In this product update:
1. Sync Planned Dates Between Initiatives in the Same Hierarchy
2. Introducing Planning View for Management Boards
3. Whiteboard Enhancements
4. Other Improvements
5. Updates from Our Solutions Architecture Team
6. Upcoming V11.2 Updates
Welcome to Businessmap 11.1! After last month’s major updates, we have brand new improvements coming to the product. Let’s dive right in!
1. Sync Planned Dates Between Initiatives in the Same Hierarchy
In complex hierarchies, child initiatives can sometimes end up with start or end dates that fall outside their parent initiative’s planned timeline. Now, Businessmap lets you sync planned dates effortlessly with our new option to inherit dates, ensuring that all levels remain aligned.
When you open a portfolio initiative, you’ll see the new syncing options in the Planned Start and End date fields:
- Set a specific date: This is the current behavior where you can select a date from the calendar.
- Inherit the earliest/latest date from the hierarchy: The system will automatically track the earliest planned start date or the latest planned end date from child initiatives.
- Inherit the earliest/latest date from the hierarchy including cards: Same as the previous option, but planned dates can also be inherited from child cards.
For cards, the planned start is calculated by subtracting the size from the deadline (if size = 3 and the deadline is 2024-11-20, the system will calculate the planned start date as 2024-11-17), and the planned end is the card’s deadline.
Learn more in our guide on syncing planned dates!
2. Introducing Planning View for Management Boards
Project management just got a whole lot easier! You can now open an entire management board in a single planning view, allowing you to plan, oversee, and manage work across all linked workflows in one centralized location.
Unlike the workflow-level planning view, here initiatives are sorted by their respective workflows, giving you a clear overview of project structure and progress. Learn more about the planning view in management boards.
3. Whiteboard Enhancements
After launching whiteboards last month, we're thrilled to introduce new capabilities that will enhance collaboration and organization. Let’s explore them below!
3.1. Frames
Frames let you group ideas and elements within a defined space on your whiteboard, making it easy to organize and visually separate sections. With frames, you can smoothly navigate and review content and ideas.
For example, if you're using a whiteboard to brainstorm ideas with your team, each member can add their contributions within separate frames, keeping ideas organized and accessible for later review.
3.2. Cards
In addition to frames, we’re also introducing cards inside whiteboards! You can use them to visualize project hierarchies and ideas. Please note that, at this time, these cards cannot be linked to regular cards or initiatives in your boards.
Read more about whiteboards in Businessmap.
3.3. New Board Role Permission for Managing Whiteboards
To facilitate the use of whiteboards, we’ve also added a new board role permission that defines which users can create, reorder, and remove whiteboards in boards. By default, the new “manage whiteboards” permission will be enabled for all users.
4. Other Improvements
4.1. Update Planned Dates via Import
Now, in addition to creating initiatives with planned start and end dates via import, you can also update planned dates for existing initiatives. For portfolio initiatives, you have the added option to reset planned dates by entering “Not Set” in your import file.
Learn more about updating cards and initiatives via import.
4.2. Planning View Improvement
Moving on, you can now edit an initiative's duration directly from the “Duration” column in the planning view. Just click to update the value!
5. Updates from Our Solutions Architecture Team
We're thrilled to announce that all integration tools have moved to a new domain! Explore them here.
We've also introduced some helpful new tools for you to try:
- Our new Copy User Permissions tool allows you to copy the permissions of one user to other users.
- Also, you can now delete unused dashboards in bulk using a CSV file with the Delete Dashboards tool.
6. Upcoming V11.2 Updates
In the next release, version 11.2, we’ll be updating how cumulative size is calculated for initiatives. After the update, you’ll have the option to set a card size value to “0,” allowing you to exclude specific cards from the cumulative size calculation.
This is especially useful for scenarios where certain tasks are part of the project structure but don’t impact the overall workload. With this added control, you can reflect project size more accurately, aligning cumulative size with the true scope of work.
Here's what to expect with this update:
- If you assign a size value of 0, the card details will display the size as 0.
- If the size field is left blank, the system will continue to assign a default size of 1.
- For initiatives with a first or last-level child that has a size of 0, and that child is not yet completed, the initiative will show a size value of “!99%,” with additional details available on hover.
- In the search, widgets, and reports sections, empty values will now appear as blank instead of 0, allowing for better differentiation between values. Users can still set a size value of 0 and update it without affecting operations since an empty cell in Excel is treated as 0.
- In Power BI, blank values will function as 0 in calculations.
- An empty size field will continue to be counted as 1 unit of work, but both card details and reports will now display it as blank instead of 0.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this upcoming update! Feel free to reach out to our support team at support@businessmap.io with any ideas or feedback.
Enjoy exploring Businessmap 11.1!