BigPicture 8.3.0 Release Notes



New authentication method to our non-public REST API

Your management data security is paramount to us. That’s why with version 8.3 we are introducing a new API connection authentication method that will protect your data against CSRF attacks more effectively. From version 8.3 on, every API endpoint requires a special token to authenticate the connection.

To keep using our non-public API after upgrading to version 8.3, you need to adjust all your custom automation flows, non-standard reporting solutions, and other connections so that they meet the new authentication requirements. Please mind that this change applies exclusively to Server and Data Center instances of our products and have no impact on Cloud instances whatsoever. We recommend upgrading on-prem instances of our apps to version 8.3 only after adjusting API connections to the new requirements. Learn more…

Should you have any questions, please contact our Support Team.



Resource management

Track and analyze resource capacity your way

Now, capacity allocation can be presented in percentages, man-days, or as a heatmap. You can tell if everything is fine with your workloads with a single glance.

Give your HR PMO some new superpowers

Thanks to the Global Resource Admin role, managers do not need App Admin permissions anymore to administer resource-related configuration of the app (i.e. update users’ non-working days). 


Present your resource data in Excel just like in BigPicture

Big Template users only

From now, whenever you export Resources to Excel files using BigTemplate your output spreadsheets will respect aggregation settings defined in your BigPicture view (e.g. a daily summary, a weekly report or a monthly report).

Greater ease of use and accessibility

Inline editing

You can now display indicators such as Estimates, all Jira dropdown fields or Priority in the columns of your Gantt WBS panel. Moreover, you can in-line edit them, while planning work or whenever needed. Last but not least, in-line editing is also available in Overview.




Edit task details right in the Resources module

Now, you can in-line edit Jira tasks right in the Resources module. Need to modify an estimate or any other field? You can do so in no time without leaving BigPicture!


Scope and dependency management no more a challenge

Collapse all task groups, sort and easily manage them on your Gantt charts

BigGantt has been augmented with new grouping and creating dependencies capabilities. You can easily collapse all task groups, sort grouped tasks and manage dependencies between them, all to get a clear view of the elements that matter in a given context.




Get a clear view of your board no matter how complex your dependency network is

If your board looks a bit like a bowl full of noodles, don’t worry. Now, you can collapse all dependencies and see how every single task is connected with others using the dependency counter. Moreover, dependencies displayed on Board can now be based on several link types in your Jira.

Share Gantt views with others by simply sending them relevant links

If you need to share a specific Gantt module view with someone, you can now simply generate and send them a link. They will get the exact same view that you’re looking at. 

Copy your Jira Quick Filters directly to BigPicture

Now, you can filter your tasks in BigPicture based on Quick Filters that you set for your Jira boards by simply copying them directly to the app.

Financial management enters BigPicture

Add a financial dimension to your portfolio-level view

You can add and fill in manually columns that are critical for effective management of the financial side of your initiatives, such as budgets, estimated costs, actual costs. You can assign values to specific initiatives (e.g. projects) as well as to work items they consist of, and neatly aggregate the values at the initiative or portfolio level.

Adjust your portfolio-level metrics to the management approaches used within that portfolio

As different things matter in different types of initiatives, you can now customize your portfolio-view columns in the Overview module to reflect those changes and get instant access to relevant indicators.

Show exactly what you want to show in Jira & Confluence gadgets

Now, the data from Gantt, Calendar, and Risks modules that you want to present using Jira and Confluence gadgets can be filtered using both regular and Quick Filters.

List of changes

Category

Feature description

Sneak peek

Category

Feature description

Sneak peek

AUTHENTICATION

 New authentication method to REST API  

  • all custom automations, reports, etc. that use BigPicture API will stop working

  • they need to be adjusted (one by one) to include a special token required to authenticate with all endpoints in our API



Financial management

 New columns and fields 

  • Gantt, Scope, Board: new columns/fields

  •  

    • Estimated Cost, Actual Cost

    • Can be synced with multiple custom fields

    • Available for basic tasks

  • Overview: new columns (manual updates)

  •  

    • Budget, Estimated Cost, Actual Cost

    • Rough planning, integration with external system

    • Tasks in scope not required

  • Overview: new columns (auto-calculation) 

  •  

    • Estimated Cost, Actual Cost

    • Bottom-up reporting

    • Based on tasks in the scope



Sub-scope sync

Jira epic link can be used for sub-scope synchronization. 

Inline Editing 

Inline editing

  • Column view (Gantt, Scope, Board backlog, Risks)

  • Card view (Board, Risks)

added for:

  • estimates (Estimation Data Type fields: Original Estimate and Remaining Estimate)

  • single select fields

  • priority

Those fields can be also edited for basic tasks. 

Inline editing is available for the Overview and Resources modules (task details).

Inline editing for columns with aggregations (Gantt, Scope, Board backlog) - only for tasks that are not parents.

Filters

TXT filter:

  •  

    • task key value is included in the results

    • applies to basic tasks

    • available on Teams and Resources (as well as JQL query) 



Import Quick Filters from a Jira board

You can easily import existing filers from a Jira board. 

Filtering options are stored per Box module, so you can get different results in each module, precisely matched to your business needs.



Filtering available in gadgets:

  • Calendar

  • Gantt

  • Risks

Overview module 

Manage columns

  • Box attributes

  •  

    • start/end dates, leader, status, etc.

    • estimated/actual cost

    • period mode, scope type, created date, etc.

  • Box metrics: 

  •  

    • latest end date, earliest start date, etc.

    • estimate sums, cost sums

    • team-based (capacity)

Gantt module 

 Share view

If you need to share a specific BigGantt view with someone, you can now simply generate and send them a link. They will get the exact same view that you’re looking at. 

Grouped tasks can be filtered

You can turn on task grouping and apply other filters to further refine results.

Grouped tasks can be sorted

Sorting is initiated by clicking on the column header

  • Only tasks in groups are sorted (groups themselves are not sorted)

  • Sorting is possible only for the fields that are possible to "organize by" 

  • Sorting is impossible for columns with aggregation enabled

Cost fields can be added for tasks

  • Actual cost

  • Estimated cost

Columns are also available in the Scope and Board modules.

Aggregations resulting from task details can be viewed in the Overview module (Actual cost (Tasks) and Estimated cost (Tasks) columns) 

Board module

More than one Jira link type can be visualized by the app as a Soft dependency

A variety of Jira link types between issues can have a visual representation in the BigPicture app.

Live-sync is available for the Board module and can be turned on in the app configuration.

Duration-based totals format can be configured (days, hours)

Resources module













Resource capacity allocation is shown in %

In the Resources module, for all effort modes (Original estimate, Remaining estimate, Story Points) you can display capacity, workload and remaining capacity (of a resource or a skill) in a new unit: Percent (in addition to other available units e.g.Hours)

Resources module displays data in man-days unit 

In the Resources module, for effort modes Original estimate and Remaining estimate: you can display capacity, allocation and remaining capacity (of a resource or a skill) in a new unit: Man-days (in addition to other available units e.g.Hours)

 Easier non-working days management (new global Resource Admin role)

The Resource Admin role is effectively an extended App User role, which means that such a user:

  • has basic access to the App (can access their user profile and sees the App dropdown in the header)

  • can access Boxes based on individual Box security settings - does not receive access to all Boxes automatically like App Admin

  • additionally is allowed to administer resource-related global configuration (Administration>Resources page with all subpages, no access to Box types, Security)

  • cannot access App configuration, unless the User is a hostplatform Admin at the same time.

task details inline editing (estimates included)

You can inline edit fields based on their types (e.g. Start date, End date, Story Points, Remaining estimate, Skills, Dependencies).

The export respects the aggregation settings

The excel export file contains date ranges in the columns (instead of specific days).

E.g. if aggregation is set as a week, the column will have a date range of a week.

Risks module

New Risk configuration

Risk fields are mapped per integration (Jira instance, Trello connection). 

Values of the risk matrix axes are separately adjusted.



Matrix and table are available as two separate views.

Reports module

Task report: Sum formula for "time" fields

Sum formula reports can be based on fields such as Story points and time tracking fields. 

Dependencies-related reports: export to excel file

You can click on a given report cell and export information about its contents into an xls file (Dependencies and Team dependencies reports).

Dependencies report: "inter-project" dependencies hidden by default (cells that would count links within the same Box are empty)



Administration 

Tabs grouped under "Resources"

  • Individuals

  • Workload Plans

  • Holiday Plans

  • Skills

Resource Manager renamed to "Individuals"  

Filtering

Column information can be used to filter data in the "Individuals" tab. 

Gadgets

Filtering available in gadgets:

  • Calendar

  • Gantt

  • Risks