Project Management Central Cloud Part® User Manual

Built for teamwork, so you can streamline planning, focus on goals and accomplish more.

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Installation
3. Quick Tips
   • Task Management
   • Custom Columns (Task Fields)
   • Task History & Activity Logging
4. Configuration
   • Understanding the PMC Data Hierarchy
   • Project Management Central Layout
   • Project Page Layout
   • Understanding Permissions: Owners and Viewers
   • Manage Project Creators
   • Adding a New Department
   • Adding a New Project
   • Adding a Task
   • Milestones
   • Project Templates
   • Issues
   • Risks

Introduction

Project Management Central Cloud Part, is Bamboo Solutions' premier product for delivering project management functionality to your SharePoint Online or SharePoint 2013, 2016 or 2019 environment.  

Installation

To get started configuring your instance of Simple List Search Cloud Part, we'll start by adding the web part to a page.  Simple List Search Cloud Part can be installed by following our documentation outlined here: Installing/Updating a Cloud Part for Modern and Classic Pages.  This documentation will guide you through the process of adding your Cloud Part to a page, both Modern and Classic.

Quick Tips

Task Management

Custom Columns (Task Fields)

Task History & Activity Logging

Configuration

Understanding the PMC Data Hierarchy

PMC is made up of work item types that are tied to each other in “Parent-Child” relationships:

1. Project Portfolio– PMC consists of a Project Portfolio, which holds all other work items.
2. Department– Optional Departments can be created for the purpose of organizing and encapsulating Projects.
3. Project– Projects can be created under Departments, or under the main Project Portfolio under no Department at all.
4. Task- Tasks are held under Projects. A task can be designated as a Milestone.  Milestones "roll-up" to the Portfolio level across different projects, where Portfolio viewers can see them.
5. Document- Projects can also hold Documents inside them.  These Documents are held in a SharePoint Document Library .
6. Issue – Projects can have Issues associated with them; these issues can be factored into overall project health. Issue are stored in a separate “Issues” list.
7. Risk – Projects can have Risks associated with them; these issues can be factored into overall project health. Risks are stored in a separate “Risks” list.

Project Management Central Layout

1. Navigation bar
   • The  icon will always return you to the Project Portfolio home page
   • The  icon gives you the ability to:
     • Add Departments
     • Add Projects
   • The  icon will only appear if you are in the Project Creators group, or are a site collection administrator.
   • The  icon gives you the ability to view the Bamboo Solutions Calendar Plus Cloud Part^®, which displays the task and milestone information populated in your PMC Cloud environment
   • The  icon gives you the ability to:
     • Manage Project Creators
     • Manage Project Templates
   • The  icon will only appear if you are in the Project Creators group, or are a site collection administrator. 

2. Project Portfolio Home and My Tasks view- The Project Portfolio page is the default home page view, which shows Departments, Projects, Milestones, and the Calendar. (See items 3 - 6 below). The My Tasks view shows tasks assigned to the logged-in user only.
3. Departments- This section displays all Departments that have been created in the system. A Department holds one or more projects. Creating Departments to hold Projects is optional.
   Clicking on a Department title will filter the Projects section below it (see item 4 below) and only show Projects assigned to the clicked-on Department. The logged-in user will only see the Departments in which they have been assigned as Department Viewer or Department Owner. The exception to this rule being site collection administrators, who can see and edit everything.
4. Projects- This section displays all of the Projects in PMC. Clicking on a Project Title will open it. The user will only see Projects in which they have been assigned as Project Viewer or Project Owner, or in which they have been assigned as Department Viewer or Department Owner of the Department the Project belongs to.  The exception being site collection administrators, who can see and edit everything.
5. Milestones- A list of project Tasks that are marked as Milestones. These Milestones are "rolled up" to the Project Portfolio level and span across all Projects and Departments in PMC.
6. Calendar - Displays the Milestones in a calendar or Gantt view utilizing Bamboo Solutions Calendar Plus Cloud Part^®.

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Project Page Layout

1. Navigation Bar
   • The Home  icon will always return you to the Project Portfolio home page
   • The Task List  icon closes any icon tabs you open from the Navigation Bar and returns you to the default task list view above.
   • The Document Library  icon displays a list of documents associated with the Project. Clicking on the Link above will open the Document Library in a separate window. The user can upload any documents the project will need there.
   • The Project Calendar  icon displays all Project Tasks in a Calendar or Gantt view using the Bamboo Solutions Calendar Plus Cloud Part^®.
   • The Task Status  icon provides dashboard views of the status of all tasks within the Project. This dashboard can be exported as an image, PDF, or SVG file.
   • The Issues/Risk  icon shows a list of all existing issues and risks and allows you to add new issues or risks respectively.
   • The  icon opens the Customer Website Redesign Settings, which allow the Project Owners or site collection administrators to do the following:
     
     
   • Schedule Health – Populate parameters to set “In Progress” health indicator icons
   • Issue Health – Populate parameters to set “Active” issue health indicator icons
   • Risk Health – Populate parameters to set “Active” risk health indicator icons
   • Task Status Filter – Select which Task Status filters should be available as options
   • Task Priority Filter – Select which Task Priority filters should be available as options
   • Add New Column to Task List – Add new columns to task list, indicating column name and column data type
   • Show Columns in Task Grid – Indicate which columns should appear in the Task Grid
   • Task Grid Order – Indicate the order columns should appear in the Task Grid
2. Navigational Breadcrumb- Reveals the user's current location in P 
3. Project Metadata- This section contains the following project information
   
   1. Project Title
   2. Project Start Date & Due Date
   3. Project Description
   4. Project Status
   5. Issue Health
4.  Ellipses (…) Option Menu – This section contains the following options for the project
   1. Create Template - This button saves the current project as a reusable template. Project Creators can then create new Projects from this template.
   2. Copy Project Link - This enables the user to copy the unique link of the current project to their clipboard.  The user can then share this link throughout their organization.  This link will take the user directly to the project, without needing to navigate to it when first going to PMC.
   3. Export to Excel – Exports the task list displayed on this page into an excel file.
   4. Copy – Copies the task data displayed on the page to your clipboard, which you can paste in a chart format.
   5. Print – Gives the option to print the task list displayed on this page.
5. Project Task List- Displays the Tasks that are associated with the current  Depending on the logged in user's permissions, the user can create new Tasks or edit current Tasks.  The Task list is sortable and every time a task is updated the user has the option to add notes describing the changes, these notes will ultimately populate the Task History.
6. Task History – Displays a list of changes that have been made to the Task item each time the task was updated or edited including the SharePoint username associated with the account that made the changes and a date stamp.
   
7. Task List Display Filters – These tabs allow you to toggle between All Tasks for the Project, and Project Board view, and a view that displays tasks that are assigned to you. The Filters dropdown can be used to filter what is displayed in the “All Tasks” and the “My Tasks” tabs.

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Understanding Permissions - Owners and Viewers

PMC provides a flexible and easy way to grant users as much or as little access as needed. In order to do this, it is recommended that Project Management Central is installed in its own Site Collection. Below is a listing of PMC's different roles. 

Site Collection Administrator / Site Owner - Anyone with these permission roles will have full control over all aspects and features of PMC. This includes the ability to create, edit and delete Departments, Projects, Tasks, and Documents; as well as assign roles and tasks to other users.

Department Owners - A user assigned the role of Department Owner will have the ability to view, edit, and delete that department, as well as all projects and tasks that are in that department.

To assign a user a Department Owner, simply add them to the "Department Owner(s)" field on the Department's edit form.

Department Viewers - A user assigned the role of Department Viewer will have the ability to view that department, as well as all associated Projects and Tasks. They do not have the ability to edit anything, with the exception of Tasks that are assigned to them.

To assign a user a Department Viewer, simply add them to the "Department Viewer(s)" field on the Department's edit form.

Project Owner - A user assigned the role of Project Owner will have the ability to view, edit and delete that project, as well as any related tasks that are in the project.

To assign a user a Project Owner, simply add them to the "Project Owner(s)" field on the Project's edit form.

Project Viewer - A user assigned the role of Project Viewer will have the ability to view that project, as well as any tasks in that project. They do not have the ability to edit anything, with the exception of Tasks that are assigned to them.

To assign a user a Project Viewer, simply add them to the "Project Viewer(s)" field on the Project's edit form.

Task Owner - A user assigned the role of a Task Owner can view and edit that task. They do not have the ability to view departments, projects, or other tasks.

To assign a user a Task Owner, simply add them to the "Assigned To" field on the Task's edit form.

Project Creators Group - A user that has been granted the Project Creator Role will be able to create Departments, Projects, and Tasks. For more on this role, see the Manage Project Creators section.  By default, the person who added the PMC Cloud Part® to the page is automatically added to this role.

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Manage Project Creators

In order to create new Departments, Projects, and Tasks, the user needs to be added to the Project Creators Group. In order to do this, have an Administrator go to the PMC home page, hover over the  icon and click on Manage Project Creators.

This will open the Manage Project Creators Dialog box.

Use the people picker to select the users you want to add.

Click save. The users have now been added to the Project Creators group, as well as the Site's Member group.

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Adding a New Department

To add a new department, hover over the plus sign and then click on New Department.

That will bring up the New Department dialog box.

Enter the name of the Department and Department Owner(s). The Department Viewer(s) field is optional.

Click Save.

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Adding a New Project

To add a new project, hover over the + sign on the left side of the page and click New Project.

This will open the New Project Dialog Box.

Fill out the following fields:

• Create from Template  (optional): pick a template from which to create a project if applicable, tasks in the template will automatically date shift relative to the start date of this new project.
• Name: title for the project (required field)
• Description: a brief explanation of the project
• Project Start Date: specify the start date for the project (required field)
• Project End Date: specify the end date for the project (required field)
• Project Owner(s): user that has permission to Edit the Project, and all related Project Tasks (required field)
• Project Viewer(s): user that has permissions to view the Project, and all related Project Tasks
• Project % Complete: user-chosen numerical value describing the proportion of completion
• Project Status: choice between Pending, Active, Cancelled, and Complete
• Department: links the project to a department

Click Save. The project is created and added to the Project Management Central homepage.

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Adding a Task

In order to be able to add a task, you first need to be added to the Project Creators group. For more information on this, see the Manage Project Creators section.

To add a task, open the project where you want the task to reside. Click .

This will bring up the Task Dialog Box.

Fill out the following fields:

• Task: Title for the task (required field)
• Start Date: Specify the start date for the task (required field)
• Due Date: Specify the due date for the task (required field)
• Assigned To: Use the people picker to assign the task to a single user (required field)
• Task Status: Choose between Not Started, In Progress, Completed, Deferred, and Waiting on someone else (required field)
• Priority: Choose between high, normal, and low priority (required field)
• % Complete: User-chosen numerical value describing the proportion of completion.
• Description: A brief explanation of the task
• Milestone: Checking this box will mark this Task as a Milestone. For more information on this, see the Milestones section .
• Custom Fields: Owners have the ability to create Custom Fields in the Task List. Any custom fields added to the Task List will appear in this dialog box in addition to the stock defaults listed above.

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Milestones

Milestones are an easy way to mark important Tasks. Having all Milestones listed together and shown on one calendar can help users keep track of overall portfolio progress and give perspective on an entire department or project.

 Milestones from all departments and projects are rolled up to PMC's main Project Portfolio and can be accessed by selected the Calendar Icon in the Navigation Bar. They are first shown in list form, with columns that display their corresponding Project, Department (if applicable), Start and Due dates, and other important details. Below this list, they are displayed graphically using Bamboo Solutions Calendar Plus Cloud Part^®

Marking a task as a Milestone is simple. When creating a new task, check the box next to milestone option. To mark an existing task as a milestone, click on the edit icon  next to the task, then check the milestone box, and click save.

Note that Permissions apply here. Project Owners and Project Viewers will only see Milestones pertaining to the Project in which they have permissions to view. Likewise, Department Owners and Department Viewers will only be able to see Milestones from Projects in their Departments. If a user is only assigned tasks and is not a Department/Project Owner/Viewer, they will not be able to see any Milestones.

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Project Templates

Entering information repeatedly can waste both time and effort. One easy way to mitigate this is by creating project templates which allow a user to create new projects from them. Creating a Project from a template achieves the following:

• Project metadata such as Title, Description, Dates, Roles is automatically populated in the "Create New Project" form.
• Tasks from the template will be automatically duplicated in the new Project. (The user can toggle this functionality on/off)

Creating a template from an existing Project:

Click on the "Create Project Template" button on the top-right corner of any Project page.

Creating a new Project from a template:

1. Hover over the + sign on the left side of the page and click New Project.
   
2. In the Project form, use the "Create from Template" drop-down to choose the template you'd like to create this project from.   Note that the fields in the Project form automatically pre-populate with the template's data when choosing a template. 
3. If you do not want this new project to include the Tasks contained in the template, uncheck the "Include Projects Tasks" checkbox. If you leave the “Include Project Tasks” box checked, tasks in the template will automatically date shift relative to the start date of this new project.
4. If you do not want this new project to include the Documents contained in the template, uncheck the "Include Projects Documents" checkbox.

5. Click "Save".

The new Project should now appear in the Project Portfolio page.

Issues

The Issues List is a way to track any issues that arise within the lifecycle of a project. Issues are applied and associated at the project level and can be related to a specific task. Issues can be assigned a due date and a status from the options “Active”, “Deferred”, or “Closed”. The issue status can be updated as the issue progresses or is otherwise dealt with.

There is also an option to factor the Issue(s) into overall project health. Project health level is indicated by a series of three icons, whose parameters are set by the Project Owner(s) or site collection administrator(s) in the Customer Website Redesign Settings as discussed above and pictured below:

Overall Project Health will look like the following:

Creating a New Issue:

Click  the icon on the left side of the page and click . This will bring up the Issues dialogue box.

Fill out the following fields:

• Issue: Title for the issue (required field)
• Factor in project health: This checkbox should be checked if you would like to activate the settings for issues that the Project Owner(s) or site collection administrator(s) set in the Customer Redesign Settings, which displays the overall project health using three indicator icons mentioned above. If this box is left unchecked the issues column will always show a green checkmark.
• Status: Indicate the issue status using these three options “Active”, “Deferred”, or “Closed”. The status can be updated as the issue is processed.
• Due Date: Specify the due date for the issue (required field)
• Assigned To: Specify the user(s) this issue is assigned to (required field)
• Related Task: Associate this issue with a particular task
• Category: Indicate the issue category from these options “Scheduling”, “Resources”, “Scope/Requirements”, and “Other”
• Priority: Indicate the issue priority from these options “(1) High”, “(2) Normal”, and “(3) Low”
• Description: Write a brief description of the issue
• Comment: Write any comments related to the issue as said issue is processed

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Risks

The Risks List is a way to track any risks that are known to be associated with a project, risks can be added either at the beginning of the project or at any time during the project lifecycle as risks are discovered. Risks are added at the project level and can be associated with specific tasks. The fields in the list include classic risk mitigation strategy requirements.

There is also an option to factor the Risk(s) into overall project health. Project health level is indicated by a series of three icons, whose parameters are set by the Project Owner(s) or site collection administrator(s) in the Customer Website Redesign Settings as discussed above and pictured below:

Overall Project Health will look like the following:

Creating a New Risk:

Click the  icon on the left side of the page and click . This will bring up the Risk dialogue box.

Fill out the following fields:

• Risk: Title for the risk (required field)
• Factor in project health: This checkbox should be checked if you would like to activate the settings for risks that the Project Owner(s) or site collection administrator(s) set in the Customer Redesign Settings, which displays the overall project health using three indicator icons mentioned above. If this box is left unchecked the issues column will always shoe a green checkmark.
• Status: Indicate the risk status using these three options “Active”, “Postponed”, or “Closed”. The status can be updated as the risk is mitigated.
• Due Date: Specify the due date for the risk (required field)
• Assigned To: Specify the user(s) this risk is assigned to (required field)
• Probability (0%-100%): Indicate the probability of the risk event occurring
• Impact (0-10): Impact on the project should the risk event occur
• Cost (if occurs): Fiscal impact should the risk event occur
• Related Task: Associate this risk with a particular task
• Description: Write a brief description of the risk
• Mitigation Plan: Outline the mitigation plan for the identified risk
• Contingency Plan: Outline the contingency plan for the identified risk
• Trigger: Indicate the risk trigger from the following options “Date”, “Exposure over threshold”, “Tasks not completed”, and “Other”
• Trigger Description: A field to describe the trigger for this risk

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