Our latest deployment has added a long-awaited feature to PPO. The feature allows for entities to be added to PPO that are non-project related items. Using PPO’s standard entities such as RAID (Risks, Actions, Issues, Decisions), Tasks, Costs, Documents and adding your own custom entities, has always been a strength of PPO and the introduction of non-project related entities is another way we are adding to PPO’s flexibility and configuration ability.

Until now, all entities aside from Programmes and Employees were linked to Projects. There are a number of use cases for needing non-project related items and while in the past these requirements were met with some work arounds, we’ve recognised the need for functionality to manage non-project related items. Some examples are:

• A Demand (or Idea) entity to allow new demands or ideas to be logged, such that they can be screened and reviewed, before being approved as a project;
• Sprints, which are not for a specific project but are non-project related, such that the work within the sprint is done for numerous projects; or
• Exchange rates, which are used by clients who have multi-currency requirements and these rates are obviously not related to a specific project(s).

You can now add 3 new custom entities (yes, three more!) to PPO, where the items  are not related to projects.

Watch this short video for use cases and how to implement a non-project related entity.

We suspect that you’ll be tempted to drop what you’re doing and start tackling this awesome new feature but before you do, reach out to your success manager or our support desk for guidance. It’s important to implement the PPO functionality that are appropriate for your project management office (PMO) needs and if you have an existing entity that you feel might be better suited to a non-project related entity, then we can help you move it over quickly, including your data and any reporting and/or business rules.

We know you’ve been looking forward to this feature and might need some training in setting up non-project-related entities. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Sign up for our next Online PPO Administrator Bootcamp here and learn how to do this, and more!