ALM Release 8.7

About This Release

The users of previous release, 8.6 are encouraged to evaluate and upgrade to the new release for a better Kovair experience. While the Kovair ALM 8.6 release introduced major UI advancements making the application more feature rich, flexible, user-friendly and gave users more control in operation, Kovair ALM 8.7 release advances the platform’s capabilities for handling CMMI process demands.

In this release, we aimed at improving our customer’s experience for real time reports on the performance of its ‘Kovair Omnibus Integration Platform’. This release enriches the platform’s capabilities further by introducing new reporting gadgets, improved Sync monitor for real-time review of Events and Actions, new sections/graphical reports on license usage history for deeper insight and new set of integration adapters.

Kovair ALM 8.7 applications are supported by latest version of Google Chrome and Internet Explorer 11.0.

Summary of Kovair 8.7 Release

Snapshot of New Features

1. Hiding Fields Conditionally
2. Hiding Sections Conditionally
3. Document Generation Word Report through Policy
4. Relationship between Entity and User
5. Matrix Field
6. Associated WBS to be made available in parent fields
7. Schedule Field
8. Support for Milestone in Task Scheduler
9. Exposing Top Level Summary Values of WBS to its related entities
10. Connected User
11. Control Chart
12. Omnibus Report Dashboard Gadget

  Snapshot of Enhanced Features

1. Multi Valued Lookup Dependency
2. Restricting Scheduler to Workspace Level Resources
3. Enhancement of Relation Section Properties
4. Hierarchy List View
5. Omnibus Sync Monitor
6. Evaluation License Setup
7. New Adapters released

Show/hide fields in a form depending on a particular Lookup

A Kovair entity can store records belonging to different types. For example, the System Requirement entity can contain Hardware as well as Software type of System Requirements. So on selecting System Requirement as Software, other fields’ values related to Hardware e.g. Hard disk, Mouse, Keyboard should get hidden.

While adding or editing a record, though the entity is same, yet depending on the particular entity type selected, certain fields that may be relevant or irrelevant for that selected type, gets displayed or hidden in the form. A user gets to see only the applicable fields for that type and does not have to think which fields to be populated for that record. Data entry becomes easier, quicker and accurate. Additionally, a property can also be tagged to such fields, calling it whether it is a mandatory or an optional field for that type.

Features have been introduced in Kovair ALM that would allow the users to setup such configurations.

Show/hide form-sections in a form depending on a particular Lookup

Continuing with the same example as cited in the above feature, certain form-sections (containing one or multiple fields) may be relevant or irrelevant for a particular type. For example, project manager calculating a project cost estimate may choose different estimation methods e.g. ‘Application Point’, ‘Function Point’, ‘User Story Point’. So, depending on the type of estimation method chosen say ‘Application Point’, the corresponding form-section “Application Point Summary” is displayed and other form-sections get hidden.

While adding or editing a record, on selecting that particular type, irrelevant form-sections for that selected type should be hidden in the form. A user gets to see only the applicable form-sections for that type and thus will improve the data accuracy and data entry speed significantly.

Features have been introduced in Kovair ALM that would allow the users to setup such configurations.

A new Action introduced for Event-Driven Policy: Generate Word Report

Under Workspace Setup, in Kovair Policy module, a new action has been introduced called ‘Generate Word Report’. This action is only available for event driven type of policies.

It lets you to specify whether the generated report should be based on Word Report template or a generated Word Report document. Also, you can choose whether the word report will get attached to the affected record or prompts to specify a document type of field of that entity where the document is to be uploaded.

During execution, when an entity record satisfies the event condition for such a policy, the action gets triggered. As per the action definition, if a template is associated, the system first generates a word report document as per the template definition. Next based on the option set, the system either attaches the generated document under the Attachment system section to the corresponding entity record or uploads it into the specified document type of field.

Create Relation Fields between an Entity and Workspace Users

Till previous release, relationships could only be established between two different entities or with the same entity. No options were available by which an entity record could be linked to users and thus making it visible from the Traceability View. Customers and prospects have expressed their interest for this feature multiple times.

Keeping it in mind, in 8.7, Kovair has introduced a new feature in the Relation field definition. Based on workspace detail configuration, the ‘Select Related Entity’ dropdown field displays an additional option ‘User’, along with entities. Under an entity, creating a relation field with this option selected, will allow you to establish relation linkages between records of the corresponding entity and the workspace users.

Matrix Type Field

A new type of composite field have been introduced in Kovair 8.7 release. A Matrix Field is a ‘2-dimensional matrix structure’ filed with multiple Rows and Columns obtained from multiple Grid Fields. Matrix Field helps in organizing multiple sets of logical information e.g., Criteria, Alternative solutions etc. In real life scenario, matrix fields are useful when you need to create multiple blocks of content within a single field.

The matrix field is displayed in a tabular form wherein columns and rows represent different columns of the selected grids respectively. Users can select the labels for the column and row from the respective Grid fields. The cells represent a combination of data against each column and row.

In real life scenario, matrix fields are useful when you need to create multiple blocks of content within a single field. For example, consider a Release Management system where each Action Items have a set of Alternative Solutions proposed by different managers that needs to be analyzed and evaluated individually so that they can be ranked (in a scale of 0 to 5) against a set criteria. You can implement it by configuring two grid fields and two matrix fields with the following parameters:

• Grid Field 1 : Grid_Criteria
  • Field Name: Grid_Criteria  and Field Type: Grid
  • Number of rows in grid: 5 (so that users can set five criteria with five different weightages on a scale of 0 to 5)
  • Grid Columns: The Grid field should have two columns for ranking an alternative solution according to its Criteria and Weightage/ Importance. So the data type for the first column Criteria is text and that of the second column Weight can be integer or lookup (values ranging from 1 to 5). So the 1st Grid field – Grid_Criteria looks like the following table:

    Criteria	Weight (in a scale of 0 to 5)
    Criteria 1	3
    Criteria 2	5
    Criteria 3	1
    Criteria 4	4
    Criteria 5	5

• Grid Field 2 : Grid_Alternative_Solutions
  • Field Name : Grid_Alternative_Solutions and Field Type: Grid
  • Number of rows in grid: 5 (so that five alternative solutions proposed by different users can be recorded)
  • Grid Columns: The Grid field should have two columns, one for Alternative Solution and the other Proposed By for including the name of the proposer. So the data type for the both columns are text.
  • The 2nd Grid field – Grid_Alternative_Solutions look like the following table:

    Alternative Solutions	Proposed by
    Alternative 1	A. Dasgupta
    Alternative 2	S. Lahiri
    Alternative 3	D. Chakraborty
    Alternative 4	A. Dasgupta
    Alternative 5	J. Roy

• Matrix Field 1: Criteria_Alternative_Matrix
  • Field Name : Criteria_Alternative_Matrix and Field Type: Matrix
• Row Label: Solution Alternatives and Column Label: Evaluation Methods
• Matrix Row Label: Users will select values from 1st column (Alternative Solutions) of the 2nd Grid field i.e. Grid_Alternative_Solutions. Alternative Solutions. So values shall be Alternative1, Alternative 2, Alternative 3, Alternative 4 and Alternative 5.
• Matrix Column Label: Users will select values from 1st column (Criteria) of the 1st Grid field i.e. Grid_Criteria.Criteria. So values shall be Criteria1, Criteria 2.Criteria 3, Criteria 4 and Criteria 5.
• Matrix Cells: Users will select data type as Integer from a dropdown field with options – Integer, Float and Calculated to insert the evaluated ratings in each cell.

  Solution Alternatives	Evaluation Methods
  	Criteria 1	Criteria 2	Criteria 3	Criteria 4	Criteria 5
  Alternative 1	3	5	6	7	5
  Alternative 2	6	5	8	9	8
  Alternative 3	2	3	2	4	1
  Alternative 4	5	2	5	2	5
  Alternative 5	7	8	1	8	4

The following image illustrates the above example:

• Matrix Field 2
  • Field Name : Summary_Alternative_Criteria and Field Type: Matrix
• Row Label: Solution Alternatives and Column Label: Rating as per evaluation method (in a scale of 0 to 5)
• Matrix Row Label: Users will select values from 1st column (Alternative Solutions) of the 2nd Grid field i.e. Grid Alternative Solutions. Alternative Solutions.

So values shall be Alternative1, Alternative 2. Alternative 3, Alternative 4 and Alternative 5.

• Matrix Column Label: Users will select values from 1st column (Criteria) of the 1st Grid field i.e. Grid_Criteria.Criteria.

So values shall be Criteria1, Criteria 2.Criteria 3, Criteria 4 and Criteria 5.

• Matrix Cells: Users will select data type as Calculated from a dropdown field with options – Integer, Float and Calculated. This is because users need to display the desired metric Formula: Rating in each “Criteria X Weight” of respective criteria.
• Summation Column: The total arrived by summation of matrix cell values for each row is displayed in this column as Total Score.

Solution Alternatives	Rating as per evaluation method (in a scale of 0 to 5)					Total Score = ∑Rating in each criteria*Weight of respective criteria
	Criteria 1	Criteria 2	Criteria 3	Criteria 4	Criteria 5
Alternative 1	9.00	25.00	6.00	28.00	25.00	93.00
Alternative 2	18.00	25.00	8.00	36.00	40.00	127.00
Alternative 3	6.00	15.00	2.00	16.00	5.00	44.00
Alternative 4	15.00	10.00	5.00	8.00	25.00	63.00
Alternative 5	21.00	40.00	1.00	32.00	20.00	114.00

The following image illustrates the above example:

Associated WBS Field

A new of field have also been introduced to implement the association between WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) and entities. Associated WBS is a system defined field that lists all the Task Schedulers/Plans belonging to a particular project.

Users can associate a created Task Schedule/Plan with a respective project, release, module or any entity with help of Associated WBS system field.

It can be used in various areas like Task Parent Fields, Form Sections, Views, Tabular Reports, and Word Reports.

Schedule Type Field

Another special type of composite field has been introduced. This is a system defined grid type of field available for Form-Sections, Task Parent Fields & Word report.

The WBS structure lets the project manager create one or more Task Schedule/Plans for the Project/ Workspace.

A Task Scheduler has list of multiple records detailing all items related to a Work Item e.g. Various Work Items, Actions to be taken for that work item, Estimated task Duration, Planned Start & End dates, Preceding Tasks, Assigned Resources, Actual Start & End dates, Actual Duration, whether the Work Item has been set as ‘Milestone’. The work item records may have hierarchical (parent/child) relationship when a work item is defined as sub work item of another.

When a plan is related to the entity record via Associated WBS field, it is possible to roll-up/extract all data of child work item records. These fields will roll up the values of the fields given at the top level summary work item i.e. the values from topmost level item of the scheduler to which this record is associated.

The Schedule field can display the rolled up & summarized plan data in grid. The Schedule Type field will display value of the Associated WBS (Associated Task Scheduler) Summary.

So this new feature is helpful for users as they can access an entire Task Scheduler Plan summary data with help of a single field.

Create Milestone in Task Scheduler

A milestone is a work item that represents a significant date in a project, such as the completion of a project phase, or the date a particular report is due.

This feature let users mark any work item (for which task has not be generated yet) in the task scheduler as milestone. When the plan is saved by user, every milestone creates a record in the entity set in WBS Structure page with WBS Status field having value as ‘Milestone’.

Expose top level summary values of WBS to its related Entities

This new feature helps users to create project Estimation. When an entity record is associated with a task schedule (using Associated WBS field), certain fields related to the Associated WBS can be taken in form sections, task parent fields and reports. These fields roll up the values of the fields given at the top level summary work item i.e. the values from topmost level item of the scheduler to which this record is associated.

The top-level summary values like Planned Start Date, Planned Finish Date, Planned Duration, Actual Start Date, Actual Finish Date, and Actual Duration needs to get reflected in the project plan. These fields can be taken in form sections, task parent fields and reports from workspace setup for this purpose.

Connected User

This new feature helps to give collaborative data for an entity record. For a particular record of an entity this page provides a summary of all users who have done some activities on that record.

It lists the creator, modifiers, commenter(s) and subscribers. Users can also perform some quick operations on the comments like edit, reply and delete.

Template Report: Control Chart

This new feature lets user to create and use template type predefined reports known as Control Chart.

Control chart gives the statistics of the changes that happened to the value of the field of the particular entity record for which it has been defined.

The control chart plots Upper Control Limit, Min and Lower Control Limit following some standard deviation rules.

Enhancements for existing features

Setup dependency of multi-valued Lookup Fields

This is an enhancement for Field Settings. It enables users to map and setup the relationship dependency between the ‘Depends On’ field’s values and corresponding set of multiple values for the dependent lookup field. For all the selected values of the ‘Depends On’ field, the system will display union of sets of the dependent field’s values.

For example, consider that for your Release Management system you need to have a functionality that allows Release Managers to select the Release Module and Release Sub Module. Further, different sets of multiple values for Release Sub Module are dependent on multiple values of Release Module.

Restrict Task Scheduler to workspace level resources

This is an enhancement where users while creating a Task Scheduler/ Plan for a specific project (i.e. Workspace) can allocate only the persons (resources) in the organization who have been assigned for this specific project.

For example, before doing the plan/schedule the PM (Project Manager) usually places a requisition for resources based on skills. The Delivery Manager in conjunction with HR decides upon the resources based on their availability and then assigns them to the project. After this allocation when PM creates a schedule where they can use these resources.

Entity: Hierarchy View

This is an enhancement for Hierarchy View. Hierarchy View helps users to easily view and identify the hierarchical relationships between entity records, when linked entity records are created as sub-item of other(s).

The Hierarchy View of Entity list has been modified and presented in a better way to easily identify hierarchical relations and show large number of records. It is either in ascending or descending order of ‘Heading’ column by default.

For example, a record of Test Case type entity has ID – 1035 and another Test Case have been created having ID – 1047.The latter record is linked to the first record. So, if ‘Heading’ value for 1st record is 11, the latter record shall have a Heading value as 11.1. When you look at the list of entity records for Test Case, the records are listed by order of ‘Heading’ column values. Thus it is easy to identify the hierarchical relation.

Omnibus Report Dashboard Gadget

This enhancement enables Omnibus users to see graphical reports on the number of events collected, events processed, successful actions and errors done by Omnibus Engine Service in real-time.

Sync Monitor

This enhancement enables Omnibus users to:

• Distinguish between newly arrived events from the old ones easily. For all newly arrived events, the background color will be highlighted with a particular Semi Transparent Grey colour to easily segregate the new from the old ones.
• Easily identify an Event Process Status icon marked with distinct colors. The colour of the Event Process Status icon turns:
  • Yellow for such events which are awaiting to be processed due to license unavailability.
  • Red for such events which are rejected by the Omnibus engine from getting processed due to several reasons like incorrect date format, invalid user, etc. except the above two.
• View user friendly error messages in the tooltip.
• View Details hyperlink in the tooltip to get a detailed event-action related information.

Omnibus License Dashboard

The enhancement made for Omnibus License Dashboard enables the user to see the periodic license consumption history for more time ranges. Instead of seeing the report just for Days now users can see it for other time ranges too e.g. Hours, Weeks, Months and Year.

A pie-chart diagram that shows the percentage of license remaining to be consumed is now only displayed for Named License and not Concurrent License category.

New Adapters Released

Kovair Pivotal Tracker Integration Adapter

This new adapter through its integration with Omnibus Integration platform, allows bi-directional synchronization for epic, stories, task and activities between Pivotal Tracker and other ALM tools e.g. JIRA, Rally, CA Clarity PPM etc. Users can get centralized and transparent view on current IT projects portfolio, shared expectations on deliverables in well-defined timeframe, team velocity, and opportunities.

This integration adapter has following list of benefits:

• Agile Planning
• Issue/ Change Management
• Traceability
• Key Role in CI/CD
• Project Metrics

Kovair Azure Integration Adapter

A build is triggered either automatically or manually, whenever developer checks in code to (SCM) Source Control Repository like GitHub or Bit Bucket. Once the build is done through a preferred build engine the deployment needs to be provisioned (virtual machines need to be created and allocated) automatically for staging or production. The Kovair Azure adapter handles the entire deployment process in the background once the build is done. The updates for the entire process get tracked in Omnibus platform for reporting and traceability. Additionally, these data can be re-routed to other desired tools through Omnibus. The adapter can also take command from Omnibus to perform an action in Azure like start, stop and/or restart deployment.

This integration adapter has following list of benefits:

• Automates deployment of build files for automated testing through provisioning of Virtual Machines
• Helps performing software delivery best practices streamlining resource allocation and achieving continuous integration, continuous testing and continuous delivery.
• Perform an action in Azure like start, stop and/or restart deployment.

Kovair Gerrit Integration Adapter

With help of this adapter, whenever a developer commits a change to GitHub site (whether via GitHub command line prompt, desktop apps or GitHub.com) all changes are tracked. The adapter also pushes the data to the centralized Omnibus integration platform in order to publish to other connected tools. It can also initiate automatic build using the integration bus. This provides the project manager, a complete view of the changes happening from his own preferred tool without going into the SCM system.

This integration adapter has following list of benefits:

• Tracking changes
• Comment on lines of code
• Report issues
• Plan the future of their projects with other connected discussion tools.

Kovair GitHub Integration Adapter

This new adapter through its integration with Omnibus Integration platform allows synchronization and federation for each of the file versions and file version histories that are being created by the developers from time to time into GitHub. Users can view the details of the file and the actual code through the exposed federated link from within their own preferred connected tool environment.

This integration adapter has following list of benefits:

• Collaborate and comment during the code review sessions.
• Track changes that have been made.
• Log issues and plan future projects.
• Complete traceability of Changes, Pull Requests, Files and File Versions with all related artifacts of other ALM tools.

Deprecated Features