Text Areas in Status Reports: The Executive Summary, Achievements, and Next Steps fields in Project Status Reports are now resizable, enabling users to view and edit full content more easily.
• Project Detailed List Dashboard: Fixed a regression in the UI layout where the project external reference was missing due to a missing UI binding in the column data.
• User Export Enhancements: Added the external reference column to the User Export to Excel functionality.
• Timesheet Export Enhancements:Timesheet export to Excel from project dashboards now includes additional columns for better reporting:
  • Financial reference (Column Q)
  • Project alternate reference (Column Y)
  • Project cost centre (Column Z)
  • Resource’s division, department, and team (Columns AO, AP, and AQ)
• Resetting Timesheet Start Date: Improved the interface for handling timesheet start dates set in the future.
• Application Performance: Optimised performance when modifying multiple resource plans.