What Is the Purpose of Project Approval if a Workflow Exists?

by admin | Nov 7, 2023

What Is the Purpose of Project Approval if a Workflow Exists?

Project approval is a simpler and more general mechanism than the approval of each project stage, which is what the workflow manages

Project approval helps to determine if a project has the consent to commence, and, generally, it is a field that one fills out only before the project starts.

ITM Platform provides a set of predefined approval statuses, customizable for each organization.

Project-Approval

These fields appear on various ITM Platform screens, such as the portfolio or project prioritization in the strategic alignment section.

Additionally, or as a complement, you can use the state workflow, which offers a complete model of authorizations and rules for state project approvals.

Should I Use Workflow, or Are Approvals Enough?

Generally, it depends on the level of control required over the project steps. If your organization requires strict investment supervision involving different people subject to various rules (for example, if the budget exceeds a certain amount), activating the workflow is a good idea.

If you are still at that level of management maturity or manage control differently, you can use the approval field, which the project managers themselves can fill out.

Slow or Delayed Project List Display

by admin | Nov 7, 2023

Slow or Delayed Project List Display

Occasionally, the project list may take longer than expected to display, sometimes taking up to two minutes in some instances.

Generally, the cause can be attributed to one of the reasons explained below or a combination of both:

The presence of calculated fields in the requested list of columns.
A high volume of projects in the list (more than 50) without pagination.

Calculated fields are not stored as data in ITM Platform but require processing to display a value.

A typical example of a calculated field is the “Budget Estimate.” To display this data, the system must go through:

all the projects,
for each project, all tasks,
for each task, all team members,
for each team member, all the daily hour reports,
and for each report, verify the cost of the professional profile for that date.

Then, apply the cost to each hour of each day and accumulate costs upwards, including purchases if required. A project with 25 tasks, 4 people, and six months of duration requires about 20,000 calculation operations to provide the “Cost Estimate” field.

Project-List-ITM-Platform

To solve the response time problem, select only calculated fields when necessary.

You can also use reports to generate high volumes of information or with calculated fields.

Concurrent or not with the above, another reason may be the number of projects requested on the list. All lists on ITM Platform offer the option to paginate so that the visible part is limited to a volume of 10, 20, 50, or 100 items.

paginate-list-purchases You also have the option to select all items but keep in mind that this will be at the expense of response speed.

If your list setup contains both cases (more than 50 projects and calculated fields), you should expect response times of over 30 seconds, potentially spanning several minutes, depending on the volume.

In general, lists of more than 20 items are not useful since the filtering system will allow you to obtain the information you need. Consider using these filters, the reporting system, or adding calculated fields and the complete list only when essential.

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.