Clarity

We are in the process of evaluating upgrading from 14.3 to 15.1.  We have 15.1 in our test environment right now and are looking at whether it's worth turning on the new user experience.  

I realize that the new UX is just the first step in an eventual overhaul of the entire UI but from my testing it really feels like an unfinished product that I think will cause more confusion and frustration among users that we would turn it on for.  Namely the lack of access to reports and portlets and very limited filtering seem make me feel like people will just end up switching back to Classic PPM and never using the new UX.    I realize the new UX may be intended for basic users who just do time entry or light project management, but to me having to support both UXs I think would be a lot of unnecessary overhead to the point where when we do move to 15.1 we may just not turn it on at all and wait until it's more fully baked.  Seems like CA just kind of rushed this out to quickly.

Curious to how others are approaching it and if you've upgraded to 15.1 whether you've rolled it out or not.

Wow I just posted a very similar question! lol

Actually we are quite pleased with what the new UI offers overall. We are targeting it for a subset of our overall projects. Our "Traditional Waterfall" projects which are led by professional PM's from the PMO will still be managed within Classic. They have the option of utilizing the Conversations and Status dashboard pages in the new UI to help facilitate team collaboration. But they understand that all other management functions need to rely on classic at this time.

About 40% of our projects are not traditional waterfall, are not managed by a trained PM, and can easily make good use of the new UI for the full lifecycle management of their projects. Sure, there are a few features they will lose, for example Stage Promotion. But we asked ourselves whether that was actually adding value for these types of projects, and elected to live without it.

As stated in my parallel post, our only real gap is figuring out how to create Team Allocations while still "living" in the new UI - either by transposing ETCs to Allocations or by some other magic.

Our plan is to sit on 14.3 & run both reporting technologies in tandem until a future release where the Resource Management side of the coin gets addressed in the new UX and the Jasper integration matures.

Since seeing a preview of 15.2 at CA world, I think you should wait for the next release.

15.1 provides value to the timesheet user but your adaptive project management audience (nicole) would want more features. (config, document management, conversation improvements)

To be fair to CA product management they had to start somewhere, i'm impressed with the offering but it's not right for us just yet

Thanks Andrew - that's the kind of customer supplied forward looking statement we've been hoping to hear. We love the direction of the new UX and agree product management/development has done fantastic work & trust they are still doing fantastic work. We're looking forward to sampling the next couple releases in 2017 to find the one that's 'just right'. We have 'Upgrade to 15.x' on our Roadmap for mid 2017. Right now the upgrade value conversations are cerebral (pros/cons). I'd love to be able pull this forward when my customers see something that wows them - hook them on an emotional decision. My job gets easier when they can say to me "We can live without all of THIS and live with THIS if you just please please please give us THIS".

Hopefully the PPM roapmap slides will appear on slideshare at some point

Rob,

What type of resource management functions are you looking for? I also have 15.x upgrade on my Q3 roadmap, the lightweight project planning as well as the collaboration/conversation features are our main interests right now. However we are also looking for a way to do team planning - associate resources to team(s), entering Allocation and ETC at team rather than resource level, having the team information natively shown on projects, assignments, cost plans, etc. I know it's not a small enhancement and not likely to be available any time soon, but would love to exchange some ideas if your company has similar requirement.

Hi Connie.

    What we want is a whole different approach to Resource Management. 

... that, too, isn't gonna happen anytime soon.

We all knew the Project Manager & Team Member Personas were getting their MVP in 15.1. The grapevine tells us that the Resource Manager persona is being worked on - so we're really looking for whatever we can get. Allocation to Team is a MVP for us.

Amen!

• Add Critical Chain capabilities (competitors/partners of competitors are doing this already) Add Critical Chain capability
• Make CA Agile Central part of PPM license (let users determine which method to run based on which method is better for their projects, rather than based on what licenses they own; some competitors are doing this) (submitted as part of my answer "How to make CA PPM Better?" question in recent CA survey.)
• Add capability to display Gantt tasks in resource perspective, with drag/drop capability to move work from overloaded resource to one that has available capacity (available in market, today) Upgrade Gantt to include Resource View across projects
• ....

Dale

Thank you as well!

We are doing the same evaluation, but it seems like management wants to release the new UX UI as a "beta" so that users can experience the future of the application first hand.  My initial thoughts have been recorded in this idea here: New UX UI - Status Reports  as well as some inputs I've provide here: Configuring the New User Experience for Lower Environments  and Ability to customise theme of new UX (CA PPM).  That seems to mirror what others are saying, too!

We will not be upgrading to 15.1, the status UI is a good first step, but it doesn't do everything we need it to do.

Funny enough, prior to seeing the 15.1, we implemented an improved status reporting dashboard to drive adoption, and it was a hit. CA is definitely onto something good, but until it catches up, we'll continue using what we have - see below if you need inspiration.

Looks good, is that something you built in house? 

Hi,

Does anyone have any specifics regarding 15.1 vs. 15.2? 

• What major issues exist in 15.1 that aren't yet addressed by available fix-packs?
• Are major issues left in 15.1 fixed in 15.2?
• What additional capabilities will likely by there in 15.2?
• Will 15.2 deliver a more mature Jaspersoft and what does 'more mature' mean? 
• We're expecting the New UIX to have more in 15.2, but will it and if yes, what will it have?
• Target date for 15.2 release?

Yes, understand that until GA released, content of 15.2 is not guaranteed, can change.  But I don't have any details that I can give our team/management, yet.  "We've delayed 15.1 long enough that we might as well wait for 15.2," is an insufficient argument - resources were planned, are ready to go.

Did you get the invitation to CA PPM 'Coltrane/Davis' Release Preview 1? The preview should tell you something of the new version.

Yes – but haven’t seen meeting schedule,  yet, and we are finalizing our 15.1 plan, now.

just got mine and registered. If you not got yours yet, it should be very soon.

It was a great demo.

Actually we are quite pleased with what the new UI offers overall. love the direction of the new UX and agree product management/development has done fantastic work .would like to have specifics regarding 15.1 vs. 15.2 as mentioned above by @DaleStockman

Did you guys get the info you were looking for about 15.2?

Hello Everyone, 

CA PPM 15.2 is available (since March 10, 2017) and showcases significant new resource management capabilities and other productivity enhancements in the new user experience introduced with 15.1.

Discover the new features by reviewing the documentation as a collaborative starting point:

https://docops.ca.com/ppmop

https://docops.ca.com/ppmod

Thank you!

Janet's blog on RM first look

Expect you've all seen Janet's blog on the new Resource Management feature - just wanted to cross-link these topics.