🌟 Introducing the Cool and Crisp Makeover for Model-Driven Apps! 🚀🎨
Hey, app aficionados! Get ready to jazz up your model-driven apps because they’re getting a snazzy, modern, and totally refreshed look! 🌈✨ 🎉 What’s the Buzz? Turn on the “Try the new look” feature, and voila! Your Model-Driven Apps will be rocking updated styling, with cooler fonts, trendier colors, and even some magical shadows. It’s like giving your apps a makeover to align perfectly with the latest Microsoft Fluent design system. 🎨✨ 🚀 Why the Hype? This revamped look isn’t just for show – it’s designed to make your app experience smoother and more efficient. Imagine updated styling in form, view, and dashboard pages, creating an elevated, almost floating appearance! It’s not just a makeover; it’s an app revolution! 💻🚀 🔮 What’s in the Modern Magic Kit? 🎨 Command Bar Couture! Check out the floating command bar – it’s like the runway of your app, with rounded corners and consistent spacing. This isn’t just an update; it’s a fashion statement for your app’s command bar! 👩🎤💄 👀 View Pages that Wow! View pages are now the rockstars of your app. With a sleek command bar and the Power Apps grid control for infinite scrolling, data browsing just got a whole lot cooler. Your app just became the VIP lounge of data interaction! 🕶️📊 📋 Form Pages – Redefined Elegance! Form pages are strutting their stuff with a new command bar and refreshed headers, tabs, and business process flows. Quick views, card forms, and timelines also got a makeover. It’s not just a page; it’s a form of art! 🎨📝 💡 Field Controls – Styled to Perfection! Field controls like text input, lookup, and checkboxes are now the supermodels of Fluent design. Icons have shifted to the right for that perfect balance, and redundant icons have hit the road for a cleaner look. Your app’s fields just got a glow-up! 💅🌟 📊 Dashboard Page – Where Data Meets Glam! System dashboards are now flaunting the new command bar and a style that matches form and view pages. Monthly channel users get the Power Apps grid control for a dashboard that’s not just informative but also Instagram-worthy! 📸✨ 🚀 Activate the Glam! End-users, it’s your time to shine! Hit the “Try the new look” switch in the app header, and your app will transform into a modern marvel. Don’t worry; you can switch back anytime. It’s like having a magic button for your app’s wardrobe! ✨🔄 🚧 Limitations – Keepin’ It Real! Okay, so the mobile and mail apps are taking a rain check on the glam party. Also, classic theme customizations are making way for a new era. Change can be challenging, but it’s all for the greater good of app evolution! 🔄📱 Get ready to turn heads and elevate your app game because the future of model-driven apps is here, and it’s looking fresher than ever! 🚀💻✨ Thank you , Sayantan! for your valuable inputs!
Now Import Projects from Microsoft Project Desktop Client in Project Operations
Problem Definition: In contrast to Project Service Automation, where importing projects is made easy via a ribbon button, it was previously not possible for current Microsoft Project Desktop Client users to do so in D365 Project Operations. Project for the Web is supported by D365 Project Operations, although not all of Microsoft Project Desktop Client’s features are available. It was imperative to establish a connection between the two due to the system’s gap. Solution: Steps to import a file in Project Limitations: Project for the Web works well for the majority of projects, but it doesn’t totally replace Project desktop. The following features cannot be migrated or supported. Before you begin importing your project, make sure it doesn’t rely on these features. Cross-project dependencies, manual tasks, recurring tasks, subprojects, and even some types of selective constraint types like As late as possible, Start no later than, Finish no later than, etc. are a few characteristics. There are many such features which are not supported while importing. Refer given Microsoft link for more information: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/move-your-project-from-project-desktop-to-project-for-the-web-143ab391-002e-451a-aedb-3b6fa1f6ab8b#bkmk_featuresthatdontmigrate Conclusion: Users will have the freedom to utilise any project planning tool of their choice, including Project Desktop Client and Project for the Web, thanks to this import feature. This functionality is a good complement to all the other functionalities in the product and will help D365 Project Operations meet more customer requests. Thank you, Sankalp for your valuable inputs.
Project Operations vs Project Service Automation, A Seamless Comparison to Read
We know that PSA is now known as Project Operations. Well, it’s not just a name change but also some significant improvements that Microsoft has brought in. The following blog will take you through the differences between PSA and Project Operations. The upgrade from Project Service Automation to Project Operations is going to be delivered in three phases. Below are the major changes which will be seen after the upgrade is complete. In this phase, the dependency on WBS has been cut off for projects. With all the modifications from phase 1, we even have WBS that is a part of the project operations limits that are currently supported In addition to the enhancements from phase 2, WBS also includes support for the Project desktop client and extends beyond the present scope of Project Operations. Let’s delve deep in feature wise comparison between PSA and Project Operations. 1] Project Templates: They help you generate the WBS structure from an already pre-defined WBS structure in the form of a template. Project Service Automation: ✔️ Included You can create a project template as shown in below image in PSA: After saving this record, you can add the record while creating a new project as shown in the below image. You can also select ‘Is Template’ field to save the current project as a project template. Project Operations: Not included This feature is not included in Project Operations, but the same functionality can be done with the ribbon button on the Project form named ‘Copy Project’. With this all the task information and the project properties get copied in a new draft project. 2] Project work breakdown structure (WBS) integration with desktop client: A project management tool with automated scheduling, resource management, and built-in reporting is Microsoft Project Online desktop client. Project Service Automation: ✔️ Included This feature is very essential in PSA as with the capabilities of desktop client, Task management can be done efficiently. There is a ribbon button to integrate the system as shown: Project Operations: Not included This feature is not there in Project Operations as it has OOB integration with Project for the web. 3] Constraints – Start no earlier than, finish no later than: When you add a constraint on the tasks it forces you to start or end on that date even if the schedule is changed. Constraint is very useful, but one needs to be careful about the dates Project Service Automation: Not included This is not available in Project Service Automation and is possible if integrated with Project Desktop Client. Project Operations: ✔️ Included This feature restricts the resource to complete the task start and finish the task in the given time. When a constraint is set your calendar icon gets a cross sign stating that it is restricted. Example: If you select Constraint type as ‘Finish No Later Than’ and the Finish date is set as 3rd February 2023. The task then needs to be completed by the specified date. 4] Milestones – Tasks with zero duration: Milestones are key points in the project timeline and serve as markers to indicate that certain objectives have been met and provide an opportunity to review and assess progress. Milestones are typically used to track the progress of a project, to communicate with stakeholders, and to help manage risks. Project Service Automation: Not Included This feature is not available in PSA and is exclusively available in Project Operations Only. Project Operations: ✔️ Included Adding a milestone task with zero duration is now possible in Project Operations unlike PSA. Just add ‘0’ in the duration field and set same start and finish date as shown below: And now the milestone symbol can be seen as shown in the below image: 5] Resource driven tasks will respect the availability of assigned resources Resource-driven tasks are scheduled based on the availability of the resources assigned to them. This means that the start and end dates of a task are determined by the availability of the necessary human, equipment, or material resources. This helps ensure that tasks are completed efficiently and within the given time frame. Project Service Automation: Not Included This feature is not available in Project Service Automation. Project Operations: ✔️ Included The system considers the availability of resources when scheduling tasks and adjusts task dates accordingly. This helps ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget, and that resources are utilized efficiently. It takes into consideration the work hour template of the assigned resources and changes the Start and Finish date according to the availability. 6] Time-phased editing – Edit plans and work on a day-by-day basis This feature provides a detailed view of the project schedule, with tasks and their associated work broken down into daily increments. This level of granularity enables project managers to adjust the project schedule based on daily progress and to account for changes in resource availability or task dependencies. Project Service Automation: ✔️ Included With the help of this feature, we can change the efforts on the resource assignments grid on a day-by-day basics and even by week or month. This makes work easy as changes can be done on the grid itself. Project Operations: Not Included This feature is not yet added in the Project Operations, but we can expect this update in later phases. 7] Automatic/manual scheduling – Use the Project scheduling engine to schedule tasks automatically or manually Project Service Automation: ✔️included The scheduling of tasks for leaf nodes is determined by the task mode. Every activity supported by PSA has two task modes: automatic scheduling and manual scheduling. Automatic Scheduling: Scheduling engine uses the rules on task attributes to determine the schedule for the task. Manual Scheduling: It stops the engine from calculating the values of other scheduling attributes. Project Operations: Not Included This feature is not available in Project Operations. 8] Edit large projects directly in the user interface: There is no limit to the size of plans that are editable Project Service
First cut review of new D365 Project Service
The new Project Service coming up is a much-advanced version of PSA. Even more that it will be called as Project Service. We would learn about it and a few features that are exposed to the world shortly in the blog below. How to Install and Basic Requirement? The new project service can be installed on the Default environment of CRM. Now if this confuses you, let me explain. Every CRM environment has a Default CRM Instance associated to it. How to go and check it? Follow the below steps: Step 1: Ensure you have Project Plan 3 or Project Plan 5 license procured. Go to your admin portal and assign the license to your login id. Step 2: Login to https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/ with your admin credentials. Step 3: Click on Environments. Before that ensure you toggle the switch to use “Try new admin centre”. Step 4: On the right-side pane, you will see a default environment mentioned as “Default” in front of the environment name. Click on it to see the URL of the environment. Step 5: Click on the URL to open the environment and below page will appear. Click on Project from the apps that you see. You will be taken the Active Project view as shown below: Create a New Project In order to create a new project, click on +New Project button mentioned on the Ribbon Control. It will ask you for some basic details like Project Name, Project Manager and Calendar Template. As soon as you save the project, the estimated start date comes up as the current date. Next step is the plan the schedule (WBS) so we will navigate to Tasks. As soon as you click on tasks. It will take some time initially for the first time to connect to the project online services and you will see 3 tabs coming as shown below. Let’s look at each one of them one-by-one. Grid This is where you create your WBS, Assign Resources, Set Duration, Predecessor and many more. As soon as the task is created in the WBS. It creates the similar task on the Board (Explained below). Good Thing: We can mark the task as complete in new WBS with Project Service which was not the case in earlier version (PSA). It is connected to the new Project Online Services so we can take advantage of the Project Online features right herewith. We can manage the project using the board which is much nice a feature. Needs Improvement: Here the Duration and efforts are tightly integrated to each other and in case one changes the other too changes. Boards should had allowed to add sprints in them, so we could even do Agile Project Management there. Board This is where you can create tasks, to which the resources can be assigned. You can add Bucket (Swim lanes in Azure DevOps) to manage the state of the tasks. It also manages the progress of the task, Remaining effort, etc. Timeline This is the Gantt Chart view of the tasks based on the efforts entered. What’s not available and when will it be available Currently only the WBS or the Project Planning Module via Project Online is Exposed for General Availability. The sales extension and the invoicing piece is expected to be announce in Feb’2020. This blog reflects my personal findings and based solely on my experience of using Project Service for last couple of months. For those who are looking for a platform that can track and manage the entire procedures of sales and project managements, I would highly recommend them to try new Project Service as guided above.