BigPicture 8.5.0 Release Notes

Improved onboarding and greater ease of use

Field mapping screen on the first admin launch of the app

Tasked with configuring BigPicture? First, you need to map Jira fields onto BigPicture… and now the field mapping screen will pop up immediately on your first admin launch of the app.


Start using BigPicture just by selecting what you want to do

New to BigPicture? No worries! You’ll set your first initiative just by selecting what you want to plan, track, manage, and report on to  import relevant Jira projects into the app. 


Enterprise-grade templates available to all BigPicture users

Save time by setting up new initiatives with predefined templates. One of the hottest enterprise features is making it into the standard version of the app. Now, our gallery of preset initiative templates is available to all BigPicture users!


Contextual quick help is always at hand

Now you get instant contextual access to relevant documents right in the app. 

Your management command center is getting more customizable

Configurable Overview module column views

Configure what columns of your Overview to show. And save your preferred views for future use - to easily access the big picture view of your business you want.


Drag-and-drop management of the Overview structure

Change the Box order to manual and structure and restructure your portfolio in the most intuitive way. Arrange and rearrange your portfolios and initiatives by simply dragging and dropping items across the Overview module. The items will end up exactly where you place them. 

You can switch between sorting and manual modes without losing the manual data order. 


Gantt-charting is becoming more intuitive

Snipe to task on Gantt

Searching for specific tasks in the Gantt module is becoming easier and more intuitive. The items you search for are now highlighted and displayed among other items, so you never lose the context.


Story Point effort mode in the Gantt Resource Panel

If you use Gantt as an agile roadmapping tool or for timelining hybrid initiatives, you can now display the estimated and actual work effort expressed in story points, right in the resource panel.


Resource management is more flexible and intuitive

Adding absences by right-clicking on the Resources module

Managing resources is getting even easier. Now, adding an absence in the Resources module takes just a single (right)click.

Planning half-day absences

If your organization’s policy allows for half-day absences, now you can reflect those accurately in BigPicture. 

Upgraded timeboxing and backlog management

Board timeboxes based on Jira boards or set manually

Get the timeboxes your teams are using in Jira automatically synced with your BigPicture Board module.


In-line task creation from Board's backlog

Working with the Board module is becoming even easier. Now, you can save time during your planning sessions by in-line creating new tasks just by pulling them from the module’s backlog.


Scope greyed-out tasks can be hidden on task structure

Be it backlog prioritization or WBS planning that you are working on in the Scope module, you can achieve a neat, informative view by hiding all irrelevant (filter-based greyed-out) items.


Enhanced portfolio management

Custom columns based on Strings, Numbers, Dates, and Estimations

Every business case is unique and so are the metrics and indicators you might want to attach and track. Now, you can easily do so by adding your own custom columns based on strings, numbers, dates or estimations.


New BigPicture Enterprise features

Support for multi-Jira environments (Jira cloud only)

In enterprise environments having multiple Jira instances within an organization is equally common and challenging from the management perspective. Now, you can connect and manage multiple instances of Jira Cloud right in your “master” Jira Cloud instance - and see the full big picture.

New report type - Plan delay

Automatically list all overdue work items

Spotting all the work items that are behind the baseline and including them in your reports takes no time with the new enterprise report type - Plan delay. You simply add it to your Reports module and get an always up-to-date table of the overdue items you need to handle to keep all the initiatives on track.


Other changes

Category

Feature description

Sneak peek

Category

Feature description

Sneak peek

Navigation and layout

Scope definition

The "save" button is positioned at the bottom left.

App Configuration and App Administration - direct links to frequently used app configuration pages (wrench icon at the top right → drop-down menu)

Roadmap module - renamed to Objectives

Scope module - it's possible to resize the details panel



Reports module - new lightbox (presentation view)

When the Lightbox mode is active, you can use the arrows to switch between different rows or charts and also switch to the next or previous chart

Hover over the bars to show the task count in each category

Reports module - task report form (updated)



Resources module - task details

When a field has no value, it is shown as "Unassigned" or "Unestimated".

App settings drop-down (wrench icon at top right) updated

Jira Admin and/or App Admin is able to find all the settings he/she is looking for easily and quickly.

You can navigate directly to a particular settings tab:

Important: drop-down options are role dendent

Field mapping

You can review and change the field mapping. 

Changes affect only the project the Box is based on (separate configuration saved by the app).

Conditions: applicable only when the scope of a Box is based on a single Jira project. 









Gadgets





Box hierarchy gadget - sort the Box list

You can sort the list by:

  • name

  • ID

  • type

  • status

  • start date

  • end date

  • leader

The sorting in the gadget does not impact the order of the Boxes presented in the Overview module.



Box hierarchy gadget - simplified filtering

The following filters are available:

  • status

  • type 

  • favorites

  • my boxes

Risks gadget - gadget height can be adjusted

To change the width use the "Edit layout" option of a dashboard.

Filtering on the Risk gadget is independent of filtering on the Risk module

Filtering on the Calendar gadget is independent of filtering on the Calendar module

new task duration fields

Two new task duration fields are available:

  • Duration calendar days - based on the number of calendar days (start to end date)

  • Duration working days - based on the number of working days (non-working days excluded

Those fields can be added to colum views/cards in BigPicture modules.

Important: Read-only fields - the "duration" fields have informational value and are based on task data.

Overview module





Column views - full functionality added to the Overview module

In the Overview module you can:

  • make temporary changes to an existing view (doesn't affect other users)

  • update an existing column view  

  • create a new column view

Important: Column views of the Hierarchy mode and Timeline mode are independent and must be changed separately.

Box status - inline editing 

You can add a "Status" column to the Overview module. Then, use inline editing to change the value and update a Box status.

"Inactive for" column is available

You can see when the Box has been used for the last time. 





Creating Boxes





Define Box scope during Box creation

You can add Jira projects to the scope of the Box during the creation process.

Note: After creation, advanced settings are available in Box configuration. If you want the Box to be based on a Jira board or filters configure the scope after a Box has been created. 

Box type templates

11 Box type templates are available to all BigPicture users. When creating a new Box, select a Box type that best suits your business needs.

Templates can be reviewed and edited in app administration.

  • Agile project - A built-in type, that is recommended for projects run in agile methodology

  • Classic project - A built-in type, that is recommended for classic (waterfall) projects

  • Hybrid project - A built-in type, suitable for hybrid projects involving agile and classic approaches

  • Hybrid stage - A built-in type, that helps to organize hybrid project schedule into stages

  • Iteration - A built-in type, that helps to schedule work iteratively

  • LeSS Requirement Area - A built-in type, designed for multiple teams working together on one product.

  • Portfolio - A built-in type, that stores agile, classic and hybrid types of projects

  • Program - Basic Box type that lets you divide the work into lower levels such as Iterations, Stages or Program Increments

  • Program Increment - A built-in type, that allows for grouping iterations into increments (recommended for SAFe® adopters)

  • SAFe Art - A built-in type, to represent an Agile Release Train (recommended for SAFe® adopters)

  • Sprint - A built-in type, that helps to schedule work iteratively

  • Stage - A built-in type, that helps to organize classic project scope into stages

Default module names are the same for all Box types

Resources module

Create tasks

Using the '+Add' button, you can:

  • create new tasks

  • go to Scope definition

Search by Teams name and multi-select filter on Resources module

Story Points conversion

Story points conversion ratio can be set to "0"

Can be useful in connection with the velocity report.

When a team is still learning to estimate its velocity, the conversion ratio changes from sprint to sprint. You may prefer to show the velocity of future iterations as unknown (=0) and wait for the scrum master to later enter the correct value based on historic data (capacity planning tab of the Board module).

Resources panel (Gantt module)

Story Points effort mode is available on the Resource Panel (Gantt module)

Teams

Teams from a lower Box can be assigned to an upper Box

  • teams from upper-level Boxes 

  • teams from lower-level Boxes 



Security roles

Board module - capacity planning

Box editor can edit capacity planning values on Board.

Box viewer has read-only access to capacity planning on Board module.

BigTemplate

Scope module - export to .pdf 

Import date format

Three date formats are recognized:

  • yyyy-MM-dd (e.g. 2021-12-31)

  • dd-MM-yyyy (e.g. 31-12-2021)

  • MMM/dd/yyyy (e.g. Dec/31/2021).