Project Management Central Archives - Page 2 of 4

PM Central Project – Overview Tab

Overview of PM Central Hierarchy	Overview of the Project Site

The Overview tab on the project site provides users with the high level view of the project.

Project Site Overview page

	Name / Web Part	Description
1.	Project Milestones Bamboo Data Viewer Web Part	Displays the Overview/Milestones view of the Tasks list. Baseline Due Date values will only display if a Schedule Tasks Baseline was created.
2.	Timeline Gantt PM Central Custom Web Part	The Timeline Gantt Web Part displays a summary of the project, showing the project timeline and project’s % complete. Use the provided toolbar to modify the display: The default time scale in the Timeline Gantt is months. To change the scale, click Zoom In or Zoom Out in the toolbar menu. Display project milestones by clicking the Show Milestones option. Click Hide Milestones to remove them from the Gantt. Milestones are stacked vertically, or wrapped, by default. To display milestones horizontally, click Unwrap Milestones. To display them vertically again, click Wrap Milestones. Milestones are stacked vertically, or wrapped, by default. To display milestones horizontally, click Unwrap Milestones. To display them vertically again, click Wrap Milestones. Information on configuring the Timeline Gantt web part is available here
3.	Weekly Project Status Reports Bamboo Data Viewer Web Part	The Weekly Project Status Reports display provides a view of the Project Status Reports with a Status Date within the last 30 days. Project Status Reports with a Status Date within 7 days of today that are associated with active projects will be displayed under the Overview tab of the portfolio,and applicable department sites NOTE: Prior to PMC 4.3 only items with a Status Date within in 7 days would be displayed
4.	Task Status Reports Bamboo Data Viewer Web Part	Displays all Tasks in the project Task’s list that do not have a status of Completed or Not Stated Allows Project Managers to quickly read the contents of the lists Last Status Update column. All Tasks with an active phase status that are associated with active projects will be rolled up and displayed under the Schedule tab of the portfolio, and applicable department sites.
5.	Change Requests Bamboo Data Viewer Web Part	The Change Requests data view provides information regarding any change requests submitted for the project. All Change Requests associated with active projects will be rolled up and displayed under the Overview tab of the portfolio, and applicable department sites.
6.	Lessons Learned Bamboo Data Viewer Web Part	Capture lessons learned by the project team as part of the project closeout or phase end. All Lessons Learned will be rolled up and displayed on the Lessons Learned page of the portfolio, and applicable department sites.

Name / Web Part

Description

Project Milestones

Bamboo Data Viewer Web Part

Displays the Overview/Milestones view of the Tasks list.

Baseline Due Date values will only display if a Schedule Tasks Baseline was created.

Timeline Gantt

PM Central Custom Web Part

The Timeline Gantt Web Part displays a summary of the project, showing the project timeline and project’s % complete.

Use the provided toolbar to modify the display:

The default time scale in the Timeline Gantt is months. To change the scale, click Zoom In or Zoom Out in the toolbar menu.
Display project milestones by clicking the Show Milestones option. Click Hide Milestones to remove them from the Gantt.
Milestones are stacked vertically, or wrapped, by default. To display milestones horizontally, click Unwrap Milestones. To display them vertically again, click Wrap Milestones.
Milestones are stacked vertically, or wrapped, by default. To display milestones horizontally, click Unwrap Milestones. To display them vertically again, click Wrap Milestones.

Information on configuring the Timeline Gantt web part is available here

Weekly Project Status Reports

Bamboo Data Viewer Web Part

The Weekly Project Status Reports display provides a view of the Project Status Reports with a Status Date within the last 30 days.

Project Status Reports with a Status Date within 7 days of today that are associated with active projects will be displayed under the Overview tab of the portfolio,and applicable department sites

NOTE: Prior to PMC 4.3 only items with a Status Date within in 7 days would be displayed

Task Status Reports

Bamboo Data Viewer Web Part

Displays all Tasks in the project Task’s list that do not have a status of Completed or Not Stated

Allows Project Managers to quickly read the contents of the lists Last Status Update column.
All Tasks with an active phase status that are associated with active projects will be rolled up and displayed under the Schedule tab of the portfolio, and applicable department sites.

Change Requests

Bamboo Data Viewer Web Part

The Change Requests data view provides information regarding any change requests submitted for the project.

All Change Requests associated with active projects will be rolled up and displayed under the Overview tab of the portfolio, and applicable department sites.

Lessons Learned

Bamboo Data Viewer Web Part

Capture lessons learned by the project team as part of the project closeout or phase end.

All Lessons Learned will be rolled up and displayed on the Lessons Learned page of the portfolio, and applicable department sites.

Overview of PM Central Hierarchy	Overview of the Project Site

Perform a bulk copy of users from the ERP to the Project Resource Pool

Overview of Project Resource Center	Working with the Project Resource Pool

Click Copy resource link under the Resource Center header in the PM Central Control Panel to be taken directly to the Copy Resource page where you can:

Perform a bulk copy of user profile information from the Enterprise Resource Pool to the Project Resource Pool (Contacts list).
Update the profile details of multiple users to reflect the current contents of the Enterprise Resource Pool

Step	Action	Result
1.	Access the PM Central Control Panel from the Central Actions menu drop down	Keep in mind: Access to the Control Panel is security trimmed, requiring either Full Control or Design permissions
2.	Under Resource Center select Copy resource	NOTE: When users are added to the Project Resource Pool with this tool, SharePoint permissions to the site will need to be granted separately.
3.	Click Copy Resources and then click the drop down arrow	You will see a list of all users in the Enterprise Resource Pool
4.	Check the boxes next to the individual resources Or Click the Select All checkbox Enter text in the field to see a smaller subset of users, then make your selection
5.	Click the Select Resources to be copied button	You will see a display of the selected users, and can confirm your selection, or add more resources
6.	Click Copy Resources	All information associated with the selected users will be in the project site’s Project Resource Pool (aka Contacts list)on the Project Team Info tab

PM Central Project Control Panel – Application Actions

Overview of Project PMC Control Panel

The options presented under the Application Actions header in the PM Central Control Panel are security trimmed, so the features available to users will depend on whether they have Full Control or Design permissions on the site.

Image: PM Central Application Actions in project site Control Panel

Link	Permissions	Function
Delete list items	Full Control / Design	This feature allows you to delete all of the items contained within a specific list at one time or multiple lists at the same time. Important: Only use this option if you want to delete all the items within a list.
Archive list & list items	Full Control only	Allows site owners to archive the contents of the Tasks, Risks or Issues lists. There are 2 archive options available: Option 1: Archive Items This will change the Phase Status of all items in the list to Inactive. The items will still be visible from the list but will not be rolled up or included in any PM Central calculations. Option 2: Archive List This will copy the contents of the selected list into another list on the project site and then delete the items from the originating list.
Show or Hide columns of list forms	Full Control only	This feature allows you to hide or show all of the contained information within a PM Central Tasks list or Project Health list. Important: This is the only supported method for hiding columns in PM Central. Do not delete columns from PM Central lists. 1. Select the Tasks list or the Project Health list from the drop-down selector 2. Uncheck columns that you want to hide from the available views of the list. NOTE: The Assigned To column cannot be hidden from the Tasks list 3. Click OK. You will get a confirmation that the update was completed successfully. NOTE: Use the column ordering settings link to modify the order of columns in the list forms.

Link

Permissions

Function

Delete list items

Full Control / Design

This feature allows you to delete all of the items contained within a specific list at one time or multiple lists at the same time. Delete list tool

Important: Only use this option if you want to delete all the items within a list.

Archive list & list items

Full Control only

Allows site owners to archive the contents of the Tasks, Risks or Issues lists. Drop-down selector

There are 2 archive options available:
Option 1: Archive Items
This will change the Phase Status of all items in the list to Inactive. The items will still be visible from the list but will not be rolled up or included in any PM Central calculations.
Archive Items button

Option 2: Archive List
This will copy the contents of the selected list into another list on the project site and then delete the items from the originating list.

Show or Hide columns of list forms

Full Control only

This feature allows you to hide or show all of the contained information within a PM Central Tasks list or Project Health list.

Important:
This is the only supported method for hiding columns in PM Central. Do not delete columns from PM Central lists.

1. Select the Tasks list or the Project Health list from the drop-down selector Lists in drop-down selector

2. Uncheck columns that you want to hide from the available views of the list.

NOTE: The Assigned To column cannot be hidden from the Tasks list

Hide/Show columns tool

3. Click OK. You will get a confirmation that the update was completed successfully.

NOTE: Use the column ordering settings link to modify the order of columns in the list forms.

Completing the PM Central Project Configuration Checklist

Getting started with PM Central	Overview of Project PMC Control Panel

The Configuration Checklist associated with the project site provides administrators with instructions on how to prepare the site for use. A link to the Configuration Checklist will be available in the warning message displayed at the top of the project home page.

Image of the warming configuration message with link to the Configuration Checklist

When working with the Configuration Checklist keep in mind:

You will need Full Control permission on the project site to complete items in the checklist.
The Warning message on the Project Home page will be displayed until all Mandatory items associated with the Configuration Checklist have a been closed.
A link to a separate Project Manager’s Checklist will be displayed as part of the Complete message text

Open item in the configuration checklist

NOTE: The contents of the project site’s Configuration Checklist changed in PMC 4.3

Action	Description
Review Task Master Work Week settings	Task Master is configured to define working hours as Monday – Friday, 8AM – 5PM with lunch between 12-1PM, resulting in an 8 hour work day and 40 hour work week. Working hours will be enforced when the project is Recalculated from the Task Master toolbar. If your organization officially uses a longer or shorter standard work week you will need to update Task Master’s Work Week Settings. Navigate to the Tasks tab, or click this item’s action link to access the main Task page Click the gear icon on the right of the toolbar to access Project Schedule Settings. Make the necessary modifications and click Update. Important: The working days and hours defined on the project site must be consistent with the settings defined in Report Center Settings on the Portfolio site.
Associate Task Master with the Holiday list	If your organization is using a “Holiday” list you will need to associate it with the Task Master web part to prevent work being scheduled on the identified “holidays”. Navigate to the Tasks tab, or use this this item’s action link, to access the main Tasks page Edit the All Tasks web part Click the Task Master Web Part Settings button Click Holiday List on the left navigation pane Enter the URL of the SharePoint site that maintains the Holiday list, then select the list from the drop down. Note: The same holiday list must be used throughout a PM Central Portfolio and associated sites, and must be created using a SharePoint Calendar list.
Validate the Report & Schedule settings Standard templates only	The working days, hours, and holidays specified in Resource & Schedule Settings will be referenced by PM Central when generating the project site’s Resource Allocation and Capacity reports. From the PM Central Control Panel, or this item’s action link, access Resource & Schedule Settings and validate the work schedule is consistent with the schedule used in Task Master. Important: The working days, hours, and holidays, identified here must be consistent with those defined in Report Center Settings at the Portfolio site.
Determine how the Group Email Web Part should send messages	The Group Email Web Part is configured to send notifications to identified project team members using your email client. This option does not require additional configuration, but it is subject to a limitation that prevents more than 2083 characters being passed across a query string. If you think the number of characters in the email addresses of project team members will exceed this limit, or if you want to have the email form load in the SharePoint page, make the following changes to the default Group Email configuration: Navigate to the Project Home page, or click the action link associated with this item. Edit the Send an Email to Project Team web part In the configuration tool pane, under Bamboo Group Email, select the Use SMTP radio button Enter the SMTP Server Name used by SharePoint, (this information is available from Configure Outgoing Email Settings in Central Administration) and a Notification Email From address Note: Group Email will not save a history of the messages sent.
Expose the Budget Cost Status KPI in the Project Info dashboard (Optional) Standard templates only	When Standard Rates are associated with user profiles in the Project Resource Pool, and tasks are assigned to Project Team Resources, PM Central can calculate the human resource cost of the project. The calculated Project (Human) Cost can then be compared with the Budget (Estimated) Cost value entered in the Project Health list, and the budget health of the project displayed in the Budget Cost Status KPI. The Budget Costs Status column is not displayed in the Project Info dashboard by default. To display this column you will need to complete the following steps: From the Project Home page (Project Home tab) edit the Project Info web part Click the Data-Viewer Web Part Settings button Click SharePoint List or Library on the left navigation pane Click the Column Display Settings button and check the Budget Cost Status box Click Save & Close and OK to exit the configuration tool pane Note: The Budget Cost Status column was removed from the default display in PM Central 4.3
Hide fields in the Project Health and Tasks forms (Optional)	From the PM Central Control Panel on this site, or this item’s action link, access Show or Hide columns… Under List Name select either the Project Health list or the Tasks list Uncheck the boxes associated with fields that should not be displayed in the associated list forms. Important: This is the only supported method for hiding fields in PM Central.
Save your site configuration in a template (Optional)	You don’t want to have to complete these configuration steps for every site, so consider creating a custom project template. When the template is available in the Solutions gallery completing the following steps on the Portfolio site will make the project site template available in PM Central’s site creation tool: Navigate back to the Portfolio site Click the Create New Project/Department button. You will need to be a member of the Owners group to see this button on the page Edit the Page to access the configuration tool pane of the Bamboo Site Creation Plus Web Part. Scroll to the template selection boxes under Allow user to select … and use the > button to add the custom project template to the display box on the right Use the up arrow to position the custom project template at the top of the available templates. Important: It is recommended that the template only be used in the site collection where it was created.

Project Control Panel – Manage Features

Overview of Project PMC Control Panel	Overview of PM Central General Settings

Manage PM Central Features, found under PM Central General Settings in the project’s PM Central Control Panel, allows administrators to enable or disable optional site features with the click of a button.

Image of the manage features options available from the project control panel

	Function
1.	Bamboo PM Central My Favorites This option is activated by default and allows users create favorite links to frequently accessed PM Central pages using the PMC Favorites section of the Page ribbon.
2.	Enhanced Central Actions Menu The Enhanced Central Actions menu is activated by default. Deactivating this option will remove the quick links from the drop down menu.
3.	Resource Management and Reporting A project site created using the PM Central Lite template can be upgraded to a standard PM Central site by clicking Enable. This will activate Resource Management and Reporting features on the site. IMPORTANT: You cannot undo this action NOTES: 1.If the project site was created using a Standard template this option will be grayed out and the Status will be On. 2. This option is not available on project sites created with a Stand-alone template
4.	Schedule Management (Progress Update & Baseline Option) Select this option to activate enhanced Schedule Management,including the option to create baselines and have access to additional views of the Tasks list, on a project site created with Lite template IMPORTANT: You cannot undo this action NOTE: This option is not available on project sites created with a Stand-alone template

Overview of Project PMC Control Panel	Overview of PM Central General Settings

Project Control Panel – Resource Center

Overview of Project PMC Control Panel

Resource Center links in the Control Panel
From the PM Central Control Panel, you can access the Resource Center, with direct links to three of the five available subsections.

NOTE: The Resource Center will not be available under PM Central General Settings if the project site was created using a Lite or Stand-alone template.

The Resource Center in PMC

	Function
1.	The Project Team Info tab displays a view of the sites Contacts list that stores user information for the resources associated with the project. Project Managers can: View, edit or update a user’s profile information Add individual users to the resource pool
2.	Under the Resource Assignments tab you will find a Gantt display of all tasks for all projects sorted by resource. For information on using the web part click here. For information on changing the number of items per page, click here.
3.	The Resource Allocation and Capacity Planning tab provides access to a number of reports detailing resource capacity, allocation by resource, project, resource availability and others.
4.	Users who are not part of the portfolio’s Enterprise Resource Pool, can be added in bulk to the Project Resource pool using the User Profile Import utility. NOTE: Use of this tool requires a modification to the default behavior of the Bamboo Role column. Click here for more information.
4.	Copy Resources provides a tool to import multiple resources simultaneously from the Enterprise Resource Pool into the Project Resource Pool.

Project General Settings

Overview of Project PMC Control Panel

Like everything in PM Central the options presented under PM Central General Settings are security trimmed. The features available to users working with a standard PM Central project site will depend on whether they have Full Control or Design permissions on the site.

Image: PM Central General Settings in project site Control Panel

Link	Permissions	Function
Lists	Full Control / Design	Provides access to the list of all lists, libraries and sites on the site. For a summary of the default List and Libraries included in the project site click here. NOTE: This page can also be accessed by selecting View All Site Content under Site Actions
Task list Settings	Full Control only	Provides a link to the Task’s List Settings page
Calendar list settings	Full Control only	Provides a link to the Calendar’s List Settings page
Project Info List Settings	Full Control only	Provides a link to the Project Health’s List Settings page.
Change Skin	Full Control only	Five site skins are provided for the project site to allow the apperance of the site to be quickly changed.
Manage PM Central Features	Full Control only	There are several optional features that can be activated or deactivated from the Manage PM Central Features page of the Portfolio site.
Delete Site	Full Control only	Using the Delete Site link in the Portfolio’s Control Panel will delete the project site and all related site content. IMPORTANT: You cannot undo this action

Update key Project Health fields with “Auto Update”

Project Health list Edit form
When the Project Health list’s Auto Update field is checked, the lists Project Start Date, Project End Date and % Complete fields, will be automatically updated based on information in the project’s Task list.

When working with Auto Update keep in mind:

The Project Start Date will be determined by the item in the project’s task list with the earliest Start Date
The Project End Date will be determined by the item in the project’s task list with the latest End Date
Auto Update is completed by the Bamboo Update Project Health… Timer job which, by default, runs every 59 minutes.
The Bamboo Update Project Health…timer job can be forced to run from the Update Data page accessed from the portfolio site’s PM Central Control Panel.

NOTE: The Bamboo Update Project Health..timer job will also update the Project Name field in lists that have content rolled up and displayed on the Portfolio site.

The Auto Update field is unchecked by default, but can be easily checked from one following locations:

PM Central Control Panel – Auto Update Settings

Administrators can set the default value of the Auto Update field to Yes from the portfolio site’s PM Central Control Panel > Auto Update Settings.
The setting will be applied to all new sites created in the Portfolio.
Auto Update screen
Portfolio Auto Update Settings were added in PMC. 4.3.

NOTE: When this option is selected, the Auto Update field will not be displayed in the PM Central Site Creation tool

PM Central Site Creation tool

Site Creation form Check the Auto Update checkbox in the Project Health section of the site setup screen.

NOTE: The Auto Update checkbox is not available from this screen in PM Central 4.3

Project Health list

Change the setting directly from the Edit form of the project’s Project Health list

PM Central – Project Health List KPI’s

Overview of the Project Health list

The Project Health list’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) allow executives to quickly draw conclusions about the current state of a project.

Portfolio site Project Summary dashboard with KPI's
When working with the Project Health list’s Key Performance Indicators keep in mind:

The Budget Work and Budget Cost fields in the Project Health list must be manually populated with the budget values before PM Central will be able to determine your project’s budget health. If no budget data is provided the associated KPI will always be green.
The Budget Cost Status KPI is not displayed by default. Click here for information on how to expose this column in the dashboards.

The removal of the Budget Cost Status KPI from the default Project Summary display was new in PM Central 4.3
The Bamboo KPI Column thresholds can be modified. Information about configuring the Bamboo Key Performance Indicator column is available here.

Project Health KPI	Settings
Issue Status	Column references Overdue view of the project’s Issues list and counts the number of overdue items. 0 overdue Issues Between 1 – 4 overdue issues 5 or more overdue issues
Risks Status	Column references the Overdue view of the project’s Risks list and counts the number of overdue items. 0 overdue Risks Between 1 – 4 overdue Risks 5 or more overdue Risks
Schedule Status	Compares the number of items in the Overdue and Not Completed view of the Tasks list, with the number of items in the Not Completed Tasks view Less than 10% of tasks in the Not Completed Tasks view are overdue Between 10% – 20% of tasks in the Not Completed Tasks view are overdue 20% or more of tasks in the Not Completed Tasks view are overdue
Budget Work Status	Compares the value entered into the Project Health list’s Budget Work field with the calculated value in the Project Actual Work field. 0 hours over budget Between 1 – 1,000 hours over budget Greater than 1,000 hours over budget
Budget Cost Status	Compares the value entered into the Project Health list’s Budget Cost field with the calculated value in the Project Actual Cost field. $0.00 over budget Between $1 – 10,000 over budget Greater than $10,000 over budget NOTE: You must be using the Resource column to assign tasks, and must have Standard Rate information associated with user profiles to allow a Cost calculation to be performed.

Portfolio Control Panel – Update Data

Overview of Portfolio PMC Control Panel

Screen shot of the Central Actions drop down menu.
The Update Data page lets users with Full Control permissions to the portfolio site initiate actions that will update specific PM Central data.

Option	Updates
Bamboo Update Summary List	Clicking the Update Now button updates data from project sites’ Tasks, and Issues lists to the portfolio site’s Summary List which updates the sums and counts of the tasks issues, and milestones from all projects. The Summary List is the data source for the portfolio site’s Tasks, Issues, and Milestones charts, and is used by PM Central to determine what department sites a project may be associated with. NOTES: 1. Only the local Summary List is updated by this action. 2. By default, the Bamboo Summary List Timer Job is scheduled by default to run every 59 minutes and will update all Summary Lists associated with portfolio sites found in the specified web application.
Bamboo Update Tasks, Issues, Risks and Project Health List	This process updates fields in the Tasks, Issues and Risks lists with project information found in the Project Health list. The Project Name field, found in all three lists, will be updated, along with any other default project information fields (Project Department, Project Manager, Project Type, etc.) found in the list. The process also updates the following fields in the Project Health list, if the Auto Update box is checked: Project Start Date Project End Date % Complete NOTES: 1. Only the projects in the local portfolio will be updated by this action. 2.The Bamboo Update Tasks, Issues, and Risks Timer Job is scheduled by default to run every 59 minutes and will update all projects found in the specified web application.
Bamboo Reporting Calculation	Initiates a process that will update items in the Report Info lists on each project site based on data calculated from the project site’s Task’s list. The process then queries the Report Info lists based on the report query item found in the portfolio site’s Report Information List. The query results are attached to the original request, and the Report Status is changed to Done, at which time the report is made available to the requesting user. This option was added in PM Central 4.4 IMPORTANT: Item limit thresholds may limit your ability to use this option. See your Sharepoint Administrator for additional information. NOTES: 1. Only data in the local portfolio will be updated by this action. 2.The Bamboo Reporting V4 timer job is scheduled by default to run daily, starting at 11:45 PM and will update all PM Central sites in the specified web application.

Option

Updates

Bamboo Update Summary List

Clicking the Update Now button updates data from project sites’ Tasks, and Issues lists to the portfolio site’s Summary List which updates the sums and counts of the tasks issues, and milestones from all projects. The Summary List is the data source for the portfolio site’s Tasks, Issues, and Milestones charts, and is used by PM Central to determine what department sites a project may be associated with.

NOTES:
1. Only the local Summary List is updated by this action.
2. By default, the Bamboo Summary List Timer Job is scheduled by default to run every 59 minutes and will update all Summary Lists associated with portfolio sites found in the specified web application.

Bamboo Update Tasks, Issues, Risks and Project Health List

This process updates fields in the Tasks, Issues and Risks lists with project information found in the Project Health list.

The Project Name field, found in all three lists, will be updated, along with any other default project information fields (Project Department, Project Manager, Project Type, etc.) found in the list.

The process also updates the following fields in the Project Health list, if the Auto Update box is checked:

Project Start Date
Project End Date
% Complete

NOTES:
1. Only the projects in the local portfolio will be updated by this action.
2.The Bamboo Update Tasks, Issues, and Risks Timer Job is scheduled by default to run every 59 minutes and will update all projects found in the specified web application.

Bamboo Reporting Calculation

Initiates a process that will update items in the Report Info lists on each project site based on data calculated from the project site’s Task’s list. The process then queries the Report Info lists based on the report query item found in the portfolio site’s Report Information List. The query results are attached to the original request, and the Report Status is changed to Done, at which time the report is made available to the requesting user.

This option was added in PM Central 4.4

IMPORTANT: Item limit thresholds may limit your ability to use this option. See your Sharepoint Administrator for additional information.

NOTES:
1. Only data in the local portfolio will be updated by this action.
2.The Bamboo Reporting V4 timer job is scheduled by default to run daily, starting at 11:45 PM and will update all PM Central sites in the specified web application.

Overview of Portfolio PMC Control Panel

Portfolio Control Panel – General Settings

Overview of Portfolio PMC Control Panel

Like everything in PM Central the options presented under PM Central General Settings are security trimmed. The features available to users working with a standard PM Central portfolio will depend on whether they have Full Control or Design permissions on the portfolio site.

Image: PM Central General Settings in portfolio site Control Panel

NOTES:
1. The images in the Function column show the default configuration settings.
2. The Resource Center Settings link will not be available under PM Central General Settings if the portfolio was created using a Lite template.

Link	Permissions	Function
Lists	Full Control / Design	Provides access to the list of all lists, libraries and sites on the site. For a summary of the default List and Libraries included in the portfolio site, click here. NOTE: This page can also be accessed by selecting View All Site Content under Site Actions
Site Settings	Full Control only	Provides access to the standard SharePoint Site Settings page
Alerts Setup Referenced in the portfolio’s Configuration Checklist	Full Control only	The Alerts Setup link provide access to the Alert Plus Web Part where the predefined alerts can be enabled and/or modified, and new alerts created.
Manage PM Central Features	Full Control only	There are several optional features that can be activated or deactivated from the Manage PM Central Features page of the portfolio site.
Change Skin	Full Control only	Five site skins are provided for the portfolio site to allow the look and feel of the site to be quickly changed.
Delete Site	Full Control only	Using the Delete Site link in the portfolio’s Control Panel will delete the portfolio site and all the portfolio’s sub sites (project sites). IMPORTANT: You cannot undo this action
Resource Center Settings Referenced in the portfolio’s Configuration Checklist	Full Control/ Design	1. Working Settings Define the Working Days and Hours that will be used in PM Central. The settings here should be consistent with the settings specified when completing the project site’s Configuration Checklist IMPORTANT: If a project site in the portfolio was configured to use a greater number of working hours than those identified here at the portfolio site, the project’s working hours will be used to calculate the capacity of all resources assigned to tasks on that site. More information is available here 2. Holiday List Settings Associate the Resource Center with a holiday list so your company’s designated holidays are not included in resource capacity calculations. Enter in the URL to the site where the holiday list is located Click the green arrow button to populate the drop down selector with the list found on the site. Select the desired list and click Save Important: The same holiday list will need to be referenced by other Web Parts in PM Central. Click here to find out more. 3. Report Settings By default all resource reports are security trimmed so users with access to the Resource Center will only see resource information pertaining to projects they have permissions to access. To allow all users with access to the Report Center to see reports generated by the System Account that will contain comprehensive information on all resource allocation across the portfolio, click the Report Settings check box. The Report Settings feature was added in PM Central 4.3
Auto Update Settings Referenced in the portfolio’s Configuration Checklist	Full Control only	Administrators can set the default value of the Project Health list’s Auto Update field to Yes by checking the Auto Update box. This default setting will be applied to all new sites created in the portfolio. Auto Update Settings were added in PMC. 4.3.

Overview of Portfolio PMC Control Panel

PM Central Portfolio – Project Central

Overview of PM Central Hierarchy	Overview of the Portfolio Site

Project Central is the default home page of the portfolio site.

Image of the Portfolio Home Page

	Name /Web Part	Description
1.	PMC Message Configuration Web Part PM Central Custom Web Part	The Warning message displayed in the custom PMC Message Configuration web part provides a reminder to complete the site’s Configuration Checklist. The warning text will remain on the page until all Mandatory items in the checklist have a Closed status. A Complete welcome message will be displayed when all Mandatory items are closed. The message displayed in the web part can be easily modified.
2.	All Department Sites PM Central Custom Web Part	The All Department Sites custom web part will only be displayed on the page after a department site has been created using the provided site creation tool. By default, the display will include the URL to the department site and information about the Department Manager, as well as any notes relating to the department. This information is kept in the Department list on the portfolio site
3.	Create New… button PM Central Custom Web Part	This button, which provides a quick link to the PM Central site creation tool, will only be visible to users who have the Create Sub-sites SharePoint permission. This permission is associated, by default, with the Full Control permission level. Keep in mind: The Create New.. button is only found on the Portfolio home page (default.aspx), but you can easily access the page to Add a New Project from the link found in the Central Actions menu
4.	SharePoint Navigator	The Project Central tab defaults to the Active Project View under All Projects. Users can view Pending Project, Completed Projects, Cancelled Projects and All Project views by clicking their respective icons. The My Projects links provide similar displays, but only for projects where the logged-in user has been assigned as the Project Manager
5.	Project Summary Bamboo Data Viewer Web Part	The Project Summary displays high-level status information for each project, including % Complete, Project Start Date and Project End Date. This information, including the displayed KPI’s is maintained in the project site’s Project Health list. Keep in mind: Select the link under the Project Name header to view/edit project related data, or click the link under Site Path to access the project site. The contents of the Project Summary display are security trimmed and the web part will show 25 items per page by default. When Auto Update is selected in a Project Health list the Bamboo Update… Tasks Timer job will be responsible for updating the contents of the Project Start Date, Project End Date and % Complete field’s Enabling filtering in the Data-Viewer web part will allow users to avoid the need to page to find project information.
6.	Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)	The Key Performance Indicators associated with the Project Health list provide insight into the health of projects. Information about the KPI settings is available here.

Overview of PM Central Hierarchy	Overview of the Portfolio Site

Portfolio Control Panel – Resource Center

Overview of Portfolio PMC Control Panel

The Resource Management link in the portfolio’s PM Central Control Panel, provides access to the Resource Center which consists of 4 separate subsections.

The Resource Center in PMC

	Function
1.	The contents of the portfolio’s Enterprise Resource Pool (ERP) list are displayed on the landing page of the portfolio Resource Center. When working with the ERP keep in mind: The Enterprise Resource Pool is a list of all users available to work on projects in the portfolio The information entered into the Enterprise Resource Pool will influence some of the reporting capabilities available in PM Central User information from the ERP is copied to the project site when users are added to a project sites’ Resource Pool To add users to the ERP: Manually add user information into the list list by selecting the Add New Item link found on the page and completing the associated form. OR Import users with the User Profile Import utility (see #4)
2.	Under the Resource Assignments tab you will find a Gantt display of all tasks for all projects sorted by resource. For information on using the web part click here. For information on changing the number of items per page, click here.
3.	The Resource Allocation and Capacity Planning tab provides access to a number of reports detailing resource capacity, allocation by resource, project, resource availability and others. Click here for a summary of the PM Central Resource reports available For information on how to generate a resource report, click here For information on configuring the PM Central resource reports, click here
4.	User Profile Imports provides a tool to import resource information into the Enterprise Resource Pool from the SharePoint User Profile Database.

PM Central Portfolio Site

Overview of PM Central Hierarchy

The Portfolio Site is the top site in the PM Central hierarchy and provides a place where information regarding the health of projects managed within the portfolio can be quickly relayed to executives and stakeholders through dashboards that report on tasks, issues, risks and schedules, and data views and charts that are easily accessed using site’s navigation links.

The 8 default navigation tabs for the Portfolio site

	Name / Web Part	Description
1.	Top Site Navigators SharePoint Navigators	The eight default items in the Top Site Navigator view of the Top Site Navigators list make up the Portfolio sites top level navigation. The tabs take users to different aspx pages that contain Web Parts that are used to display specific content relevant to the Portfolio site. Project Central Overview My Summary Risks Schedules Issues Portfolio Summary
2.	Central Actions Menu	The Central Actions menu provides quick access to areas where common activities are performed on the site, including Adding a New Site and the PM Central Control Panel. Keep In Mind: 1. Use the bulls eye icon to access Central Actions in 2013 2. Users must have Design permissions or higher on the site to see the PM Central Control Panel in the Central Actions menu 3. Users must have Full Control to see the Add New Project link in the Central Actions menu.
3.	Site Actions Menu	The SharePoint Site Actions menu provides shortcuts to commands commonly used when working with SharePoint sites. The command options you see depend on your permissions on the site. Notes: 1. New Sites should be created using the PM Central Site Creation Plus tool NOT from SharePoint’s New Site page 2. A list of Site Contents is available here

Name / Web Part

Description

Top Site Navigators

SharePoint Navigators

The eight default items in the Top Site Navigator view of the Top Site Navigators list make up the Portfolio sites top level navigation.

The tabs take users to different aspx pages that contain Web Parts that are used to display specific content relevant to the Portfolio site.

Central Actions Menu

Central Actions drop down menu The Central Actions menu provides quick access to areas where common activities are performed on the site, including Adding a New Site and the PM Central Control Panel.

Keep In Mind:
1. Use the bulls eye icon Bullseye icon to access Central Actions in 2013
2. Users must have Design permissions or higher on the site to see the PM Central Control Panel in the Central Actions menu
3. Users must have Full Control to see the Add New Project link in the Central Actions menu.

Site Actions Menu

Site Actions drop down menu The SharePoint Site Actions menu provides shortcuts to commands commonly used when working with SharePoint sites. The command options you see depend on your permissions on the site.

Notes:
1. New Sites should be created using the PM Central Site Creation Plus tool NOT from SharePoint’s New Site page
2. A list of Site Contents is available here

Overview of PM Central Hierarchy

PM Central Portfolio Site – Lists and Libraries

Overview of the Portfolio Site	Overview of PM Central General Settings

IMPORTANT: DO NOT delete any of the default lists and Libraries. Changes to the default lists should be made with caution due dependencies in the application. Please refer to the Customization Guide before making any changes

Libraries
PMCentral Pages	The PMCentralPages library stores all PM Central Web Part pages for the site. The pages in this library should not be deleted or renamed as that will impact navigation in the site
Pics	A picture library that stores the default site images and logos
PM Central Skins	By default, there will be no items found in this document library. Items will only be added to the library if the template skin is changed
Lists
Alert Plus Configuration List	Alert Plus Configuration List – Holds alert configurations for the Alert Plus service. It is recommended that edits or new alerts be created from the Alert Plus Web Part
Bamboo List Rollup Configuration list
Bamboo Project Dashboard Data Mapping	Maps the Project Health data to the associated fields in the Project Dashboard list for the Gantt View of Active Projects. The contents of this list must be manually refreshed.
Change Requests	This list is referenced by List Rollup Schema to rollup items entered in Change Request lists on project sites. This list will not contain content at the portfolio site
Configuration Checklist	This list is pre-populated on site creation and provides instructions for final configuration steps. The Warning Web Part pulls its configuration status from this list.
Department Site	The Department Site list is used to store information related to the URL, the Department Manager and the Site ID. Items are added to this list automatically when a Department Site is created using the provided Site Creation Plus tool
Enterprise Resource Pool	The Enterprise Resource Pool List is used by project managers for resource management and allocation.
FAQs	Used to store any desired FAQ content for the Help page. Comes with sample content. Should be updated with real content prior to deployment.
Favorites	The Favorites list stores favorite links added from the PMC Favorites section of the Page ribbon.
Gantt Chart Information	This list is used for the system to store the task’s information (Title, Start Date, Due Date, Assigned To…etc.) to display data in the Resource Assignments report. Do not delete or modify any of the columns in this list.
Issues	This list is referenced by List Rollup Schema to rollup items entered in Issues lists on project sites. This list will not contain content at the portfolio site
Lessons Learned	This list is referenced by List Rollup Schema to rollup items entered in Issues lists on project sites. This list will not contain content at the portfolio site
Modified Pages	This list is used to track and save all the changes to the pages at the top site by the applications or by the users to prepare for future upgrades.
Monthly Resource Actual Cost Allocation Summary	This list is used to store the monthly resource actual cost allocation for the resources of all the projects.
Monthly Resource Cost Allocation Summary	This list is used to store the monthly resource cost allocation for the resources of all the projects
Monthly Resource Work Allocation Summary	This list is used to store the monthly resource work allocation for the resources of all the projects.
Portfolio Dashboard list	The Portfolio Dashboard List comes with the Bamboo Project Portfolio Dashboard Web Part. It stores data about all of the projects, including project status, start and due dates, project health and more, and populated by the Update Dashboard list timer job.
Project Creation Request	The Project Creation Request list is used to submit a request for a new project site for approval.
Project Creation Workflow Configuration	This list defines settings for project creation workflows used with Workflow Conductor (sold separately)
Project Health	The Project Health List stores key information about the project including Project Manager, Start Date, Due Date, % Complete and key performance indicators. This list is referenced by List Rollup Schema to rollup Project Health information from the project sites. This list will not contain content at the portfolio site
Report Information	This list is used for the system to store histories of the reporting requests submitted for background processing. Do not delete or modify any of the columns in this list.
Report Settings	This list stores options for PM Central reports.
Risks	This list is referenced by List Rollup Schema to rollup items entered in Risks lists on project sites. This list will not contain content at the portfolio site
Summary list	The Summary List is a list that PM Central uses to update the counts of tasks, issues and milestones from all projects. This list is used to display tasks, issues and milestone charts from all projects. The list is updated by the Bamboo Update Summary List timer job
Tasks	This list is referenced by List Rollup Schema to rollup items entered in Tasks lists on project sites. This list will not contain content at the Portfolio Site
Timesheet Links	The Timesheet Links liststores the Time Tracking and Management site URL, if Time Tracking and Management is integrated with PM Central.
Top Site Navigators	The Top Site Navigators List is used to create the tabs. It contains columns such as Menu Title, Description, URL, Parent Menu and Sort Order. This list is pre-populated with data.

PM Central Portfolio – Portfolio Summary tab

Overview of the PM Central Hierarchy	Overview of the Portfolio Site

NOTE: The Web Parts shown on the Department Summary page of department sites are the same as those on the Portfolio Summary page. The content displayed in the Web Parts will be determined by the department site’s filter configuration.

The Portfolio Summary tab and associated pages were added in PM Central 4.3.
Portfolio Summary Page

	Name / Web Part	Description
1.	SharePoint Navigators	Provides a link to the Lessons Learned page
2.	Portfolio Summary Bamboo Chart Plus Web Part	A visual representation of the number and percentage of projects created in the Portfolio by Project Status (Active, Pending, Cancelled and Completed).
3.	SharePoint Navigators	The Portfolio Summary tab displays the Task Summary and Milestone Summary charts associated with Active Projects by default. Users can view summaries for Pending Project, Completed Projects, Cancelled Projects and All Project views by clicking the respective icons. The My Projects displays offer similar views, but only for projects where the logged-in user has been assigned as the project manager
4.	Task and Milestone Summary Charts Bamboo Chart Plus Web Part	The Task Summary and Milestone summary charts identify the number and percentages of tasks by status, and milestones by status, based on the status of the project. Both Chart Plus Web Parts use the Summary List (found on the Portfolio site) as the data source. The Summary list is updated by the Bamboo Update Summary List timer job.
5.	Lessons Learned Bamboo Data-Viewer Web Part	A rolled up display of lessons learned captured by the project team as part of project close-out or phase end.

Overview of the PM Central Hierarchy	Overview of the Portfolio Site

Which PM Central site template should I use?

Getting started with PM Central

PM Central includes several templates that provide different project management capabilities.

PMC Standard/Full Templates
PMC Lite Templates
PMC Stand-alone Templates

To an overview of the site templates is provided below. To see a feature comparison, click here.

PMC Standard/Full Templates

When to use:

Use the Full PM Central templates when you want to create sites that have all PM Central’s resource management, and reporting features activated by default.

Key information (project health, tasks, issues, risks, etc.) from project sites created under this top site will be automatically rolled up and displayed in the dashboards and summary views provided natively in the Portfolio site.
Full templates are available by default when PM Central is installed

Standard/Full templates available:

Portfolio Site

Bamboo PM Central Top Level Site – Custom Template
Bamboo PM Central Top Level Site

IMPORTANT: There is no difference in the functionality offered by these templates. The only difference is the appearance of the site on creation. Click here for a preview.

NOTE: The look of any PM Central site can be modified after the site has been created by changing the site skin.

Department Site

Bamboo PM Central Department Level Site

Project Site

Bamboo PM Project Site – Custom Template
Bamboo PM Project Site
Bamboo PM Project Site – Custom Template – With sample data
Bamboo PM Project Site – With sample data
Bamboo PM Project Site – Discussion Board Plus Template
The PM Central Discussion Board Plus template was added in PMC 4.3

NOTE:
1.A licensed copy of Discussion Board Plus (sold separately) is required to make the PM Central Discussion Board Plus Template available
2.Templates with sample data are provided to make testing PM Central easier. It is not recommended that these templates be used in production. For information on removing this template from the displayed options click here

To create a Standard/Full Portfolio site:

Create a portfolio site using either the
Bamboo PM Central Top Level Site – Custom Template or the Bamboo PM Central Top Level Site
The following project and department sites can be used in association with a PM Central “Standard/Full” Portfolio:

Bamboo PM Central Department Level Site
Bamboo PM Central Department Level Site – Lite Template
Bamboo PM Project Site – Custom Template
Bamboo PM Project Site – Lite Template

PMC Lite Templates

When to use:

Use the provided Lite templates to create sites when your organization needs to manage multiple projects but does not need the resource management or reporting features provided with the Full templates.

Key information (project health, tasks, issues, risks, etc.) from project sites created under this top site will be automatically rolled up and displayed in the dashboards and summary views provided natively in the Portfolio site.
Lite templates are not available by default. The site collection feature for each Lite template must be activated to make the Lite template option(s) available.

NOTES:
1. Resource management and reporting capabilities can be enabled as needed
2.Custom sites created with the Lite template will not be available through the PM Central site creation tool. Information on creating and using Custom “Lite” templates is available here

Lite templates were added in PM Central 4.0

Lite templates available:

Portfolio Site

Bamboo PM Central Top Level Site – Lite Template

Department Site

Bamboo PM Central Department Level Site – Lite Template

Project Site

Bamboo PM Project Site – LiteTemplate

To create a Lite portfolio site:

Create a portfolio site using the Bamboo PM Central Top Level Site – Lite Template.

NOTE: The Bamboo PM Central Top Level Site – Lite Template site collection feature must be activated to make this template available.

The following project and department sites can be used in associated with a PM Central Lite Portfolio:

Bamboo PM Central Department Level Site – Lite Template
Bamboo Project Site – Lite Template

PMC Stand-alone Template

When to use:

Stand-alone sites are intended to do just that: stand alone. These project sites are not connected to portfolio or department sites. Use this template when you want to create a project site allows you to monitor issues, risks, and tasks for a single project, but do not require a central dashboard for executives and managers to view the associated data.

Standalone templates were added in PM Central 4.0

Stand-alone templates available:

Project Site

Bamboo PM Central Project Site- Stand alone template

To create a Standalone PM Central site:

Create a portfolio site using the Bamboo PM Central Project Site- Stand alone template

NOTES:
1.The Bamboo PM Central Project Site – Stand alone template site collection feature must be activated to make this template available.
2. Do not create a PM Central Stand-alone site within an existing portfolio site.

Configuring PM Central’s site creation tool

Site Creation Plus is configured to simplify the overall site creation process in PM Central. No additional configuration of the Web Part is required, however you may want to modify the configuration settings to use another default template, or to predefine the permissions that will be used on the site.

When working with Site Creation Plus keep in mind:

You can configure the web part to display PM Central templates that were customized for your organization.
Customized “Lite” PM Central templates will not be displayed in Site Creation Plus, due to a known limitation. Click here for information on creating sites from a customized Lite template.

The columns available for display in the Project Health section of the Site Creation Plus Web Part are hard coded. Custom columns created in the Project Health list will not be displayed in this Web Part.
When used in PM Central the Site Creation Plus Web Part has configuration options that are specific to the application, such as the inclusion of Project Health information.

The Site Creation Plus Configuration tool pane

Site Creation PLus configuration tool pnae

Function
A. Site Creation Plus is configured to use the text entered into the Title field as the site URL.
B. The Site Templates drop-down presents all the site templates available in the site collection
C. The Available template selector will only PM Central project or department templates. This will include any custom templates created for your organization. Use the < or > arrows to add or removed templates from the Selected template box Consider removing the Bamboo Project Site – Custom with Sample Data from the selected templates. For more information about the template options click here.
D. Use the selector to remove any Project Health columns that are not used by your organization
E. If the site creator chooses to use Unique Permissions, three new user groups will be created. The naming convention can include either the Title or Description entered by the end user.
F. Administrators can remove the permissions section of the user display and predefine if sites will use inherited or unique permissions.
G. By default, users will be taken to the new site on creation.

Configure Site Creation Plus to use a custom PM Central template

1. Use the Add New Project link under the Central Actions menu or the Create New Project… button on the portfolio home page to access the Site Creation Plus Web Part page

Links to create a new PMC site

NOTE: The page will need to be in edit mode for you to access the Web Part’s configuration tool pane.

2. Use the selector arrows to add the customized PM Central template(s) to the list of available templates and remove templates that should not be used. (C)

3. Arrange the available templates so the desired default PM Central project template is at the top of the list (C)

4. Optional: Determine which Project Health columns will be available from this web part (D.)

5. Optional: Predefine what permissions will be associated with the site on creation (F & E)

6. Click Save & Close and stop editing the page to see your changes.

Site skins available in PM Central

Configuring PM Central	Using PM Central

A variety of skins are available to allow you to quickly and easily change the appearance of PM Central Sites. Users with Full Control permissions can change skins from the PM Central General Settings section of the PM Central Control Panel.

NOTES:
1. PM Central Custom, Team and Classic skins are available for all sites.
2. Skins with the Mega Menu feature are only available for the Portfolio and Department sites
3. Mega Menu skins were introduced in PM Central 4.2

Portfolio and Department Sites

PM Central Custom
This color scheme is associated with the Bamboo PM Central Top Site – Custom Template Preview of the Custom PM Central skin

PM Central Team
This color scheme is associated with the Bamboo PM Central Top Site Template Preview of the Default Team Site skin

PM Central Classic
Preview of the PM Central Classic skin

Custom with Mega Menu for Report & Resource Center
Preview of the Custom skin with Mega Menu feature

Classic with Mega Menu for Report & Resource Center
Preview of the Classic skin with Mega Menu feature

Project Sites

PM Central Custom
Preview of the Custom PM Central skin

PM Central Team
Preview of the Default Team Site skin

PM Central Classic
Preview of the PM Central Classic skin

Blue

Sky Blue
Preview of the Sky Blue skin

Yellow Green
Preview of the Yellow Green skin

Overview of Portfolio PMC Control Panel	Overview of PM Central General Settings

Completing the PM Central Portfolio Configuration Checklist

Getting started with PM Central	Overview of Portfolio PMC Control Panel

The Configuration Checklist associated with the portfolio site provides administrators with instructions on how to prepare the site for use. A link to the Configuration Checklist will be available in the warning message displayed at the top of the Portfolio home page.

Image of the warming configuration message with link to the Configuration Checklist

When working with the Configuration Checklist keep in mind:

You will need Full Control permission on the Portfolio site to complete items in the checklist.
The Warning message on the Portfolio Home page will be displayed until all Mandatory items associated with the Configuration Checklist have a been closed.

Open item in the Configuration checklist

NOTE: The contents of the Portfolio Configuration Checklist changed in PMC 4.3

Action	Description
Verify the successful installation of all PM Central components	Review the Health Check display, accessed from the PM Central Control Panel or from the item’s action link, to confirm PM Central Timer Jobs and Web Parts were successfully installed. If a specific web part did not install successfully, run the setup.exe for the specific component found in the SA12 folder on the SharePoint server.
Review the Resource Center settings Standard templates only	The working days, hours, and holidays defined in the Resource Center settings will be referenced by PM Central when generating Resource Allocation and Capacity reports. By default, resource reports are created individually for each user with access to the PM Central Control Panel, and the report contents are security trimmed. From the PM Central Control Panel, or this item’s action link, access Resource Center Settings and validate the work schedule. Check the Report Settings box if you want to use the System Account to generate reports, making all resource allocation information available to users with access to the Resource Center. (Feature added in PM Central 4.3) Important: The working days, hours, and holidays identified here must be consistent with the settings used on the project sites. If using a holiday list it must be created with a SharePoint Calendar list, and the same list must be used throughout the PM Central Portfolio and associated sites.
Determine if projects should “Auto Update” by default	When the Project Health list’s Auto Update check box is checked, a regularly scheduled timer job will update the Project Start Date, Project End Date and % Complete fields, based on the contents of the project’s associated Tasks list. If you want to enable Auto Update by default on newly created project sites complete the following step: From the PM Central Control Panel on this site, or this item’s action link, access Auto Update Settings and set the value to Yes. (Feature added in PM Central 4.3)
Enable Alert Plus notifications	PM Central uses Alert Plus to send automated reminder notifications to users. Each of the 6 pre-defined alerts will send a notification to assigned users when specific criteria are met; a task or issue is due in 3 days, a task or issue is overdue, etc. By default, these alerts are configured to be sent daily as a summarized notification. From the PM Central Control Panel, or this item’s action link, access Alert Plus web and change the status of the desired alerts from disabled to Enable. Optional modifications to Event frequency, Mail format, etc. can also be applied. NOTE: PM Central Lite Portfolio sites will have 5 pre-defined alerts.
Populate the Enterprise Resource Pool Standard templates only	The Enterprise Resource Pool (ERP) is a centralized list of users who are available to work on projects created under the Portfolio site. User information can then be easily copied from the ERP into the Project Resource Pool on each project site. Click the Resource Management link under Resource Center in the PM Central Control Panel, or this item’s action link, and populate the ERP using one of the two available methods: 1. Click Add New and enter user information directly into the provided form. 2. Go to the User Profile Import tab and use the provided tool to copy user information from the SharePoint User Profile Database. NOTE: This option requires specific SharePoint services to be available and the use of SharePoint Server or Enterprise.
Decide if resource reports will be complied on page load Standard templates only	Resource reports on the Portfolio site are compiled, by default, every evening at 11:45 PM. Specific reports, however, provide a Run Now option in the configuration tool pane that when checked will generate the associated report on page load. To change the default setting on a report you will need to complete the following steps: Go to Resource Management in the PM Central Control panel for this site, or use this item’s action link, to access the resource reports under Resource Allocation and Capacity Planning. Navigate to the appropriate report and edit the report web part Check the Run Now check box Important: Administrators should monitor pages using the Run Now option as request timeout errors can occur. Run Now is a configuration option associated with the following reports: All Allocations By Resource By Project By Project Department Allocation by Manager Resource Availability By Department Risk Chart (accessed from the Risks tab) NOTE: By default, the Risk Chart is only available to users with Design permissions or higher on the Portfolio site. To make the chart available to all users, check Allow View Report in the Risk Chart configuration tool pane.
Expose the Budget Cost Status KPI in the Project Summary dashboard Standard templates only	When Standard Rates are associated with user profiles in the Enterprise Resource Pool, and tasks are assigned to Project Team Resources, PM Central can calculate the human resource cost of the project. The calculated Project (Human) Cost can then be compared with the Budget (Estimated) Cost value entered in the Project Health list, and the budget health of the project displayed in the Budget Cost Status KPI. The Budget Costs Status column is not displayed in the Project Summary dashboard by default. To display this column you will need to complete the following steps: From the Portfolio home page (Project Central tab) edit the Project Summary web part Click the Data-Viewer Web Part Settings button Click Bamboo List Rollup on the left navigation pane Click the Column Display Settings button and check the Budget Cost Status box Click Save & Close and OK to exit the configuration tool pane Note: The Budget Cost Status column was removed from the default display in PM Central 4.3

Portfolio Control Panel – Manage PMC Features

Overview of Portfolio PMC Control Panel	Overview of PM Central General Settings

Manage PM Central Features, found under PM Central General Settings in the portfolio’s PM Central Control Panel, allows administrators to enable or disable optional site features with the click of a button.

Image of the manage features options available from the Portfolio control panel

	Function
1.	Bamboo PM Central My Favorites This option is activated by default and allows users create favorite links to frequently accessed PM Central pages using the PMC Favorites section of the Page ribbon.
2.	Enhanced Central Actions Menu The Enhanced Central Actions menu is activated by default. Deactivating this option at the portfolio level will remove the Request Project Site items from the drop down menu.
3.	Enable Resource Management and Reporting on the Portfolio site A portfolio created using the PM Central Lite template can be upgraded to a standard PM Central site by clicking Enable. This will activate Resource Management and Reporting features on the site. IMPORTANT: You cannot undo this action NOTE: If the portfolio site was created using a Standard template this option will be grayed out and the Status will be On.
4.	Enable Resource Management and Reporting on all sites Select this option to centrally activate the Resource Management and Reporting features on all sites in the portfolio created using a Lite template. IMPORTANT: You cannot undo this action

Overview of Portfolio PMC Control Panel	Overview of PM Central General Settings

Portfolio Control Panel – PM Central Help

Overview of Portfolio PMC Control Panel

Link

Permission

Function

Configuration Checklist

Full Control / Design

The portfolio site’s Configuration Checklist provides instructions for completing the configuration of the Portfolio site. When there are Mandatory items in the list with an “Open” status, a warning message will be displayed on the Portfolio home page.
Open item in the Configuration check list

IMPORTANT: While users with Full Control and Design permissions can see the configuration checklist, Full Control permissions are required to complete the associated steps.

Health Check

Referenced in the portfolio’s Configuration Checklist

Full Control / Design

Use the Health Check to make sure that PM Central’s Web Parts, timer jobs and other components have been installed correctly.
PMC Health Check Web Part

Information on troubleshooting components that were not correctly installed is available here

Product Version

Full Control / Design

Provides a list of all PM Central’s components and Web Parts, their assembly names, and their product version.
Project Version display

Overview of Portfolio PMC Control Panel

A quick guide to setting up PM Central

Configuring PM Central

Follow these steps so you can quickly start using PM Central to manage your projects:

Note: You will need to be logged in to an account that has the SharePoint Full Control permission level to complete many of the steps below.

Step	Action
1.	Important: Read this before you create a PM Central Portfolio or Stand-alone site.
2.	Determine which of the PM Central Template options will best meet the needs of your organization. NOTES: 1. PM Central uses StandardFull templates by default. 2. If you elect to use the Lite or Stand-alone templates you will need to activate the related Site Collection feature.
3.	Create the Portfolio (or Stand-alone) site.
4.	Complete the Portfolio site’s Configuration Checklist. NOTE: If you created a Stand-alone site in the step above, complete the site’s configuration check list then skip ahead to Step 7.
5.	Create a Project Site.
6.	Complete the Project Site’s Configuration Checklist.
8.	Optional: Create and configure PM Central department sites to provide a filtered view of the portfolio.

PMC Hierarchy

Every business has projects…and the headaches that always seem to come with managing them, especially when many of the projects are mission critical. A range of options exist for managing projects electronically and individually, but many require heavy IT resources, development, and a large budget. And if you’re at the upper-management level, the amount of work you exert compiling all project status data into a single meaningful view can take just as long as the project itself.

SharePoint Project Management Central (PM Central) focuses exclusively on providing a centralized location where you can view and provide real-time status of your company’s entire project portfolio while you enforce uniform data control over the individual projects’ data. PM Central’s tailored project workspace site templates let project teams proactively track, organize, maintain, and report statuses, tasks, risks, budgets, and issues for projects—allowing you to effectively communicate project expectations to team members and stakeholders in a clear, timely fashion, from the task level all the way up to an executive summary.

PMC Hierarchy.png

PM Central automatically tracks individual projects across your company in one workspace. Project team members only need to update the information in a particular list on their project site, and their data is automatically populated in all related areas on the top-level portfolio site. In this top-level site, the data from all project and department sites is aggregated for display in portfolio dashboards to provide real-time, at-a-glance executive information.

Portfolio (Top Level) Site

Designed to provide an Executive Summary of projects managed under the same Portfoli, this site shows the aggregated data from all of its project subsites. It contains multiple dashboards that report on tasks, issues, risks and schedules. You can have just one portfolio site per site collection so that you can roll up all project sites to just one portfolio site, or you can have multiple portfolio sites with their own set of project sites. This site is only considered a top-level site to its project subsites.

Project Site

This site is a subsite of the portfolio site and is designed to have its data rolled up to the portfolio site for a comprehensive status of all projects in your portfolio.

Department Site

This optional site displays a filtered view of project sites based on specific criteria, such as projects that have a specific project manager or a specific project type.

Using a Holiday list in PM Central

Creating and using a Holiday list allows ensures that your organizations designated holidays are excluded from task scheduling and resource capacity calculations in PM Central.

When using a Holiday list keep in mind:

Only one holiday list can be used per PM Central Portfolio
The holiday list must be created from a SharePoint Calendar list
Holidays need to be created as Yearly events

If you use a holiday list there are several Web Part in PM Central that will need to be configured to reference the list:

Portfolio Site

Resource Center

Required

From the Resource Center link in the portfolio site’s PM Central Control Panel, associate the Resource Center with the holiday list so your company’s designated holidays are not included in resource capacity calculations.
Holiday list configuration in the resource center

Enter in the URL to the site where the holiday list is located
Click the green arrow button to populate the drop down selector with the list found on the site.
Select the desired list and click Save

Project Site

Resource Center Settings

Required

From the Resource Center link in the project site’s PM Central Control Panel,point to the Holiday list

Task Master Web Part

Required

When configured with a holiday list, Task Master will not allow work to be scheduled on the designated holidays.

NOTE: The project must be Recalculated before the scheduling rules will be enforced.

Holiday list configuration in Task Master
Click here for more information on configuring the Web Part.

Calendar Plus Web Part

Optional

When Calendar Plus is configured to reference a Holiday List, items from the list will be displayed in all Calendar Plus views.
Holiday View Settings configuration screen

NOTE: This configuration has no impact scheduling or reporting in PM Central and is for display purposes only.

Click here for more information on configuring the Web Part.

Entering project information in the Project Health list

Completing the Project Checklist

The Project Health list contains basic information about the project, the contents of which are visible throughout the PM Central hierarchy.

Project Summary dashboard showing Project Health details

When working with the Project Health list keep in mind:

There will only be one item in the Project Health list
Project Health information for all projects is rolled up and displayed in Project Summary dashboards accessed from the portfolio and applicable department sites Project Central tab
Project Health information for the current project is found under the Project Info display on the Project Home tab.
To access the Project Health list, click the link found under Project Name
Some columns in the Project Health list, including the Key Performance Indicators are not available for editing from the Project Health Edit form.

The Project Health Edit form

Project Health fields:

1.
The Project Start Date,Project End Date, and
% Complete fields, will be updated hourly if the Auto Update checkbox is selected

2. Complete the Project Department, Project Type, Project Manager and Priority fields to provide additional information about the project.

Projects with an Active status will have additional key information (tasks, issues, risks, etc) automatically rolled up and displayed in the portfolio site, and applicable department sites.

3. The Budget Work field must be manually populated with a value if you want to track work with the Budget Work Status KPI

NOTE: If a Budget Work value is not entered the associated Budget Work Status KPI will always be green.

3. The Budget Cost field must be manually populated with a value if you want to track project’s human cost with the associated Budget Cost Status KPI.

NOTES: 1. Standard rates must be associated with user profiles in order to track costs
2. The Budget Cost Status KPI is not displayed by default.

4. These fields are populated with the system calculated total of (Time Entry) fields associated with project tasks when you Update All or Update Progress.

NOTE: By default the (Time Entry) fields in the Task list are not populated, and the value of the fields in the Project Health list will be 0.00

Completing the Project Checklist

Read this BEFORE you create a PM Central site

Getting started with PM Central

While PM Central is easy to implement, there are some best practices that should be observed:

Make sure that you have a root site collection on the web application where PM Central sites will be created.
You do not have to use the root site collection for PM Central, it just has to be there.
The PM Central Portfolio sites (or any other PM Central sites) should not be created at the top of the site collection.
PM Central site templates have been hidden in Central Administration in PM Central 4.0 and later releases, but it is worth emphasizing the point.

The top site of the site collection should be a SharePoint Team Site.
Do not use a Publishing template for the root site of the site collection where PM Central sites will be created.

It is recommended (but not required) that PM Central be created is its own site collection. This allows greater administrative flexibility when it comes to backing up content, migrations etc.
You should strongly consider using a separate site collection if changes have made to Master Pages and/or the Themes, Look and Feel are inherited by other sites in the site collection

Sites in PM Central should not be created using SharePoint’s New Site dialog box.
Use the PM Central specific tools to create Portfolio, Department and Project sites. Information about accessing and using these tools is part of the Getting Started.. guide.

Do not delete any of the columns in the default PM Central lists, or delete any of the lists themselves.
Doing so will impact your ability to upgrade to newer versions of this product. It may also render some functionality inoperable. Review the Customization guide before making changes in the application.

PM Central’s Site Collection features

Configuring PM Central	Getting Started with PM Central

When PM Central is deployed there are a number of features that need to be activated at the Site Collection level before PM Central will be operable.

Accessing the provided Bamboo Feature Activation and entering in the site collection URL, will ensure that all the required features are activated.

Note: Enter the URL to site. Do not include library and page (eg: /SitePages/Home.aspx)or the utility will return an error message

Below is a list of the PM Central Site collections features that can be activated on an as-needed basis.

Bamboo PM Central Projects Site Creation Area	Use this feature to activate/deactivate the option under the Site Actions and the projects area for creating Bamboo Project Management Central portfolio site or stand-alone project site. Important: This feature must be activated to allow you to create a portfolio site
Bamboo Project Central Content Types.	Activating this feature will make the Bamboo Project Central site columns available under Site Gallaries, making it easy to modify choice values for the Project Type and Project Department columns. Important: 1. Not all choice columns can have their values modified. Please refer to the customization guide before making changes. 2. Activating the feature will expose the Bamboo PM Central Content Types. The structure of these content types should not be modified
Site Templates
Bamboo PM Central Department Level Site – Lite Template	Activating this feature make the Bamboo PM Central Department Level Site — Lite Template available in the drop-down selector in PM Central’s Site Creation Plus tool
Bamboo PM Central Top Level Site – Lite Template	Activating this feature make the Bamboo PM Central Top Level Site – Lite Template available in the drop-down selector of the Create New Site dialog box.
Bamboo PM Project Site – Discussion Board Plus Template	Activating this feature will allow users to create PM Central project sites with Discussion Board Plus integration. NOTE: A licensed copy of Discussion Board Plus (sold separately) is required. PM Central Discussion Board Plus template was added in PMC 4.3
Bamboo PM Project Site – Lite Template	Activating this feature make the Bamboo PM Central Project Site — Lite Template available in the drop-down selector in PM Central’s Site Creation Plus tool
Bamboo PM Project Site – Stand-alone template	Activating this feature make the Bamboo PM Central Department Level Site — Lite Template available in the drop-down selector in PM Central’s Site Creation Plus tool

PM Central Project – Documents Tab

Overview of PM Central Hierarchy	Overview of the Project Site

The Documents tab provides a hierarchical view of the project site’s Project Documents Library.

	Function
1.	The standard SharePoint Document Library toolbar lets users: Create New Documents or Folders Upload one or multiple documents Create Alerts and more
2.	The tree pane view on the left hand side displays the structure of the document library. Click a folder icon to display the content in the document’s view on the right hand side of the Web Part If there are sub-folders, then click the ‘+’ next to the folder to expand it and to view sub-folders. To add a document to a specific folder, click the folder before you select Create or Upload. To DELETE a specific TREE VIEW folder, go to the list that drives this web part page. The tree view web-part on the page does not allow for deletion. Go to site contents then find a library called Project Documents Library. From there you can manage the folders and items.
3.	Move the vertical scrolling bar to the left or right to display more of the tree pane view or the document display.
4.	Click the document drop down arrow to access the standard SharePoint document library menu items.
5.	To change the view, click the Current View drop-down box and select either All Documents or Thumbnails. After you change to the Thumbails view, click on the document folder in the tree view pane to display the thumbnails. NOTE: The Web Part can be configured to show any other views associated with the document library.

Using the PM Central Project Status Report

Overview of PM Central Hierarchy	Overview of the Project Site

The Project Status Report list makes it easy for project managers to create status reports and to track progress from week to week. Weekly status reports are rolled up to the portfolio site’s Overview tab to provide a consolidated view of the project updates to Portfolio Managers.

When working with Project Status Reports keep in mind:

The contents of the Project Status Report list are rolled up and displayed on the Portfolio site and applicable Department sites.

Project Status Reports that are associated with Active project and have a Status Date within 7 days of today will be visible on the Overview tab of the Portfolio site and any applicable Department sites.
Project Status Reports with that have a Status Date within 30 days of today will be visible in the Weekly Project Status Reports data view on the project site’s Overview tab

To create a new Project Status Report:

Step

Action

Result

Click the Add New Item link associated with the Weekly Project Status Report data-viewer on the Overview tab of the project site

This will open a New Project Status Report form
How to access the Project Status Report New Item form

Enter the Status Date and complete the form

NOTE: In PM Central 4.3 the title field will be populated with the text Project Status by default.

Click Save

The change request, along with all other submitted change requests, regardless of request status, will be displayed in the Change Request data view from the projects’s Overview tab.

Change request information will also be displayed on the Overview tab of the Portfolio and Department sites, and will be grouped by Project

PM Central Portfolio Resource Reports

Overview of Portfolio PMC Control Panel	Overview of Portfolio Resource Center

Portfolio sites created using a Standard/full template provide predefined resource reports that are available in the site’s Resource Center under the Resource Allocation and Capacity Planning tab.

Image of the Resource Report Mega Menu selector When working with the PM Central Resource Reports keep in mind:

By default, Resource reports available at the portfolio site are security trimmed so that only users that have been granted permission to a site will see resource assignments pertaining to the site.
Users with Full Control permissions on the Portfolio site can configure Resource Center Settings to use the System Account to generate resource reports.
Feature introduced in PMC 4.3

By default, reports will be complied every evening starting at 11:45 PM.

Information on configuring the Resource Center web parts is available here.

The report pages have the following characteristics:

Ability to change the year view of the report
Save report contents to the Monthly Resource Work Allocation Summary list on the Portfolio site(not available with all reports)
Option to export the report (grid and chart) to Excel, or to print the report.

Available Portfolio Reports:

Report Name	Report Description
All Assignment Allocations	All Assignment Allocations displays the resource’s total allocation per month for the project, grouped by year. This lets you track how much work your resources are accumulating for the project.
By Resource Allocation	By Resource Allocation shows the total allocation per month for each resource assigned to the project, grouped by year.
By Project	Displays the resource’s total allocation per month, grouped by project
By Project Department	Displays projects grouped by the identified Project Department. The Project Department field is part of a project site’s Project Health list.
Allocation by Manager	Displays the resource’s total allocation per month, grouped by manager. A user’s Manager is specified in the Enterprise Resource Pool list for each resource item. Important: If the Manager field is not completed in the Enterprise Resource Pool form, user information will not be displayed.
Resource Availability	Resource Availability displays the resource’s remaining availability. Availability is determined by deducting a user’s task assignments from their capacity per month. Capacity is determined by the Work Hours and Holidays entered in the Resource Center Settings, and the Maximum Unit value associated with each resource. If the resource has available time, the number of available hours is shown in green. If the resource is over allocated, the resource’s availability is shown as a negative number in red.
By Department	Allocation by Department displays the resource’s total allocation per month, grouped by Department. A user’s Department affiliation is specified in the Enterprise Resource Pool and identifies the Department the resource reports to. Important: If the Department field is not completed in the Enterprise Resource Pool form, user information will not be displayed.
Assignments by Department	Allows users to specify the search criteria for the report. A Department must be selected from the drop down selector. Select the Department, followed by the Resource(s) associated with that department to be presented with a report displaying resource availability.
Find Resources	Find Available Resources lets you find available resources that you can request and assign to task for your projects. A users Role is defined in the Enterprise Resource Pool.

PM Central Timer Jobs

Screen shot of the PM Central alerts in Job Definitions view of Central Admin

Six timer jobs are deployed with the PM Central solution, with additional timer jobs being deployed as part of the Alert Plus Master timer job.

You can verify that all timer jobs were successfully installed from the Health Check display in the portfolio site’s PM Central Control Panel.

Timer Job	Description
Bamboo Gantt Chart	Updates the lists used as a data source for the Resource Assignments report at the portfolio site. When the Bamboo Gantt Chart Timer Job runs for the first time, it will create the Gantt Chart Information list and extract data from the tasks list of all the projects, save the items, and display them in the report. The next timer job will extract and copy the data from the Bamboo Gantt Chart Information list to the Bamboo Gantt Chart Information Backup list, add new items to the list, and then delete the Bamboo Gantt Chart Information list. When the Bamboo Gantt Chart Timer Job runs again, the data from the Bamboo Gantt Chart Information Backup list will be copied into the Bamboo Chart Information list; new items will be added to the Bamboo Chart Information list; and the Bamboo Gantt Chart Information Backup list will be deleted this time. Note: While the timer job runs, you will see two lists because the report is still required to show old data. This process is repeated every time the Bamboo Gantt Chart Timer Job runs where only one list is used at any one time to display data in the Resource Assignments report. Runs daily at 12:00AM by default
Bamboo Reporting Calculation V4	Updates information in the Report Info Cost Project Site list and in the Report Info Project Site list. These lists are used to collect data for some of the resource allocation and cost reports. When a report is configured to use the timer job, data for that report will be generated at the timer job interval instead of each time the report is viewed. When it runs, it will update the items within the Report Info Cost Project Site list and Report Info Project Site list on each project site based on data calculated from the Tasks list within the project site. Upon completion, the reports within the project site pulls the data from these two lists. Runs daily at 11:45PM by default
Bamboo Reporting Top Site Calculation	When the Bamboo Reporting Top Site Calculation Timer Job runs, it will query the Report Info Cost Project Site and Report Info Project Site lists based on the report query the user originally submitted in the Report Center and attaches the results of the query to the original request within the Reporting Information list found in the portfolio site. NOTE: This timer job will only be visible in Job Definitions after the Bamboo Reporting Calculation V4 timer job has run. Once this timer job completes it will no longer display. Runs 30 minutes after the completion of the Reporting calculation V4 timer job
Bamboo Update Dashboard List	Updates changes made to the items in the Portfolio Dashboard List, which stores data about all of the projects, including project status, actual start and due dates, project health and more. Runs every 30 minutes by default
Bamboo Update Summary List	Updates data from the project sites’ Task, Issues and Risks lists to the portfolio site’s Summary List, which in turn updates the sums and counts of the tasks, issues and milestones from all the projects. The Summary List is the data source for the portfolio site’s Task, Issues and Milestones charts on the Project Central tab Runs every 59 minutes by default
Bamboo Update Task, Issues and Project Health	Updates information in the Tasks List, Issues List, Risks List, and the Project Health List. This updates the Project Name field in the Tasks, Issues, and Risks lists using the Project Name from the Project Health list. It also updates the Project Start Date, Project End Date, % Complete, Project Actual Cost (Time Entry) and Project Actual Work (Time Entry) fields in the Project Health list based on data from the project’s Tasks list. Runs every 59 minutes by default

Completing the PM Central project site’s project checklist

The Project Checklist provides project managers with a list of steps for working with project sites in PM Central. A link to the checklist will be available from the Project Home page when the mandatory items in the Configuration Checklist have been marked as completed.

Project welcome message

NOTE:The Project Manager’s Checklist was new in PM Central 4.3

The list contains the following steps:

Action	Description
Enter the Project Objective	Access the Project Objectives Add New Item link from the Project Home page, or this item’s action link. NOTE: You should delete the default item which summarizes how to write an effective objective.
Verify the project details in the Project Health list	The Project Health list contains key information about the project including, Project Department, Project Type, Project Start Date, Project End Date, % Complete, etc. Click the Project Name link under the Project Info display on the Project Home page, or this item’s action link, and review the project information entered. Important: Check the Auto Update box to have PM Central update the Project Start Date, Project End Date and % Complete fields based on the contents of the project’s Tasks list. Updates are performed hourly (by default) by the Bamboo Update… Project Health timer job and will overwrite manually entered values.
Add Users to the Project Resource Pool	PM Central provides two methods for adding users into the Project Resource Pool. Both methods will copy information associated with a user’s profile in the Enterprise Resource Pool into the local Resource Pool. 1. Add an individual user: From the Project Control Panel, click View Resource under the Resource Center header to access the Project Team Info page, or click this item’s action link Click Add new item and select the user from the Resource drop down selector Click Save NOTE: The drop down will display all users identified in the Enterprise Resource Pool. Users will Full Control permissions on the site will also be able to add the selected user to a SharePoint group directly from the New Contact form. 2. Add multiple users: From the Project Central Panel, click Copy Resource under the Resource Center, or click this item’s action link and access the Copy Resources tab Check all the users to be added to the Project Resource Pool from those available in the EPR Click the Select Resources to be copied button, then click Copy Resources NOTE: Permissions to the site will need to be granted separately when using the bulk import method.
Determine how tasks should be defined in Task Master	Task can be defined using one of 3 different methods: To check, or change, Task Master’s configuration, complete the following steps: Navigate to the Tasks tab, or click this item’s action link to access the main Task page Click the gear icon on the right of the toolbar to access Project Schedule Settings. Make the necessary modifications in the Rules section and click Update.
Enter the project schedule in Task Master	The Task Master Web Part provides a Gantt display of the project plan. To access Task Master navigate to the Task page, or click this item’s action link. There are several options available for entering tasks: Enter the project tasks in the New Item form. Copy a basic project plan into Task Master from Excel Use the Bamboo MS Project Add-In tool.
Identify the project’s risks	Navigate to the Risks page under the Issues and Risks tab, or click this item’s action link Click the Add New Item link Provide information about the risk, including Probability, Impact, Cost, Business Value and Due Date.
Capture baselines	PM Central can capture baselines for the project schedule, tasks and project costs. Go to the Tasks tab, or click this items’s action link, and click Update All. This will recalculate the project and update cost information (if applicable). Go to the Baseline View and click Capture Baseline in the toolbar of the desired baseline(s) Up to 10 baselines can be created for Project Schedule and Scheduled Tasks. Each baseline will be displayed in a different color, with the current status displayed at the top of the baseline view in blue.

PM Suite Highlights

With over twenty additional components and tools, PM Suite allows you to easily get the most out of your SharePoint-managed projects. With the PM Suite, you don’t just get Project Management Central, the world’s best SharePoint project management solution, you gain the ability to use many of the application’s powerful features — charting, task management, alerting, and much, much more — anywhere in SharePoint. With the additional tools and flexibility that comes with every PM Suite, you’re able to customize and extend Project Management Central as far as you’d like, enabling unlimited integration with your existing SharePoint environment, or simply adding needed functionality to the application itself. If you’re building a SharePoint project management solution, Project Management Central is the fastest, easiest way to get started… and with the PM Suite, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish!

PM Central Mobile

PM Central Mobile^TM adds mobile functionality to existing Bamboo Project Management Central^TM installations, allowing users to interact with their projects on the go.

Highlights	Release Notes	Complementary Products

Install	Permissions	License	Permissions
Install PM Central Mobile on your mobile device.		Licensing of PM Central Mobile is per device. PM Central Mobile requires PMC 4.0 or Later (Sold Separately)
Configure	Permissions	Work With	Permissions
Configuring the Mobile App		Overview of PM Central Mobile How To…

Click here if you would rather see a complete list
of all topics for this product.

Click on the shopping bag or here to download a trial of the product or to purchase it.

PM Central – Change Request

Overview of PM Central Hierarchy	Overview of the Project Site

Project stakeholders can submit change requests, such as new requirements, design changes, or schedule updates, to the project manager or other authorized approver. These requests can then be tracked and managed from the Change Requests data views the Overview tab found at all levels of the PM Central hierarchy.

When working with Change Requests keep in mind:

If you have Workflow Conductor, entering a change request can trigger an approval workflow that routes the request to the appropriate person for review. A sample workflow is included with the PM Central installation package. For more information about using the sample workflow provided by PM Central, read KB.12786
Without Workflow Conductor entering a change request, simply enters the item in the list, making it available for review by management in the data-views on the Overview tabs where it can be approved.
The contents of the Change Requests list are rolled up and will be visible on the Overview tab of the Portfolio site and any applicable Department sites. The list contents displayed will be determined by where you access the tab:

visible on theOverview tab of the Portfolio site and any applicable Department sites.

Step

Action

Result

Click Submit Change Request in the Central Actions drop down

Navigate to the Overview tab, scroll to the Change Request data view and click Add New Item

This will open the New Item form of the Change Request list
How to access the Change Request New Item form

Enter the Title, and complete the form

Click Save

The change request, along with all other submitted change requests, regardless of request status, will be displayed in the Change Request data view on the projects’s Overview tab.

Change request information will also be displayed on the Overview tab of the Portfolio and Department sites, and will be grouped by Project

Overview of the Portfolio’s PM Central Control Panel

Getting started with PM Central	Overview of the Portfolio Site

Screen shot of the Central Actions drop down menu.
The PM Central Control Panel for portfolio sites provides a central location for users to manage the administrative functions of PM Central.

Users with Full Control or Design permissions can access the PM Central Control Panel from the Central Actions drop down menu.

When working with the PM Central Control Panel keep in mind:

The contents of the control panel are security trimmed so not all options will be visible to users with Design permissions. The table below identifies the permission level required to see specific links.
Portfolio sites created using the PM Central Lite template will not include links relating to the Reporting and Resource Management features. Additional information on the differences between the Full and Lite templates is available here

NOTE: The PM Central Control Panel was introduced with PM Central 4.0

PMC Control Panel – Full Control display

PM Central Control panel as seen by a user with Full Control

	Visible to users with…	Section
1.	Full Control/ Limited options for users with Design Permissions	PM Central General Settings The links under PM Central General Settings allow the Administrator to configure alerts, change the site’s appearance and update general settings.
2.	Full Control only	Application Actions The Update Data page lets site administrators run processes to update PM Central data that are otherwise updated by scheduled timer jobs. From Update Portfolio Dashboard Mapping, click Refresh so the Gantt View of Active Projects widget, found on the Overview tab, will be updated. IMPORTANT: You must manually refresh the Portfolio Dashboard mapping to update the Gantt View of Active Projects.
3.	Full Control / Design	Resource Center The Resource Management link takes users into the Resource Center giving access to the Enterprise Resource Pool, Resource Allocation and Capacity Planning reports and Resource Assignments.
4.	Full Control/ Design	The links under PM Central Help provides general information to aid the administrator with the configuration and maintenance of PM Central.
5.	Full Control only	Application Integration Time tracking and management integration will only be available if the Bamboo Time Tracking and Management (TTM) application is installed on your farm. Integrating the applications will allow users to create timesheets for the hours worked on project tasks. Enter the URL to the existing TTM site that will be used for tracking time against tasks. An additional page, My Timesheets, will be available under the My Summary tab when the PM Central and TTM are integrated. NOTES: 1.If the TTM site is in the same site collection, enter the URL as a relative page reference(./site of ../site). If the site is in another site collection of Web application, enter an absolute page reference (http://server/site) 2. Additional configuration will be required in TTM to complete the connection to PM Central. 3. The Time Tracking and Management application is sold separately.
6.	Full Control / Design	Report Center The View Reports link takes users to the Reports Center where a number of predefined reports are available
7.	Full Control / Design	PM Central Information Look at the File Version to determine what version of PM Central is installed in your farm.

Overview of the Project’s PM Central Control Panel

Getting started with PM Central	Overview of the Project Site

Screen shot of the Central Actions drop down menu.
The PM Central Control Panel for project sites provides a central location for users to manage the administrative functions of the site.

Users with Full Control or Design permissions can access the PM Central Control Panel from the Central Actions drop down menu.

When working with the PM Central Control Panel keep in mind:

The contents of the control panel are security trimmed so not all options will be visible to users with Design permissions. The table below identifies the permission level required to see specific links.
Project sites created using the PM Central Lite template will not include links relating to the Reporting and Resource Management features. Additional information on the differences between the Full and Lite templates is available here

NOTE: The PM Central Control Panel was introduced with PM Central 4.0

PMC Control Panel – Full Control display

PM Central Control panel as seen by a user with Full Control

	Visible to users with…	Section
1.	Full Control / Limited options for users with Design Permissions	PM Central General Settings The links under PM Central General Settings allow the Administrator to access key lists, and change the site’s appearance.
2.	Full Control / Limited options for users with Design Permissions	Application Actions The links under Application Actions allow administrators to hide columns from the Project Health and Tasks forms, and manage list content. Important: The Show or Hide Columns in lists tool is the only supported method for hiding columns in PM Central. Do not delete default columns from PM Central lists.
3.	Full Control / Design Referenced in the project’s Configuration Checklist	Report Center 1. Working Settings By default, PM Central defines a work week as Monday – Friday, 8AM – 5PM with lunch between 12-1PM, resulting in an 8 hour work day and 40 hour work week. If your organization officially uses a longer or shorter standard work week you will need to update Task Master’s Work Week Settings when completing the project site’s Configuration Checklist and make changes here in the work week center Important: If a project site in the portfolio is configured to use a greater number of working hours than those identified in the portfolio site, the project’s working hours will be used to calculate the capacity of all resources assigned to tasks on that site. More information is available here 2. Holiday List Settings Associate the Report Center with a holiday list so your company’s designated holidays are not included in resource capacity calculations. Enter in the URL to the site where the holiday list is located Click the green arrow button to populate the drop down selector with the list found on the site. Select the desired list and click Save Important: The same holiday list will need to be referenced by other Web Parts in PM Central. Click here to find out more
4.	Full Control / Design	Provides access to the site’s Configuration Checklist
5.	Full Control / Design	Resource Center The provided links take users into the Resource Center giving access to the Project Resource Pool, Resource Allocation and Capacity Planning reports and Resource Assignments.
6.	Full Control / Design	PM Central Information Look at the File Version to determine what version of PM Central is installed in your farm.

PM Central Mega Menu skins

Overview of Portfolio PMC Control Panel	Overview of PM Central General Settings

PM Central comes with a variety of skins enabling you to quickly change the appearance of a site without the need to modify master pages and style sheets.

Mega Menu skins change the way the contents of both the Resource Center and Reports Center are displayed.

If you select one of the “mega menu” custom skins, the navigation tabs in both sections will be replaced with drop-down menus. The “mega menu” appears on hover and shows all the reporting options in one large panel.

NOTES:
1. Mega Menu skins are only available for PM Central Portfolio and Department sites.
2. Mega Menu skins were introduced in PM Central 4.2.

Resource Center – Tabbed navigation

Resource Allocation and Capacity planning tab navigation

Resource Center – Mega Menu navigation

Resource Allocation and Capacity Planning mega menu navigation

PM Central Portfolio – Overview tab

Overview of the PM Central Hierarchy	Overview of the Portfolio Site

The Overview tab on the portfolio site provides users with the high level view of Active projects.

NOTE: Unless noted the Web Parts shown on the Overview page of department sites are the same as those on the portfolio site. The content displayed in the Web Parts will be determined by the department site’s filter configuration.

Screen shot of Overview page

	Name / Web Part	Description
1.	Update Portfolio Dashboard Mapping	A link to the Portfolio Dashboard Mapping page. You must manually update the contents of this list in order to see information in the Gantt View of Active Projects.
2.	Gantt View of Active Projects Bamboo Project Portfolio Dashboard	The Gantt View of Active Projects displays the timeline of the active projects, with the project’s timeline depicted in green, and progress shown in blue. Project timeframes will be displayed in the Quarter view, by default, but Week, Month and Year views are available. Use the arrow buttons on the top left of the Gantt View to scroll through weeks, months, quarters by year, and years (depending on the view selected).
3.	Weekly Project Status Reports Bamboo Data Viewer Web Part	The Weekly Project Status Reports display provides a consolidated view of the current status of Active projects in the portfolio. Project Status Reports with a Status Date within the last 7 days are displayed.
4.	Change Requests Bamboo Data Viewer Web Part	The Change Requests data view provides information regarding any change requests submitted at the project. The data is rolled up using Bamboo’s List Rollup Web Part from all Active projects and will be displayed in the web part grouped by Project Name. Change Requests can be easily Approved or Rejected using the Inline Edit feature of the display Click the Edit icon next to the change request item to edit it. Select the updated Request Status from the drop down, then identify the decision maker by entering the name, clicking the icon , then selecting the user from the drop down selector. Click Update
5.	Project Site Creation Requests Bamboo Data Viewer Web Part	Displays the pending project site requests. From the Add New Item link above the Web Part, or from the Request Project Site link in the Central Actions drop down menu, stakeholders who do not have permissions to create project sites to submit requests for new project sties. The request approval and site creation process can be automated with Bamboo’s Workflow Conductor (sold separately). Project Site Creation Requests are only displayed in the portfolio site

Overview of the PM Central Hierarchy	Overview of the Portfolio Site

Overview of the Installation/Setup Program

Options for Installing

IMPORTANT: As of April 2017, Bamboo no longer includes the Installation/Setup Program in product download packages. Please see Overview of the Updated Installation Process for Bamboo components for details.

There are several areas of note in the Installation/Setup program interface, shown below.

No.	Function
1.	The Setup program contains links to various product components listed under the Components header on the left. Click on any of these links to view additional information about the component on the right. The product components fall into the following categories: Prerequisites: Some products include prerequisite components that must be installed before the Bamboo product core components. Not all products will have prerequisites. Examples of prerequisites include the Microsoft Exchange Web Services (EWS) Managed API, Shared Assemblies Library, Microsoft AJAX Extensions, and Bamboo AJAX Config. If you have more than one Bamboo product installed on your farm, some of the pre-requisites may already be installed. Core Components: The product will include one or more core components that are required for the Bamboo product to work. Optional Items: Optional items provide additional features or functionality but are not required to use the Bamboo product. Not all products will have optional items. Licensing: All products will include the Bamboo Web License Manager or Bamboo License Manager. Licensing is required to activate a product license. It is not required during 30-day product trials. If you have previously installed the Bamboo Web License Manager with another Bamboo product, it may not be necessary for you to install it again. Help: When clicking the Help component, you will see links for the Online Documentation and other product-related resources. Click the Home icon () at the top of the components list to return to the Setup main page.
2.	The Installation Location section will tell you where to run the Installation/Setup program for the selected component. Read this information carefully before proceeding.
3.	The Required Installation Permissions section will explain required permissions for the selected component. Read this information carefully before proceeding. If the person running the installation/setup doesn’t have the appropriate level of permission, the install will fail.
4.	When ready, click the Install button to begin the installation process. It will do a few system checks, ask you to agree to our End User License Agreement, ask which Web Applications you want to install to (you don’t have to pick any), and ask if you want to automatically activate the solution on the selected web apps. When the install is complete, it will display an Installation Summary that you should review carefully. See an example below.

Click here for information about running the installation or go back to Installing for the first time… topics.

Overview of the Updated Installation Process for Bamboo components

Options for Installing

In April 2017, with the Q1 Cumulative Update (CU) Bamboo introduced updated install/uninstall processes for component products (web parts). Instead of the Setup.exe Installation Application, we now supply two PowerShell scripts – one for Install/Upgrade and the other for Uninstall – to be used to install, upgrade, or uninstall the product. The install package downloaded from My Bamboo is now a *.zip file rather than a self-extracting executable.

The installation process was updated based on feedback from our customers. We are excited about the benefits the new processes offer:

Benefits
The processes are now very transparent; you know exactly what happens during the install/upgrade/uninstall. If you want/need to modify the scripts for your farm, you can do that.
If you are upgrading to a new version of a Bamboo product or if a new install updates a shared component used by another Bamboo product installed previously, the installed solution is saved before the upgrade. If the new install fails, you can easily rollback to the previously installed solution.
Rather than deploying each solution individually, deployments are queued which minimizes farm disruption by reducing the IIS Resets on the farm.
By design, the scripts are written to be compatible with PowerShell versions found on an SP2010 WFE server. Written to use the features of the older version of PowerShell, the scripts are simple and should work the same in all environments. If you would prefer to employ some PowerShell features available in new versions (e.g., output results to the grid/table), you can modify the scripts to use the PowerShell features available in your environment.

Please note the following for the new scripts:

The script installs all the WSPs found in the installation folder, in alpha order
The install/upgrade script deploys to all content web apps. If you would prefer to deploy to a single web app, you can modify the script or deploy via Central Administration.
Uses Upgrade instead of Install for existing components.

For additional information about how to use the updated processes:

Overview of the PM Central Installation

PMC 2010 install setup.jpg Project Management Central is typically installed like other Bamboo products, by using the Installation/Setup program. For other options, see Options for Installing

Like other Bamboo products, there are Core Components and Optional ones to install. The Project Management Central core component includes 33 features and typically takes about 30 minutes to install. The Bamboo PM Central Administration component includes the PM Central pages displayed from within SharePoint Central Administration.

Before installing any component, we recommend you read Best Practices for a successful install.

You decide whether to install the Optional Items based on the way you plan to use PM Central. The descriptions below will help you decide whether or not to install:

Alert Plus Timer Job. The Alert Plus Timer Job is required if you want to use Alert Plus alerts in PM Central and you haven’t installed it previously on your SharePoint farm. The most beneficial feature of Alert Plus from a project management perspective is that it allows you to send reminder alerts to project team members when they forget to update their task information. It also sends reminders to task assignees when a task is coming due; this helps to minimize late tasks and keep the project schedule on track.
Alert Plus Utilities. If you are upgrading Alert Plus (included with SharePoint Project Management Central) from a previous version, these utilities are needed to update existing alerts to leverage new features. If you are installing PM Central (and Alert Plus) for the first time, you do not need to install/run this utility. However, it is a good idea to keep it around on a WFE server in case you need it later. See Overview of the Alert Plus Utilities for more information.
Microsoft Project Add-In. If your Project Managers (PMs) like to build their project plans with Microsoft Project, they should install this Add-In on the PC where they run MS Project. With the Add-In, they exchange task data between PM Central and Microsoft Project. See Installing the Microsoft Project Add-In for PM Central for more information.
Bamboo Feature Activation. PM Central has several site collection features that need to be activated before use. You can activate these features automatically in the site collections of the selected web applications during the initial install. However, you may choose to activate the features manually if you don’t want them automatically activated in all site collections. Use this tool to quickly and easily activate the correct features. See Using the Bamboo Feature Activation tool to activate features for more information.
Workflow Start Feature. The Workflow Start Feature allows custom workflow start buttons to be added to the Item ribbon of lists in SharePoint 2010 or 2013. This feature can be used in conjunction with a workflow tool like Workflow Conductor (sold separately) to help automate processes such as project site creation and change request approval.

You need to install the Web License Manager only if you are ready to activate a purchased license and you haven’t installed it previously on your farm. The Web License Manager is included with all Bamboo products and one installation is used to activate any/all products you may have installed on your farm. See Installing the Bamboo Web License Manager for more information.

Overview of Suite or Pack Licensing

Overview of Licensing and and Product Activation

The bundled licensing in Suites and Packs allows multiple products to be licensed with a single key. This is a huge benefit over having to manage a license key for each product and each WFE server. Once the Suite or Pack is successfully licensed, each included product will show that it is running under the license for the Suite or Pack.

Take the Grants Management Solution Accelerator as an example. When installation is complete, the Grants Management Accelerator Pack appears in the Bamboo Web License Manager in the Suites and Packs area. If you click the plus sign next to the name, you will see all the products that are included in the pack.

If you click on the Pack name or select Status from the associated menu, you will see the status of the Pack license. In the screen shot below, we can see it was activated on each WFE server with a valid license key. The current status of the license is Active.

WLM-GMSApack status.jpg

The Alert Plus Web Part is included in the Grants Management Accelerator Pack. If you click on the product name listed in the Individual Products section of the Web License Manager, you will see the status of the individual product license. In the screen shot below, we can see it is running under the Grants Management Accelerator Pack Licensing.

The Grants Management Accelerator Pack includes eight web parts. Rather than having to license 8 products on two WFE servers in my farm individually (16 different license keys), I use the pack license and am able to save a lot of time.

Sometimes a Suite includes another suite or a pack. The Project Management Suite includes several packs, including the SharePoint Project Management Central Pack. If the PM Suite is licensed, the license status of the SharePoint Project Management Central Pack will show that it is running under the Project Management Suite Licensing.

WLM-PMCPack status.jpg

Overview of PM Central Timer Jobs

Timer Job	Description
Bamboo Update Dashboard List	This timer job runs every 30 minutes. It updates changes made to the items in the Portfolio Dashboard List. The portfolio site’s Gantt View of Active Projects widget on the Schedules tab uses the Portfolio Dashboard List as its data source.
Bamboo Update Summary Project List	Running every 59 minutes, this timer job updates data from the project site’s Task, Issues, and Risks lists to the portfolio site’s Summary List. The charts on the portfolio site’s Project Central or Overview tab are connected to this list to display the chart data. Check this timer job if the charts do not show data.
Bamboo Update Task, Issues, Project Health List	This timer job, which runs every 59 minutes, updates the Project Name from the Project Health List to the Project Name in the project site’s Task, Issues, and Risks lists. It also updates the Start Date, End Date, and % Complete from the the project site’s Task List to the Project Health List. Check this timer job if the information does not update.
Bamboo Reporting Calculation Timer Job V4	This timer job runs once a day. It improves the performance of the resource allocation and capacity planning reports in the portfolio site’s Reports tab. When a report is configured to use the timer job, data for that report will generate at the timer job interval instead of each time the report is viewed. When the timer job runs, it updates the items within the Report Info Cost Project Site and the Report Info Project Site lists on each project site based on data calculated from the project site’s Tasks list. When the timer job is done, the reports within the project site pull the data from these two lists. NOTE: During the Verifying the PM Central Upgrade step, if you do not see the Bamboo Reporting Calculation Timer Job V4, deactivate and then reactivate the Bamboo Reporting Services feature for the web application. See Monitoring the Timer Jobs for more troubleshooting information.
Bamboo Reporting Top Site Calculation Timer Job	This timer job runs based on the report query saved in the Reporting Information list. When it runs, the timer job queries the Report Info Cost Project Site and Report Info Project Site lists based on the report query the user originally submitted in the Report Center. The timer job then attaches the query results to the original request within the portfolio site’s Reporting Information list. NOTE: If the Bamboo Reporting Calculation Timer Job V4 runs via Run Now, the Bamboo Reporting Top Site Calculation Timer Job will immediately follow, running once the Bamboo Reporting Calculation Timer Job V4 finishes.
Bamboo Gantt Chart Timer Job	This timer job runs every day to improve performance for resource assignments in the portfolio site’s Resource Assignments page of the Resource Center. Before the timer job runs, you will not see the Gantt Chart Information Backup list or the Gantt Chart Information list. Either list can be used as a data source for the Resource Assignments tab in the portfolio site’s Resource Center to show the resource assignment and the Gantt timeline. When the timer job runs for the first time, it creates the Gantt Chart Information list; extracts data from all project sites’ tasks lists; saves the items; and displays the data in the report. When the timer job runs again, it extracts and copies the data from the Bamboo Gantt Chart Information list to the Bamboo Gantt Chart Information Backup list; adds new items to the list; and then deletes the Bamboo Gantt Chart Information list. The next time the timer job runs, the data from the Bamboo Gantt Chart Information Backup list is copied into the Bamboo Chart Information list; new items are added to the Bamboo Chart Information list; and the Bamboo Gantt Chart Information Backup list is deleted. (While the timer job runs, you will see two lists because the report is still required to show old data.) This process is repeated every time the Bamboo Gantt Chart Timer Job runs, where only one list is used at any one time to display data in the Resource Assignments report.

Overview of Project Management Central

PMC Hierarchy.png

Portfolio (Top Level) Site

Project Site

This site is a subsite of the portfolio site and is designed to have its data rolled up to the portfolio site for a comprehensive status of all projects in your portfolio.

Department Site

This optional site displays a filtered view of project sites based on specific criteria, such as projects that have a specific project manager or a specific project type.

Overview of Licensing and Product Activation

When to Activate

After you purchase, you receive License Keys to use to activate the product license on each WFE server on your farm. License Keys never expire. See How many License Keys do I need for my SharePoint farm for more information. You can use a license key on only one server at a time. Servers in non-production (i.e., Staging, Test, Dev) farms require licenses too, just like servers in your production farm.

Activating a Standard Product License

For most Bamboo products, license keys are required for each WFE server in the SharePoint Farm. For certain products, such as Alert Plus or List Rollup, additional license keys may be required for application servers as well to use certain features. See Activating Your Bamboo Product License

Suites, Packs, Libraries, and Toolkits

For Bamboo Suites, Packs, Libraries and Toolkits, a single license activates all the products in the suite or pack for a specific WFE server. See Overview of Suite or Pack Licensing.

Keyless Licensing

On very large farms with several Bamboo products installed, it is often difficult to manage so many license keys. Bamboo offers keyless licensing for these scenarios. Please contact your Sales Manager for more information about keyless licensing.

Use the Bamboo Web License Manager to activate Bamboo products install on the SharePoint farm. For additional details, please see

Installing the Bamboo Web License Manager
Activating Your Bamboo Product License
Activating My Bamboo Product License Offline if your server doesn’t have access to the Internet.

Desktop Applications

Some Bamboo products are not installed on the SharePoint farm, but on a PC or server somewhere on your network. To activate the license for these products, please see Activating a Bamboo Desktop Product Using the License Manager.

Moving or Migrating your farm

If you are moving your SharePoint farm to new servers, please see Migrating my Bamboo Product License to a New Server. Licenses are activated to a particular hardware profile of the server. If the profile changes (i.e., you add a hard drive), the license will require migration.

If you have migrated your environment to a new SharePoint version (i.e., from SharePoint 201 to SharePoint 2013), see Migrate your Bamboo Product License Key From one SharePoint version to another. License keys for products running in different SharePoint versions are different. On-Prem Bamboo products on active support are eligible for no-cost upgrades to a newer SharePoint version (2016/2019/2022) as long as the two farms are not running concurrently for more than 60 days. Migrations to Microsoft 365 will require the purchase of new licenses. However, we do offer a discount for customers on current support for an on-premise product that has a Microsoft 365 equivalent

Trials

For product trials, no license is required. If you are wondering about the status of your trial or when it will expire, please see

Overview of Bamboo Product Trials

Overview of Licensing and and Product Activation

Try our products before you buy!

Trials are fully functional for 30 days from the date of installation.
Once a 30 day trial of a product has been installed on a server or farm, no further trial copies of the same product will function on the server or farm. When a product license key is purchased and activated (even after the trial has expired), the product will continue to work as it did during the trial.
Users who need additional time to evaluate a product will need to request a trial extension from their Bamboo Sales Account Manager (sales@bamboosolution.com).
There is no functional difference between the trial and purchased version of our products, with the exception of List Bulk Import and List Bulk Export. When a trial user purchases a license, it is not necessary to install a new version to replace the trial. You simply activate the license of the “trial” copy. Any configuration done on the product during the trial period will remain after the license is activated.
The List Bulk Import and the List Bulk Export product trials are limited in the number of items that can be imported/exported. Regardless of the number of items in an import file or in a SharePoint List/Library, only 15 items will be imported/exported with the trial version of these products. Once the license is activated, this restriction is lifted.

Overview of the new Bamboo product Logging

In April 2017, Bamboo released Bamboo.Logging v3.1.0.0 with the Q1 (2017) Cumulative Update of Bamboo component products.

In response to customer feedback the new logging version uses SharePoint ULS logs by default, instead of the the Bamboo logs. The main benefits of this change are:

Bamboo Log files will not fill the C: drive on WFE servers. Previously, Bamboo products reported errors to proprietary log files located in C:WindowsTempBambooSolutions on each web front end server in the farm as described in Error Log Files.
SharePoint administrators are very familiar with ULS logs and the ULS Log Viewer. When Bamboo products log to ULS, SharePoint administrators have one less set of logs to review.
ULS log files can be more easily managed for size and archived, a feature that was not previously available for Bamboo logs.

Bamboo component products installed or upgraded after April 2017 will have the new Bamboo Logging deployed as part of the Bamboo.Framework.wsp solution, which is common to Bamboo products and globally deployed to the SharePoint farm.

IMPORTANT:
1) If you have multiple Bamboo products installed on your farm, some Bamboo log files may remain in C:/Windows/Temp/BambooSolutions until you upgrade all of the Bamboo products.
2) Bamboo applications (e.g., PM Central, Workflow Conductor, In/Out Schedule Board) will not have the new Bamboo Logging until their respective CU’s are available in Q2 2017.

Please note the following for the new scripts:

The script installs all the WSPs found in the installation folder, in alpha order
The install/upgrade script deploys to all content web apps. If you would prefer to deploy to a single web app, you can modify the script or deploy via Central Administration.
Uses Upgrade instead of Install for existing components.

For additional information about how to use the updated processes:

Installing using the updated install process
Upgrading using the updated process
Uninstalling using the updated process

PM Central – My Summary Tab

Overview of the PM Central Hierarchy

The My Summary tab can be found at each level of the PM Central hierarchy and provides a summary of the tasks, overdue tasks, active issues and active risks that are assigned to the logged-in user.

My Summary page on the Portfolio Site

When working with the My Summary pages keep in mind:

When the My Summary pages are accessed from the portfolio or department sites, tasks will appear grouped by the Project Name
The content displayed is determined by where you are in the PM Central hierarchy when you access the My Summary pages:

Name / Web Part

Description

My Status

PM Central Custom Web Part

This custom Web Part located at the top of the page displays the number of tasks, overdue tasks, active issues and active risks that are assigned to the logged-in user. Logged in user details on the page

SharePoint Navigators

Each of the tabs will take the user to a different display page. Users can see:

My Tasks: A display of all the tasks assigned to the logged in user.
My Tasks Due This Week: Displays tasks assigned to the logged in user that are due this week.
My Overdue Tasks: Displays tasks that are overdue and assigned to the logged in user.
My Active Issues: Displays all issues with an active status that are assigned to the logged in user.
My Active Risks: Risks that have an active status that are assigned to the logged in user.

NOTE: If PM Central is integrated with Bamboo Time Tracking and Management (TTM), an additional tab, My Timesheets will be also be displayed under My Summary, providing access to the TTM site.

Bamboo Data-Viewer Web Part

Each page accessed from the My Summary navigators will have a Data-Viewer web part configured to reference a specific list rollup schema.

For information about working with the Data-Viewer web part, click here.

When working with the ERP keep in mind:

To add users to the ERP:

The Site Creation Plus Configuration tool pane

Configure Site Creation Plus to use a custom PM Central template

Portfolio and Department Sites

Project Sites

The Project Health Edit form

To create a new Project Status Report:

The report pages have the following characteristics:

Available Portfolio Reports:

The list contains the following steps:

Install

Permissions

License

Permissions

Configure

Permissions

Work With

Permissions

PMC Control Panel – Full Control display

PMC Control Panel – Full Control display

Resource Center – Tabbed navigation

Resource Center – Mega Menu navigation

When to Activate

Activating a Standard Product License

Suites, Packs, Libraries, and Toolkits

Keyless Licensing

Desktop Applications

Moving or Migrating your farm

Trials

Please note the following for the new scripts:

For additional information about how to use the updated processes: