2025-2
Project Management Context
Programs are the first child level under Portfolios, with Portfolios being the highest level in the BrightWork 365 hierarchy. It allows users to group related projects together in order to manage and report on them in a coordinated way. Your BrightWork 365 environment can have more than one portfolio.
Getting instant visibility of programs and their underlying projects is key to delivering strategic goals on time. With BrightWork 365, you can view the status of programs in one place, understand how the underlying projects are performing, and take action quickly to keep them on track.
Document Management Interface: A SharePoint interface will display throughout Programs created with release 2025-2 and later and if you're organization has opted into the Graph API settings, typically done during the installation process. Otherwise, the same document subgrid present on pre-2025-2 Programs will be displayed. See Document Management for details.
Create Programs
- Click into the Programs page and then click + New at the top of the page.
- In the Statement tab fill in all the required fields and click Save.
Program Tabs
You can easily view all Projects, Documents, Issues, Risks, and Program Settings that are related to a selected Program by clicking into the associated tabs within the Program record.
Statement
You can view the Program Statement and all child Projects by clicking on the Statement tab.
The list of available users to choose from in the Program Sponsor and Program Manager columns is limited to those users that have been added to the Senior Managers Dynamics Team found in the Admin Area.
Teams Channel
If configured for the Program, this field links to the Microsoft Teams Channel associated it. See Microsoft Teams for details.
This field functions differently for Programs created prior to BrightWork 365 version 2025-2; see the older article version tabs at the top of this article for more information.
Document Library
This field is only present in Programs created in BrightWork 365 version 2025-2 and later.
If configured for the Program, this field links to the Document Library for it. See Document Management for details.
Status & Status Reports
The Status tab allows the manager to set current project metrics and KPIs, and the Status Reports tab provides the manager with the ability to create snapshot status report. See Portfolio & Program Status Reporting for details.
Documents
During the installation of BrightWork 365 a SharePoint site and accompanying document library were created for the BrightWork 365 environment. A folder for each Program exists in this library.
You can create new documents or upload existing documents into this library through the Documents tab of a Program record.
- By default, files deleted from the Documents tab will be permanently deleted from the SharePoint site associated with BrightWork 365 and cannot be restored from a recycle bin. Contact your Microsoft Support representative to discuss activating the associated SharePoint Recycle bin to be able to restore deleted documents.
- For customers with custom forms: SharePoint has an indexing limit that is reached when a document library contains more than 5000 items. If you receive a message about the SharePoint throttling limit being exceeded, see Managing the SharePoint Throttling Limit.
Actions
See the Actions article for detailed information.
Issues
Click on the Issues link to view and create Portfolio related Issues.
The list of available users to choose from in the Assigned To column is limited to those users given the BrightWork Team Member security role.
Risks
Click on the Risks tab to view and create Program related Risks.
The list of available users to choose from in the Risk Monitor column is limited to those users given the BrightWork Team Member security role.
- Risk Monitor: Person assigned overall responsibility for tracking the progress of a risk throughout its lifecycle.
- Mitigation Actions Assignee: Person responsible for taking steps to reduce the probability or impact of a risk to a program.
- Contingency Actions Assignee: Person responsible for implementing the actions required to mitigate any program impacts of a risk that has occurred.
Costs
See the Costs article for detailed information.
Communications
See the Communications article for detailed information.
Program Settings
The Program Settings tab is not present in Programs created in BrightWork 365 version 2025-2 and later. For Programs created in earlier versions of BrightWork 365, see the other article version tabs at the top of this article.
Related
Click on Related > Audit History to view the audit change history.
Quick Create - New Project
Managers can quickly create a new Project from a Program record using Quick Create.
- In the Program's Projects section in the Statement tab, click + New Project.
- Fill in the short form, switch Create to Yes, and click Save and Close.
2025-1 & 2024-2
Project Management Context
Programs are the first child level under portfolios, with portfolios being the highest level in the BrightWork 365 hierarchy. It allows users to group related projects together in order to manage and report on them in a coordinated way. Your BrightWork 365 environment can have more than one portfolio.
Getting instant visibility of programs and their underlying projects is key to delivering strategic goals on time. With BrightWork 365, you can view the status of programs in one place, understand how the underlying projects are performing, and take action quickly to keep them on track.
Creating Programs
- Click into the Programs page and then click + New at the top of the page.
- In the Statement tab fill in all the required fields and click Save.
Program Tabs
You can easily view all Projects, Documents, Issues, Risks, and Program Settings that are related to a selected Program by clicking into the associated tabs within the Program record.
Statement
You can view the Program Statement and all child Projects by clicking on the Statement tab.
The list of available users to choose from in the Program Sponsor and Program Manager columns is limited to those users that have been added to the Senior Managers Dynamics Team found in the Admin Area.
Owning Business Unit
Programs play a critical role in the BrightWork 365 security and access model. Select the portfolio's Owning Business Unit in the Statement tab. The value chosen will propagate throughout all child records of the portfolio, including its program, projects, and work items.
When the Owning Business Unit is selected, the amount of time it takes for the value to propagate to all child records is related to the number of program child records. When the process is complete, an email notification will be automatically sent to the program manager and the user that made the selection.
Status & Status Reports
The Status tab allows the manager to set current project metrics and KPIs, and the Status Reports tab provides the manager with the ability to create snapshot status report. See the Status Reporting article for details.
Documents
During the installation of BrightWork 365 a SharePoint site and accompanying document library were created for the BrightWork 365 environment. A folder for each Program exists in this library.
You can create new Microsoft Office documents or upload existing documents into this library through the Documents tab of a Program record.
- By default, files deleted from the Documents tab will be permanently deleted from the SharePoint site associated with BrightWork 365 and cannot be restored from a recycle bin. Contact your Microsoft Support representative to discuss activating the associated SharePoint Recycle bin to be able to restore deleted documents.
- For customers with custom forms: SharePoint has an indexing limit that is reached when a document library contains more than 5000 items. If you receive a message about the SharePoint throttling limit being exceeded, see this article.
Actions
See the Actions article for detailed information.
Issues
Click on the Issues link to view and create Portfolio related Issues.
The list of available users to choose from in the Assigned To column is limited to those users given the BrightWork Team Member security role.
Risks
Click on the Risks tab to view and create Program related Risks.
The list of available users to choose from in the Risk Monitor column is limited to those users given the BrightWork Team Member security role.
- Risk Monitor: Person assigned overall responsibility for tracking the progress of a risk throughout its lifecycle.
- Mitigation Actions Assignee: Person responsible for taking steps to reduce the probability or impact of a risk to a program.
- Contingency Actions Assignee: Person responsible for implementing the actions required to mitigate any program impacts of a risk that has occurred.
Costs
See the Costs article for detailed information.
Communications
See the Communications article for detailed information.
Program Settings
The Program Settings tab provides the ability to change the portfolio associated with the program, and to update the Microsoft Teams list to facilitate the creation of a Microsoft Teams Team for the program.
Only users with the BrightWork PMO Manager security role can view the Program Settings tab.
Related
Click on Related > Audit History to view the audit change history.
Program Settings & Microsoft Teams
You can update the Microsoft Teams list in the Program Settings screen:
and then choose the Microsoft Team in the Program's Statement screen:
In order for the Teams list to update properly so that the Program Team is included, the Team must have been created previously, and the Owner of the solution flow Get list of Microsoft Teams must have been added as a Member of the Team.
Create a Microsoft Team for a BrightWork 365 Program
Before creating a Microsoft Team for a BrightWork 365 program, check if one has already been created and assigned to the program:
- In the Portfolios > Program section of the Site Map, click in the Statement tab of the relevant program and check the Microsoft Team field to see if there is already a Microsoft Team assigned to the program or if it is blank.
To create a Microsoft Team for a BrightWork 365 Program:
- In Microsoft Teams create a Public Microsoft Team 'From scratch'.
- Add the Owner of the Solution Flow Get list of Microsoft Teams as a Member of the new Microsoft Team; this is likely the service account used to install the BrightWork 365 solution as noted in our installation instructions.
- In the relevant Program go to Program Settings | Update Teams List and switch the slider to Yes.
Note: This process will run under the account of the Owner of the Solution Flow Get list of Microsoft Teams.
- A process will run to populate the Teams table with the Teams that you have access to.
- In the Program's Statement section choose the Microsoft Team you created; it may take a minute or so for the Team to be available for choosing.
- Every time you add a new Program ensure that it points to a Microsoft Team.
- After attaching a Microsoft Team to a program, child projects of the program will be able to create channels within that same Team.
- In newer versions of Microsoft Teams, Microsoft retired the ability to load websites inside the Teams client. These website links will open in a new browser tab instead.
Quick Create - New Project
Managers can quickly create a new Project from a Program record using Quick Create.
- In the Program's Projects section in the Statement tab, click + New Project.
- Fill in the short form, switch Create to Yes, and click Save and Close.