Share Gantt Snapshot Feature

by admin | Aug 30, 2023

Share Gantt Snapshot Feature

What is a snapshot of the Gantt?
How to share a snapshot of the Gantt?
What will invitees see on the link?
Who can share the Gantt?
Why sharing a Gantt snapshot?

Project managers and team leaders often find the need to share the progress and timeline of their projects with stakeholders. This is where the “Share Gantt Snapshot” feature in ITM Platform comes into play.

What is a snapshot of the Gantt?

A snapshot of the Gantt is essentially a freeze-frame or capture of your project’s Gantt chart in its current state. Think of it as taking a photograph; whatever changes you make after the photo won’t appear in it.

It’s Static: After you’ve taken a snapshot, further changes to the Gantt won’t be reflected unless you decide to update the snapshot.
Access to Snapshot: While it’s easily accessible to anyone provided with the link, you don’t have to worry about unauthorized access. The link is not easily guessable as it is protected by a unique hash code.

Sharing a snapshot is designed to be intuitive:

Navigate to the Gantt section of your project.
Click on the share button located at the top-right of the page.

A pop-up window will appear. Depending on if you have previously created a snapshot, you’ll be presented with options to either create a new snapshot, update an existing one, or delete the current one.
After creating the snapshot, a “Copy Link” button will become available. Clicking this will save the unique link to your clipboard, ready to be shared.

If you decide to revoke access to the snapshot, simply click on the share button and opt to delete the snapshot. Remember: once a snapshot is deleted, anyone with the link won’t be able to access it. To share the Gantt again, you’ll have to generate a new snapshot.

What will invitees see on the link?

Those who access the snapshot link will be presented with:

Gantt Chart: The primary component is the Gantt chart itself in read-only mode. This ensures that external viewers cannot make changes.
Project Details: This includes the project’s name, its start and end dates, the progress recorded at the time of the snapshot, and a timestamp. Additionally, they will see the name of the person who shared the Gantt and the associated company’s name.

Controlling who gets to share the Gantt snapshot is governed by role-based permissions:

Navigate to Organization > User management > Role definition.
Select the desired role. Note: Only roles based on the “Project Manager” and “Full Access” licenses can share the Gantt snapshot.
Click on “Set Manager’s permissions” and check the “Share Gantt Snapshot” checkbox.

Role-permission-gantt-snapshot

If you ever decide to revoke these permissions from a role, any users assigned to that role will no longer see or use the share option. This includes their ability to delete existing snapshots. Should you need to remove a snapshot, make sure someone with the necessary permissions takes action. Remember, the Company Admin will always retain sharing privileges.

Sharing a Gantt snapshot can be helpful in several scenarios:

Stakeholder Updates: Keeping stakeholders, especially those who don’t access the ITM platform regularly, in the loop.
Quick Reviews: For when you need immediate feedback or review without giving editing rights.
Documentation: Archiving or documenting project stages and timelines.
External Communication: Sharing project timelines with clients or third-party collaborators without giving them full access to the platform.
Presentations: When you need a static representation of your project timeline for presentations or meetings.

Ensure you manage permissions appropriately and leverage this feature for improved project communications.

How to Invite Users to ITM Platform

by admin | Jun 20, 2023

How to Invite Users to ITM Platform

ITM Platform incorporates an access control mechanism, allowing administrators and users with specific permissions to extend invitations to external individuals to join ITM Platform as Team Members. This feature is a central component of the system’s flexibility, promoting collaboration and efficient project management.

Below is a detailed description of how this feature works.

User Invitation Functionality

The user invitation functionality can be accessed via various entry points within the ITM Platform interface:

The main menu, “shortcuts”:

The user list:

Managing-user-invitations-itm-platform-user-list

Invitation Delivery and Acceptance

Upon dispatching an invitation, an automated email is sent to the invitee’s email address. To become an active Team Member, the invitee must accept the invitation and complete a short form that captures the necessary information for their profile.

The user invitation process has been streamlined to minimize input required from the inviter and ensure quick integration of new Team Members.

From then on, these newly added team members are eligible to be assigned to various projects where they can contribute towards achieving the project’s goals.

Notification System

ITM Platform is integrated with a real-time notification system, which informs the inviter once the invitee has accepted the invitation and completed the form, thus formally joining the platform as a Team Member.

This serves as a confirmation that the invitation has been successfully received and accepted, allowing the inviter to plan and allocate resources accordingly.

Limitless Team Member Addition

Companies using the free Team Members tier have the liberty to invite and add an unlimited number of Team Members, offering scalability and flexibility to meet the dynamic needs of an organization.

Strategic Benefits of Team Members

Incorporating Team Members into ITM Platform broadens various facets of project management. These facets are integral for the successful execution of projects and encompass key areas like work execution, time management, and progress reporting. This article delves into these benefits in more detail.

Deactivating the Invite Option

By default, the invitation feature is enabled on ITM Platform. However, for companies that want more control over the feature, it is possible to disable it on CONFIGURATION > ORGANIZATION > Company Settings > Unmark the ‘Enable Invites’ option.

Managing-user-invitation-settings

Once the feature is disabled, users who log into the system will not see the option to invite others.

This feature can be particularly useful for organizations that want to control the pace at which they add new team members or manage who can extend invitations.

Power BI Templates for ITM Platform

by admin | Apr 14, 2023

Power BI Templates for ITM Platform

Power BI Templates for ITM Platform are for users who want to create dashboards and visualize their organization’s data.

Designed specifically for ITM Platform, these templates provide charts and analysis based on best project management practices. They also offer the possibility of integration with other applications, such as your ERP or CRM.

You can use the templates as a blueprint to create customized reports and dashboards to monitor the performance of your projects, identify issues and make informed decisions in real time.

What you need:

A template
Power BI Desktop to customize the template (free)
A Power BI Service license, if you want to publish it on the internet (optional)

With Power BI Service, you can publish reports in a private environment that only users in your organization can access (verify pricing). Alternatively, you can use Power BI Desktop to create reports and visualizations without publishing them online.

Once you have downloaded the template and setup Power BI Desktop, you can:

Connect the template to the ITM Platform
Publish dashboards on the Power BI Service

To create dashboards tailored to your organization, open the template in Power BI Desktop and make the desired changes. You can customize the charts, tables, key figures, and visualizations to suit your needs.

If you need help, you can find the documentation online or request support from ITM Platform or a specialized consultant.

How Power BI Works with ITM Platform

Available templates

Health Indicators		Displays the health of the projects and portfolio with standardized health calculations.
Summary of projects with status		List of projects with basic information, including the possibility of obtaining a detailed view of the projects in both waterfall and agile versions.
Financial Analysis		View of budget performance and financial analysis by dimension.
Summary of finance and scheduling		In addition to the above view, it includes a view of project scheduling and progress.
Effort Analysis		View of effort behavior and analysis of such effort by dimensions.
Full Template		It includes all of the above views integrated into a single report, ideal for the PMO or an executive.

Connecting the template to ITM Platform

Essentially, you need to edit the instance parameters and API key, click “Update”, and check that the information has loaded correctly.

Download the PBIX sample and open it in Power BI Desktop.
Click on Transform Data → Edit Parameters

Fill in the values for the Instance (environment) and API Key, and click OK. The ProjectId and TaskId parameters are only required to make changes to the queries.
- To find the Instance, look for the first part of the URL of your ITM Platform account. For example, if your ITM Platform URL is https://app.itmplatform.com/mycompany/UserPages/Home.aspx, the instance would be “mycompany” (without quotes)
- To generate the API Key, go to the “My Profile” section of your ITM Platform account and select the “API Key” tab.
  - Click the “Generate” button to create a new API Key.
  - Once the API Key is generated, copy it and store it in a safe place. Note that only the last four characters of the key will be displayed, so make sure to copy the entire key.
  - Paste the API Key into the “API Key” parameter.

If a login dialogue is displayed, the Anonymous access option must be selected.

Click on “Update” and wait for the update process to finish. It may take several minutes, depending on the amount of information in your environment.

Verify that the information has been uploaded to the report:

Publish dashboards in the Power BI Service

To access and keep up-to-date the online reports of the Power BI service, you need to publish the PBIX files in the Power BI web application, set up credentials and schedule the automatic update of the record.

Proceed as follows:

Ensure that the local Power BI file is connected and updated according to the procedure described above.
Publish the PBIX in the Power BI web application by clicking the Publish button in Power BI Desktop.
Choose the place of publication. It is recommended to use a custom workspace, not “My Space”.

Wait for the publication process to complete:

Navigate to the workspace to identify the dataset:

Click on … to display the dataset menu and click on Configuration:

Locate the Credentials section of the data source and click on “Edit credentials”.

Set or check that the authentication method is Anonymous, and the privacy level is Organizational. Do not activate the option to skip the connection test.

Click Log In to check if the data source is accessible:

Expand the Auto-Update section and set the desired schedule:

Click on the link above to display the dataset:

Click on Refresh and wait for the dataset to be updated:

Check that the report displays correctly:

The Power BI templates for ITM Platform are tools for creating dashboards and visualizing project data. They provide charts and analysis based on best project management practices and the ability to integrate with other applications.

To customize templates and create custom dashboards, open the template in Power BI Desktop and make changes to charts, tables and visualizations.
To access reports online and keep them up to date, publish PBIX files in the Power BI web application and configure the credentials and schedule to update records automatically. Power BI Desktop can be used to create reports and visualizations without publishing them online.

When to use ITM Platform Custom Dashboards or the connection to Power BI?

ITM Platform’s customizable dashboards provide analytics that enable users to visualize and monitor the performance of their projects in real-time. However, these features may be more limited than those offered by Power BI.

Therefore, if you require more comprehensive data integration from third-party applications or advanced data analysis and visualization features, we recommend using Power BI.

The choice between ITM Platform and Power BI dashboards depends on the specific data analysis and visualization needs of the organization.

How to Use Customizable Dashboards in ITM Platform

by admin | Apr 3, 2023

How to Use Customizable Dashboards in ITM Platform

ITM Platform’s custom dashboards allow you to access built-in dashboards, create your own, or modify existing dashboards to suit your needs.

These dashboards are made up of charts representing helpful information about any entity or entities in ITM platform, such as projects, tasks, risks, issues, revenue, or purchases.

To access the dashboard list, go to the management menu and click on “Dashboards”

If your organization has not yet created custom dashboards, you will have access to the pre-configured ones, which you can duplicate and edit

Editing or creating a dashboard

When editing an existing dashboard or creating a new one, you will find a three-dot menu in the top right corner.

This menu will give you access to add new charts, change the layout, or change the permissions for other users.

Adding a new chart

To add a new chart, you can choose a chart type, such as column, bar, line, area, or pie, and select a table, such as “projects.” Then, choose a category, such as “business goal,” and add a secondary table if needed. Next, select a value, such as “total actual cost,” and choose an operation to perform on that value, such as count, sum, average, maximum, minimum, or the first value.

Once you select the operation, a chart preview will appear, and the chart title will be automatically generated as a suggestion. You can change the chart title at any time at your convenience. When you’re done, click on save, and your new chart will load in the dashboard, showing the actual values.

All charts in one dashboard will share the same data set, allowing you to set a global filter for your dashboard.

Filtering

To edit filters, click on the edit filter button on top of the dashboards. When you click on it, you can add filters that will affect all your charts. If you require charts with different filtering, create a separate dashboard.

When editing the filter, select a table present in the data set, such as “projects,” and then select by which field you want to filter, such as “duration.” Depending on the field you have chosen, you will have an operator that you can choose from, such as equals, doesn’t equal, includes, doesn’t include, less than, less or equal, greater than, or greater or equal. You can add as many filter lines as you need to tailor your dashboard to your specific needs.

⚠️ Keep in mind that ITM Platform dashboards are fetching your data in real-time, and some of these fields are calculated. Depending on the complexity and volume of your data, plotting your dashboard may take a while. Therefore, be careful when you select calculated fields, such as estimated costs and expected deviations.

Changing Dashboard Layout:

To customize the overall dashboard design, click on “Layout” from the main menu. There are two main options:

Charts per row: You can choose a fixed number of charts per row or a flexible number of charts per row. When you select a fixed number of charts per row, the chart size will adapt to fit the number of charts you have chosen into a row. If you select the chart width, the number of charts per row will change depending on the window size. If you’re unsure about which option to choose, we recommend the default one, which is a fixed width per chart with a flexible number of charts per row.

Height/width ratio: You can change the height/width ratio to create different shapes of charts within your dashboard.

Permissions

To access the permissions editor, click on the three-dot menu, then “Permissions.” There, you will see a list of users and roles with access. If you created the dashboard, you will find yourself as an editor.

To grant access to other users or roles, simply deploy the drop-down menu and select the particular users or roles you want to give access to. Once you have selected the user or role, choose whether to make them an editor or viewer. Then, click on “add,” and they will be added to the list of users or roles with granted permissions.

Embedding Dashboards

Once you have defined a dashboard in ITM Platform, you can embed it in your own web pages, such as the intranet of your organization. This mode will not require users to log in to ITM Platform since the dashboard credentials will be embedded in the web page.

⚠️ This feature is currently being deployed among users having access to the dashboards.

ITM Platform’s custom dashboards offer a range of features to help you access and visualize your data. From editing and customizing your charts to filtering and changing the layout, you can tailor your dashboard to your specific needs. With the ability to grant permissions and embed dashboards, ITM Platform makes it easy to share your data with others in your organization.