SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans

I am a Project Server and SharePoint consultant but my main focus currently is around Project Server. I have been working with Project Server for nearly five years since 2007 for a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in the UK, I have also been awared with the Microsoft Community Contributor Award 2011. I am also a certified Prince2 Practitioner. This article has been cross posted from pwmather.wordpress.com (original article)

In this post we will look at the recently released Office 365 Project Portfolio Dashboard for Project Online / Project Server 2013 / 2016, see the announcement below:

http://bit.ly/1T3CXwC

A directly link the the SharePoint add-in can be found here: http://bit.ly/1VHfbNx

I have loaded this on to one of our demo instances to take a look:

The add-in is accessed from the PWA site contents menu:

When the add-in is first loaded it will load the data and cache it – it will tell you it is doing this. Then in the top right corner it will display the details for when the data in that dashboard was last updated / loaded:

You can then refresh the data as required and it will update to indicate the refresh has started:

Depending on the amount of data this might take some time.

The default dashboard is “This year’s projects”, there are 6 dashboards included by default, these are available in the Dashboard tab on the ribbon:

Each show different data. Each dashboard has different sections or pages, for example on This Year’s Projects I can view Projects:

Or Tasks:

Or Resources:

Or Content:

Some of the tables in the views have multiple views or sheets, for example the Resources shows Work by default but can view Issues, Risks or Availability:

In most pages you can either drill down or click though, for example from the Overview page on the table at the bottom I can click the project name to drill down to more detail for that project:

From:

To:

Clicking the task name will load the schedule PDP in a different tab.Clicking a risk or issue will load the list item in a different tab.

Notice the left navigation updates to show you where you are with more options. For example I can go from the project dashboard view to an Executive view:

I can then go back to the overall dashboard view by using the navigation section.

For each dashboard you can filter the data using the Filter tab:

The options tab will give you the ability to change the settings for the dashboard:

On the Dashboard tab you also have the ability to create your own dashboard using the create button, that will display a new tab on the ribbon:

Firstly give it a name and description.

Then select the projects to include:

Depending on the field type you will get different options to select, for example selecting a date field will give you this:

Then chose the layout for each section and the components on each:

Update each section as required then set any filters you want available:

Once completed click OK and the new dashboard will be available on the Dashboard menu for all users:

Download it today and take a look!