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#Project Roadmap #CDS #App Overview #PPM #ProjectManagement #MSProject #ProjectOnline #Office365 #PowerPlatfom #Dynamics365
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) |
Have you used the new Roadmap feature from Microsoft yet? If not, why not! Over the last few months I posted several Roadmap related blog posts. In this blog post I have summarised all of the posts so that all of the post links are available in one place.
Roadmap is live – this post covered an overview for the end user: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/project-roadmap-is-live-ppm-projectmanagement-msproject-projectonline-office365-powerplatfom/
Roadmap CDS App over view – this covered the CDS details (entities etc.) and reporting:
- Part 1: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2019/01/01/project-roadmap-cds-app-overview-ppm-projectmanagement-msproject-projectonline-office365-powerplatfom-dynamics365-part-1/
- Part 2: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2019/01/07/project-roadmap-cds-app-overview-ppm-projectmanagement-msproject-projectonline-office365-powerplatform-dynamics365-part-2/
- Part 3: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/project-roadmap-cds-app-overview-ppm-projectmanagement-msproject-projectonline-office365-powerplatform-dynamics365-powerbi-part-3/
Roadmap PWA Project Center integration: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2019/01/16/projectonline-pwa-project-details-page-integration-with-project-roadmap-office365-ppm-powerplatform-msflow/
Then finally the Power BI Report pack for Roadmap: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2019/01/30/project-roadmap-powerbi-report-pack-ppm-projectmanagement-msproject-projectonline-office365-powerplatform-dynamics365/
If you haven’t used Roadmap yet, take a look when you can! Also, see what you think of my Roadmap Power BI Report pack to get you started on reporting.
Change the default PWA site URL in Project Home for #ProjectOnline #Office365 #PPM #PMOT #PMO #MSProject
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) |
It is now possible to change the default PWA Site used in Project Home, this will default to /PWA but can be updated using the new “Default PWA site” option on the settings cog menu:
Clicking this menu option will load a modal dialog to update the URL:
This input box will list all of the PWA site collections where you have accessed Projects, so if you delete “PWA” from the input box there will then be an option to select another PWA site collection that you have accessed previously (it’s a unique list of PWA site collections for all projects you see in Project Home):
If you type the name of a site that doesn’t exist or that you do not have access to, you will see this message then you click Change Site:
Select a site from the list or type the name of a site that you know exists then click Change Site, it will check your permissions on this site:
Once this passes OK it will update the default PWA site:
Now you will find the Create New > Project button and the “Go to Project Web App” link will open in the new target PWA site collection.
Reset to default will update the PWA site back to /PWA.
A great improvement that many organisations have been asking for!
#Project Roadmap #PowerBI report pack #PPM #ProjectManagement #MSProject #ProjectOnline #Office365 #PowerPlatform #Dynamics365
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) |
I have released a solution starter report pack for Project Roadmap, this follows on from a mini series of blog posts on the Roadmap backend CDS database / app. The final post in that series can be found here: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/project-roadmap-cds-app-overview-ppm-projectmanagement-msproject-projectonline-office365-powerplatform-dynamics365-powerbi-part-3/
As mentioned in that post, I would release the Power BI report pack I created. This report pack can be downloaded from the link below:
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Roadmap-Power-BI-Report-8eaae91e
This report pack consists of 3 reports for Project Roadmap, these reports can be seen below:
Roadmap Summary page:
Roadmap Detail page:
Roadmap Sync Admin page:
Once downloaded, the report pack CDS data source will need to be updated to point to your target Project Roadmap environment. To do this you will need the Power BI desktop tool which is a free download here: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/desktop
Open the downloaded PWMatherRoadmapReport.pbit template file in Power BI Desktop and follow the steps below to point the CDS data source to your Project Roadmap environment:
- When prompted, enter the correct CDS URL for the Project Roadmap environment:
- If you are unsure of the correct URL to use for the CDSUrl, please refer to this blog post about half way down: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2019/01/07/project-roadmap-cds-app-overview-ppm-projectmanagement-msproject-projectonline-office365-powerplatform-dynamics365-part-2/
- Sign in when prompted – this account will need at least Read access at the business unit level to the Roadmap CDS entities used plus the other default roles a normal user is assigned to
- If the account used does not have the correct access you will see errors / exceptions like below or just empty datasets / tables:
- I created a new role in the Dynamics 365 instance where Roadmap is deployed – access the Dynamics 365 admin center from the Office 365 Admin center using the Global Admin account. Open the default Dynamics 365 instance (this is where Roadmap is deployed to) then click Settings > Security > Security Roles > New. I gave the new role Read access at the business unit level to the 4 Roadmap entities used in the report:
- I then accessed the user account from the Dynamics Security admin in the Users page then assigned the new role to this account using the Manage Roles option. Other roles and role assignments are as per the default settings:
- Now the report will be able to access and load the data.
- The report will update with the data from your Project Roadmap environment – this might take a few minutes.
- Save the report.
- Publish the report to the Power BI service and distribute / share as required.
Your Office 365 administrator / Dynamics 365 administrator will be able to help you out with the correct user account to use as they will probably have a preferred approach to granting access that might be different to the way I have done it here. Or they might want to set up this report, publish to Power BI and give you access via the Power BI service.
I hope you like it and find it useful.
#ProjectOnline #Roadmap sync error – has the project been deleted? #MSFlow #PowerPlatform #PPM
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 the following scenario you may see an error that could be misleading. So you have set up a Roadmap with rows that are connected to Projects in Project Online – all good so far. Then your access changes in Project Online and you no longer have access to the linked Projects. You then later access your Roadmap (at least 5 minutes after your access changed so the Flow runs) and you will see:
Hover over the red cross and you see a tooltip for “Project has been deleted in Project Online”:
Then click the row to load the row details and you see another message stating: “We couldn’t sync updates to this project because it has been deleted in Project Online.”
If you try to add more rows you then get a status bar appear:
Click the Project Name under the connection to launch the Project Detail Page for that project and you will see this message stating that you don’t have access when the Project Detail Page loads for that project in PWA:
The List Project action in the Flow returns a 404:
The value in the response body is: "This project either does not exist, or has been deleted. Only QueueJobs can be accessed from a deleted project." The Flow then continues and updates the roadmap data to mark the link as deleted.
For this scenario the error is misleading, the issue is that your account that was used to set up the link to the Project in Project Online now longer has access to that project. The List Project Flow Action which uses the CSOM API which is security trimmed. If your account is later then given access to the linked Project in Project Online, the next time the Flow runs, that row will update as expected in the Roadmap if the Project has been updated in Project Online within the 15 minute last project publish check in the Flow.
Just something to be aware of if you come across this error – your project might not have been deleted!
#Project Roadmap #CDS #App Overview #PPM #ProjectManagement #MSProject #ProjectOnline #Office365 #PowerPlatform #Dynamics365 #PowerBI Part 3
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) |
This post follows on from part 2: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2019/01/07/project-roadmap-cds-app-overview-ppm-projectmanagement-msproject-projectonline-office365-powerplatform-dynamics365-part-2/ In Part 2 we reviewed the fields and looks looked at the data used by the Roadmap application. In this post we will continue with the Power BI report that was started in part 2. I have made some changes following on from the last post if you have been following and creating the Power BI report. The queries I have can be seen below:
Here are the query connection details:
- Roadmaps queries msdyn_roadmaps but filter to only return roadmaps
- RoadmapItems queries msdyn_roadmapitems but filtered to only return roadmap items
- RoadmapRows queries msdyn_roadmaps but filter to only return rows
- RoadmapRowItems queries msdyn_roadmapitems but filtered to only return row items
- RoadmapItemLinks queries msdyn_roadmapitemlinks
- RoadmapRowLinks queries msdyn_roadmaprowlinks
I have also used the Power Query editor options to remove fields I do not need, renamed fields etc. but that is standard Power BI functionality.
Then the following relationships have been set up between these tables:
Or the visual view:
Now this Power BI file is ready to start creating the reports. Here are some screen shots of example reports:
I will be releasing the Power BI file to download later this week that can be used as a solution starter for your Project Roadmap reporting. I will then create a blog post on how you can bring in other data from Project Online into the Power BI file.
#ProjectOnline PWA Project Details Page integration with Project Roadmap #Office365 #PPM #PowerPlatform #MSFlow
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) |
As you are probably aware by now, the new Roadmap feature is live in Project Home as detailed in this blog post: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/project-roadmap-is-live-ppm-projectmanagement-msproject-projectonline-office365-powerplatfom/ This post covers a new button that would have appeared in your Project Online PWA instance:
This new Add to Roadmap button is on the Task tab on Schedule Project Detail Page. This enables you to add published tasks to a project roadmap directly in Project Online PWA without having to navigate away to the Project Home, open the Roadmap then adding the tasks via the Roadmap interface.
When the current project is linked to a roadmap row with at least one task selected (you can select multiple), clicking this will load a modal pop up:
You will then need to select the correct Roadmap and Row using the dropdowns. Only Roadmaps and Rows will appear where the current project is already linked. Here is one Roadmap where this project is linked:
I’ve selected the Deployment task then clicked the Add to Roadmap button then selected the Roadmap and Row as seen below:
Clicking Add will start the process to add the task:
Once completed you will see the added to roadmap message as below with a clickable link to the roadmap:
Accessing the roadmap will now show the new task added:
If you try the Add to Roadmap button for a project that is not linked to a Project Roadmap you will see this modal popup:
A great enhancement to Project Online!
#Project Roadmap #CDS #App Overview #PPM #ProjectManagement #MSProject #ProjectOnline #Office365 #PowerPlatform #Dynamics365 Part 2
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) |
This post follows on from part 1: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2019/01/01/project-roadmap-cds-app-overview-ppm-projectmanagement-msproject-projectonline-office365-powerplatfom-dynamics365-part-1/ In part 1 we had a quick overview of the solutions used in the CDS app for the Roadmap service. In this post we will look at the fields used by the Roadmap service and take a look at some of the data in the Portfolio Service CDS database. As you know, this new feature is known as Roadmap to the end users, but the backend is known as the Portfolio Service, hence both names being used here.
Firstly we will have a look at some of the entities and field definitions from the Portfolio Service solution PowerApps admin interface that we briefly accessed at the end of part 1:
As you can see from the screen shot above, there are 6 entities deployed in the Portfolio Service solution. Each of these entities have various other artefacts such as views, keys, fields etc. For this post, we will just look at the fields. We wont explore all of the entities or all of the fields in each entity, but we will look at some of the key entities and fields used by the Roadmap service.
Firstly we will look at the Roadmap entity in the PowerApps portal:
You can scroll along the grid to see the properties such as description etc. This entity contains the roadmap details – the roadmap properties and rows added to the roadmap. Some of the key fields here for us as end users for reporting etc. are:
- msdyn_name – this field will contain the Roadmap name and the row name
- msdyn_type – this is used to determine the type – either a Roadmap which is type 0 or a row which is type 1
- msdyn_roadmapid – this is the roadmap / row GUID
- msdyn_parentroadmapid – this is contains the roadmap GUID for the rows added to a roadmap
- msdyn_groupaadid – this is the associated Office 365 group ID
The next entity is the Roadmap Item:
This entity contains the roadmap item details – items added to rows on the roadmap and items added directly to the roadmap like key dates. Some key fields are:
- msdyn_name – this field will contain item or key date name
- msdyn_duedate – this field will contain the due date for row items
- msdyn_startdate – this field will contain the start date for row items
- msdyn_status – this is the status for the item such as At Risk, On Track etc.
- msdyn_type – this is used to determine the type – either a key date which is type 0 or a phase which is type 1
- msdyn_roadmapid – this is the roadmap / row GUID
- msdyn_roadmapitemid – this contains the roadmap item GUID
The next entity is the Roadmap Item Link:
This entity contains the roadmap item link details – items added to rows on the roadmap that are linked to external projects (Project Online or Azure Boards currently). Some key fields are:
- msdyn_externalname – this field will contain the external task name
- msdyn_externalduedate – this field will contain the external due date for row items
- msdyn_externalprojecttaskid – this is the external task GUID from the external project
- msdyn_externalstartdate – this field will contain the external start date for row items
- msdyn_externaltype – this is used to determine the type – either a key date which is type 0 or a phase which is type 1
- msdyn_externalurl – this is the link to the external project
- msdyn_roadmapid – this is the roadmap row GUID
- msdyn_roadmapitemid – this contains the roadmap item GUID
- msdyn_roadmapitemlinkid – this contains the roadmap item link GUID
The final entity that we will look at is the Roadmap Row Link:
This entity contains the roadmap row link details – rows on the roadmap that are linked to external projects (Project Online or Azure Boards currently). Some key fields are:
- msdyn_externalname – this field will contain the external project name
- msdyn_externalprojectid – this is the project GUID from the external project
- msdyn_externalurl – this is the link to the external project
- msdyn_refreshenddate – this is the finish time the external project last synchronised with the CDS data via the Flow
- msdyn_refreshstartdate – this is the start time the external project last synchronised with the CDS data via the Flow
- msdyn_roadmapid – this is the roadmap row GUID
- msdyn_roadmaprowlinkid – this contains the roadmap row link GUID
Lets explore the data in the Roadmap entity. There are several ways in which we can do this, in code using the Organization Service or the Web API: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/developer/common-data-service/work-with-data-cds or there is a Connector for Power BI: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/cds-for-apps-powerbi/ For this I will use Power Query in Power BI but also show you how to access the Web API too. To access the Roadmap data in Power BI you will need the server URL. There are at least two ways (probably more) to get the correct server URL for the CDS Roadmap uses. Firstly via the Office 365 Admin Center using the steps below:
Access the Office 365 Admin Center > Admin Centers > Dynamics 365:
Then click open on the correct instance and you will see the server URL in the URL bar:
The other way, if you do not have access to the Admin Center is by using the browser dev tools. Access Project Home > Press F12 / open the dev tools > Access a Roadmap > In the Network tab, find the network call GetCdsEndpoint then check the Response, you will see a cdsurl property:
Once you have the server URL you can either use the Power BI connector or the Web API. The the simplest way to demo viewing this data using the Web API is via the Browser. In this example. Add the following to the end of the server URL: /api/data/v9.1 – you can use a different version, at the time of writing 9.1 was the latest on my tenant. Going to the root Web API URL will return the JSON for all of the entities available. Append the entity that you want to access to the end of the URL and you will see all of the data available in the entity:
As the Web API implements the OData protocol you can use the standard query options such as $select or $filter. Here I’m just selecting the name and type from the roadmaps entity:
https://org05724544.crm11.dynamics.com/api/data/v9.1/msdyn_roadmaps()?$select=msdyn_name,msdyn_type
Here I’m filtering for roadmaps only as the roadmaps entity contains roadmaps and rows:
https://org05724544.crm11.dynamics.com/api/data/v9.1/msdyn_roadmaps()?$filter=msdyn_type eq 0
To easily make sense of the data you need to format the JSON. Power BI is easier to visualise the data.
In Power BI click Get Data > More > Online Services > Common Data Service for App (Beta):
Select it then press connect. Accept the warning about being a preview connector (something to be aware of!). Now enter the server URL:
Now you can see all of the tables / entities that are in this CDS service, for the purpose of this blog post I will just expand Entities then select Roadmap, Roadmap Item, Roadmap Item Link and Roadmap Row Link:
Then click Edit to load these in the query editor. I’ve removed some of the default fields to clean up the data. Here is one of my roadmaps from the msdyn_roadmap table via Power Query in Power BI:
Here is a row from my roadmap:
Here is a key date added to my roadmap from the msdyn_roadmapitem table:
Here is a task (known as a phase in Roadmap) added to a row in the roadmap:
Here is a milestone (known as a key date in Roadmap) added to a row in the roadmap:
Here is an item link for a task linked to a row in Roadmap from msdyn_roadmapitemlink table:
Here is an row link for a project linked to a row in Roadmap from msdyn_roadmaprowlink table:
In the final part of this mini series, we will look at following on from this and creating a simple report in Power BI for the Roadmap data and bring in some Project Online data.
#Project Roadmap #CDS #App Overview #PPM #ProjectManagement #MSProject #ProjectOnline #Office365 #PowerPlatfom #Dynamics365 Part 1
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) |
Following on from my last post where we walkthrough using the new Roadmap service for Microsoft PPM, in this post we take a quick look at some of the backend architecture within Dynamics 365. For those of you that missed the first post on Roadmap, a link is here: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/project-roadmap-is-live-ppm-projectmanagement-msproject-projectonline-office365-powerplatfom/
The new Roadmap Service is built on top of the Common Data Service (CDS) for Apps that is part of the Power Platform offering. Details on the CDS for Apps can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/common-data-service/data-platform-intro. For this post we start in the Office 365 admin center, click the Admin Center icon from the left nav then click Dynamics 365. This will load the Dynamics 365 Administration Center:
On this Microsoft Demo instance I have one instance, this is where Roadmap is deployed to. Clicking the Open button will open this instance in a new window:
It defaults to the Administration screen. Using the Settings menu you can access other settings:
Most of these settings are either empty or contain the default entities / settings but a few do contain specific settings for the Roadmap service – also known as the Portfolio Service as you will seen further on in this post. If you access the Customizations menu:
Then click Publishers and you will see the Publishers this App uses:
Notice “Microsoft Project” – this is the Roadmap part of the app. Go back to the Customizations page and click Solutions, you will then see the solutions that this app uses:
Notice the two Portfolio Service solutions – these are part of the Roadmap solution. You can click the “Portfolio Service” display name and this will load the solution information / components:
Here you can navigate the various components such as entities then the fields within those entities:
We will explore the fields in part 2. You will notice the status bar informing us that we cannot edit components that are within a managed solution, these are managed by the Portfolio Service solution.
In part 2 we will look at the fields used by the Roadmap service and the data in the CDS database for Roadmap.
#Project Roadmap is live #PPM #ProjectManagement #MSProject #ProjectOnline #Office365 #PowerPlatfom
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) |
Microsoft Project Roadmap is now live and rolling out! This is available on one of my demo tenants, in this post we will have a walkthrough creating a roadmap. For those of you who might not be aware, Roadmap is a new feature added to Microsoft’s PPM offering, this was announced at Microsoft Ignite: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/09/24/microsoft-project-the-future-ignite-ppm-pmot-workmanagement-projectonline-projectmanagement/ and: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/09/26/microsoft-project-roadmap-product-at-a-glance-ppm-office365-flow-powerplatform-dynamics365-azure-azureboards/
Once this has been rolled to your tenant, it will need to be enabled, Brian Smith covered that already here: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/brismith/2018/12/07/project-online-getting-started-with-roadmap/. Once activated on your tenant, you will see a new option on the Project Home page:
For those of you not familiar with the new Project Home, see this post: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/08/20/new-projectonline-project-home-office365-ppm-ui-ux-msproject-fabricui/
Clicking the Roadmap option for the first time will trigger Roadmap to be set up for the first time on that tenant, you will see the message below:
Once that has completed after a short while, you will see the following page:
This is the blank roadmap canvas ready for you to create your roadmap items. There is a prompt to do this, see the “Add a row” card. Click the Add row button, this will load a side panel on the right:
Specify a name for the row – this could be the project name, feature name etc., it is just your reference for that roadmap item row. Specify an owner for that roadmap row – this is the person who is responsible for that project or feature etc. Then select the connection, the row can either connect to a Project Online project or an Azure DevOps Board:
In this example, I will select Project Online. The panel then changes so you can enter the PWA URL:
Enter the PWA URL and press the green tick to validate it:
Now start typing the name of the project you want to link this row to:
Then click the project name to select it. After a few moments, the panel will update:
Click See Details to view the permissions of the Flow – Roadmap uses Microsoft Flow behind the scenes to sync the data from Project Online and Azure Boards into the Roadmap database. Click Continue, the panel will then update to show what services the Flow will connect to and the account it will use:
Click Connect, after few moments the panel will update to Add items, here you can search for tasks from the linked Project Online project / Azure Board project:
Start typing the task names then select them, the selected items will appear in the table below:
Note the Type column, “Phase” are tasks with a duration greater than 0 and “Key date” are 0 duration tasks. Click Add at the bottom once the tasks are selected. These items will then be added to the roadmap row:
Notice in the right hand panel, you can see the last time the project was updated – this is the last time the project was synchronised to the roadmap database using Microsoft Flow. This happens every 5 minutes but you can trigger it manually by pressing the update button. We will look at the Flow later on. In the right hand panel, you can also click the project name, this will link to the Project Detail Page for that project in Project Online. You can access this project panel by either clicking the row title or selecting the row then clicking the Details button above the timeline.
Key dates can be added to the timeline using the Add key date button:
Key dates can be anything from key business dates to dates when a product is due to ship, it is just a way to visualise important dates for the roadmap.
Multiple rows can be added, you can have different rows linked to different PWA instances or different Azure Boards. The row order can be changed using the Move up or Move down arrow buttons above the timeline when a row is selected.
All items on the roadmap can have a status set:
Give the roadmap a name by clicking the “Untitled roadmap”, this will open a panel for you to update the name:
You have other options on the page, zoom to change the zoom level of the timeline. Filter to filter for a specific owner. Go to date to scroll the timeline to a date and Members to share access to the roadmap. This is done via Office 365 groups, you can either link this to an existing group or create a new one:
Once linked to a group, you will see the privacy level below the roadmap title:
The roadmap then has all of the features the Office 365 groups provide such as File, Planner, SharePoint, Conversations etc. The group can be accessed by clicking the group name on the members callout:
Clicking the Project link on the top bar will take you back to the Project Home, here you will now see your roadmap:
You can create many roadmaps from Project Home, linked to different projects and different Office 365 groups. If you wanted another user to access your roadmap, copy the URL link once you’ve accessed the roadmap then send then the URL, just ensure they have been added as a member to that roadmap.
As mentioned earlier on, the roadmap feature use Microsoft Flow to sync the data with the roadmap database. For each row you create that is linked to Project Online or Azure Boards in a roadmap, a new Flow will get created automatically. These will run every 5 minutes to sync the data. Two rows in my example roadmap were linked to projects in Project Online, this created two Flows for me:
We can drill in and see the Flow:
There are many actions in this Flow to sync the data, the Flow does many checks checking things like the project last published time and will only sync if the project publish was greater than 15 minutes ago. I wouldn’t recommend changing this Flow unless you know what you are doing – there is no need to change this Flow, leave it be! If you do happen to break it by accident, disable the Flow from the Flow admin page then on the roadmap, try to manually update a project row that is linked to that Flow, it will display a Fix option:
Click Fix, the panel will then update to show the Fix button:
Click Fix and the Flow will be redeployed.
That’s it for this post – a great addition to the Microsoft PPM offering.
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