This is the release history for BrightWork for SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2013, SharePoint 2016, and SharePoint 2019.
BrightWork version format is explained in the Determine the BrightWork Build Number help topic.
The BrightWork 19.27 and 16.27 releases include the same great new improvements.
New Grid Mark Complete row action allowing you to easily mark items as completed.
Add Section action is now always available. Previously it would only appear if no Task was selected.
Modern pill design added to the Grid with color-coded values for the Status and Priority columns.
The BrightWork 19.26.1 and 16.26.1 releases include the same great new improvements.
BrightWork is now available for SharePoint Subscription Edition (SE).
The BrightWork Task Tracker template provides a simple, interactive grid style interface for managing tasks grouped in sections. The template includes:
The BrightWork Tabs web part can now be configured to default the page it's on to Full Screen Mode, without the additional elements SharePoint provides.
The BrightWork 19.25 and 16.25 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.25 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.25 release.
SharePoint Administrators now benefit from having clearer ULS settings:
The BrightWork 19.24 and 16.24 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.24 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.24 release.
The BrightWork 19.23 and 16.23 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.23 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.23 release.
The BrightWork 19.22 and 16.22 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.22 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.22 release.
New Template Design Sync capability has been included in this release:
A new feature has been added that simplifies mapping columns from Project Status Report lists to the Project Status Report Cache.
When adding a column to a Project Status Report list and then mapping it to a column in the Project Status Report Cache, you can now use a feature that allows you to create the mapping on a configuration page. Changes are applied to the Project Status Report XML mapping file, removing the need to edit this file manually which could inadvertently introduce syntax errors.
The mapping dialog contains a useful link to the Project Status Report Cache list (available to Site Collection Administrators only).
Critical Path identification is now available in the Project Task Hierarchy Gantt. With the click of a button you have the option to display the longest sequence of tasks that must be finished on schedule in order to complete the entire project on schedule.
The BrightWork 19.21 and 16.21 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.21 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.21 release.
A new feature has been added that simplifies mapping columns from work lists to the Work Cache.
When adding a column to a work list and then mapping it to a column in the Work Cache, you can now use a feature that allows you to create the mapping on a configuration page. Changes are applied to the Work Cache XML mapping file, removing the need to edit this file manually which could inadvertently add syntax errors.
The mapping dialog contains a useful link to the Work Cache list (available to Site Collection Administrators only).
New Project Task Hierarchy Gantt capability has been added in this release:
When using Template Design Sync you can now choose whether to add, synchronize, or remove Nintex Forms providing even more options when syncing your templates.
The BrightWork 19.20 and 16.20 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.20 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.20 release.
New Gantt Chart interaction capability has been added in this release:
With these changes it is recommended that the Gantt Chart column setting "Refresh on Update" be turned On.
Gantt Charts using the Project Cache as the data source can now group tasks by your selected columns.
Up to 4 columns can be selected to group by, and sorting in ascending or descending order is supported.
This provides greater flexibility to choose the data source you would like displayed in the chart.
A number of changes have been made to the out of the box templates.
The BrightWork 19.19 and 16.19 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.19 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.19 release.
Data from Excel can now be imported into lists. You can import the contents of an Excel XLSX file into a BrightWork list.
This new functionality streamlines the process of migrating data into lists.
Additional list columns can now be configured to display on Board cards. You can choose the column position in relation to the other list columns that are configured to display on the cards.
This functionality provides greater flexibility for choosing the data that should be displayed on cards.
The Gantt Chart web part now also supports filtering for Project Tasks lists using list views or CAML. This provides greater flexibility to choose the data you would like displayed in the chart.
The hierarchy structure will be maintained regardless of the filtered status of summary or child tasks.
The BrightWork 19.18 and 16.18 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.18 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.18 release.
Cards in Boards can now be manually sorted within the columns by dragging and dropping. This allows for prioritization within columns to avoid bottlenecks. Cards can also be manually sorted within columns across swimlanes.
Dragging and dropping the card within a column will automatically change the item Order number in the SharePoint list. Manual sorting can be enabled in settings when you select source list.
List Item Reports and
Resource Reports now support grouping by one multi-user Person or Group column.
Resource Reports also support the Work being apportioned evenly between the individuals.
Similarly, List Item Reports support Number and Currency columns being apportioned evenly between the individuals.
Resource Reports support Number columns, typically Work, being apportioned evenly between the Person or Group grouping.
Advanced card styling gives IT professionals and developers full control of card styling. This is optional and if left blank the default Board theme styling is applied.
Advanced card styling is not an end-user feature, but does provide great flexibility for anyone who can invest the time in developing and maintaining the styling.
A number of changes have been made to the out of the box templates.
The BrightWork 19.17 and 16.17 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.17 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.17 release.
The Gantt Chart web part supports editing the dates of Tasks using drag and drop.
Drag and Drop Start and Finish dates, or the Task bar, to adjust task dates. The updates are saved immediately in the Task.
The Gantt Chart web part supports Zoom In and Zoom Out.
Zoom In on a specific date range to see more detail, up to and including days of the week. Zoom Out for a wider date range up to years and quarters.
To further facilitate updating task dates using drag and drop, the Gantt Chart supports adding Timespans. Timespans can be added both to the right and to the left of the Gantt using actions in the Gantt Toolbar.
For Project Task lists using Task Scheduling, the schedule can be calculated in the Gantt Chart using the Calculate Schedule action. This can be optionally hidden.
You can also set the Calculate Schedule to run after every update in the Gantt Chart settings.
BrightWork Reporter now allows Scheduled Emailing of reports to Active Directory Security Groups , and to Cc individuals or Security Groups.
The users in Groups, or listed in the Cc list, do not have their permissions checked the way individuals in the To list are. This means they may not have access to the data in the report. So, caution should be exercised when including Groups or when using the Cc list.
Internet Explorer is not suited to using the Gantt Chart web part, or Boards. We now encourage you to switch from Internet Explorer and to use modern browsers like Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. There may be times when Internet Explorer is still of value, copying data in a Datasheet for instance. However, most of the time you will be better served to use a modern browser.
The BrightWork 19.16 and 16.16 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.16 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.16 release.
The Gantt Chart web part has been updated to allow tasks be displayed in a hierarchy. Other improvements include:
Portfolio reporting sites can now report on the Project Cache, improving performance. The following additional features are now available for Portfolio reporting site.
Template Design Sync now supports the option to include column mapping in Project Status Report lists. Also, Template Design Sync now follows the same rules as Rename Project Home Link if the Quick Launch is synced.
The BrightWork 19.15 and 16.15 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.15 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.15 release.
The BrightWork 15.15.1 release addresses an issue resulting from a change made in the Microsoft SharePoint August 2020 Cumulative Update (CU). This CU contains an update to prevent JavaScript being added to the Quick Launch. As a result, warning messages can appear when creating a Project site from a Template containing one of these links. Typically these calls would open a Project Statement in a dialog and were used in BrightWork templates prior to November 2015.
This release addresses this issue and adds a new capability allowing items on the Quick Launch to open in a dialog without the need to add JavaScript to the Quick Launch. For more information, see the opening items in a dialog from the Quick Launch topic.
Note: Existing sites with JavaScript calls to open items in a dialog continue to work. This release does not require these to be replaced. As new sites are created the JavaScript will be removed in the new sites automatically.
The Gantt Chart web part is a new web part. It replaces the New Gantt Report Type in BrightWork Reporter.
The initial version of the Gantt Chart web part supports the following:
The Gantt Chart web part also supports the following:
BrightWork now includes a feature that allows users to copy a site from one BrightWork site collection to another.
This leverages the unique BrightWork Copy Site feature which gives far greater support than native SharePoint.
The Copy Site Across Site Collections feature is especially useful for copying templates, and is also useful when copying projects (without user assignments).
The feature is intended to be used by SharePoint Admins or BrightWork Super Users as the feature is included in the BrightWork API. The feature is also made available as a Web Service. The help topic references a number of examples on how to call the Web Service to get you started.
To maintain ongoing compliance with U.S. Federal and State security requirements, a new version of jQuery (version 3.5.1) is now being used.
These security updates ensure that BrightWork remains compliant and secure. For this reason we recommend upgrading to this version or later.
The BrightWork 19.14 and 16.14 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.14 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.14 release.
The New Gantt chart is a modern Gantt chart intended to eventually replace the current Gantt chart.
The New Gantt chart will be gradually rolled out across BrightWork and is currently available for the Project Cache.
New Gantt chart features, not in the existing Gantt chart, include:
The User Access Report reports on the number of users currently with Read or higher level of access to BrightWork.
SharePoint Administrators can now optionally configure the User Access Report timer job so that the User Access Report CSV file is saved to a specified SharePoint Document Library.
This SharePoint Document Library can then be shared with non-SharePoint Administrators, removing the need to access the server's local drive to access the report.
To maintain ongoing compliance with U.S. Federal and State security requirements, a cross-site scripting vulnerability in BrightWork Reporter has been addressed.
These security updates ensure that BrightWork remains compliant and secure. For this reason we recommend upgrading to this version or later.
It is now possible to exclude list types from the Work Cache. For example; Tasks, Risks or Issues.
Excluding a list type mapping from the global mapping file will prevent the list items getting added to the Work Cache and will also remove any existing list items already in the Work Cache when a Refresh is ran.
Boards have been added to the following out of the box templates
The BrightWork 19.13 and 16.13 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.13 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.13 release.
There have been a number of improvements to Boards:
Search
Search is now available on each Board by default. All characters used on the Board can be searched for.
Column Card Count
It is now possible to display the number of cards within a column in its header.
WIP Limit
WIP (Work In Progress) Limits can be set for columns or columns that are grouped together. A column with more cards than the set WIP Limit will be highlighted. WIP Limits are a key component of Kanban processes.
Hide Columns
You can now hide the display of a column completely from the Board.
Grouping Columns
Columns can now be grouped together under a common heading.
BrightWork Reporter can now be configured to automatically Refresh on Update i.e. refresh the report after an item is saved.
Once enabled, you will no longer have to refresh a report to see changes.
The Work Cache had a significant update in the previous release with the addition of the 'Include in Work Cache' column.
This release completes that round of updates including:It is now possible to generate a User Access Report, automatically on a schedule, in CSV format. This reports on the number of users currently with Read or higher level of access to BrightWork.
This report can be created by:The List Gantt View web part can now be configured to automatically Refresh on Update i.e. refresh the report after an item is saved.
Once enabled, you will no longer have to refresh a report to see changes.
The BrightWork 19.12 and 16.12 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.12 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.12 release.
Clicking on the information icon will now open the ribbon, making configuration easier to find.
You can now change the caption on a Board column, so for example, if the actual status value is '(1) Not Started', you can change the heading to 'Not Started' if that is easier to understand.
You can also default a column to its collapsed state. This can be useful when a column contains a lot of cards (e.g. when the number of Completed items grow). The column could also be be collapsed by default if it is often empty.
When Dates are displayed on cards they now refresh like other details on the card once updated.
The Project Cache Mapping now supports Projects Tracker lists when mapping a column to the Project Cache. This entirely removes the need to edit the XML mapping file.
It is now possible to add and remove mappings for Project Statements, Project Metrics, and Projects Trackers.
The Work Cache by default includes only open work items. It is now possible to configure which list items are included to the Work Cache.
This is achieved by adding a calculated Yes/No column to the list. See Configure List Items to Include in the Work Cache for the steps.
To maintain ongoing compliance with U.S. Federal and State security requirements, an update to a web handler page in BrightWork has been applied.
Also, the capability to have column headers with anything other than text has been removed from the Boards web part to further enhance security.
Clicking on the information icon will now open the ribbon as well as the report information window.
Tip! Double clicking the report information icon will open the Ribbon, dismissing the window.
Further details on these changes can be seen in the What's New | How can I activate the new 19.12 features help topic.
The BrightWork 19.11 and 16.11 releases are identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.11 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.11 release.
Boards have been updated to facilitate horizontal categorization of cards in swimlanes.
Swimlanes are optional. Swimlanes can be enabled for both User or Choice type columns. Options also exist to prevent dragging and dropping between swimlanes, and to display a count of cards in the swimlane.
The Project Cache Mapping functionality has been enhanced to facilitate mapping a column from Project Metrics to the Project Cache without needing to manually modify the global Project Cache XML mapping file.
The new feature will allow you to map a number of values from the metric including the metric's value and icon indicator. You can also remove mappings on the mapping page.
BrightWork is now compatible with SharePoint 2019. Learn how to migrate to BrightWork on SharePoint 2019.
The default experience is set to "Classic Experience" for BrightWork site collections on SharePoint 2019.
The BrightWork 16.10 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.10 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.10 release.
To maintain compliance with U.S. Federal and State security requirements, updates to third party libraries used in BrightWork have been applied.
These security updates ensure that BrightWork remains compliant and secure. For this reason we recommend upgrading to this version or later.
Boards have been visually enhanced and can now display one, some, or all of the following on the card; a title, a user, a date, a priority, a reference number along with a progress bar.
The information displayed on the card is now automatically refreshed every time a card is dragged and dropped into a new column.
Out-of-the-box themes and how the cards look within the Board have been improved, in particular the Royal Purple theme's font sizes are now similar to other themes.
Boards now also support items in folders. If you have a Board using a list or library that includes folders, items in the folder will be available to drag and drop within the Board.
Finally, an issue that prevented a card moving to a new column after scrolling to the bottom of the Board has been resolved.
A new feature has been added that simplifies mapping a column from the Project Statement to the Project Cache.
When adding a column to the Project Statement and then mapping it to a column in the Project Cache, you can now use a feature that allows you to create the mapping. Changes are applied to the global Project Cache mapping file, removing the need to edit this file manually.
The mapping dialog contains a useful link to the Project Cache list (available to Site Collection Administrators only).
When manually editing the global Project Cache mapping file, syntax errors can be inadvertently added. Using the mapping feature removes this risk. However, should these syntax errors occur they are now easier to debug as the Project Cache Mapping page will identify the first invalid line and character position.
The BrightWork 16.9 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.9 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.9 release.
For SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2013, and Nintex Workflows the following table illustrates how workflows behave when projects are created or design synced:
Template Design Sync | ||||
Workflow Type | CreateProject | NewWorkflows | UpdatedWorkflows | DeletedWorkflows |
SharePoint 2010 List Workflow | ||||
Nintex List Workflow | ||||
SharePoint 2013 Workflows(List and Reusable) | ||||
SharePoint 2010 Workflows(Site and Reusable) | ||||
Nintex Workflows(Site and Reusable) | ||||
SharePoint 2013 Workflow(Site) | ||||
List Board View is now available out of the box in existing templates:
It is possible to change the column displayed on cards. Now the new column setting is retained while configuring the Board's settings.
The BrightWork 16.8 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.8 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.8 release.
New web part called List Board View added. This allows you to select a list and view, select a Choice column to map to each column (for example Status), and then display the list items in a Board.
Dragging cards from one column to another will update the item. Double clicking on a card will open it for editing.
For SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2013, and Nintex Workflows the following table illustrates how workflows behave when projects are created or design synced:
Template Design Sync | ||||
Workflow Type | CreateProject | NewWorkflows | UpdatedWorkflows | DeletedWorkflows |
SharePoint 2010 List Workflow | Coming Soon | Coming Soon | Coming Soon | |
Nintex Workflow List Workflow | Coming Soon | Coming Soon | Coming Soon | |
SharePoint 2013 Workflows(List and Reusable) | ||||
SharePoint 2010 Workflows(Site and Reusable) | ||||
Nintex Workflows(Site and Reusable) | ||||
SharePoint 2013 Workflow(Site) | ||||
Project Site Name
To always be able to see the project site you are in, when you create a project site the site name is added to the left side navigation (i.e. quick launch).
This is optional and unchecking the option will cause the display of the default value of 'Project Home'.
This feature is available through a web service and the API.
Navigation
BrightWork manages projects in a hierarchy. So being able to navigate around and know where you are at all times is important.
Navigation has been overhauled to improve speed, discoverability, and to simplify the options.
Note: with BrightWork 16.7 the version numbering for SharePoint 2016 has been synced with SharePoint 2013, so for example, this release is versioned as 16.7 rather than the next in sequence 16.2.
The BrightWork 16.7 release is identical to the BrightWork 15.7 release and includes all its great features. See below for details of the 15.7 release.
The BrightWork 16.7 release is also the release that delivers all the features added in BrightWork 15.6.
The Project Status Report Cache data source is primarily designed as an alternative to 'project status report' reports that report across multiple sites. Available in BrightWork Reporter, the Project Status Report Cache data source enables faster cross-site reporting.
The Project Status Report Cache includes several aspects such as:
Nightly timer jobs have been optimized to run more efficiently. The following nightly jobs now skip projects that are either closed or archived:
Scheduled email resend attempts. If an email fails to send the scheduled emailer will try to resend it up to two more times, for three attempts in total.
BrightWork 15.6 is the first in a new quarterly release cadence. The goal for BrightWork from now on is to have smaller but more frequent updates. We're moving to this new approach so that we can be more responsive to customer needs.
Improved support when creating a site from another which uses Nintex features:
The following Nintex features are now copied for all instances when creating a new site:
All Nintex Forms in a template are now copied each time a template design sync is run. This resets a project's Nintex Forms to the version defined in the template.
Scheduled email has been enhanced to improve scalability.
Nightly scheduled emails now have performance improvements to help reduce the scheduled timer job's duration. This will be most relevant in larger server environments.
The BrightWork 16.1 release is identical to the BrightWork 15.5 release and includes all its great features. See below for details of the 15.5 release.
Fixes
Charting has taken another step to a better experience with new look charts. Among the many updates are more configuration options such as charts rendering in 3D or Polar. The new updates allow you to easily zoom, print and download charts.
Some of the other charting updates include:
BrightWork Reporter, List Gantt View and List Chart View web parts now have a distinctive 'working on it' icon as the web part loads or is refreshed. This provides a smoother more seamless user experience when transitioning to a new page.
The open Work Cache data source is primarily designed as an alternative to open work reports and issues that report across multiple sites. Available in BrightWork Reporter, the open Work Cache data source, enables faster cross-site reporting.
The Work Cache includes several aspects such as:
The Project Cache has been updated to include:
SharePoint administrators can create a training environment quickly and easily. We call this environment Training Zone and it includes all the out of the box templates, a Sample Area, and a Training Area. The Sample Area is where you can explore project sites with sample data. The Training Area is where you carry out your training using the linked training guides.
Create Project has been updated to include more powerful defaulting.
The new default settings include:
Another change made to Create Project is the introduction of a new icon for browse.
All of these new updates and configuration settings allow for less clicks when creating projects meaning faster project creation.
Reporter
Templates
Other
Obsolete
The following features have been deprecated:
15.5.1
The BrightWork 16.0 release is identical to the BrightWork 15.4 release and includes all its great features. See below for details of the 15.4 release.
The new Task Scheduling feature allows you to apply simple scheduling to your task lists. You can use the scheduler to move and calculate the dates on multiple tasks and promote data from the tasks to summary tasks and metrics.
The scheduler is lightweight and easy to use, and is not a direct substitute for Microsoft Project. If you need complex scheduling, using Microsoft Project alongside our Project Structured template is a fantastic way to take your schedule management to the next level.
The new Metric Tiles web part puts metrics right where you want them. Add the web part to your project to easily show key metrics and increase visibility to your team.
Themes have been added to the scorecard web part. You can now pick from pre-defined themes, or simply tailor your scorecards exactly how you want.
The Create Project process is now even easier to use. Projects are now created using an elegant and simple step-by-step interface. This interface can then be configured and streamlined, giving you more control over your project creation process.
Charts have had some great updates!
The Metric History Chart, List View Chart and BrightWork Reporter Charting have several new and exciting features:
We have decided to retire a few older and underused templates. It wasn't an easy decision, but we feel that deactivating the older templates will allow us to focus more on our core and most popular templates like Project Standard and Projects and Work Tracker. Any projects you have that are based on the removed templates will still function exactly as they did before, but you will no longer be able to create new projects based on the templates from the site definitions.
The templates affected are:
We recommend that you migrate to one of the core templates like Project Office or Project Standard for your ongoing project management needs.
Project Lite, Project Standard, Project Structured, and Project Office templates have been polished and are now easier than ever to use.
Non-English Languages
As of BrightWork 16.0, we no longer ship non-English versions of BrightWork directly. Language translations may be purchased through our partners however. For more information, please see the BrightWork Language Partners page.
There have been improvements made in several key areas:
Templates
Metrics
Reporting
Admin
Misc
15.4.1
These changes were only applied to 15.4.26.0 (or later builds).
Project status reporting in BrightWork is now better than ever. We have created a new list type, Project Status Report, which features a new column mapping feature that makes it easy to bring in data from your project statement, project metrics, or the previous status report. Whereas before you might have had to delve into SharePoint Designer to customize your status reports, now everything is just a few clicks away.
Templates now use the new Project Status Report list and have default reports pre-configured, but you should experiment and customize them to match the data you need to report on.
Navigation is now easier than ever thanks to the new Navigation Controls. This site feature gives you three new navigation buttons:
These controls let you move directly up a level in your hierarchy, open a dialog to show your current location in the whole site collection, or open breadcrumbs.
The new Project Ribbon feature is a handy way to see and update project data. Activated by default on new Project Lite, Standard and Structured templates, it features a quick link to the project statement, a new interface for editing manual metrics, and new ways to refresh project data and update common project settings.
You can now edit your project's manual metrics right from the project ribbon, or by using the list ribbon. This is a handy way to quickly update your project status without having to search through the metrics list.
Making manual metrics more maintainable has enabled us to convert more number and date values in the templates from static values to metric values, with all the benefits that provides (history, charting, reporting, etc.).
Many common project settings have been consolidated to a single page. From this page you can activate or deactivate several settings like sub-site creation, showing the project ribbon, or including or excluding your project from reports.
In this release, the new user experience has been improved and it is now much easier to get help and understand the interface.
At the top of certain key pages in BrightWork you'll see a guidance area. This block has three quick start videos that give you an overview of BrightWork, perfect for the brand new user.
As you move around your BrightWork site collection now, you'll start to notice guidance tips popping up. Any new users on your site collection will receive a guided tour of BrightWork and SharePoint. This should ease people into the new environment and help acclimatise them to their workspace.
We also introduced a new help window to give you help right on the page. Just click the ? tab on the right hand side of the screen to open the panel.
Note: BrightWork administrators can disable these features and return to the older help interface by deactivating the "Enhanced Help" site collection feature. We recommend you keep it activated.
BrightWork templates have been refreshed and standardized. The out-of-the-box templates are now more consistent across the various templates and updated to include new features.
BrightWork Reporter Gallery Folder
BrightWork reports for the out of the box templates now exist in a new folder, called Gallery, in the BrightWork Reporter Library by default. This means that you can now make a change to a report used by a template and have the change instantly reflected in all of your templates and web parts. This feature removes the hassle from updating many reports with the same changes.
Note that future releases of BrightWork will maintain these reports such that:
Note: The Reporter Gallery folder is active for new templates only. Please see the 15.3 upgrade article for details on using it in existing reports.
Project Lite
Project Standard
Project Structured
Work Tracker
Projects and Work Tracker
Project Office
Project Area
Note: This can easily be switched to use the cache reports. Learn more...
General Template Changes
The new Project Request Manager template gives you the tools to handle project requests from draft to creation. You can track the progress of a project through the chain of drafting, reviewing, ranking and approving. At any point you can send the project back a stage to allow for further refinement of the project request. This replaces the now deprecated Requests Area.
For the purposes of reporting, Project Requests are treated like Work and so will appear in work and issue reports and other similar reports.
The Projects and Work Tracker template is for tracking several projects and their tasks, issues and documents in a single site. This is a simple way to manage several small projects without having to create separate sites for each one.
The template uses a new Project column and you may wish to change your reporting from grouping by Site Name to grouping by the Project column for consistency.
If you're an existing user of BrightWork, you will notice that the help has changed! We have rebuilt the help from the ground up to be faster, friendlier and fully mobile responsive. There is now a new FAQ section where you'll find quick step-by-step guides and short videos helping you with common tasks. And if you're looking for more detailed information, the new Go Deeper section gives you all the technical knowledge you need to succeed with BrightWork.
You should also note that the BrightWork Help now comes in two flavours: Online and Offline. The Online version is enabled by default and will contain all the latest articles, while the Offline version should be used if you do not have internet access. You can toggle between these two versions by using the option in the More Help drop-down menu on your local Getting Started page.
You can now schedule BrightWork Reporter Emails from the Reporter Ribbon. Previously, this required administration access to the server.
Suggested uses for this include:
The new Project Cache report data source, available in BrightWork Reporter, ensures that cross-site Project reports load almost instantly. The Project Cache data source is primarily designed as an alternative for reports that used the All Project Summaries report definition.
In Gantt; List Item and Resource reports, you can now set the following properties on columns in personal and shared reports:
The new Report Information Window allows users to see information about the current report from the ribbon, such as whether the report is personal or shared, whether the report is real-time or using the cache, or which filters, if any, have been applied.
Projects in Trouble (created using the All Project Summaries report).
This report is available on: new Project Office templates; new Project Management Office templates; new empty Portfolio sites; and new Project Areas.
The following features are no longer supported or available in BrightWork for SharePoint 2013.
The Project Schedule list has been deprecated and withdrawn from the BrightWork User Interface. The list will continue to function in existing Project Schedule-based projects and templates, but it will not be possible to add the list (even via the list template gallery) to a new BrightWork template.
A number of BrightWork Reporter reports have been marked as obsolete. These reports will be removed in a later release.
The Project Lite; Project Standard; Project Structured; and Work Tracker templates now use the new SharePoint Project Tasks list that offers a better user interface and more reliable and improved syncing with Microsoft Project Professional 2013.
The extra Column Mapping between Microsoft Project and the Tasks list in the Project Structured template that used to have to be done on all new Project Structured templates is now automated.
The Project Lite; Project Standard; and Project Structured templates now include the new SharePoint Timeline and Project Summary (called Task Summary in BrightWork) web parts.
The Timeline web part shows the Task list items added to it in a time line.
The Tasks Summary web part displays summary information about the contents of the Tasks, such as the next task due and how may days till it is due and the number of late items. It also includes a Timeline.
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BrightWork sites include the Navigate Up feature that was hidden in SharePoint 2013. This feature is activated by default on all sites in a BrightWork site collection and can also be activated on any site on the server on which BrightWork is installed.
BrightWork Copy Site continues to offer advantages over the native SharePoint Solution Gallery. With the Solution Gallery, the below items maintain a relationship with the original site and do not get updated to point at the new site. With BrightWork Copy Site, they get updated.
The Getting Started tiles are now served by the Promoted Links list.
BrightWork for SharePoint 2013 uses the new SharePoint Farm ID based licensing system.
BrightWork site collections created on SharePoint Server installations have full Newsfeed integration.
The following features are no longer supported or available in BrightWork for SharePoint 2013.
The Project Schedule list has been deprecated and will be withdrawn from the next version of BrightWork on SharePoint 2013.
This means that the IT Project Manager w Schedule and Business Project Manager w Schedule templates have also been withdrawn.
For users who want an automated work breakdown structure, we recommend using the Project Structured template in conjunction with Microsoft Project Professional 2013.
Certain BrightWork legacy list types from BrightWork on SharePoint 2003 are no longer supported. These lists have not been used in our templates for many versions so any remedial action is unlikely to be required.
The list types that are no longer supported are detailed below. These list types were replaced with list of the same name in BrightWork for SharePoint 2007 - see here for all supported list types.
SharePoint 2013 does not support list summary pages and therefore all BrightWork lists no longer have them.
The following List Summary Page BrightWork web parts are no longer available in BrightWork for SharePoint 2013:
The Summary Items Gantt report is no longer available in the Project Structured template. This is due to the structure of the new Project Tasks list.
The Metric Scorecard web part enables you to display the history of multiple metric items from a specified Metric list.
The Scorecard web part can also show a trend icon that indicates if the Metric has recently changed for better or worse.
The Metrics Scorecard web part has been added to the Project Dashboard tab on the Project Office; Program Management Office; Project Lite; Project Standard; and Project Structured templates.
The Projects Tracker site template has been withdrawn and a new Projects Tracker list has been added to the Project Office template. This means simpler hierarchies and high-level project reporting where and when you need it.
The new Projects Tracker list is also available as a list template that can be added to any BrightWork site or template.
Reporting has also been updated to better support the Projects Tracker list. A new column type called Project Link is available in all Project Summary reports - see below for more information on the Project Link column.
Existing Projects Tracker sites will continue to function as before; however, we recommend that you migrate your data in existing Projects Tracker sites to a Projects Tracker list in a Project Office.
A new type of column called Project Link has been added to reports to make reporting on items in a Projects Tracker list easier. The Project Link column can discriminate between projects in the Projects Tracker list and projects that have their own site.
The column is available either as a text link, called Project Link or as an icon, called Project Link Icon. This column is now used by default in all Project Summary reports.
The Disable Link Column feature, previously only available in List Item Reports is now also available in Gantt and Resource Reports.
The BrightWork Server Gallery menu on the Reporter Settings page now shows the most commonly used reports first. The most commonly used reports have also had the Template prefix removed from their names.
When creating a Template or a Portfolio, the URL name field is automatically populated based on the site name. This feature was not enabled on the Create Project page is it would have meant an increased likelihood of breaching the 256 character SharePoint URL path length limitations.
The Project Office; Project Lite; Project Standard; and Project Structured templates now have Getting Started tiles on the Project site home page. The purpose of these tiles is to make it easier for new Project Managers to get up and running with BrightWork and to help with setting up certain templates. They also give experienced Project Managers a project ramp-up checklist.
Removing the web part that delivers these tiles is easy. The grey tiles on the Project Office and Project Structured are there to help with initial setup of the templates and should be removed before using them to create sites.
BrightWork Reporter now supports reporting on folders (e.g. Discussions, Document Libraries etc.). This option must be enabled in the Report Editor.
It is now possible to report on SharePoint Groups in reports that have Presence enabled (the default setting).
It is now possible to mark a site so that it's Project Statement is not included in reports but other list items in the site are included. You might want to do this with non-project sites in the hierarchy, for example, a site created to manage every day work items.
It is now possible to filter (e.g. show only projects with an In Danger Health status) and sort on Metric Status Indicators. To facilitate this, a number of columns have been added to the All Project Summaries report.
The four main BrightWork templates(Project Lite; Project Standard; Project Structured; and Project Office) have had some subtle enhancements and improvements added to make them all the better for project management. Most of these improvements are described above; however, this section is just to highlight the improvements to each template.
We are delighted to add new and exciting features with this release of BrightWork 11 for SharePoint 2010.
Note: |
The features introduced in BrightWork 11 require no specific action - they will all automatically be available to you. If you are upgrading from a version before BrightWork 10, you should also review Adding BrightWork 10 Features. |
The new BrightWork Template Design Sync enables you to make design changes in a BrightWork Template and pull the changes into sites that were created using the template. The type of changes that can be synced include:
New Lists
Updates to existing lists, such as:
List Settings
New List Columns
New List Views
Site Home Page
Quick Launch
The Template Design Sync also allows you to remove unmatched design features from the site.
Unmatched design features are features in the site that are not in the template. This can happen for two reasons:
For the full list of design changes that can be synced, see the About Design Sync topic.
To support the Design Sync, you can also determine which sites were created from a template.
The new Reporter Tools ribbon introduces a range of easily accessible features, activated by just clicking on a report.
The refresh button enables you to override caching settings to ensure the version of the report you are seeing is the most up-to-date. It also enables you to refresh a report without having to refresh all the other elements on the page, such as other reports and web parts.
Users can now create their own version of a report and set it up the way they want to. The personal report is saved and users can toggle between the default shared report and the personal report.
Personal setup options include:Columns
Grouping
Sorting
Filters
The new BrightWork Reporter Filter Editor enables you to create cross-list and cross-site report filters as easily as creating a filter in a list view.
Totals
If a report has Grouping and/or Totals enabled, you can temporarily turn them off.
All of the BrightWork Reporter sharing options are now instantly accessible via the Reporter Tools ribbon.
Users with the correct level of access can configure the shared report (i.e. the report everyone sees) with the same options available in the Personal Report section, including creating cross-list and cross-site report filters.
List Item and Resource Reports now have in-report dynamic column sorting that enables you to sort reports alphabetically; numerically; or chronologically.
You can also filter on List Name and Web Name and on the following column types: Choice; Lookup; and User
BrightWork are delighted to announce that workflows created with Nintex Workflow 2010 are supported in the BrightWork copy site processes.
BrightWork now supports French.
All Home Page and Quick Launches have been given a consistent appearance to match the style adopted with Project Lite, Project Standard and Project Structured templates
All List Item, Gantt and Resource Server Gallery reports now default to open items in a Dialog
Work Tracker list has been reworked for better reporting integration and icon usage
The Program Management Office template now comes with a set of tailored metrics
Metric History Chart: X-Axis can now have a set number of Intervals
Create Project is no longer an option in a template in the Templates Area
Project Office Portfolio layout updated to be more like the Project Office template
Project Area layout updated to be more like the Project Office template
By Status tab added to Program Management Office, Project Office Portfolio and Project Area home pages
We are delighted to add new and exciting features with this release of BrightWork 10 for SharePoint 2010.
Note: |
Most of these new features are automatically available and require no action from you. See Migrating to BrightWork v10 for information about getting the new features into your existing templates. |
The new Project Metrics list gives you the capability to easily define, capture, track and report on metrics for single projects or for multiple projects in a Project Office. BrightWork templates come pre-loaded with sample metrics to give you a fast start.
The metrics can be automatically calculated or manually entered. You can define warning and danger ranges for particular metrics and associate icons with these ranges.
The Metrics History Chart graphs the history of number metric by day, week, month, quarter or year. BrightWork Reporter Project Statement reports can include metric data.
Four types of metric are available:
The Project Lite, Project Standard and Project Structured templates have been finalized and added to the Site Definition menu in the templates area. The Project Office template has also been updated.
These new templates all contain a Project Metrics list pre-populated with Metrics tailored to their level of complexity.
The Project Standard and Project Structured templates contain a Project Status list for maintaining a project snapshot history.
The Project Structured template leverages and extends the Microsoft Project Professional 2010 to SharePoint sync capability.
The new Web Part Settings section on the BrightWork Reporter, List Chart View and List Gantt View web parts means you can now specify the report title and the report chrome type from the settings page (as opposed to the web part tool pane).
BrightWork Reporter now enables you to open and edit items in the pop-up dialog. This means you can view and edit individual list items and stay in the context of the page or report you are on. Most importantly, this works across sites and lists, meaning you can edit items in different lists and sites from the one location in a site collection.
This feature has been enabled by default in many of the default template reports.
The BrightWork Reporter, List Chart View and List Gantt View web parts now report off the External List. This means you can display content that comes from Business Connectivity Services (BCS) Enterprise content types in your reports.
This change also means that the web parts can report on the new SharePoint 2010 columns such as the Decimal column in the external list, the Managed Metadata column, the Recurrence and All day event columns, the Rating column and the Workflow Status column etc.
The new Number Icon Column allows you to map image files to values in a number column in a BrightWork list. For example, you could use it to let you know when the project is over or under budget.
You can display the icon on the list item, in views and in BrightWork reports.
The following new themes are now available in Gantt Reports and in the List Gantt View and Project Schedule Gantt View web parts:
The following templates have been retired and will no longer be available from the Site Definition menu in the Templates area:
The new Custom X Fields style feature means BrightWork Reporter Charts and the List Chart View web part now include the ability to assign a color to a value returned by a chart.
For example, many BrightWork lists include Red |Yellow | Green columns. Previously, the colors assigned to these values depended on the selected theme - now you can ensure that they match - see example.
Resource reports now include the ability to specify the color used to indicate over-allocation in Resource reports.
The BrightWork Create Project; Create Template; and Create Portfolio pages have been rebuilt to give greater reliability; flexibility and functionality.
The main change to be aware of is that you can specify the lists and libraries whose content (i.e. list items and documents) you want to include. This means you can copy a site and opt to include the essential default content such as BrightWork pages and tabs but exclude items from lists such as the Project Schedule or Project Tasks.
For a more in-depth description, please see About BrightWork Copy Site.
Users of certain non-Outlook email clients (e.g. Lotus Notes) occasionally experienced issues when clicking on links in emailed reports. This was due to spaces in the URLs. These spaces are now encoded in the same as SharePoint alerts, e.g. with a '%20'.
The Project Office Portfolio template is now available as a site definition template from the Portfolios area.
Gantt reports with Exclude items when the 'Start Date' is not set selected, and no dates specified in any item, now display all items. The main benefit of this is that the Project Summary (Gantt) reports, on the home pages of sites created using a Project Schedule-based template, are always populated with data - click here for screenshots.
The % Complete values returned in Project Schedule summary tasks are now the same as would be returned by Microsoft Project.
BrightWork are delighted to add new and exciting features with this release of BrightWork Release 9.0 for SharePoint 2010.
BrightWork has been fully ported to the new SharePoint 2010 platform.
You can now specify a list of sites to query on the Reporter Settings page. This means you can have a report in a rollup site that is limited to only report on certain sites in the hierarchy.
The List Gantt View web part Display Hierarchy option means that you can display a Microsoft Project 2010 plan synced to a SharePoint Project Tasks list in a single Gantt view (the native SharePoint Tasks list does not have the option to view the entire plan in a single Gantt view).
Some changes have been made to better support the native SharePoint Gantt View. These changes include:
Hide Type column
Hide Attachment column
Hide all icons columns (for example, Priority Code, Status Code etc.)
Hide any check boxes (for example, Issue Indicator)
Choice indicator icon columns now display the correct icon in the List Gantt View web part (previously only text was displayed).
You can now disable the link column in a List Item Report.
Managing reports in environments with many sites, lists and custom reports can occasionally be an arduous administration task. With that in mind we have added two system reports to BrightWork Reporter that will make this a much easier task.
The Report Profiler displays a report on all the sites and lists queried by an instance of a report, including how long individual sites and lists take to query. This can assist you when you are trying to improve the performance of a report.
The Reporter Locations report, run from the BrightWork Reporter library, details every location the specific report is used in the BrightWork site collection. This means you can establish where a particular report is being used before deleting or editing it.
The home page of a newly created BrightWork Site collection has been updated to give some color and out-of-the-box functionality.
Some additions include:
Portfolios now allow you to include the sub-sites of a site added to a portfolio. This means that you can add a Project Office to a portfolio and all its existing sub-sites and any subsequent sub-sites will automatically appear in the portfolio.
You can now use the BrightWork site creation form to create a BrightWork site from a BrightWork site added to the Solution Gallery.
This means you can allow users to create project sites with lower levels of permission than is normally required to create a BrightWork site.
The Title you enter when creating a project or template is now also passed to the Project ID (in the Project Statement) and the Title of the Project Schedule Summary Item (if a Project Schedule list exists in the site).
The optional Description you enter when creating a project or template is now passed to the Description column in the Project Statement.
To ensure best performance you cannot close certain BrightWork Web parts - you must delete them. This is because a web part that is closed continues to perform (e.g. execute queries etc.).
The Quick Launch heading links have been updated to provide a better user experience. In most cases, the heading link now points to the first item below the heading. Some exceptions are outlined below: