Skip to content
BestOutcome Logo
Skip to content
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Release 6.8 Notes

This release primarily introduces several significant updates to the underlying systems within PM3, featuring improved support for multiple users in a plan, enhancements to the β Gantt chart, and a range of critical fixes and usability refinements.

1.    New Functionality

#12650 Multiple Users Simultaneously Editing a Plan

In previous versions of PM3, editing a plan was governed by a system called Plan Locking, where the first user to open a plan would lock it for editing. This prevented other users from making changes at the same time, helping to avoid accidental data loss or overwrites.

However, this approach had several limitations:

  • The entire plan was locked, even if a user was only working on one specific section.
  • The unlocking process was unreliable in web browsers, sometimes failing to detect when a user had finished editing—often requiring system administrators to step in and manually unlock plans.
  • This protection applied only to plans, leaving other key areas like portfolios and admin settings vulnerable to editing conflicts.

To provide a more seamless and collaborative experience, we’ve replaced the old locking mechanism with a smarter and more flexible concurrency management system.

What’s New?

Plans are no longer locked when a user begins editing. Now, multiple users can work within the same plan at the same time. If they are editing different pages, they can continue without any interruptions.

If two users begin editing the same section or data, the system automatically steps in to prevent conflicts. Here’s how it works:

  • When a user opens a page, the system notes the version of the data they receive.
  • If another user makes changes in the meantime, the system detects that the first user’s data is outdated.
  • To avoid overwriting the newer changes, the system will prompt the first user to refresh their page before continuing (see screenshot below)

Example:

  • User A opens a plan and updates a text field on the Governance > Delivery Status page e.g. Delivery Status Summary.
  • User B enters the same plan on the same page and sees User A’s changes reflected.
  • User B makes further edits to the same field and other text fields, which are all saved successfully.
  • If User A tries to save additional edits without refreshing first, they’ll be prompted to reload the page to avoid overwriting User B’s updates.

 

This new concurrency model doesn’t just apply to plans—it now extends across all key areas of PM3, including Admin, Portfolios, Resourcing, Benefits, and Home. Wherever users are working with editable content, the system ensures changes are protected from being unintentionally overwritten.
Note: The New Gantt Chart does not support this concurrency model and therefore only one user should edit a plan at one time.

#18743 Additional Risk Fields - Target Severity/Target Likelihood

This release introduces a valuable enhancement to PM3’s risk management capabilities with the addition of Target Risk—now available alongside the existing Inherent and Residual risk ratings.

Users can now define both the Target Risk Severity and Target Risk Likelihood for each risk. PM3 will then automatically calculate the Target Risk Rating using the familiar formula: Severity × Likelihood. This new field helps teams set and communicate their desired level of risk exposure after mitigation strategies are applied.

To support this enhancement, the Risks page in PM3 has been updated to include the following new columns:

  • Target Risk Severity
  • Target Risk Likelihood
  • Target Risk Rating
  • Target Risk Level

These additions provide clearer visibility into risk reduction goals and help facilitate more informed decision-making.

In addition, PM3 BI has also been enhanced to include these new Target Risk fields, ensuring your reports and dashboards reflect the full picture of risk status, targets, and progress—offering more robust insights for risk tracking and governance.

#22241 Gantt - Critical Path Analysis

The New Gantt Chart now highlights the critical path, helping users quickly identify the tasks and milestones that directly impact the project’s end date. Key visual cues include:

  • Pink background rows to denote tasks on the critical path.
  • Orange outlines for Tasks, Milestones, and Summary Tasks included in the critical path.

The system determines the critical path based on any Task or Milestone that finishes at the project’s end date, along with any Summary Tasks that contain them. These visuals make it easy to distinguish critical items while still maintaining normal interactivity—such as blue highlighting on hover or selection.

This screenshot shows a Task as part of the critical path, with an orange outline displaying it.

#24329 Gantt - Effort Calculations

Tasks can now be configured to be effort-driven, giving users greater flexibility in scheduling. This option is available in the Task Edit > Advanced tab.

When enabled:

  • The Effort field in the General tab becomes active and dictates the task duration and end date.
  • Effort can be measured in days (which directly set the task’s duration) or hours (converted into days based on your site's "hours per day" setting).

For example, if your site setting defines 8 hours per day, a 20-hour task will be calculated as a 3-day duration.

Other New Gantt Chart Rules

General

If you're already using the Legacy Gantt Chart for an existing plan, we recommend continuing to use it for that plan. For any new plans, you can use the New Gantt Chart. The New Gantt is available for all newly created plans.

The New Gantt Chart does not support concurrency checks. This means that no two users can update the New Gantt Chart simultaneously.

Summary Tasks

  • No Dependencies: Summary Tasks cannot have dependencies. You cannot drag dependency lines to or from a Summary Task.
  • No Predecessors/Successors: You cannot add predecessor or successor tasks directly to a Summary Task.
  • Automatic Values: Summary Tasks automatically calculate their dates and progress based on their child items (Tasks, Milestones, or other Summary Tasks).
  • Editing: You can rename a Summary Task directly in the left-hand pane, but there is no edit popup for these items.
  • Creating/Removing:
    • A Summary Task is created when you add a subtask to a regular Task or Milestone. This removes any existing dependencies.
    • If all child items are removed, the Summary Task will revert to a regular Task.

Milestones

  • Single Point in Time: Milestones represent a single point on the Gantt chart and do not have a start date.
  • End Date Logic:
    • The end date is determined by the latest of the following: Planned End, Revised End, or Completion Date.
    • If only a Revised End is provided, it sets the Planned End.
    • If a Completion Date exists, it overrides both the Planned and Revised End dates.
    • The Revised End will still appear on the chart as a book icon for reference.
    • Updating the latest Planned End date of the Milestone on the New Gantt Chart will update the End Date in the Definition > Details page.
  • Dependencies: Milestones can have both predecessors and successors.

Gateway Milestones

  • Read-Only: These are predefined milestone sets managed by administrators.
    • When using the Task Edit window to add dependencies, the End Date in the General tab must be set or it will not allow you to save.

    • Appear as greyed-out rows and only the End Date, Revised Date and Completion Date can be edited.

Tasks

  • Full Functionality: Tasks support more features than Milestones or Summary Tasks.
  • Resources & Effort: You can assign resources, and Tasks can be marked as effort-driven.
  • Date Range: Tasks have both a start and end date. The end date follows the same rules as Milestones (see above).
  • Effort Calculation:
    • For non-effort-driven Tasks, effort is calculated automatically based on the duration (in days/hours) between the start and end date, depending on your system settings.
  • Dependencies: Tasks can have predecessors and successors.
  • Convert to Milestone: You can convert a Task into a Milestone via the context menu.

2.    Technical Improvements

 

#22242

Adding a Milestone on Milestone Plan puts it in the same location as on the Legacy Gantt Chart

#18742

Partition Access > PM3Learn Partition now disregards for license counts

#22250

Addressing Web Content Accessibility guidelines on New Gantt Chart

#22299

New Gantt Chart > Ordering milestones sequentially

#24425

New Gantt Chart > Date fields have been corrected

 

3.    Bug Fixes

#24251

Adding a user to the Plan > Actions page no longer requires a page refresh once added

#17981

Partition Access visibility restrictions have been restored

#22393

Adding Sub Action automatically sets the same Action Type as Parent Action

#17478

Creating a New Risk > Residual Values updating correctly

#19302

Risks & Issues > Ability to all columns using the horizontal scrollbar

#18067

Plan Description > Extended 'Plan Description' to field size to be much larger

#18627

Add+ button on Person Selector pop-up now adds the new person to the dropdown to be selected

#14529

Deleting an Impact Assessments now working as expected

#18038

Ability to add a Plan to Programme

#22452

Financial Status now updating with Portfolio Finances

#22279

Excel export now showing as XSLX

#18090

Periods now displaying on Portfolio Resource reports

#22030

PM3BI/Datamart Joint Queries now runs successfully

#18907

Scheduled risk reports now showing the correct risks

#22004

Status Dashboard > Displays the correct RAG Colour

#24137

Ability to Refresh Gateways in a plan now working

#17912

Team > Validation checks if a person is removed if assigned to Actions, Risks, Issues or Milestones

#17984

Portfolio Resources ByPersonByPlan > Total forecast no longer pulling the actual values

#24178

Integrate Resources tabs into New Gantt Chart

#22464

New Gantt Chart – Export PDF now working

#24736

Ability to update task in New Gantt Chart