In this article, we will review the Programs page in PPM Express. Programs are used to organize a group of Projects to manage them in a coordinated way towards a common business goal. You can add Projects and Programs to Portfolios or just keep them separately from Portfolios for easy coordination.
Programs page includes the list of all Programs created in PPM Express. For your convenience, it can be shown as a tileset, table, or timeline.
Regardless of the view type used, the list of your Programs can be filtered using the Filter field in the upper right part of the screen. Using this control item, you can also create filter presets.
Also, the list of your Programs can be filtered using the Sort By option to sort the programs by 'Newest on Top' and 'Oldest on Top' and alphabetically.
Please note: It is possible to assign several managers for the same Program.
One particular project may be placed in several Programs. You can review the list of Portfolios where the Program is added on the cards as well as the projects included in the Program.
To export/import programs to/from the .csv file perform the steps described in the 'How to import/export programs' article.
Programs: Card view
When the Card view is selected, the Programs page is shown as a tileset with a graphical representation of the actual stats for each program in the Summary view.
Сosts/Work details selector in the upper right part of the screen allows changing this representation to the Work (showing stats for actual and planned work for each program) or Costs (showing cost stats).
To edit any of the Programs available, click on it.
It is also possible to edit or delete Programs by clicking the ellipsis button and choosing Edit or Delete from the drop-down menu.
Programs: Configurable table
The configurable table represents available Programs as a table. By default, it is switched to the General info view with only the basic stats for each Program.
Using the View selector in the upper right part of the screen, you can create and configure new Views to show additional columns for preferred stats of your Programs.
To edit any Programs in the list, click the ellipsis button and choose Edit from the drop-down menu.
To bulk edit or bulk delete Programs, select the ones you need in the configurable table view and click the Bulk edit or Bulk delete option as required.
It is also possible to apply a default layout to a number of Programs at once by selecting the required Programs and clicking the Layouts button. Using this button, you can apply the layout of the Program Dashboard that you created to the selected Programs.
Programs: Timeline
Timeline is an easy and convenient representation of the start, finish, and deadline dates for each project in all available Programs.
In this view, you can edit any of the Programs or the Projects by clicking on its name.
Similar to Configurable table data representation, by default, Timeline representation is switched to the General info view with only the basic info for each Program.
Using the View selector in the upper right part of the screen, you can create and configure new Views to show additional columns for preferred stats of your Programs. Each custom view will still display timelines of projects included in the program in addition to the columns selected for the custom view.
To bulk edit or bulk delete Programs, select the ones you need in the timeline view and click the Bulk edit or Bulk delete option as required.
It is also possible to apply a default layout to a number of Programs at one go by selecting the required Programs and clicking the Layout button. In this case, the selected layout of the Program Dashboard will be applied to the selected Programs.
The timeline color depends on the project Progress and Overall Status:
- Blue - project Progress is set to Completed
- Gray - project Progress is set to Not Started
- Green - project Progress is set to In Progress and Overall Status is set to On Track
- Orange - project Progress is set to In Progress and Overall Status is set to At Risk
- Red - project Progress is set to In Progress and Overall Status is set to Critical
- Dotted line - project key dates or iterations are out of project dates (project start and end dates)