2024R2 Release Notes

What's Different:

Administrators now have the ability to import Time Entries in bulk by uploading a comma-separated values (CSV) file into Eclipse PPM.

Note: Users will need the new "Bulk Update - Time Entries" permission from an Application Policy in order to use this feature.

On the "Administration" page, administrators can now select Bulk Update - Time Entries from the "Other" menu.

From here, they can upload a CSV file with time entry data into Eclipse PPM by selecting the Choose file button and using their computer's file manager to navigate to the file.

Importing Time Entries consists of three components:

• Creating the import file

• Configuring process options

• Uploading the file

 

Creating the import file

Users must prepare a CSV file that contains all of the time entry information that they wish to import.

Tip: A CSV (comma-separated values) file is any text file that allows data to be saved in a table-structured format. The most common way to create a Bulk Update file is by using Microsoft Excel. However, the file must be saved as a ".csv" file before it can be uploaded into Eclipse PPM.

Each row of the import file represents a Resource's time entered toward a Project Task on a single day. The following columns must be included on the file.

Tip: Click here to download a sample Excel file that contains each column header.

• Project: Identify the Project that the Resource is entering time against. While configuring process options, use the "Project Identifier" field to determine which values should be entered under this column (Project Names, Project Numbers, Project Property values, etc.).

• Task: Identify the Task that the Resource is entering time against. While configuring process options, use the "Task Identifier" field to determine which values should be entered under this column (Task Names, Task Numbers, Task Property values, etc.).

  Note: If no "Task" value is entered for the Time Entry column, the hours will be applied to the "Project Time".

• Resource: Identify the Resource that is entering time. While configuring process options, use the "Resource Identifier" field to determine which value should be entered under this column (First Name + Last Name, Resource ID, Resource email, etc.).

• Date: Identify which day the Resource is entering time for. The date should be formatted dd/mm/yyyy.

• Hours: Enter the number of hours that the Resource is entering against the Project Task for the day.

• Notes: Enter a Daily Task Note for the time entry.

  Note: See Add and View Timesheet Notes for more information on Daily Task Notes.

Once you have finished preparing your update file, save it to your computer as a ".csv" file.

Once it is saved, select the Choose File button to open up your computer's file manager and navigate to the file.

The name of the selected file will replace the "No file chosen" text, indicating that the update file is ready for upload.

Before uploading the file into Eclipse PPM, be sure to review all of the processing options.

 

Processing Options

Administrators can configure the following options to determine how the file will be imported into Eclipse PPM.

• Approvals: Determine how the submission status of the Time Entries once they are imported into Eclipse PPM.

  

  • Do not submit: The Time Entries will be saved to each Resource's Timesheet, but they will not be submitted.

  • Submit: The Time Entries will be saved to each Resource's Timesheet and submitted. They can be approved by the configured time approver on the Approvals page.

  • Submit & Approve: The Time Entries will be saved to each Resource's Timesheet and submitted. They will be automatically approved upon import.

• Import Mode: Determine how the Time Entries will be imported into Eclipse PPM.

  

  • Insert/Overwrite: The Time Entry values on the import file will replace any existing entries on the same days/Project Tasks.

  • Insert/Sum: The Time Entry values on the import file will be added to the existing entries on the same days/Project Tasks.

• Project Identifier: Determine how Projects will be identified under the "Project" column of the import file.

  

  • Project Id: Project IDs must be entered under the "Project" column to identify Projects.

  • Project Name: Project names must be entered under the "Project" column to identify Projects.

    Note: Project names do not have to be unique. If another Project shares the same name as the identified Project, the row will fail to be imported.

  • Project Number: Project Numbers must be entered under the "Project" column to identify Projects.

    Note: Project Numbers do not have to be unique. If another Project shares the same Project Number as the intended Project, the row will fail to be imported.

  • Project Property: Select one of the listed Project Properties to identify Projects by the property's values.

    Note: Multiple Projects can have the same Project Property values. If another Project has the same value as the intended Project, the row will fail to be imported.

• Task Identifier: Determine how Tasks will be identified under the "Task" column of the import file.

  

  • Task Id: Task ID numbers must be entered under the "Task" column to identify Tasks.

  • Task Name: Task names must be entered under the "Task" column to identify Tasks.

    Note: Task names do not have to be unique. If another Task on the same Project has the same name on the current Work Plan, the row will fail to be imported.

  • Task Number: Task Numbers must be entered under the "Task" column to identify Tasks.

  • Task Property: Select one of the listed Task Properties to identify Tasks by the property's values.

    Note: Multiple Tasks can have the same Task Property values. If another Task on the Project has the same value on the current Work Plan, the row will fail to be imported.

• Resource Identifier: Determine how Resources will be identified under the "Resource" column.

  

  • Resource Id: Resource ID numbers must be entered under the "Resource" column to identify Resources.

  • First Name + Last Name: The Resource's first and last name (in that order) must be entered under the "Resource" column to identify the Resource (i.e. Tim Stutzle).

    Note: If more than one Resource shares the same first and last name, the row will fail to be imported.

  • Last Name, First Name: The Resource's last and first name (in that order, separated by a comma) must be entered under the "Resource" column to identify the Resource (i.e. Stutzle, Tim).

    Note: If more than one Resource shares the same first and last name, the row will fail to be imported.

  • Email: The Resource's email address must be entered under the "Resource" column to identify the Resource.

  • Employee Id: The Resource's Employee ID must be entered under the "Resource" column to identify the Resource.

    Note: If more than one Resource shares the same Employee ID, the row will fail to be imported.

 

Uploading the file

Once all of the Processing Options have been reviewed, the file can be uploaded into Eclipse PPM. Select the Upload button at the bottom of the page to import the Time Entries.

After uploading, a window will appear to indicate how many Time Entries were successfully imported in total, how many failed to import, and how many were imported with warning messages.

Note: The "Success" result displays a total of all the Time Entries that were successfully uploaded, including those that uploaded as "Success With Warnings". This is why the sum of these numbers may not add up to the number of Time Entries in your upload file.

Directly below the results, a table will list all of the warnings and failures as well as a description of the issues.

Benefit:

Prior to this release, Bulk Import could be used to create Resources and create or update a large number of Projects simultaneously. It is especially helpful for organizations that wish to integrate data from another application into Eclipse PPM as they can export their data into a spreadsheet and quickly upload it.

With this update, this ability has been extended to Time Entries as well. If Resources track their time using another application, an administrator can export the time data into a spreadsheet and upload it into Eclipse PPM. This prevents users from having to manually add their time to multiple applications at once. Additionally, the time can be automatically approved upon submission. If another application is used to approve time, this prevents time approvers from having to review time submissions more than once.

What's Different:

Administrators can now push Resource Type Rate updates directly to Resources in Eclipse PPM. Administrators can select which Resource Type updates to apply, as well as which Resources will receive them.

Tip: This feature can be used in conjunction with the new Rate Card feature to streamline the process of updating Resource Type Rates. See below for more information.

Note: Resources will not receive any Resource Types that are not already on their profiles. This feature simply updates the Rates of Resource Types that already exist on Resource profiles.

Note: Eclipse PPM users require the "Organization Administration" permission from an Application Policy to access and edit the Organization Structure.

On the Organization Structure page, administrators can select the new Bulk Action button.

This will open up the "Resource Rate Bulk Update" window.

• Step 1: Click on the textbox to select the Resources that will receive Resource Type Rate updates. Each selected Resource will appear in the table below.

  

  Note: The Resource filters from the Resource Search page will be displayed at the top of the suggestions list in brackets.

  Tip: Start typing in the name of an individual Resource to make it appear in the suggestions list.

• Step 2: Use the drop-down menu to determine which Resource Types will be updated on the Resource profiles.

  Note: The selected Resource Types will not be added to the selected Resources' profiles. Instead, the selected Resources that already have the selected Resource Types on their profiles will receive updates to their Resource Type Rates.

  

  • All resource types: Updated Rates from all Resource Types will be applied to the selected Resources.

  • Selected resource types: Select the "Resource Types" field that appears to determine which Resource Type Rate updates will be applied to the selected Resources. Select the checkboxes of Resource Types to include them.

    

• Update default resource types only: If selected, only the default Resource Type on each Resource's profile will receive an updated Rate. Other Resource Types on a Resource's profile will not receive an updated Rate.

Once these options are configured, the administrator can select the Save button to apply the Resource Type Rate updates to the selected Resources.

If all Resources were updated successfully, a green banner will appear at the top of the Organization Structure page.

If not, the banner will explain if the bulk update partially or totally failed.

In either case, the administrator can select More info to see a list of errors that occurred.

Note: The "Record" number refers to the ID number of the Resource that could not be updated.

Benefit:

Prior to this upgrade, administrators could edit the Default Rate of each Resource Type on the Organization Structure page. However, these updated Default Rates would only be applied to Resource profiles when the Resource Type was applied to them after the update. There was no way to update the Default Rate of existing Resource Types on Resource profiles. Because of this, updating Default Rates on Resource profiles became an extremely time-consuming manual undertaking for Eclipse PPM administrators.

Now, administrators no longer need to visit each Resource's profile one-by-one in order to update their Resource Type Default Rates. They can simply edit them all in bulk from the Organization Structure page.

Example: Derek's organization needs to increase the Rates of certain Resource Types in order to be competitive in the job market. He accesses the Organization Structure page to edit the Default Rates for some of his more in-demand positions. However, he is also concerned that his current employees with those Resource Types will seek out other jobs, so he decides he will increase their Rates to match the new Default Rates.
Prior to this release, Derek would have had to visit every Resource profile with those Resource Types in order to update their Default Rates. This could have taken him several hours depending on how many Resources contained one of the Resource Types on their profiles. With this update, however, he can simply select the Bulk Action button, select the "[All Current resources]" filter in Step 1, and the Resource Types he would like to update in Step 2. This way, every Resource with one of the updated Resource Types on their profile will receive the updated Default Rates simultaneously.

What's Different:

Administrators can now create Rate Cards and apply them to multiple Resource Types in Eclipse PPM. When the Rate of a Rate Card is changed, it will automatically update the Default Rate of every Resource Type that the Rate Card is associated with.

Tip: This feature can be used in conjunction with the new Resource Type Rate update feature to streamline the process of updating Resource Type Rates. See above for more information.

Note: Eclipse PPM users require the "Configuration Administration" permission from an Application Policy to create and edit Rate Cards. Also, users require the "Organization Administration" permission from an Application Policy to apply them to Resource Types while editing the Organization Structure.

With this update, a new Rate Cards selection can be found under the "Resource" menu on the Administration page.

This page can be used to create and edit Rate Cards.

Once a Rate Card has been created, it can be applied to multiple Resource Types on the Organization Structure page. Administrators will notice the new "Rate Card" drop-down menu while creating or editing Resource Types.

The drop-down menu contains every Rate Card from the "Rate Cards" page as well as a "Custom" option.

If a Rate Card is selected from the menu, the configured Rate will be automatically applied as the Resource Type's Default Rate. The "Default Rate" field will not be editable.

If "Custom" is selected from the menu, the "Default Rate" field can be edited just like it could before this release.

When an administrator edits the Rate of a Rate Card, that Rate will be automatically applied as the Default Rate for every Resource Type associated with the Rate Card.

Benefit:

Prior to this upgrade, changes in Resource Type Rates required administrators to manually update the Default Rates one-by-one. This became unnecessarily tedious and time consuming when multiple Resource Types were expected to share the same Rate; administrators had to update the Default Rate of each Resource Type to the exact same Rate. With this update, administrators can simply assign a Rate Card to Resource Types that share the same Rate in order to update their Rates simultaneously.

Example: Aly's agency pays architects at a Rate of £300. However, there many different kinds of architects that work for her, each with a different Resource Type ("BIM Model Architect", "Surveyor Architect", etc.). Market trends have forced her agency to increase this Rate to £320, so she will need to update the Default Rate of each architect Resource Type.
Prior to this release, she would have had to edit every Resource Type on the "Organization Structure" page to reflect this change. This would have taken up a great deal of time as well as leave room for human error. With this update, however, she can simply edit the "Architect Rate" Rate Card.

Once she saves this change, all of the architect Resource Types with the "Architect Rate" applied to them will automatically reflect the new Default Rate.

What's Different:

A new "Project Request" Data Source has been exposed in Upland Analytics. This Data Source allows Eclipse PPM users to create detailed reports and charts on Project Requests.

Note: Only Project Requests and Projects that were created from Project Requests will be included. Projects that were created traditionally through Eclipse PPM will not be reported on.

This new Data Source contains two Data Views: the "Project" view and the new "Project Request" view.

Note: If any fields from the "Project" view are included, only converted Projects will be included in the report. Project Requests that have not been converted yet will not be included.

The new "Project Request" Data View contains the following fields:

• Is Converted to Project (A): Indicates whether the Project Request has been converted into a Project or not.

• Project Id (A): The ID number of the Project.

  Note: Requested Projects that have not been converted to Projects yet will not have ID numbers.

• Project Template Id (A): The ID number of the Project Template used to request the Project.

• Project Template Name (A): The name of the Project Template used to request the Project.

• Request Id (A): The ID number of the Project Request.

  Note: This will still be displayed for Projects that have been converted from a Project Request.

• Name (Text) (A): The name of the Project / Project Request.

• Name (URL) (A): The name of the Project / Project Request. Selecting the name will navigate the report viewer to the Project Home page.

  Note: Only Project Requests that have been converted to Projects will contain links in this field. Project Requests do not have Home pages.

• Resolved By Full Name [First Last] (A): The first and last name (in that order) of the Eclipse PPM user who approved the Project Request and converted it into a Project.

• Resolved By Full Name [First Last] (URL) (A): The first and last name (in that order) of the Eclipse PPM user who approved the Project Request and converted it into a Project. Selecting the name will navigate the report viewer to the user's profile.

• Resolved By Full Name [Last First ] (A): The last and first name (in that order) of the Eclipse PPM user who approved the Project Request and converted it into a Project.

• Resolved By Full Name [Last First ] (URL) (A): The last and first name (in that order) of the Eclipse PPM user who approved the Project Request and converted it into a Project. Selecting the name will navigate the report viewer to the user's profile.

• Resolved Date (): The date (mm/dd/yyyy) and the time the Project Request was approved and converted into a Project.

• Resolved Date Month (): The month the Project Request was approved and converted into a Project.

• Resolved Date Month Year (): The month and the year that the Project Request was approved and converted into a Project.

• Resolved Date Quarter (): The fiscal quarter that the Project Request was approved and converted into a Project.

• Resolved Date Quarter Year (): The fiscal quarter and the year that the Project Request was approved and converted into a Project.

• Resolved Date Year (): The year the Project Request was approved and converted into a Project.

• Status (A): The approval status of the Project Request.

• Submitted By Full Name [First Last] (A): The first and last name (in that order) of the Eclipse PPM user who submitted the Project Request.

• Submitted By Full Name [First Last] (URL) (A): The first and last name (in that order) of the Eclipse PPM user who submitted the Project Request. Selecting the name will navigate the report viewer to the user's profile.

• Submitted By Full Name [Last First ] (A): The last and first name (in that order) of the Eclipse PPM user who submitted the Project Request.

• Submitted By Full Name [Last First ] (URL) (A): The last and first name (in that order) of the Eclipse PPM user who submitted the Project Request. Selecting the name will navigate the report viewer to the user's profile.

• Submitted Date (): The date (mm/dd/yyyy) and the time the Project Request was submitted.

• Submitted Date Month (): The month the Project Request was submitted.

• Submitted Date Month Year (): The month and the year that the Project Request was submitted.

• Submitted Date Quarter (): The fiscal quarter that the Project Request was submitted.

• Submitted Date Quarter Year (): The fiscal quarter and the year that the Project Request was submitted.

• Submitted Date Year (): The year the Project Request was submitted.

Additionally, new Request-related standard reports and report components have been added to Upland Analytics for any users to run. The new reports can be found by selecting Dashboards → Dashboard Components → Requests from the Analytics menu.

The following new reports are available:

• All Requests: A tabular report containing all Project Requests.

  

• Approved Requests: A KPI that counts the total Project Requests that were approved over the last 12 months.

  

• Pending Requests: A KPI that counts the total number of unaddressed Project Requests.

  

• Rejected Requests: A KPI that counts the total Project Requests that were rejected over the last 12 months.

  

• Requests by Month: A stacked bar chart that displays the monthly trend of approved/rejected Project Requests that were submitted over the last 12 months.

  

Also, a new "Request Analysis (Rolling 12 Months)" dashboard can be found by selecting the "Dashboards" folder from the Analytics menu.

This dashboard displays the new "Requests by Month" stacked bar chart as well as the new "Approved Requests", "Rejected Requests", and "Pending Requests" KPIs.

Benefit:

Prior to this release, there was no way for Upland Analytics report builders to create reports on Project Request data. This missing component was a problem because many Eclipse PPM users create Projects using Project Requests. In fact, several use Project Requests as their primary source of creating new Projects. Now that Upland Analytics can be used to report on them, users can easily gain insight into their organization's requests.

Report viewers can use this Data Source to identify trends and patterns of the Projects that are being requested, including the type of Projects, the users that are requesting them, and them amount of requests that are being approved/rejected.

What's Different:

Custom Task Properties have been added as fields to the "Task" Data View in Upland Analytics. When users create a report with a Data Source that includes the "Task" Data View, they will be able to expose Task Property values for each Task.

Benefit:

Prior to this release, Task Properties could not be included in Upland Analytics reports. This was an issue for many organizations because Task Properties allow users to capture information about their Tasks that other Eclipse PPM fields cannot. Properties are part of what makes Eclipse PPM a customizable application that can be tailored to each individual organization. The ability to include Task Properties in Upland Analytics allows report builders to create more informative reports that contain data that is relevant to their unique report readers.

Example: Tony is creating an Upland Analytics report for recent Tasks on Digital Initiatives Projects. For every Task created in her organization's Eclipse PPM environment, Project Managers are expected to schedule a review meeting during the Task where the assignees share their progress and concerns. This prompted an administrator to create two custom Task Properties: "Review Date" and "Review Notes".
Prior to this release, Tony could not include this information in her Upland Analytics report. With this update, however, she can expose this information for each included Task. She can ensure that her report readers will know when each Task's review meeting happened as well as how it went.

What's Different:

Administrators can now determine how Project/Program Numbers and "Classification" fields will be applied to Projects and Programs while applying templates.

With this update, administrators will see two new "Apply Options" while applying templates.

• Project/Program Number: Determine how the template's auto-numbering settings will be applied to the Project/Program. Templates with a defined "Auto-Number Prefix" will apply a number with the prefix to the Project/Program. Templates without an "Auto-Number Prefix" will just assign a number.

  Note: If auto-numbering is not enabled on the template that is being applied, this field will be inactive.

  Note: To enable auto-numbering or an "Auto-Number Prefix", edit the settings of the Project or Program Template.

  

  • Do Not Change: The Project/Program Numbers of the Projects/Programs will not be changed.

  • Update: The auto-number settings of the template will be applied to the Projects/Programs. Even Projects/Programs that already have numbers will have new numbers applied to them.

  • Update, if empty: The auto-number settings of the template will be applied to Projects/Programs that do not currently have Project/Program numbers. Those that have numbers will not be affected.

• Classification Fields: Determine how the template's "Classification" fields will be applied to the Projects/Programs.

  Note: "Classification" fields can bee seen on a Project/Program's Home page when the "Profile" tab is selected.
  

  

  • Do Not Change: The "Classification" settings of the Projects/Programs will not be changed.

  • Replace project data with template data: All of the template's "Classification" values will be applied to the Projects/Programs.

Note: Prior to this release, the process of applying template information to Projects and Programs was known as applying Project/Program Template Configuration.

With this update, the process is now simply known as applying templates.

Benefit:

Administrators could apply many template entities to their Projects/Programs prior to this release, but there was no way to apply numbers or "Classification" settings. Now that this is an option, these fields can be standardized across a number of Projects/Programs. This ensures that all Projects/Programs adhere to a common format and are organized consistently across the organization. Additionally, it saves users from having to apply these settings to Projects/Programs one-by-one if standardization is changed. If Project Number prefix conventions are changed, for instance, and administrator can simultaneously apply the new prefix to as many Projects as required.

What's Different:

A new "Default Allocation" column is now available on the Resource Advanced Search page. This column will display the Default Allocation of each Resource listed in the table.

Note: The "Default Allocation" value is represented as a decimal of the Resource's Default Allocation percentage. For example, a value of "0.75" reflects a Default Allocation percentage of 75%. A value of "1" reflects a Default Allocation of 100%.

Users can add this column to the page while configuring the table.

Like other columns, users can select the "Default Allocation" column header to sort the Resources in numeric or reverse numeric order based on their Default Allocations. Additionally, the textbox in the column header can be used to filter the Resources by their Default Allocations.

Benefit:

Default Allocation represents the standard or expected percentage of time a Resource should be allocated to specific Tasks or Projects. Including it as a column on the Resources Advanced Search page helps Project Mangers understand the baseline workload for each Resource. This gives them an idea of how available each Resource is before adding them to Projects.