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PPM Insights: FIRST LOOK, New CA PPM 15.1 Functionality Improves User Adoption and Builds Business Value (part 2)

By Anon Anon posted Aug 26, 2016 04:09 PM

  

As a follow-up to my last post about the enhanced usability of the next generation of CA PPM, version 15.1, I will focus on some high-level use cases and user interface (UI) improvements pertaining to Project Management. I believe these enhancements will directly impact your organization’s adoption and overall success with CA PPM.

 

In this blog, I will discuss my experiences using the latest release of CA PPM, and if you’ve followed my previous posts, you know that I often focus on the tool’s usability aspects. I will do the same here. As to set expectation, I will discuss features that I believe will be interesting to this audience, so this is not a technical post.

 

The first section is the updated Project Manager Home Screen:

 

 

When Project Managers log in, they see this interface, which lists all of their own projects and allows to view all projects that they have access to. This top-down display focuses on effort, key milestones and assigned team members. When clicking into a project, PMs can manage a number of functions, including the new “Conversations,” drag-and-drop “Tasks” and live “Status”:

 

 

As shown above, “Conversations” may be updated by the project team in this shared view, facilitating collaboration among team members. Note the left-hand menu bar, which takes the user to “Home,” “Projects,” “Timesheets" or the “Classic PPM” pages. PMs may also add, edit or remove team members from this view, with “Details” available:

 

 

“Tasks” may be added, edited and removed, and as in previous screens, an overview and “Details” are available:

 

 

The third section is the live “Status” report:

 

Here the Project Managers may update “Key Accomplishments,” “Upcoming Work," “Status Update” and view “Completed Tasks.” Standard status indicators are also editable for “Overall,” “Scope,” “Schedule” and “Cost/Effort.” One of my favorite enhancements is the calendar on the bottom right, which displays upcoming tasks and milestones for the next two weeks. Also, with the ability to drag and drop within this view, Project Managers may manage their dashboard layout on the fly:

 

 

Project Managers may further customize the tiles on the Status Report:

 

 

These UI updates streamline the system to support process in an intuitive way, and they enable organizations to give their users quick access to the activities they must perform while enabling more and better collaboration.

Usability is imperative to user adoption, which in turn drives an organization’s desired outcomes. As PPM system and process practitioners, we can greatly improve a solution’s value by helping people use the tool. I hope the information I provide here helps you do just that.

 

I look forward to sharing further CA PPM 15.1 insights with you as we continue down this valuable maturity journey. For readers interested in more detail, CA World is the perfect time and place to see presentations and demos. If you haven’t registered yet, you can do so here. I also recommend this General Availability communication, and encourage you to participate in the best-in-class CA Communities site, where you have access to communications, events and support. In addition, you can reach out to CA for individualized business outcomes references and analysis. Feel free to post in the comments section of this blog or contact me directly via email and Twitter @PPMWarrior.

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