Release Summary

Usability Enhancement

In this release, we have super-charged STaRT by introducing powerful capabilities to manage different kinds of task scheduling. On the analytics front, we have provided the ability to plot big number widgets and given a free hand to size the dashboard widgets as per the need. And finally, you can try our new UI with a new navigation layout, and re-organized toolbar to help you get work done more efficiently.

Planning

Introducing STaRT Plus ^(BETA)

This release brings you an advanced version of STaRT with a new look and capabilities to make your project management experience even better. The new STaRT Plus module comes with the following capabilities:

Multiple Task Types

The STaRT Plus comes with the following  4 task types to help you define a task based on the type of work that needs to be accomplished:

• Fixed Units
• Fixed Work
• Fixed Duration
• Fixed Date

Defining a specific type of task helps you make a specific aspect value of the task fixed or unchangeable. For example, if you define a task as a fixed duration, then the duration of that task won’t change even if you change the resources or planned work of the task. This will give you more control over your schedule and define the task more realistically. Read more about the multiple task types from the Task Types article in SwiftEnterprise online help.

Multiple Dependency Types

STaRT Plus comes with 4 types of dependency types as similar to  Microsoft Project:

• Start to Start
• Start to Finish
• Finish to Start
• Finish to Finish

These dependency types help you establish different types of relationships between tasks and determine (schedule) the order in which the tasks should be worked upon. Using the dependency types, you can link and overlap the tasks in such a way that starting/finishing a task will schedule the start/finish of another task. This provides better control over scheduling and helps reduce the project duration. Read more about the multiple dependency types from the Task Dependencies article in SwiftEnterprise online help.

Multiple Constraint Types

The STaRT Plus comes with different types of constraints to help you auto-schedule your task plan. Applying constraint type on a task helps you define when the task should be worked upon. The 7 types of constraints provide you the flexibility of scheduling – whether a task must be finished on a specific date, before or after a date, or at the earliest depending on other tasks.

The 7 types of constraints are –

• As soon as possible
• Finish no earlier than
• Finish no later than
• Must finish on
• Must start on
• Start no earlier than
• Start no later than

Read more about the multiple constraint types from the Task Constraints article in SwiftEnterprise online help.

Manually Scheduled and Automatically Scheduled Task

STaRT Plus comes with two modes of task scheduling – Manually Scheduled tasks and Automatically Scheduled tasks. These modes offer you flexibility and control over planning and managing the schedule. The automatically scheduled tasks are useful if you want the scheduler engine to schedule the tasks for you as per the dependency, constraint, and other factors applicable to the task. On the other hand, the manually scheduled tasks are useful if you want to drive the schedule manually as per your requirements.

Read more about the task modes from the Manually Scheduled and Automatically Scheduled Task article in SwiftEnterprise online help.

Critical Path Tracking

A critical path is a series of tasks that determines the finish date of the project. If any task on the critical path is delayed, the entire project is delayed. Thus, the visualization of critical path helps you determine the tasks that when get  delayed may impact the project’s deadline. This will help you take the necessary actions on time and avoid any slippage in the project’s finish date.

Read more about the critical path from the Critical Path Task article in SwiftEnterprise online help.

Note: The STaRT Plus is a license driven and currently is in the BETA stage. Contact your SwiftEnterprise Account Manager to enable this module and try it out.

Introducing New UI/UX in STaRT

Manage your projects more efficiently in STaRT as it comes with a brand new look to help you maximize your productivity and work intuitively. You will experience the following changes in STaRT:

1. New task filters, My Tasks, and Milestones have been introduced
2. New Baseline view has been introduced for viewing baseline details
3. New Dense View introduced to see more number of tasks without scroll
4. All actions and panels toggles are grouped together for easy accessibility
5. Keyboard shortcuts introduced so that actions can be performed quickly
6. Actions disabled for a checked out/in mode are removed to reduce visual clutter.
7. Enhanced Gantt chart view for better visibility of progress and overall schedule.
8. Additional details such as Baseline and Actuals are added to the Resource Assignment panel.

Analytics

Resize Dashboard Widgets as per Your Requirements

The 3 pre-defined widget sizes worked well when it was about visualizing the data in chart format. However, with the rising need to view tabular information with varying numbers of rows and columns in the dashboard, it became important to allow flexible sizing. So, we have eased out on the restrictions and given a free hand to users so that they can resize them as per their data needs.

Introducing Dial Chart in Pivot Widget

The dial chart in Pivot widget offers you an additional graphical view to visualize a single data value in a quantitative context. You can define multiple ranges for different conditions to see where a specific number stands in that range. This is helpful in scenarios such as getting the inflow of defects in the current week.

Introducing Tile in Pivot Widget

There are times when a single number could represent an important aspect of project progress tracking such as the count of new defects this week or the total actual effort spent by the team this month. To supplement this need we have introduced the Tile chart. With tile, you can represent the big number on the dashboard and make it stand out by applying a background color to it.

New User Experience ^(BETA)

SwiftEnterprise has got a new look! The new User experience is rich; yet, simple, logically organized and intuitive. With the new user interface (UI), we have brought in some industry-proven best practices of the new-gen UX design like:

• The workspace and other navigation options available on the top have been moved to a dockable menu on the left.

• The menu-based navigation has been moved into the breadcrumb-based navigation that not only helps you understand where you are in the application but also helps you navigate to another page.

• The workitem listing toolbar has been redesigned by giving easy access to standard and custom filters and hiding the visual clutter of infrequently used options under the overflow menu.

Learn more about the new UI layout by going through Highlights of New User Interface Layout article in SwiftEnterprise online help.

NOTE: New UI can be toggled on by the user and is currently in the BETA stage.

Workitems

Advanced Filter Editing Blocked for Other Users

From now on, an advanced filter can be edited only by its creator. No other user can modify it. The same is applicable for the advanced filters available in the Item Status widget and Pivot widget.

ECR Framework

Hide Delegate Roles Icon via ECR

You can now hide the Delegate Roles icon on a workitem using the HIDEPANELICON literal.

ECR Configuration on the Timesheet Route Event

Earlier users can trigger an ECR configuration on the ‘saved’ and ‘approved’ events of the timesheet. Now we have extended this support for the timesheet ‘routed’ event also.

Introducing RUN API to Fetch Program Details

We have introduced a new RUN API GETPROJECTSBELONGSTOPROGRAM to fetch all the projects/sub-projects of a program.

Add-on Capabilities

Good Bye Team Dynamics

From this release onwards, Team Dynamics will no longer be available in the application.

Limited the Count of Business Rule

From this release onwards, the use of business rules has been limited to maximum up to 10 business rules for an enterprise account. To increase the count of business rules or know more about it, get in touch with us [email protected].

Functional Impact due to Enhancements

Functional Impact due to STaRT Plus

If you upgrade from STaRT to STaRT Plus module, the following will be the impact areas –

1) The following fields will be visible on all Tasks:

a) Task Type b) Constraint Type c) Constraint Date d) Task Mode

2) The following fields will become editable on all Tasks:

a) Planned duration: editable for new task types (FU, FDur, FW) b) Planned effort: editable for all task types

3) Just like the other scheduling fields like Planned Start, Finish dates, the following fields will be non-editable in the checked-in mode:

a) Task Type b) Constraint Type c) Constraint Date d) Task Mode

4) Modification to the Task plan through REST or RUN API will not be allowed.

5) Milestone tasks will be 0 duration tasks and cannot have resources assigned to them.

6) If you already have some resources assigned to a milestone task and then upgrade to STaRT Plus, then the existing resources on the milestone task will remain as is with their planned efforts logged.

Note: Users who continue to use STaRT will have no functional impact.

Functional Impact due to Timesheet Route Event

Since support for the timesheet ‘Routed’ event (EVENTSOURCE) is also given, the configurator needs to add EXITGENERATION for the same in case GENERATESEGONTIMESHEET is configured , else ECR generation will be on the timesheet Route.

Also, we have provided the following extra parameters in the output of GETEVENTDETAILS literal

• ‘Project ID’ for all the saved, routed, and approved events.
• ‘NextStageSeqNo’ for routed and approved events

Defects Addressed

Platform

Deliverables

Annexure 1: Release Compatibility

Release Compatibility: SwiftEnterprise 8.0.0 and above means, while upgrading an existing customer installation of SwiftEnterprise, you will consider following –

Upgrading the database component

1. If your current release is prior to SwiftEnterprise 8.0.0, then you must upgrade the database by running DB.EXE for all the interim releases up to SwiftEnterprise 8.0.0.
2. Once you have reached 8.0.0 version, you can directly run SwiftEnterprise 9.0.0 DB.EXE
3. If your current release is SwiftEnterprise 8.0.0 or above, you can directly run SwiftEnterprise 9.0.0 DB.EXE

Upgrading the WildFly component

1. Make deployment as mentioned in the ReadME.PDF, present in the SwiftEnterprise 9.0.0 release folder.
2. If your current release is SwiftEnterprise 8.10.0, then follow the deployment impact present in this release document.
3. If your current release is prior to SwiftEnterprise 8.10.0, you must apply the deployment impacts mentioned in all the interim releases up to SwiftEnterprise 8.10.0. Once that is done, then follow the deployment impact present in this release document.

MSP Plugin Version

The MSP Plugin Version is not tied to release compatibility. It is changed whenever there are fixes or enhancements in the plugin code. The MSP plugin version is mentioned in the Release Summary section of the Release Notes. We append ‘updated’ tag to the version number if there is a change in the plugin version shipped in the previous SwiftEnterprise release.