In this article, we will review the Quick Start page in PPM Express and Demo Data that can be added to PPM Express when the tenant is created.
Quick Start page
A Quick Start page in PPM Express provides a brief walkthrough of the videos, help guides, and links related to your PPM Express plan. It is a great onboarding experience for new users and is a starting point with the main features and navigation links for existing users.
The Quick Start page is opened by default for all new users until the checkbox “Don’t show this page on startup” is checked by a user.
The page can be continuously accessed by clicking the “Quick Start” icon in the bottom left corner of the navigation menu.
Users can embed content to the Quick Start page using the 'Extensions' option on the Tenant Settings page.
Demo Data
PPM Express provides an ability to upload Demo Projects, Portfolios, Programs and Resources (depending on your plan) to your tenant from the Quick Start page, right after the first registration. PPM Express Administrator can upload demo data to the tenant.
Please note: For Projects plans demo data is uploaded automatically. For the Enterprise plans, users can create demo data by clicking on the corresponding button.
Demo data allows reviewing what information can be added to PPM Express and what benefits PPM Express provides. You can review demo Projects, Portfolios, Programs and Resources (depending on the plan selected) and test the application with demo data and then create or import your own data.
If you don't want to use demo data, you can create your Projects, Portfolios, Programs, and Resources at once from the Quick Start page.
Within the demo data, there are three demo Portfolios on the Portfolios page that you can open and review at once. Each Portfolio includes several Projects.
Please note: For Projects plans, only demo Projects and Resources will be available.
As you click on any Portfolio and open Portfolio dashboard, you will see data for the Projects included in this Portfolio. You can review Projects Summary, Statuses, General information about the Projects included in the current Portfolio, Key dates, and Portfolio Details.
If you click on any Project name on Portfolio Dashboard, Project Dashboard will be opened and you will be able to review the details for the selected Project.
Also, if you navigate to the Projects page, you will see all demo Projects included in PPM Express.
On this page, you can review information for the Projects and select to open the Project dashboard of any Project you would like to review the details for.
PPM Express also includes Generic Resources that are used in demo Projects. You can open the Resources page and review demo Resources and use them later for your Projects if required.
You can switch between these pages and review demo data to get an idea of how PPM Express is built and its main concepts. But please note that PPM Express is about much more because demo data is not linked to any of the source systems PPM Express supports. To fully evaluate PPM Express, we recommend importing your own Projects from the source systems PPM Express supports.
If you create and link or import your own Projects to PPM Express from Project Online, Planner, Jira or Azure DevOps, data from these systems will be imported to different Project sections of Project Dashboard (data can be synchronized from external systems to the following Project sections: Project Schedule, Project Team, Key dates, Iterations, Details, Risks, Issues). This data will be constantly updated, as there is scheduled data synchronization.
Also, PPM Express provides lots of Power BI reports using which you can see all progress indicators of your portfolios, projects, resource usage, timelines any time you need this information.
As soon as you add your data to PPM Express, you can configure PPM Express Power BI reports and use unified reporting for all portfolios and projects, etc, in your organization.
As you are ready to add your data to PPM Express, you can easily remove demo data in bulk when you do not need it anymore, and as you are ready to use the application add your own data.
To remove the Project in a bulk, open the Projects configurable table or timeline view and select the Projects you would like to remove by checking their checkboxes or selecting them in a bulk.
Delete the selected Projects.
Perform the same with Portfolios and Resources, if needed.
Also, please note that using the bulb-like button that is available on every PPM Express page, in the left lower part, you can open a tour guide on the selected topic and review how everything works in PPM Express.
