System Status

System Status – Up and Running

Definitive Pro Release Notes

DateTypeTitleDescription of ChangeApplicability
2024-02-25EnhancementCone of UncertaintyAdded a capability to establish a cone of uncertainty for a decision portfolio. The feature includes the capability to create planning stages and assign a range of uncertainty for project cost estimates for each planning stage. The range of uncertainty is created by entering upper and lower percentages for the phase, along with a “Contingency %”. Based on the stage of each project, the "Contingency %" is applied to the project cost to establish a “Recommended Cost Reserve” (which appears at the bottom of the forecast tab). As the investment progresses, and uncertainty decreases, the contingency % and “Recommended Cost Reserve” decrease.All customers
2024-02-25EnhancementView Log for Select UsersExpanded access to the “View Log” action that provides a filterable view of all changes made to a business case. This was previously an administrator only feature. Now, the following assigned roles for a given alternative can use the “View Log” action: Business Relationship Manager, Lead Business Representative, and Lead Delivery Organization POC, and Project Manager.All customers
2024-02-25EnhancementSave Links as DocumentsAdded an action to be able to save links as documents for an alternative by using the “Documents” action.All customers
2024-02-18EnhancementBenefit Realization TabAdded an optional "Benefit Realization" tab to the business case for completed projects that provides the capability to: > Form an independent cross-functional evaluation team > Determine if planned deliverables have been made and accepted > Determine if planned business outcomes have been realized > Determine if planned financial benefit has been realized > Identify lessons learned (successes and pain points) > Formulate and categorize recommendations by focus area; and > Notify focus area owners via a feedback loop to support continuous improvement.All customers
2024-02-18EnhancementExpanded Track Changes and Comparison of Business Case VersionsExpanded the ability to track changes made to business cases to include key roles, key milestones, locations, contracts, and documents. Also expanded the ability to compare versions of the business to enable comparing any baseline version of the business case with any other baseline version or to the current revision copy. Previously, comparisons were limited to the revision copy and the current baseline.All customers
2024-02-18EnhancementCreated a New Right for Project Managers and Business Relationship ManagersCreated a new right to allow the assigned project manager (PMs) and business relationship managers (BRM) to clear resource estimate completion checkboxes and enter notes on the "Resource Estimates" tab without having to also provide them the right to enter resource estimates on the behalf of a resource manager. This enables all PMs and BRMs to clear the completion checkboxes prior to requesting a new estimate, even if they can’t add resource estimates on the behalf of a resource manager.All customers
2024-01-04EnhancementAdditional Optimization OptionsAdded the capability to perform budget optimization using various phase combinations of pre-project, project, and post-project cost. Previously, optimizations were limited to the total investment cost (i.e., all phases).All customers
2024-01-04EnhancementAdded "Advanced Planning” and “CPIC Phase” FieldsAdded “Advanced Planning” and “CPIC Phase” fields to the Governance tab, to be centrally managed. These fields are also available when displaying the list of alternatives (business needs, capital requests, project requests) via the "Configure View" action, and when developing custom charts, dashboards, and views. The selection options in the "Advanced Planning" field are configurable, while the selection options in the "CPIC Phase" field are standard and preset.All customers
2024-01-04EnhancementRoadmap Planning DatesAdded the capability to set "Roadmap Dates" for the key planning milestones associated with existing alternatives (i.e., business needs, capital requests, projects). When "Roadmap Dates" are used, they are used in lieu of the key planning dates that are on the Governance tab for that alternative. This feature provides the roadmap creator the ability to perform "what if" planning on the roadmap without altering the official planning dates. (Note: The "Roadmap Dates" are only used on roadmaps.)All customers
2024-01-04EnhancementRisk and Issue ManagementAdded the capability to identify, assess, and control risks and issues at the alternative (i.e., business need, capital request, project) level and at the decision (i.e., portfolio) level.All customers
2024-01-04EnhancementAction Item and Task ManagementAdded the capability to create and track actions and tasks at the alternative (i.e., business need, capital request, project) level and at the decision (i.e., portfolio) level.All customers
2024-01-04EnhancementFiltered ListsAdded the capability to create lists of alternatives (i.e., business needs, capital requests, projects) that will be automatically updated based on the set value of one or more selected fields (e.g., "Planning Category", "Lead Delivery Organization"). This feature makes the management of lists more efficient and accurate as alternatives that belong to a list based on field value(s) no longer need to be manually maintained.All customers
2023-11-12EnhancementInstructional VideosAdded the capability to provide instructional videos. The first video, “How to Build a Roadmap” has been added. It can be accessed under the user’s account in the upper right corner. (Note: We have other videos coming soon. Most will be less than a minute, but this one is ~6 minutes.)All customers
2023-11-12EnhancementResource Estimate Log for Tracking ChangesAdded the capability to track all resource estimates in a log for each resource. The log captures who made the estimate, when it was made, and the "from" and "to" values. The log is accessble by clicking in the "Last Update" field for a specific resource and cost pool. Previously, only the last update was tracked.All customers
2023-11-05EnhancementLimiting Access - Protecting the Need to KnowAdded the capability for a decision manager to more tightly control who can see what in the system. Decsion managers can now limit user access to just those investments that are assigned to the user. When used in conjunction with the “No Financials” role, a decision manager can now limit a user's access to a single business case with or without financials.All customers
2023-10-22EnhancementMore Flexibility When a Project Manager Requests Resource EstimatesAdded the capability for project managers (PMs) to select which resource managers should receive a request for a resource estimate, rather than the system automatically including all resource managers who have not already provided their resource estimate.All customers
2023-10-22EnhancementAutomatic Replies and Notifications to CommentsAdded the capability for the assigned project manager (PM), business relationship manager (BRM), and lead delivery organization representative for a business case to be automatically notified when a comment is submitted. In addition, the submitter of a comment is also notified when a reply to a comment is made.All customers
2023-10-11EnhancementBusiness Case VersioningAdded the capability to create a “revision copy” of a business case to support updates during the change request (CR) process. When a “revision copy” is created, it is labeled “revision copy”; and the existing version is labeled “baseline copy” and locked as read-only. Once a CR is approved, the “revision copy” is set as the new baseline, and the old baseline copy is removed. If a CR is not approved, the “revision copy” is deleted, and the existing baseline remains available. This feature is managed by the portfolio manager.All customers
2023-10-11EnhancementVariable Planning Horizon (Up to 10 years) Added the capability to set the planning horizon up to 10 years. Previously, all forecasts were fixed at 5 years. This feature also extends the ability to estimate resources and plan contract actions for the extended planning horizon, when it’s in effect. This feature is managed by the portfolio manager.All customers
2023-10-11EnhancementPortfolio and Cross-Portfolio RoadmapsAdded the capability for any user to create roadmaps. Previously, the roadmap capability was limited to displaying the key milestones for a given project. The enhanced road mapping capability includes the ability to: 1) Add business capabilities as key milestones and depict them at the top of the roadmap; 2) Create categories with custom colors to group projects in any meaningful way; 3) Add existing projects from any portfolio that contribute to delivering the business capabilities.; 4) Add ideas to a portfolio and to a roadmap. (Note: Ideas are only visible to their creator; 5) Depict the roadmap in a Gantt style format, with variable timescale options.All customers
2023-10-11EnhancementCustom RoadmapsAdded the capability for any user to create and share custom portfolio and cross-portfolio roadmaps. The custom road mapping capability includes the ability to: 1) Add business capabilities as key milestones and depict them at the top of the roadmap; 2) Create categories with custom colors to group projects in any meaningful way; 3) Add existing projects from any portfolio that contribute to delivering the business capabilities.; 4) Add ideas to a portfolio and to a roadmap. (Note: Ideas are only visible to their creator; 5) Depict the roadmap in a Gantt style format, with variable timescale options; and 6) Add a custom roadmap to a custom dashboard so that it can be shared with other uses.All customers
2023-06-04EnhancementNew Limited Access RoleAdded a limited access role (e.g., for Federal contractors) that can assigned to a user so that they have access to the business need and business need assessment data, but do not access to the contract, resource. and financial data.All customers
2023-03-14EnhancementNew ChatGPT Open AI FeaturesAdded the capability to "Ask AI" to assist with completing the narrative fields on the Business Need and Solution Approach tabs of the business case. Draft prompts are provided. The response from ChatGPT can then be added or appended to the existing content in the field, or manually copy aand pasted.All customers
2023-09-10EnhancementExpanded Roadmapping CapabilitiesExpanded the roadmap development capability by allowing the user to add alteratives from across portfolios and add milestones (e.g., business capabilities) that appear at the top of the roadmap. All alternatives and ideas can be categorized and color-coded, and ideas can later be promoted to a new business need. Finally, roadmaps can be added to dashboards and shared with others.All customers
2023-06-04EnhancementNew Cross Portfolio ReportingAdded a new "Program" page that enables users to list and report on cross portfolio projects for which a user is a team member.All customers
2023-06-04EnhancementNew Enterprise Administrator RoleAdded a new "Enterprise Administrator" role to manage the enterprise (i.e., account) such as color scheme, logo, naming conventions, and system notification wording.All customers
2023-06-04EnhancementNew Program EntityAdded a new enterprise level “Program” entity to the taxonomy that enables a workspace manager to assign projects to programs and report on programs via views, custom charts and dashboards. (Note: each project can only belong to only one program.)All customers
2023-06-04EnhancementNew Account WorkspaceAdded a "Workspace" capability to enable workspace managers (previously portfolio managers) to administer their decisions by categorizing them by "Decision Type" (e.g., alternatives analysis, pairwise comparison, and portfolio)., which can be changed at any time and is used for categorizing and visually displaying all of the decisions in the workspace. 2) The purpose of an alternatives analysis and pairwise comparison decision is to attain a result after a single (i.e., one-time) use, however, these decisions can be reused.All customers
2023-05-22EnhancementNew User InterfaceRedesigned the system to provide a completely new user interface to improve the user experience. Amongst other benefits such as performance and ease of use, this enhancement enables users to have multiple instances open at once.All customers
2022-12-23EnhancementNew "Portfolio Category" FieldAdded the “Portfolio Category” field on the "Governance" tab to enable the categorization of investments using a configurable selection menu.All customers
2022-12-23EnhancementEnhanced Access to Business Cases, Charts, and Dashboards via LinksEliminated unnecessary login steps when a user clicks a business case link, list link, or dashboard link by going directly to the item and bypassing the system notification screen.All customers
2022-12-23EnhancementNew Feature to "Create a List" of Business NeedsAdded a feature to create and share a list of business needs, and to control who has access to the list.All customers
2022-11-19EnhancementEnhanced Persistent Filtering of Business NeedsAdded the capability to persistently filter the list of business needs based on the contents in the "Decision" field, using the "Configure List" screen.All customers
2022-11-19EnhancementNew "Resource Budgeting" TabAdded the "Resource Budgeting” tab to expand the list of resources; enable the collection of resource estimates for multiple fiscal years; establish resource managers; and improve tracking of resource estimates. Also added the capability to automatically calculate and total the resource cost estimates, and push them to the “Forecast” tab, in the proper phase (pre-project, project, and post-project) and TBM cost pool.All customers
2022-11-19EnhancementNew "Copy Link" Icon for Business CasesAdded a "Copy Link" icon to the top of each tab within the business case.All customers
2022-11-19EnhancementNew "Reply" to Reviewer NotesAdded the capability to reply to the reviewer note within a business case. All customers
2022-10-22EnhancementExpansion of Custom ChartsExpanded the custom chart capability by adding the "Planning Category“ and “Portfolio Category” fields to the list of options for grouping data.All customers
2022-10-22EnhancementNew Feature to Share Custom DashboardsAdded a feature to share a custom dashboard and to control who has access to the dashboard.All customers
2022-09-24EnhancementNew Document Management Feature for PortfoliosAdded a new menu item under "Manage Portfolio" to store documents associated with the portfolio (or model).All customers
2022-09-24EnhancementNew Change Management FeatureAdded a change management capability to submit, review, and disposition investment list change requests (CRs). The list of approved CRs has been added to the cover of the business case report, and a complete list of the CRs is included as an additional page in the report.All customers
2022-10-22EnhancementEnhanced Business Case ReportChanged the business case report to default to the tabs that have data. Provided the user with the capability to select which tabs to include in the report. Added the reviewer notes and associated replies to the business case report as an additional page. The "Notes" page is optional. The default is set to include the page.All customers
2022-07-23EnhancementNew User Homepage OptionAdded the capability to set the user's homepage to "The last business case I was working on".All customers
2022-06-06EnhancementNew Scenario Management CapabilityAdded several new features to enable portfolio managers to set and test scenarios in situations where decisions are sensitive to uncertainty and changing conditions. Scenarios can be created for: 1) Criteria weighting factors; 2) Discount factors (by year); 3) Cost forecast (set % increases/decreases by year; and 4) Optimization constraints and dependencies.All customers
2022-03-28EnhancementNew Feature to Set a Home PageAdded a new feature within the "Manage Account" screen to select and set a different home page. The options include charts, dashboards, and lists associated with portfolios and decision models. All customers
2022-03-21EnhancementNew Feature to Create Custom Charts and DashboardsAdded a new feature for users to be able to create a wide range of custom charts and graphs, and to configure custom dashboards.All customers
2022-03-14EnhancementUser NotificationsAdded a new feature within the "Manage Account" screen to set up a wide range of notifications. The notifications can be received immediately or nightly.All customers
2021-12-23EnhancementNew Alternative Scoring Option within a Single Browser TabAdded a new feature to enable team members to score alternatives while reviewing the business case. This feature eliminates the need for team members to use two browsers or two devices to simultaneously review and score an alternative.All customers
2021-12-23EnhancementNew "Notes" CapabilityProvided the capability for reviewers to record their notes in the business case. The facilitator can also set up an agenda for a team review, review team comments, and record new comments live.All customers
2021-12-23EnhancementNew "Governance" TabAdded a new "Governance" tab to the business case. This tab provides the capability to assign key roles, set key milestones to reduce data calls, and improve reporting. Moved the "Project Manager" field and project health and status tracking to this tab. Added three new fields: Business Requirements Maturity (selection menu); Business Relationship Manager; and Planned Business Requirements Completion, and Planned Procurement Package Completion.All customers
2021-12-23EnhancementNew “Reports” Main Menu ItemAdded a new “Reports” main menu item with the following new reports: Submission Status; Priority Scoring; Resource Dependency Hours Analysis (for select customers); Portfolio Recommendations; and Contract Actions.All customers
2021-12-23EnhancementEnhancement to the “Resource Dependencies” and “Forecast” TabsAdded the capability to use blended rates for “Internal Staff Labor $”, "Internal Contract Labor $”, ”External Staff Labor $”, and ”External Contract Labor $” to automatically calculate the dollars associated with staff and contract labor, to include resource dependencies. Added icons to the “Internal Staff Labor $” and “Internal Contract Labor $” cost pools in the “Project Phase” with hover over information regarding the resource dependency dollar amounts that should be included in the forecast: For Internal Staff Labor $ - “Include $XX to cover YY staff resource dependency hours.” For Internal Contract Labor $ - “Include $XX to cover YY contractor resource dependency hours.” For External Staff Labor $ - “Include $XX to cover YY staff resource dependency hours.” For External Contract Labor $ - “Include $XX to cover YY contractor resource dependency hours.” Added an “External Staff and Contractor” section and added the Acquisition Management (AQM) organization as a resource dependency.Select customers
2021-12-23EnhancementAdditional Filtering Options on the "Manage Alternatives" ScreenAdded “FY Planned”, “FY Submitted” and “Completed” as configuration options.All customers
2021-12-23EnhancementScreen RedesignRedesigned all screens to use more icons and less buttons.All customers
2021-10-18EnhancementNew "Contracts" TabAdded a new optional “Contracts” tab to the business case. This tab provides three tables to assist the user in assigning contract $ from the “Forecast” tab to one or more contracts. The first table at the top is read-only, and provides a summary of the contract $ on the “Forecast” tab. The middle table tracks the assignment of the contract $ and is decremented as contract $ are assigned. The third table is where the assignment of contract $ to one or more contracts is made.All customers
2021-10-18EnhancementNew "Location" TabAdded a new optional “Location” tab to the business case. This tab provides the capability to enter an address or the latitude and longitude coordinates for a project. There is also a capability to select a location and look-up the address. Once the location has been set, it can be plotted on the map.All customers
2021-10-18EnhancementNew "Order of Execution" ReportAdded a new “Order of Execution” report that produces a list of investments sorted by the “Submitted Fiscal Year (FY)”, the “Planned Fiscal Year (FY)”, and the priority score.Select customers
2021-10-18EnhancementFiltering via Column HeadersAdded a filtering capability to the “Manage Alternatives” screen, which lists all the investments and business cases. The filters in the column headers can be used in conjunction with each other to filter the list as desired.All customers
2021-10-04EnhancementTwo New Fields on the "Forecast" TabAdded two new selection fields , “Project Manager” and “Acquisition Approach”, to the “Forecast” tab of the business case.All customers
2021-10-04EnhancementTime-Phased Resource ManagementAdded a new optional capability to perform time-based resource management at the portfolio and enterprise-level. With this new capability, enterprises can now: 1) Enter the capacity of defined resources over time; 2) Allocate resources to each investment over time; 3) Analyze the resource bottlenecks using the resource heatmap; 4) Perform deeper analysis using customizable area charts and bar charts; and 5) Make resource adjustments and take corrective action to the timing of investments.All customers
2021-10-04EnhancementApplication Programming InterfaceMade an API available to facilitate data sharing with project management and data analytic tools.All customers