August brought a fresh wave of improvements, fixes, and time-saving features to PPM Express, all designed to make your work smoother, smarter, and faster. From powerful bulk actions to subtle UI enhancements, here’s everything you need to know about the latest updates.
Skip Ahead with Bulk Stage Management
Managing multiple projects just got easier. The new Bulk Skip to Stage feature allows users to advance or roll back the stage of multiple projects in one simple action.
Now available on the Projects page (both Table and Timeline views), this tool shows up when one or more projects are selected and certain conditions are met.
Who Can Use It?
- Admins can skip stages in bulk if all selected projects share the same process and they have edit permissions.
- Non-admins if all projects share the same process set, the process has no approval-required stages, and the user has edit access for all selected items.
When these requirements aren’t met, the action is disabled with a helpful tooltip explaining why.
How It Works
Select multiple projects → click Skip to Stage in the toolbar → choose a new stage (excluding Canceled and Suspended) → confirm your changes.
Whether skipping forward or backward:
- Projects already at the chosen stage remain unchanged.
- For forward skips, all skipped stages are marked Completed, dates update to the current day, and Last Modified By is set to the user who performed the action.
- For backward skips, later stages are reset to Not Started, the new active stage is refreshed, and Last Modified By is set to that user.
- Projects marked as Canceled or Suspended are reset and moved accordingly.
This feature is an innovative option for teams managing large portfolios, making it easier to respond to evolving priorities at scale.
Improved Integration Icons
To stay aligned with changes from Microsoft, PPM Express has refreshed icons for both Planner and Project for the Web. This keeps visual consistency across platforms and ensures smoother user experience.
Fixes & Minor Enhancements
August also delivered several behind-the-scenes improvements and fixes:
- Issues with predecessor logic in specific time zones have been resolved.
- Creating key dates in programs no longer triggers access denials.
- Smartsheet support expanded to the NONE access level.
- Connection issues with Monday.com have been successfully addressed.
- Rich Text fields now support spell checking to improve editing accuracy.
- The Key field is now available for mapping in Jira integration.
- Impact Type fields now display their numeric value for added clarity.
- Tooltip behavior in Rich Text fields is improved, and icons are more consistent across Timeline views.
- OData now includes details about the Resource-User link, and resource permissions are more robust in Bulk Edit mode.
- Full-screen views now show entity names for better orientation.
- Task page errors from missing due dates are no longer an issue.
- Tags can now be removed inline across all entities.
Conclusion
August’s updates reinforce PPM Express’s commitment to making project portfolio management more intuitive, efficient, and aligned with the real-world needs of project teams. Whether you're navigating large portfolios or fine-tuning project details, features like Bulk Skip to Stage, improved platform alignment, and a wide range of fixes deliver practical value every day.
These enhancements not only streamline how you work but also strengthen the foundation for better decision-making, faster execution, and more consistent collaboration. Stay tuned, there’s more innovation ahead as PPM Express continues to evolve with you.
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