New planning features in InLoox PM 7

In InLoox PM 7, you can set time constraints for activities and milestones in your project plan, such as:

• Start on / Finish on
• Finish no earlier than / Finish no later than
• Start no earlier than / Finish no later than
• As soon as possible / As late as possible

Then, InLoox PM 7 integrates the respective planning element according to this specification in the project planning.

For more information on constraints, please see Create planning element dependencies.

With dependencies, you can define logical relationships between planning elements and therefore use methods of the network planning. InLoox PM 7 offers the following dependencies:

For more information, please see Create planning element dependencies.

InLoox PM 7 indicates how far you can postpone a planning element until this affects the planned duration of your project. To display the slack, click in the planning on the View tab in the Details group Display Slack . The slack for each planning element is then displayed directly in the Gantt chart.

Now, you can use positive and negative time lags between planning elements in your project planning. So, you can easily depict overlaps in time of planning elements as well as lead and waiting times.

For more information, please see Create dependencies between planning elements.

InLoox PM 7 offers you both planning directions, forward scheduling and now, also, backward scheduling. Now you can decide whether you want to develop your project plan from your current starting point or based on the desired project results.

For more information, please see Backward scheduling.

Enter the skills of your team members in the InLoox PM options. As soon as you have created the respective skills in the InLoox PM options and you have assigned them to one or several resources, you can search for the specific skills whenever you want to add a resource in the project.

For more information about how to assign skills to resources, please see Assign skills to resources. For more information on how to open the InLoox PM options, please see Open the InLoox PM options.

InLoox PM 7 enables you to reverse entries or to restore cancelled entries. Click therefore in the planning on the Edit tab, in the Edit group, Undo to reverse the latest entry or click Redo to restore a reversed entry .

In the InLoox PM options, you can now create individual working time calendars with which you can integrate for example part-time, shift or weekend work. With several individual working time calendars, you can include different working times or holidays at different company sites. Then, you can assign different working time calendars to the different elements in the project planning.

For more information, please see Set a working time calendar.

Now, you can highlight planning elements in the planning in user-defined colors, e.g. to mark departmental responsibilities or to highlight priorities. Select therefore a planning element from the planning and click Color  in the Highlight group on the Edit tab. The planning element is then displayed in the selected color in the Gantt chart.

For more information on how to customize the view of your planning, please see Work with the planning.

With InLoox PM 7, you can exchange project plans between InLoox PM and Microsoft Project 2010. So, you can generate or read Microsoft Project 2010 files directly in InLoox PM.

For more information on how to import Microsoft Project files, please see Import a planning file. For information on how you can generate Microsoft Project files in InLoox PM, please see Manage planning templates.

Filter, sort and group your project planning according to your individual information needs. These features help you to keep the overview especially of extensive project plans. You find them in the planning on the View tab in the Arrange group.

For more information on how you can display your planning filtered, sorted or grouped by specified criteria, please see the Adjust a view section in the article Work with the planning.

In InLoox PM 7 it is no longer necessary to open planning elements and to edit them in a dialog box - you can do this directly in the line. Click therefore in the planning in the line of the planning element that you want to adjust and change its name, start or end date.

For more information on this topic, please see Work with the planning.

Now, you cannot only assign project resources in InLoox PM via the Select Contact dialog, but also via quick selection, e.g. in mind maps, in the time tracking or the planning. Click the arrow   to receive a compact pre-selection of often deployed resources.

Please see the respective help categories to receive more information on this topic.