With the release of PM Central 1.7™, we have introduced many new options and features designed to improve the performance of PM Central, provide a richer interface, and automate what were previously manual processes for end users. As with all Bamboo products, you may download and trial the latest release of PM Central free for 30 days. Don’t have the time or resources to install a trial of PM Central?  You can sign up for a free live webinar and our team will provide you with a comprehensive demonstration. Have questions?  The PM Central forum is open 24/7.

So what’s new in PM Central 1.7?

Automated Features

Manual activation of the following Site Features is no longer required:

• Bamboo Update Summary List feature is automatically updated from the top site.
• Bamboo Project Level KPI feature is automatically updated from the project site.
• Bamboo Update Task, Issue, Project Health Lists Timer Job: This timer job updates Project Name in Task list and updates some values for Project StartDate, Project EndDate and % Complete columns in Project Health list.  This timer is scheduled to run every 10 minutes. This job will be created when the feature is installed.
• Bamboo Update Project Sites Timer Job: Added a function to check version when upgrading. This timer job is run once for every upgrade.

Performance Improvement

• Cost Update button will calculate Cost, Actual Cost and Remaining Cost for each Summary Task in the Task List. Cost calculation via the feature receiver is no longer used.
• Improved performance for loading the project schedule via SharePoint Task Master Web Part.
• Now allowing items in the project schedule for tasks to display in multiple pages via SharePoint Task Master Web Part.
• Improved performance, look and feel for Data-Viewer Web Part.
• Improved performance for List Rollup Web Part.
• Improve performance for Bamboo MS Project Add-in.

User Interface Improvement

• Richer look and feel for displaying and viewing the data in the following areas: issues, tasks, risks under Schedule Tab, Risks, My Summary, Issues, Late View, Cost View, Tracking View and Scheduling View via the new control with Data-Viewer Web Part.

For project managers, there should only be two interfaces that will differ for you in managing your schedule and cost in PM Central 1.7, and these interfaces are shown below.

Update Cost

In previous versions of PM Central, if you were tracking Cost based on resource assignment and standard rate, when you modified the tasks and clicked the Recalculate button the Cost data would be updated. With 1.7, we have separated the user-managed cost calculation from the user-managed schedule calculation. After you update your tasks and recalculate the schedule (via the Recalculate button), you will need to navigate to the Cost View and click on the Update Cost for the application to calculate the Cost based on the changes in the schedule:

Display Tasks in multiple pages

To improve the loading time and performance with projects that have a large number of items in the task list, we allow 1.7 users to display a certain number of items per page in the specified date/time interval:

Whether you are new to PM Central or are currently using an older version, please check out the new cloud version.  It’s the most robust PM Central yet, and we’re anxious to receive your feedback on the new features and enhancements.