fastProject 4.10.1 Released

/

General

  • Fixed setting a Target Date problem when dates are in UK date format (dd/mm/yyyy), where a Target date would default to today if was an invalid US date (e.g. 31/08/2020).

  • Baselines

    • Color changed to a light orangey-yellow to make it more visible

    • Baseline bar for summary tasks now appears above the Summary bar (same as task bar). Note: you will need to update your Views: Tools > Restore > Restore Views

Critical path

  • Bug fixed where a critical path was not displayed if it started with a Touchpoint task (not a milestone)

Update

  • Can now import a duration on a non-started task which has the effect of changing the duration in the schedule

  • Improved the scenario when no tasks are updated. The user is now informed that all tasks are updated to the current date and there is no additional dialog box to “quit” from.

  • Fixed bug when generating the PreFresh report if the lookahead number of days was greater than a few hundred

  • Fixed bug where the “Last Update” info returned no results of run on the same day as an update and there were no in-progress tasks

  • Fixed problem where the number of days to Lookahead in the PreFresh report couldn’t be changed (shortcut added so can just double-click an manually enter a number) a new value

Analyzer

  • Added “Remove All Deadlines” option under the Negative Float test

Macro-micro Roll-up

  • Going to a task in the linked schedule now automatically displays the critical path to that task

  • Fixed bug where a non-started roll-up task that was part of a different schedule got it’s date constraint removed, putting it back to the beginning of the project

fastProject Fix Due To Recent Microsoft Project Update

/

Background

On July 14th, 2020, Microsoft released an update for Microsoft Project for 2010, 2013 and 2016. This update causes fastProject to not open when double-clicking on the fastProject icon.

This problem has been addressed with the release of fastProject 4.10.0. After installing, there are now two ways to open fastProject:

  1. Double-clicking on the fastProject icon (as usual) or

  2. Double-clicking on a Microsoft Project (mpp) file. There is now no need to open fastProject first.

fastProject still doesn’t work after installing

After installing version 4.10.0, if fastProject doesn’t work, it can be one of two things:

  1. You need a license key. If you have an older version of fastProject that required the PC Name rather than a license key, you need to go through the following steps to obtain a license key (https://lateralworks.com/tools/2020/3/23/activating-fastproject).

  2. The Global did not get installed in the correct location and may have to moved manually:

    • First, navigate to the folder:

      • For MS Project 2013: c:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\MS Project\15\1033

      • For MS Project 2016: c:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\MS Project\16\en-US

    • Second, look at the file size of the file Global.mpt.

      • If it is less than 2 MB, it means the Global.mpt did not get installed and can be installed by navigating to c:\Program Files\fastProject\System (or c:\Program Files (x86)\fastProject\System) and copying the Global.mpt file to the location in the previous step

      • If it more than 10 MB, then the Global.mpt file has been installed correctly. In this case, please contact us directly to resolve this problem.

  3. If you have been sent a Global.mpt file from lateralworks, please also install it it either:

    • c:\Program Files\fastProject\System (64-bit MS Project) or

    • c:\Program Files (x86)\fastProject\System (32-bit MS Project)

fastProject 4.10.0 Released

/

General

  • Fixes problem starting fastProject after recent Microsoft Security Update released on July 14, 2020 (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4484441/security-update-for-project-2016-july-14-2020)

Inspector

  • Fixed problem where a roll-up critical path was incorrectly identified as a near-term critical path

Update

  • Fixed problem where ignored Touchpoints/Checkpoints/Deliverables were still listed in the PreFresh report, bu as tasks

  • Fixed bug where importing a PreFresh report with an invalid UID would cause a crash

  • Fixed bug where an invalid UID would not be reported in the report

Roll-up

  • When using a file list:

    • When there’s only one file in the list, the file is now opened directly, but they are still copied to the Downloads folder prior to the roll-up as a backup. They will only be deleted if the “Delete schedules after update” is checked on the start-up window.

    • Delete schedules after update option removed

    • Timing analysis option removed

    • If the files are located on Dropbox, local Dropbox path is automatically substituted for the Dropbox path the schedule were rolled-up with whenever rolling up and or using the “Goto task in micro schedule” function.

  • Fixed crash when a micro schedule was not found (could happen due to drive mapping)

Effort Updater

  • Fixed problem where importing the Effort Lookahead Report when there was only one task would cause a crash

  • Fixed problem reporting the Baseline in the Effort Report

  • Fixed bug where going back to a previous task would go back to the beginning of the project

fastDecision 4.2 Released

/

Objectives

  • Improved performance in calculation of the objectives and inconsistencies

  • Improved calculation of the inconsistencies - gap between current judgement and best fit now measured, and when below a threshold, the inconsistency highlight is removed

  • Consistency threshold changed to 90%

  • Fixed bug where light-grey numbers could appear below the pair-wise

Ratings

  • Bug fixed where changing a rating could cause fD to crash if the alternatives had not yet been ranked

fastProject 4.9.2 Released

/

General

  • Exporting Touchpoints, Checkpoints and Deliverables now only exports non-completed milestones

  • Filter task added to context menu

  • Fixed problem with the “All tasks” filter not found when performing a Reset when in the Resource Pool view

  • Fixed “flashing” when perform a Reset

Update

  • Overflow bug fixed when generating the Effort Report, which could happen when all tasks are earlier than the current date.

  • Fixed Find being set to “equals” rather than “contains” after going to linked task in the macro-micro roll-up

  • Fixed problem when running the PostFresh report where the PreFresh report was generated instead

Macro-Micro Roll-up

  • Improved functionality in macro-micro roll-up where predecessor dependencies now don’t have to flow down (a.k.a. in a waterfall fashion)

  • Going to a linked task in a macro-micro scenario, now only displays the task and subtasks if the roll-up task is a summary task. In addition, it setups up the screen with the splitter and position of the current date to the left.

  • Fixed bug in macro-micro roll-up where the start date of a macro task that doesn’t have a rolled-up predecessor and when the start/finish dates didn’t match with the micro task, would be set to the finish date of the micro task rather than the start date

  • Fixed problem when updating the progress of a macro task, where the micro task was a summary task with no current in-progress tasks (they were either not started or all in the future)

Inspector

  • Improved critical path interface in the Inspector when the number of Targets > 40

  • Minor formatting changes of the Critical Path Analysis chart

  • Added name of custom column in title when exporting Touchpoints/Checkpoints/Deliverables

Analysis

  • Bug fixed in duration analysis where blank lines would appear

fastProject 4.9.1 Released

/

General

  • Filter Task/Filter 2 Tasks fixed

  • New filter added to filter on all incomplete tasks within a date range and no summaries

  • Modified unique code generation when requisition a license to avoid hidden characters

Update

  • New (simpler and faster) PreFresh report along with a new improved (faster) PreFresh import (both default default and advanced)

  • Improved LAR formatting when uploaded to Google Docs

  • Added new function/filter in sub-menu: “Show tasks updated on”

  • Fixed bug where the Start date of tasks with their Touchpoint flag set would get moved to their Finish date

Macro-Micro Roll-up

  • Fixed bug where the roll-up dates of a Summary task in the micro schedule were being reported as not matching with the macro due to a Target in the Summary task (specifically, when the Target was later than the finish date of the Summary)

  • Fixed similar bug when the Target date was earlier than the start date of any subtask, and thus reported an incorrect start date of the roll-up summary task

  • Fixed bug where the update date wasn’t recorded in the macro under some circumstances

  • Fixed bug where the update date wasn’t updated in the micro

Wigglechart

  • Spurious Black dots on the Wigglechart fixed

Analyzer

  • Trend Analysis now extended to all tasks and can be based on a partial part of the task name

  • Fixed problem where tasks exceeded from analysis were reported as errors for the tests Summary No Milestone and Skips End Milestone.

  • Fixed bug where Roll-down touchpoints on tasks had their date changed by the schedule clean-up function, which ended up moving the start date of the task out to the Touchpoint date

Inspector

  • Brand new Critical Path Analysis chart

  • Added ability to do a late report for All Targets in the schedule

  • Late Report:

    • Now includes both Late Start and Late Finish - the Split Bar now snaps so all columns are displayed

    • Fixed bug where all tasks were not displayed if the near-term critical paths mode was set

  • Fixed problem in the Critical Path Analysis chart where an incorrect Target could be displayed if the Wiggle milestone had Subprojects as a predecessor task.

  • Fixed problem with the “Select Target” pop up box opening up when the number of targets is more that the max number of targets (currently set at 40)

fastProject 4.9.0 Released

/

Licensing

  • New licensing scheme introduced based on a License Key. The License Key is valid even if the user replaces their machine, and should therefore be kept in a safe place.

    • More here: https://lateralworks.com/tools/2020/3/23/activating-fastproject

General

  • Pluralization of a renamed milestone (Touchpoint, Checkpoint or Deliverable) now made smarter

  • Add Action

    • Added back into the Context Menu

    • Flag14 now used to identify an action and task now not highlighted, so Notes and Actions are treated differently.

    • Marked tasks functionality in the Tools now aligned with Notes and Actions

  • Improved speed of displaying Touchpoints/Checkpoints/Deliverables

  • Analysis tools (Trend, Duration, WBS, X-Functional) now grouped under one split button “Analysis”

  • Updated support e-mail to contact@lateralworks.com

  • Show/Hide Targets moved to Target dropdown in the Tools tab

  • Show Custom Tab option added to the General tab of options, which allows the Custom tab to be visible or hidden. This is disabled if there are no custom tabs.

  • Added “Restore Excel Reference” to Tools > Restore

  • Negative Float now depict an arrow pointing left to indicate the task needed to have started earlier to honor the dependency.

  • New filter added FP::filter task incomplete (no summaries)

Update

  • Fixed a problem when importing a LAR: an in-progress task that was marked as not-started in the LAR is now correctly converted to a not-started task in the schedule

Wigglechart

  • Tab colors now correct when Targets within subprojects and not updated in the Wigglechart

Analyzer

  • Deliverable (Flag16) now included in the Analyzer’s “No Successors” test (it was previously excluded)

  • Date Constraints in the Future now ignored by the Analyzer for Deliverable milestones

  • Adding a milestone at the end of a summary task will now automatically be completed if the summary task (and by implication all subtasks) are completed

  • Automatically adding a milestone to a Summary task will now automatically complete the milestone if the Summary task is complete

  • Split tasks now automatically fixed when running the automatic fix for Manual/Split tasks

  • Bug fixed where no Manual tasks were found, but multiple tasks were found and fixed when the auto-fix was run

  • Bug fixed where a Target problem was incorrectly identified when the Targets were in a Subproject

  • Bug fixed where a dependency could be removed if the predecessor task as a Start-to-Start with a positive lag

Inspector

  • Added the option for the Late Simulator to export the task information to Excel

  • Show/Hide Summaries added to Trend Analysis (Advanced)

  • Bug fixed when it was possible to get an Overflow error message using the Focus Now report

Resources

  • Toggle button for Marked tasks now correctly displayed the correct toggle position if the task is marked

Effort Updater

  • Updating a task now updates the “Last Updated” date so the correct date appears on the Effort Report chart

fastProject 4.8.14 Released

/

General

  • Made compatible with all regions where e.g. list separators, currency formats, etc. vary

  • Resource Tables added back to Global

  • Context Menu reworked (removed: Add Action, Notes & Highlight, added: Update Task)

  • Problem fixed with “Link to Last Milestone” where some VBA commands available in 32-bit MS Project were not available in 64-bit MS Project

Tools

  • fastBuild

    • Bug fixed where the Project Mission box in Step 2 (Milestones) would shift right each time the user when back to Step 2

  • Bug fixed where adding a Touchpoint, Checkpoint or Deliverable did not update the Inspector

Update

  • Target selected after an Update now determined by the setting of fastProject Options > Inspector > Default Target

Wigglechart

  • Wigglechart now lists the gap (days early/late) in the summary information when a milestone is completed.

Inspector

  • New function “Focus Now” added. Lists all tasks that meet criteria based on: the Target milestone selected (or Project), Starting/Finishing before a selected date, Days from Critical Path within a set number of days, and where the task is optionally Not started/In-progress.

  • Added ability to turn on/off summaries within No Group is selected for the Late Report

  • Fixed bug where closing the Late Report using the ‘x’ in the top right of the form would exit without resetting the schedule

  • Fixed bug where Target milestones were also listed

  • Clarified the number of days late are calendar days when the gap button is invoked

decisionAccelerator 4.20 Released

/

General

  • Right-mouse click menu added for faster access to dA functionality:

    • Context menu items are sensitive based on whether the cell is an Objective, Alternative or Constraint

    • Clicking anywhere else on a model reveals a reduced set of Excel functions

    • Reset Priorities is always visible when on a model, no matter where the user clicks

    • Clicking on a non-model reveals the standard Excel menu

Alternatives

  • Bug fixed where it was possible to delete the first alternative in the list when there was only two alternatives (the user should have been prompted a model must have a minimum of two alternatives).

fastProject 4.8.12 Released

/

General

  • Negative Float line added to milestones in the FP::model view

  • Fixed bug where “Link from first task” would cause an incorrect row much later in the schedule to be selected, which in some cases gave the appearance that all tasks had disappeared

  • Automatic recalculate now overs when a file is opened so custom fields are automatically recalculated

Tools

  • Importing a schedule

    • All task bars now visible (not hidden)

    • Fixed bugs where blank lines were not removed

    • Fixed bug where summary tasks were set to Manual if any of the subtask’s durations were set to estimated

    • Fixed bug where, the import would fail if a task had been broken down into subtasks between issuing the LAR and importing it.

Analyzer

  • Tasks Late To Target Simulator * NEW *

    • A new feature that answers the question “How many days do I need to pull-in each task to hit my Target date” has been introduced, located under the CP Analysis button in the Inspector.

    • First select a Target from the Inspector

    • Select one of three views - tasks that are Late to Target, On-time to Target and All tasks to Target. The tasks late to Target have negative float and two columns are added: Latest Start (the latest date each task can start to hit target) and Days To Pull-in which is the equivalent number of days to equal the Latest Start date.

    • Make sure to select the “Reset Simulator” button to reset the simulator.

      • For nerds (that’s you Tom!): the simulator puts a Must Finish On date constraint on the Wiggle milestone equal to the date of its Target date. the Reset Simulator ensures it’s removed.

  • Improved checking and fixing of Targets

    • Added Show, Set & Clear functions for the Target and Wiggle milestone settings (avoids having to display the Flag1 and Flag2 columns)

  • Clean-up now converts tasks with durations not expressed as days into days

  • Added option (in fP Options) to select whether the Analyzer automatically removes duplicate dependencies when run. Default is it does.

  • Fixed bug where a duplicate dependency would be removed if one of the predecessors had a negative lag but finishing earlier than one of it’s other predecessors. Tasks with negative lag are therefore now ignored.

Update

  • Added new functionality to the Import Lookahead Report, to allow the user to ignore not updated tasks. this would then update those tasks updated in the LARR, then those tasks not updated would be caught during the manual update.

  • Days Remaining and Predicted Finish Date now shown by default

  • Fixed bug in PreFresh Report where highlighted Summary tasks were listed in the Lookahead Report

  • Fixed bug where starting “From This Task” would start from the beginning of the schedule and not the selected task

Wigglechart

  • Additional notes not added when Wigglechart run on the same day

decisionAccelerator 4.19 Released

/

General

  • Calculate manually added back to the Objectives tab. This is a global “do not calculate flag” so changing the objective’s pair-wise or the alternative’s rankings does not recalculate the objectives or the alternatives. This is primarily used for those with laptops from the Stone Age.

  • Fixed bug where the error message “Must be on a model.” would appear, even if on a decision model.

Objectives

  • Consistency now turned off during sensitivity analysis

  • Fixed problem where sorting the objectives after performing a sensitivity analysis more than two times would cause the original pair-wise judgements to be lost

  • Fixed problem when deleting an objective, where selecting an entire row (vs. just the objective’s name) would cause 16,364 cells to be deleted

  • Fixed problem where “Calculate pair-wise” remained checked when “Force rank” was unchecked

Alternatives

  • Improved representation of bars in the rankings table with only positive and negative values and when “high values are good” and “low values are good”

fastProject 4.8.11 Released

/

General

  • Breakdown

    • Breaking down a task into parallel tasks now links all tasks to the summary’s end milestone

    • Added “Update prefix” to the shortcut menu

    • Milestone name now labeled correctly when breaking down a task with a prefix

  • Touchpoints/Checkpoints/Deliverables

    • Inserting a Touchpoint, Checkpoint or Deliverable now copies over the Core Team Member, Activity Owner and Function from the selected task to the Touchpoint

    • Fixed bug where inserting a Touchpoint before a Summary task would likely the Touchpoint to the Summary task. In this case, the Touchpoint is simply not linked.

  • Can now “Update” a prefix for tasks. Simply select one or more subtasks within a group with a prefix to add/update the prefix for the selected tasks.

  • Milestone Owner renamed to Core Team Member

  • Added “FP::completed within date range” filter so allow the user to display all tasks completed within the user-selected date range

  • Showing Actions now does not include the Notes column

Update

  • PreFresh Report now displays Core Team Member and Notes by default. The notes are empty and allow the person responsible for updating the task to add color to the status update. The notes are imported to the task’s notes and date stamped.

  • PreFresh report now shades the Remaining Duration/Finish Date cell yellow (with supporting text) when the Finish Date exceeds a threshold. The default threshold is 30 days, but can be changed through the fastProject Options > Update tab.

  • Bug fixed when updating a single task could cause an error if cursor was in the lower pane.

Analyzer

  • Added “Show All Excluded Tasks” under the “Analyze” dropdown to show all tasks that have been excluded by the Analyzer