Author: Stella Salom

Take control of your project management experience with PPM360! In this blog post, Stella Salom provides a comprehensive guide to building your own custom home dashboards. With her easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions, you’ll learn how to create dashboards that align perfectly with your workflow and project needs.

Lets begin:

1. From the PPM360 Home Dashboard, select “+ New” from the top toolbar. Then, select “Dynamics 365 Dashboard”

2. Choose Layout from the pop-up window which appears. Select a layout option, and then select “Create” from the bottom right of the window.

3. On the next screen, select what type of table data you want to see in your dashboard.

4. Click on the component you wish to edit, then select “Chart” or “List” from the top.

• List – refers to creating a table.
• Chart – creates a chart, such as a pie graph or bar chart.

5. In this example, we will create a list (table) of the risks in this project environment. Select “List” from the top, then a window will appear:

Record Type: Refers to the Dataverse table
View: Refers to the view

6. Select the “Risk” table from the “Record Type” dropdown, and then, select “All Risks” from the “View” dropdown. Then, select “Add”.

• NOTE: Only existing configured views will appear, this feature does not allow you to create your own custom view.

7. After selecting “Add”, you will see the table appear on the selected tile, but you won’t see the data populate until after you have saved and closed your custom dashboard view.

8. Next, let’s add a chart to our custom dashboard. This time, select “Chart” from the toolbar at the top.

9. On the screen that appears, select “Project” from the “Record Type” dropdown.

10. Then, select your preferred view. In the example below, we are selecting the “All Projects” view to include all project data from all projects in this environment. To limit the chart to only your active projects, select the “My Active Projects” view.

11. Next, select a “Chart” to determine which data you want displayed on your chart.

12. As you click through different chart options, there will an example diagram which changes based on your selection. For example, some charts may automatically display as a bar graph while others display as a pie chart. For our example, we will select “Projects by State”, which will display all projects in the environment based on project state.

13. Finally, select “Add” to add this new chart to your custom dashboard view.

14. Once you’ve completed adding tiles (tables/charts) to your custom dashboard, you will need to provide a name for your custom dashboard at the top, then, select “Save”, then, select “Close”.

15. The next window will display the outcome of your custom configured home dashboard view. See the outcome of our custom home dashboard below.

• NOTE: You can make your new custom home dashboard your default dashboard view by selecting “Set as Default” from the toolbar at the top.

Microsoft Planner: Basic vs. Premium Plan – Which is Right for Your Project?

Microsoft Planner is a powerful tool for managing work, but with two types of plans available—Basic and Premium—it’s important to know the key differences. This guide will help you determine which plan best fits your project needs.

Basic Plan: Simple and Effective for Small Projects

The ability to create Basic Plans in Planner is included with most Office 365 subscriptions and is perfect for managing simpler projects. It provides a clean, visual interface to help teams organize tasks effectively. Some key features include:

• Task Management Tasks are defined using 8 pre-defined columns, with support for up to 9,000 tasks in a single project.
• Progress Tracking While there’s no dedicated “% Complete” column, you can track task progress using three statuses: Not Started, In Progress, and Completed. However, “In Progress” defaults to 50% complete, which can be misleading for longer tasks. For example, a task with 20 hours of work spread across five days would be marked as 50% done even if only three hours were completed—clearly not ideal for precise tracking.

 

While the Basic plan is effective for smaller projects, it lacks some advanced features that may be necessary for more complex project management, such as finer control over task progress and resource allocation.

Premium Plan: Advanced Control for Complex Projects

Planner with Premium Plans takes project management to the next level with more advanced features. The creation of Premium plans is available to Planner Plan 1 and Planner and Project Plan 3 licensed individuals. It’s designed for managing larger, more complex projects and provides additional tools to give you greater control. Key features include:

• More Task Columns and Customization With 17 pre-defined task columns, the Premium plan allows for more detailed task management. You can also create up to ten custom columns (text, choice, date, etc.) to tailor the plan to your project’s needs.
• Granular Task Assignments The Premium plan includes an “Assignments” view, allowing you to assign specific hours to individual resources and break those hours down by day. This is essential when multiple resources are involved in a single task, ensuring that workloads are distributed accurately.
• Task Dependencies Advanced task dependencies allow you to manage the sequence and relationships between tasks more effectively, helping to keep projects on track.
• Backlog and Sprints Premium plans include built-in Sprint structures, allowing agile teams to manage their workflows efficiently be organizing tasks into sprints and maintaining a clear backlog.
• Baselines Baselines allow users to capture a snapshot of the project’s schedule at any point and compare the planned schedule against the current progress
• Portfolios Use the new Portfolios feature for Premium Plans to group related plans, track progress, and visualize tasks across projects in a consolidated Roadmap view—perfect for managing cross-team initiatives

Upgrading from Basic to Premium

If you start with the Basic plan and later find that you need features from the Premium plan, upgrading is easy. For example, if you attempt to use the “Assignments” view, which is exclusive to the Premium plan, you’ll receive a prompt to upgrade.

Which Plan is Right for You?

Deciding between the Basic and Premium plans depends on the complexity of your project. The Basic plan is great for small teams and straightforward projects, while the Premium plan offers the advanced features necessary for more intricate project management.

For a detailed comparison of features between the Basic and Premium plans, check out the official breakdown from Microsoft.

Unlock the full potential of Portfolios in Microsoft Teams and Planner with our comprehensive guide. Learn how to navigate to Portfolios, create and build your own, and explore key features like the “Plans” view, Portfolio Roadmaps, and detailed task management. Whether you’re adding individual tasks, setting key dates, or viewing an entire Portfolio Plan, this step-by-step guide will help you streamline your workflow and stay organized like never before.

Contents:

• Open Planner in MS Teams
• Navigate to Portfolios
• Create a new Portfolio
• Build your Portfolio
• View a Portfolio Plan
  • “Plans” view
  • Open Details
• View the Portfolio Roadmap
  • View Plans
  • Add Individual Tasks
  • Add Key Dates

Open Planner in MS Teams

Navigate to Portfolios

Select “My Portfolios” from the Planner Menu
Existing Portfolios display

Creating a New Portfolio

Click “+ New Portfolio”

• Add “Name” (required)
• Add a group to the new portfolio (optional)
• Click “Create”

Build Your Portfolio

To add plans to your portfolio,

1. Click the “Add Plan” button

2. Select from the existing Plans listed on the “Add Plan” menu.

3. If your project is now immediately visible, use the “Search for Plans” option.

• The option to “Connect to plan” displays. Note that the members of the portfolio will have a full access to connections in the created flow and the content within the connected account.
• There is a flow that will use the “Portfolio and Roadmap” application to keep the plan updated. You mat need to sign in to complete this step.

5. Click “connect” to complete the addition of your plan to your portfolio

The portfolio now includes your added plan.

Complete the steps add more plans to the portfolio

View a Portfolio Plan

Two views are currently included for portfolios: Plans & Roadmap

“Plans” View

High level plan data, including the Project Manager, Progress (%), Start Date, End Date, and Status Display.

The ‘Status’ dropdown may be updated directly in the “Plans” view

Open Details

Hover over a task, click on the “More Options” menu, and select “Open Details”

1. Click the name of your plan to open and update the plan in the browser

2. Click the “Refresh” button to ensure that all Plan updates are included in the Portfolio

3. Click “Remove plan” to remove the Plan from the Portfolio

View the Portfolio Roadmap

View Plans

Use the top menu to select the “Roadmap” view
The roadmap displays the included Plans with a timeline and a few options to adjust your view
The “zoom” slider allows you to adjust your timeline increments (increments between 6 months and 1 week)

Use the “filter” option to filter the plans based on the Plan Owner

Use the “Go to date” option to select the earliest date included in your view

Add Individual Tasks

1. Select a plan on the roadmap to view additional options for organizing the roadmap

2. Use the “Update Items” panel to select tasks. The search bar, quick select, and filter at the top allow you to quickly locate and select relevant tasks.

• Use the “quick select” to quickly choose all milestones, all summary tasks, or all top-level tasks

• Use the “filter” to view all milestones or all summary tasks

• Select the tasks that should display on the roadmap

3. Click “Update”

Note: You may need to “Refresh” or “Update Items”

4. Hover over a task to view the task name

5. Click on a task name to see the task details

Repeat the process to add all tasks from different plans

Update the order of the Plans listed on the roadmap view by selecting a Plan and then clicking the “Move up” and “Move down” options.

Add Key Dates

In addition to viewing/plans on the roadmap, key dates may also be added’

1. Click the “Add key date” button

2. Enter a name, due date, and select a status

3. Click “Add Key Date”

• The key date added displays as a callout on the roadmap

The key date callout is a hyperlink, which makes it easy to open and update and either delete it or make changes.

Power BI is central to all reporting needs. As you expand the usage of PBI within the Project Environment, we wanted to share some helpful tips & tricks that will enable you and your team to interact with the reports, export and share reports and even visualize reports based on your needs.

Power BI Reports Basic Functions

Exporting Reports – reports, individual visuals, or data from a selected section or a report, may be exported to Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF using the export functions.

• Export entire report – select “Export” dropdown list from the top and choose how you would like to export the report. If exporting to PowerPoint or PDF, you can choose to export current values, default values, or only export the current page.

         

Exporting visuals or data – visuals or data from selected areas of a report can be exported by selecting the ••• icon for more options in the top right corner of any visual (table, graph, chart, etc.). Then, select “Export data” from the dropdown list.

Subscribing to Reports – subscribe to a report for yourself or on behalf of someone else. Set the cadence to weekly or daily or any report utilizing this function.

 

• Subscribe to Report – select “Subscribe to report” from the top tool bar within the report you wish to subscribe to you, or whomever you’re subscribing to,

will receive an email notification with the report live data at the scheduled frequency.

 

From the pop-up window, select “Create a subscription.” Then, set the cadence for your subscription and enter recipients’ names of who should receive the report. Once completed, select “Save” at the bottom.

 

Select Data to Export – When exporting the data used to create a visualization or table, you need to select an option from the “Which data do you want to export?” screen that appears after selecting “Export Data”. Administrators may limit export data options for users. You can select the file format you would like to export the data type into excel.

Focus Mode – any visual (chart, graph, table, etc.) can be visualized in full screen view by selecting the “Focus Mode” icon in the top right corner of a visual. Select “< Back to report” in the top left corner of the screen when finished to minimize image and return to the report.

 

 

 

 

Using Filters – Reports include several filter options based on the type of report. These filters are editable by administrators. To show the filter options, expand the right hand navigation filters by selecting the <<< in the top right corner of the screen. You can hide the filters by selecting <<< the arrows.

Filters are defaulted to select all options for each filter. Select multiple values for a filter by holding the control key to select multiple values to display on the report. If a value doesn’t appear in a filter, there is not an active project with that value in the system. In the example below, we can see the project managers filter selected on only (2) PM’s – Mia Reed & Neall Alcott. We can select additional PM’s to display on the report by holding the control key.

Selecting on Visuals – when you select on a visual, bar chart, pie chart or values in a table/grid, it will filter the data on the report based on that selection. Use control key to select more than one area on a visual. Selecting multiple areas of a visual will display information in other areas of the report only for the selected areas.

• In the example below, we have selected on (3) different projects by selecting the bars which represent them in the bar graph visual “Budget Forecast by Project”. As you can see, the table and other visuals automatically filter to only show data for those selected projects in the bar graph.

Expanding and Collapsing – the expand [+] and collapse [–] functions can be used on row headers next to each hierarchical level within reports to view data for each resource manager, role, and resource name with max units.

• In the example below, we can see that Meghan Maynard’s projects and tasks are currently collapsed (hidden) but Mia Reed’s projects and tasks are expanded (displayed). Data for any project manager can be visualized and hidden by selecting the expand [+] and collapse [–] functions, respectively.
• In the example below, you can see the detailed data for Mia Reed’s Projects when you expand initially, and then the tasks when you expand on individual project names associated with Mia Reed.

Sorting on Columns – columns can be sorted by selecting the column title to sort data by greatest to least or by most recent to latest, depending on the data being sorted.

• In the example below, the data in the table on the Program Health report is sorted to show the “Overall
  Health” KPIs in order of projects “On Track” first and those that are “Critical” last. We can reverse this
  order to show critical at the top by selecting the column again.
• The example below, in the Availability Heatmap, shows the Resource names column sorted to show
  values in alphabetical order, from A -> Z. Clicking the column header again will reverse the sorting order

Drill Through – allows you to select a value in a visual or table and drill-through to a different report showing the details for the value you have selected. This mechanism allows the option to drill through from a Project Name in a Portfolio report to that Project’s Status Report, by right-clicking the project name and choosing “DT – Status Report”, which would appear as an option in the pop-up after right-clicking on project name.

If Risk Management is a key objective, drill-through from a project name to the Risks Dashboard, is also available. This allows you to see details for at-risk or off-track projects with a high count of active risks or issues.

• In the example below, we can see by right-clicking on the project name “Acquisition Target Analysis”, in the Portfolio Health report, we can add the option in the pop-up for “DT – Status Report”, which would take you directly to the Status Report for that given project selected.

Teams Collaboration – sharing a Power BI report to teams is a very useful feature for Teams collaboration. You can share a report to a Teams chat, group, or channel. First, navigate to the report and set the filters for the report as you want them to be when shared. Then, select the “Chat in Teams” option, located above the report. A pop-up window will appear, where you can search for a Teams member, group, or channel. After choosing who to share wish, select “Share” in the pop-up window. The screen will then confirm your report has been shared and ask if you would like to “Close the Window” or “Go to Teams”. The receiver will have the option to “Open” and/or “Subscribe” directly from the chat sent in Teams.

• In the example below, we can see by right-clicking on “Chat in Teams” from the Resource Assignments report, in the pop-up window that appears, I have chosen to share the report with Mia Reed.
• We can also see in the example below, the option to add a custom message in the chat before sending it. In the example below, the message “Look at this report for the resource assignments!” has been added.

 

Microsoft’s newest Project and Portfolio Management tool, Project for the Web, continues to become a more frequently used tool with many robust features which increase efficiency and team collaboration.

Microsoft continues to invest in new features and upgrades that aim to automate many project management processes and project needs throughout the project lifecycle.

The ability to create Word Templates assists in creating project documentation by using your project data already entered in the PPM tool, Project for the Web. Word Templates, one of Microsoft’s more subtle but very dynamic features, allows the creation of pre-configured documents that pull data from specified project fields, in real-time. Word Templates can be designed and tailored to fit the needs of a customer, including letterheads, signature approvals area, and any other additions required by a customer.

If we look at our PPM360 Demo environment, which is Marque360’s pre-configured version of Microsoft’s accelerator, we can see how the fields in the tool are exported into the pre-configured document in real-time. Each time a field’s value is updated in Project for the Web, that is included in any of the pre-configured Word Templates, the document can be re-exported with the updated values immediately reflected. Unlike Power BI reports, which generally run on refresh schedules in 2-hour increments. Additionally, a flow can be created to auto-generate the creation of these documents on a weekly basis at a specified time. The flow can send a copy of the document directly to specified users or be auto saved in a pre-determined SharePoint or Teams folder.

Word Templates are most valuable for exporting Project Charters, Change Requests, and Project Status Reports. However, these templates can be utilized for various purposes. Additional areas can also be added to the pre-configured Word Document, such as a table for PMO signatures for Change Request approvals.

 

 

 

 

 

One of Microsoft’s recent and most exciting features released for Project for the Web is the new assignment’s view. Like the “Task Usage” and “Resource Usage” views in Project Online, we now have the assignments view in Project for the Web, which can be grouped by resource or task, in a daily or weekly view. We can also add hours to a task for a resource assigned for an individual day, directly from the assignment’s view. The “Group by Task” option in this view is helpful for viewing tasks with multiple resources assigned and controlling the number of effort hours for each resource for each day/week in the schedule. When adjusting hours directly from this view, we can see that the overall effort hours and cumulative hours for a task or resource both increases based on the number of hours added.

The “Group by Resource” option in this view, displays resources with all tasks assigned under their names and displays the hours for that task for each day/week in the schedule. Currently, the

view displays 7 columns of days or weeks, depending on if you’re using the “Daily” or “Weekly” option in the assignments view. We can move throughout the timeline in the schedule by using the “< Previous” and “> Next” buttons or utilizing the “Go to Date” option to view a specific date. Selecting a specific date will display the given date as the first column after “Effort” with the subsequent days or weeks displayed after. Only working days (Monday-Friday) are editable for each line in the assignments view, with Saturday and Sunday blocked from being edited.

This assignment’s view allows for more granular and accurate control of the effort hours assigned to each resource for each task on a specific day or week within the schedule. This view also allows for more accurate results in the resource assignments and resource availability reports, which utilizes resource data from Project for the Web.

-Stella Salom, Solutions Architect