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The Process Dashboard is continually being developed and extended - both through open-source contributions, and through sponsored enhancements from organizations that generously support open source development. Since the last official release of the dashboard, the following changes have been released for use by stakeholders and other interested individuals:

Changes in build 2.7

Changes in build 2.6.11

  • The WBS workflow editor has always offered the ability to attach URL-based hyperlinks to workflows and their steps, enabling individuals to have easy access to these links when they follow the process. This functionality is now easier to use, thanks to a better user interface for entering and editing these links.
  • The Process Dashboard watches for WBS changes in the background, and alerts the user if a sync is needed. Sometimes, the requisite changes are minor, resulting in an alert that "miscellaneous project information" was updated. On a busy team, these miscellaneous changes can happen many times a day and become a source of annoyance. To address this problem, the sync operation will now apply these miscellaneous changes silently without bothering the user.
  • A fix was provided for the following bug:

Changes in build 2.6.10

  • The dashboard's cloud storage support has been optimized to reduce bandwidth and improve storage efficiency on various platforms.
  • The User's Manual has been updated to compare the various storage options for team collaboration (network folders, cloud storage, and Enterprise Server), and to provide detailed instructions for each. Application messages have also been improved to provide additional guidance for teams using cloud storage.
  • The dashboard fully supports the use of cloud storage for Team Dashboards, but its use for personal dashboards is not recommended. New checks have been added to warn users about the risks of using cloud storage for personal dashboards.
  • A fix was provided for the following bug:

Changes in build 2.6.9

  • The dashboard now supports the use of cloud storage services (such as OneDrive, Google Drive, and DropBox) for team collaboration. This is preferred over the previous "shared network directory" approach, since cloud storage is more readily accessible and more secure. To collaborate via cloud storage, all active team members will need to:
    • Upgrade to Process Dashboard 2.6.9 or higher
    • Be granted read/write permission on the team's cloud storage directory
    • Install the desktop sync client for this cloud service, and have it synchronize the team directory to their computer
    Once these conditions are met, the team leader can migrate the team dashboard to cloud storage by selecting the appropriate option in the Tools menu of the Team Dashboard.
  • Fixes were provided for the following bugs:

Changes in build 2.6.8.1

Changes in build 2.6.7

  • The Task & Schedule window now offers an option to sort tasks by label. This makes it possible to sort tasks based on the values that were entered in a custom WBS column.
  • The dashboard creates many small files to store project data. The number of files in a personal dashboard can grow large over time, which can result in slower startup and shutdown operations. To improve performance, two changes have been introduced:
    • In the past, the dashboard would eagerly create an empty file for the storage of defects for each component and task within a project. These files would remain empty until the first defect was logged against a given component or task. Starting with this version, the empty files are no longer created; instead, the files are only created when a defect is logged.
    • When a project, component, or task is deleted, the dashboard has historically retained the underlying data files (removing the pointers to the files, but not the files themselves). The intent of this behavior was to support manual data recovery efforts after an accidental deletion; but this redundancy is unnecessary because the deleted files are already being retained in incremental backups. Starting with this version, unreferenced data files will be cleaned up each time the dashboard shuts down.
  • Fixes were provided for the following bugs:

Changes in build 2.6.6

  • The dashboard supports a new "bundled" data storage implementation, which can improve performance (especially startup and shutdown time) over slow networks.
  • A new option has been added to the Project Parameters and Settings page, allowing an individual to request an automatic "Sort by Milestone" after each WBS sync operation.
  • In certain unusual situations, a coach or other individual might want to join a team project more than once from the same personal dashboard. Better support has been added for that usage model.
  • Fixes were provided for the following bugs:

Changes in build 2.6.5.1

Changes in build 2.6.5

Changes in build 2.6.4

Changes in build 2.6.3

  • It is now possible to edit the list of size metrics used by a project.
    • High-maturity software teams can create new size metrics to support specific planning and tracking goals.
    • Teams who work in disciplines other than software can create size metrics to precisely support their planning and tracking needs.
    • Upgrade considerations:
      • Upgrading to version 2.6.3 will not affect current or historical team projects, which will continue to use the list of size metrics defined by their metrics collection framework.
      • Team projects that are created or relaunched after upgrading will include support for custom size metrics. To create, rename, or delete metrics, just choose "Edit Size Metrics" from the WBS Editor "Workflow" menu.
      • Individuals who have created personal projects can use custom size metrics in those projects simply by upgrading.
  • A fix was provided for the following bug:

Changes in build 2.6.2

  • In the Time and Defect Log Editors, the first column has historically displayed the full path of the task where an item was logged. This column now uses intelligent abbreviation, making the table easier to read.
  • The Workflow Process Analysis report now includes a navigation link to quickly switch between different workflows.
  • In the personal dashboard, the Workflow Process Analysis report is calculated from the data that was most recently exported. So for convenience, the report now performs a quick "export my data" operation in the background as it is opened.
  • In the WBS Editor, the name of the "PROBE Task" option does not convey an obvious meaning to people outside the PSP/TSP community. So to improve usability, this option has been renamed to "High-Maturity Planning Task" instead.
  • Fixes were provided for the following bugs:

Changes in build 2.6.1

  • The dashboard's integration logic with JIRA, TFS, and Azure has been enhanced to support the creation of new issues/work items from within the WBS Editor.
  • When you create an earned value rollup that includes multiple iterations of a relaunched project, the EV report will show a merged view of components that spanned multiple iterations.

Changes in build 2.6

Changes in build 2.5.7

  • The toolbar in the WBS Editor has been reorganized onto two rows. This prevents toolbar buttons from disappearing behind the tabbed pane, resolving a longstanding usability problem.
  • A new, standalone WBS Editor is available. This application makes it possible for coaches to perform a TSP-style launch planning session with any team (even if they don't use the Process Dashboard) to rapidly create a detailed, evidence-based plan for project work. The standalone WBS application:
    • Can be launched by double-clicking the app file. (Java must be installed on the computer; but no installation process is needed for the WBS application itself.)
    • Opens with a window showing a new, empty project. The File menu offers traditional options like New, Open, and Save As.
    • Offers a dramatically simpler set of node types, removing items (like the PSP and PROBE tasks) that aren't of interest to non-dashboard teams.
    • Enables teams to experiment with scope and schedule to produce a capacity-driven release plan.
    • Saves plans into ZIP files, and supports Export to Excel.
  • Improved integration logic is available to synchronize data between the Process Dashboard and external systems, including Jira, TFS, and Azure. Organizations that are interested in this functionality are encouraged to contact the development team.
  • A fix was provided for the following bug:

Changes in build 2.5.6

  • In upcoming releases of the dashboard, metrics collection frameworks will become a much less central concept. In anticipation, the MCF name has been removed from the items that appear in the script menu. (Coaches who need to check the MCF of a particular project can find it on the Project Parameters and Settings page.)
  • The dashboard's interactions with the Enterprise Server received a number of security upgrades in keeping with current best practices.

Changes in build 2.5.5

  • The Process Dashboard now supports the creation and use of metrics frameworks that exclude some or all of the PSP phases. The WBS Editor will hide the pentagonal "PSP Task" type for projects that use a PSP-incompatible framework.
  • The completion checkbox (on the main dashboard toolbar) now makes it easy to enter a specific day and time when a task was completed. Just press the "Ctrl" key while clicking the checkbox.
  • When a task has been deleted from the WBS or reassigned to someone else, the "Sync Work Breakdown Structure" operation asks for your permission to delete the element from your personal plan. A new option on the project parameters and settings page allows you to disable this permission step if you desire (essentially auto-approving future task deletions).
  • The LOC Counter generates a report with redlines, showing the lines of code that have been added and deleted. Now, this report allows the interleaving sections of unmodified code to be expanded and collapsed, making it easier to focus on the changes themselves.

Changes in build 2.5.4

Changes in build 2.5.3

  • On new team projects (created after the installation of this update), team members can enter planned and actual size directly in the WBS Editor. This provides a number of significant benefits:
    • The WBS allows much easier data entry than the old size management approach, which centered around the Size Inventory Form. (Users can still enter data on the Size Inventory Form if desired, but the WBS is now the official system of record.)
    • Using the WBS makes it easier to review size data for completeness and accuracy. (This task was extremely difficult in the past when size data was scattered across Size Inventory Forms in multiple personal dashboards.)
    • Using the WBS makes it possible to enter size data for a component written by someone else. (For example, one person on the team could now measure and enter the actual sizes of all components that were finished during the previous cycle.)
  • After a hard drive crash, an individual might have to create a new personal dashboard and rejoin the team project. The joining process now includes a check for this scenario, and asks the individual if they would like to restore their time and defect log entries from before the crash.
  • Fixes were provided for the following bugs:

Changes in build 2.5.2

  • A number of enhancements have been made to earned value baselines:
    • The Task & Schedule window will now allow you to save a periodic snapshot of your plan without altering the official baseline.
    • Two new charts scan the baselines/snapshots that have been saved for a team project, and illustrate how the planned effort and planned completion date have evolved over time.
    • The Team Dashboard now automatically saves EV snapshots when a team project is starting, and periodically thereafter. If a team forgets to save a baseline of their plan after the launch, they can select one of these automatic snapshots later as their official baseline.
    • In the Task & Schedule window, when choosing "Tools → Manage Baselines/Snapshots," teams can now view an EV report for one of their historically saved baselines. If the number of baselines is large, this makes it possible to identify the data each baseline contains.
    • The storage of baselines has been improved. In the past, a Team Dashboard would use more memory when it contained a large number of saved baselines. This problem has been resolved.
  • A new button makes it easy for individuals to sort their Flat View tasks into milestone order.

Changes in build 2.5.1

  • A new file-based mechanism has been introduced for inviting team members to join a project. This mechanism is easier to use in organizations that employ tight network firewalls.
  • When an individual is joining a team project, autocompletion hints are now provided to help them pick the initials that were assigned in the team member list.
  • On Windows, better support is now provided for third-party Java 11 distributions.
  • A fix was provided for the following bug:

Changes in build 2.5

  • The WBS Editor now remembers the preferred width of various columns on startup.
  • The dashboard installer has been updated to reflect the recent release of PSP and TSP materials under a Creative Commons license.
  • The documentation in the users manual has been brought up to date.

Changes in build 2.4.6

  • The Earned Value report now includes an option to hide cost information. This can be useful if you need to share progress/status with a customer or stakeholder, but you don't want them to be able to reverse-engineer your hourly rate. To use this feature, click the "Customize" link on the earned value report and check the box to hide cost data.

Changes in build 2.4.5

  • In the Team Dashboard, the Team Project Rollup Plan Summary report now includes a "Workflow Summary" section. This section displays aggregated data for all of the components in a project that use a particular workflow.
    • In the past, all rollups on the team project summary were aligned to the phases in the metrics collection framework. Since this report is aligned to the phases in a workflow instead, it gives the team more flexibility to analyze their work using the custom processes they've defined. And in particular, this new section enables a team to perform a workflow-driven quality plan for a project.
    • The format of this new section is similar to the Summary page of the "Workflow Process Analysis" report. But that report shows data for completed components from all projects, while this report shows data for all components (complete or incomplete) in the current project.
    • The new "Workflow Summary" section has been added to the default Plan Summary report. Teams that have customized their report (by clicking the "Edit this page" icon that appears in the top-right corner of the page) will need to add a new "Workflow Summary" element to their report manually.
    • Before the workflow quality plan can be displayed for a particular team project, it will be necessary to upgrade to version 2.4.5, then open the WBS for the given project at least once, and save a change to the WBS.
  • The Project Data Scanner now includes a section listing components whose final workflow task was marked complete, but which have earlier tasks that weren't closed, or that have no time logged.
  • The LOC counter can now count changes between various commits in a Git working directory.
  • The Defect Log Editor now provides a button to add a new defect.
  • After you apply a workflow in the WBS that spreads time across phases, you may wish to delete a few steps that aren't needed for the component in question. When you do, the time from the deleted tasks will now be spread across the remaining tasks based on phase percentages, leaving the overall component estimate unchanged.
  • The WBS Editor will now preserve workflow types when you copy tasks from one project to another, as long as the workflow names and step names match across projects.

Changes in build 2.4.4

  • A "Zoom" feature is now available in the WBS Editor.
  • The main dashboard toolbar now includes a "Find Task" button for added convenience, and the WBS Editor toolbar now includes a "Save" button.
  • When a workflow includes a PROBE task, the component plan summary in the personal dashboard will now calculate a quality plan with estimated defects injected and removed by phase. (The parameters that drive this quality plan can be edited in the "Common Team Workflows" window, by toggling the display of optional columns for estimated yield and estimated defects injected per hour.)
  • When you choose the "Earned Value Charts" option from the script menu, it will now display charts in an interactive rich-client window. (In the past, it displayed a webpage with a gallery of EV charts.)
  • Fixes were provided for the following bugs:

Changes in build 2.4.3

  • The Process Dashboard has traditionally used a cross-platform visual theme that looks slightly different from other applications. Some people notice this difference and mistake the dashboard for an old/legacy windows app; and this can lead new teams to perceive TSP as a "dated" technology. To avoid this misperception, the dashboard now displays user interfaces with an updated, OS-native theme on Microsoft Windows. Users who prefer the old style can switch back by opening the Preferences dialog and checking the "Use cross-platform visual theme" box.
  • Many changes have been made under-the-hood to improve the reliability and security of various web-based tools and APIs.
  • For organizations who use the Process Dashboard Enterprise Server, a new launcher is available that removes the dependency on Java Web Start. The new launcher opens faster, and is more forgiving of nonstandard configurations in the locally installed Java runtime. It also positions organizations to be prepared for the upcoming release of Java 11, which will remove Web Start support.
  • Fixes were provided for the following bugs:

Changes in build 2.4.2

Changes in build 2.4.1

  • A new Visual Studio plugin is available, making it possible for developers to interact with the Process Dashboard and collect data without leaving their IDE. Contact the development team if you would like to help pilot this new functionality. If you use a different IDE and are interested in developing a similar plugin, please contact the development team for information about the new REST APIs that support this goal.
  • The defect creation window now stays on top of other windows, making it easier to capture defect data while you are working in another program like an IDE. In addition, the window displays a label indicating the project and component that the defect is being logged against.
  • The dashboard has historically displayed notifications for certain events (like the need to perform a "Sync," or an invitation to join a new project). Now, these notifications are also displayed as "toast" popups near the system tray icon.
  • A fix was provided for the following bug:

Changes in build 2.4

Changes in build 2.3.5

  • In the WBS Editor, better autocompletion support is provided for editing labels and custom column values.
  • The Localization Tool now supports entering translations for menus, labels, and messages in the Work Breakdown Structure Editor.
  • A fix was provided for the following bug:

Changes in build 2.3.4

  • The speed and responsiveness of several WBS editing operations (including insert, rename, move up/down, cut/copy/paste, and delete) have been significantly improved for large projects.
  • The Find operation in the WBS has been extended to search in any column (including custom columns), and a Replace feature has been added as well.
  • When more than one person is assigned to a task (such as an inspection), it is helpful for an individual to know which other people they are collaborating with. Now, this information is readily available from the task dependency indicator on the main dashboard toolbar. It is also displayed in the dependency column of the Task & Schedule window and the EV Report.
  • In the Team Dashboard, the "File → Alter Project" menu now includes an option to close a project. This can be helpful if work is ending on a given project, and it does not need to be relaunched for an additional cycle.
  • In the Gantt chart, you can now click the configuration icon (which appears on the top-right of the chart) and toggle the display of optional "Assigned To" and "Milestone" columns. These can be especially helpful when printing or taking a screen capture of the Gantt chart.
  • If you open a Gantt chart by clicking on a bar in the EV Milestones chart, the Gantt chart will display a line for the milestone commit date.
  • In the Time Card dialog, the columns depicting weekends now have a different background color. This assists with the process of reviewing time log data and correcting errors.

Changes in build 2.3.3

  • Since 1.14.7, the WBS Editor has provided a filtering function. That filtering function has been enhanced:
    • When a filter is in effect, columns sums now respect the filter. For example, when the "Time" column displays the total time for the project or for a particular subcomponent, the displayed totals will only include time from the visible children that matched the filter.
    • Many columns allow you to edit the total value on a parent component, and will automatically scale the values on children to satisfy your change. When a filter is in effect, this scaling operation will no longer affect rows that were hidden by the filter. (This effectively shields filtered components and tasks from most editing operations.)
    • If you have created custom columns in the WBS, you can now filter the WBS based on data entered into those columns.
    • Simpler, streamlined controls have been provided for hiding completed tasks, and for narrowing the view to tasks performed by particular individuals.
    • A new "Show Related Tasks" option makes it possible to display all of the tasks under components that matched the filter.
  • The Process Dashboard has been upgraded to be Java-9-ready. Individuals who install an early access release of Java 9 can now run the dashboard in that JRE.
  • When running in Java 9, the dashboard supports smooth scaling of the user interface for HiDPI monitors.

Changes in build 2.3.2

  • The Team Dashboard now includes a comprehensive framework for role-based access control:
    • A fine-grained permission hierarchy has been introduced. This includes permissions for editing particular items (for example, "who is allowed to modify milestones?") and for viewing sensitive data (for example, "who is allowed to view the defect log?"). The list of permissions is extensible, so new controls can be added in the future.
    • A user interface is provided for defining roles, and stating the permissions that each role should be granted.
    • Finally, a user interface is provided for listing users and assigning them roles. When users open the Team Dashboard or Work Breakdown Structure, their actions will be subject to the role-based permissions they have been granted.
    The default, out-of-the-box behavior of the Team Dashboard remains unchanged. But if teams wish to lock down their Team Dashboard, these new controls make that possible.
  • A "Time Log" section has been added to the Rollup Plan Summary Report in the Team Dashboard. This makes it possible to export the team time log to Excel, and to see views of the team time log that are filtered by label or group.
              New teams will see this option right away. If existing teams have customized the Rollup Plan Summary (by clicking the "Edit this page" icon in the top-right corner of the report), their local customizatons will override the addition of the "Time Log" section to the default report structure. Those teams will need to edit their customized report and add a "Time Log" element.

Changes in build 2.3.1

  • The Team Dashboard now includes a feature to define groups of users. These can be used for many purposes: for example, to describe people from different parts of the organization, different project subteams, or different engineering disciplines. Once groups have been defined, reports can be filtered to show data from a particular group.

Changes in build 2.3

  • The documentation in the users manual has been brought up to date.
  • When the Tasks In Progress chart has been customized to color the discs by individual, those colors are now assigned more consistently (so a given individual is likely to be assigned the same color from week to week).

Changes in build 2.2.8

  • The Workflow Process Analysis report is now visible in the personal dashboard. This makes it easier for individuals to monitor trends in their historical data in support of personal process improvement.
  • The "Rate" column in the team workflow editor is only useful for very advanced teams (who have historical productivity data, and who are skilled enough to produce accurate size estimates during a launch). But even for those teams, its use is discouraged (since proxy estimation tables provide a significantly more robust way to produce size and time estimates). In recognition of these factors, the "Rate" column is now hidden on new projects by default. Teams that wish to use it can easily reenable it by clicking the column selection button on the toolbar of the Workflow Editor window.
  • The Workflow Process Analysis chart now contains charts that show histograms of actual size and time. If you click on these charts, you can view a table of underlying data that can be useful for populating proxy estimation tables.
  • Fixes were provided for the following bugs:

Changes in build 2.2.7

  • The Workflow Process Analysis report has been significantly enhanced:
    • The report now displays an extensive collection of charts that show various process metrics, and demonstrate how those metrics have changed over time.
    • Powerful filtering options are provided to adjust the list of components and tasks that should be included in the various charts and reports.
    These reports are available at the team level by selecting the "Workflow Process Analysis" option on the main Team Dashboard window. They are also available to individuals in the personal dashboard for any component whose workflow includes a PROBE phase; just click the "Show To Date Metrics" link that appears on the Plan Summary for the component.

Changes in build 2.2.6

  • The main dashboard toolbar now includes an "Add Task" button. This makes it easy to quickly add a task to your plan without opening the WBS Editor first.
  • A new editor makes it possible to configure process mappings between workflows. These mappings can be used to:
    • Document the evolution of a process when a team modifies the steps in their workflow
    • Combine data from several related workflows to produce consolidated process reports
    • Leverage historical data from old workflows for PROBE planning of new work
    To view and edit these mappings, click the "Configuration" link on the Workflow Process Analysis report, then click the link to edit workflow mappings.
  • A mobile/smartphone application is available for use with the Process Dashboard. The mobile app works alongside the Process Dashboard, making it possible to perform a number of common tasks from an iPhone®, iPad®, or AndroidTM device:
    • Reviewing the list of tasks you're responsible for
    • Logging task time, and editing past time logs
    • Updating the estimated time for a task
    • Marking tasks complete
    To get started with the mobile app, open the personal dashboard and choose "C → Tools → Mobile App." The mobile app requires the use of the Process Dashboard Enterprise Server, version 3.6.0 or higher.
  • A fix was provided for bug #312.

Changes in build 2.2.5

  • It is now possible to specify fixed times and minimum times for selected steps in a team workflow. To use this feature, click the icon that appears in the top-right corner of the Workflow Editor (just above the vertical scroll bar), and enable the "Min Time" column. Then enter minimum times as needed. (To specify a fixed time, enter a minimum for a task that was otherwise assigned zero percent of the overall workflow.)
  • The defect timer and the main timer now work more closely together to help you collect accurate data:
    • If you start timing a defect, the dashboard will start the main timer automatically. If the main timer is pointing at a different task, the dashboard will ask you if you'd like to switch to the task where this defect was logged.
    • If you are timing a defect and you change the main timer to log time to an unrelated task, the defect timer will pause automatically.
  • A monthly earned value status report is now available. This shows data in a format similar to the weekly report, but for an entire calendar month instead. It can be useful for tracking and communicating progress on a larger, longer term project.

Changes in build 2.2.4

  • The filter dialog in the WBS Editor now includes an option to show tasks that have not been assigned to any milestone.
  • If a defect is logged to the wrong component/task, you can now use drag-and-drop in the Defect Log to move the defect to the correct location.
  • Since version 2.0.2, the Team Dashboard has provided automatic labels called "Completed_Tasks" and "Completed_Components". These labels make it simple to filter the team reports so they only show data for completed work. Now, these labels are available in the personal dashboard as well.
  • In the past, deleting all tasks from underneath a WBS component could sometimes cause the component's size estimate to be lost. This problem has been corrected.

Changes in build 2.2.3

  • The Project Data Scanner report now includes a check for workflow steps that may have been skipped. Specifically, it displays incomplete tasks which are followed by completed tasks from the same workflow. This section of the report can help coaches, team leaders, and role managers to monitor process fidelity.
  • The embedded data warehouse now includes information about saved baselines, including baseline dates and cost estimates.
  • A fix was provided for bug #311.

Changes in build 2.2.2

  • The dashboard includes a fundamental enhancement to the way defect data is collected and analyzed:
    • When individuals log a defect within a team project, the "injected" and "removed" selectors will now allow them to choose phases from the team's defined workflows. (Previously, individuals were required to select a phase from the underlying metrics framework, such as TSP.)
    • The Workflow Process Analysis report now displays information about the number of defects that were injected and removed in each phase of a workflow, along with advanced quality metrics such as phase yield and defect injection/removal rates.
  • The Relaunch Wizard now provides better handling for PSP tasks that are in-progress when a project is relaunched.
  • The dashboard now provides improved support for individuals who work offline, or who experience intermittent connectivity to the team network data directory.

Changes in build 2.2.1

  • The WBS Editor now includes a "Collapse All" button on the toolbar.
  • When you create or edit a defect, you can enter URLs to external websites in the defect description. These URLs can be used to link the defect to supporting references in a corporate defect tracker, a requirements management system, or any other web-based system. When such URLs are present, new dashboard features make them easier to use:
    • When viewing or editing the details for a particular defect, a hyperlink icon will appear over the "Description" pane. Clicking that icon allows you to quickly open the hyperlinks that appear in the defect description.
    • When the defect log is displayed in the web browser, the hyperlinks will be made "clickable."
  • When defects are imported from ReviewBoard, the description will now include the filename and line number that each defect was logged against, as well as a hyperlink to the issue in ReviewBoard.
  • The Tasks In Progress chart now offers a customization setting to color discs by assigned individual. Enabling this option makes it easier to see if a particular individual has a large number of problem tasks.
  • If the user starts the timer and then marks a task complete before a full minute has passed, the dashboard will now round the time log entry up to one minute if no time has ever been logged to that task in the past. This captures an individual's intent more accurately when a given project task requires a very short period of time.
  • The embedded data warehouse now includes information about project milestones, as well as task dependencies.
  • Fixes were provided for bugs #306 and #307.

Changes in build 2.2

  • The Help files have been updated to reflect all current enhancements and changes.
  • Fixes were provided for bugs #304 and #305.

Changes in build 2.1.14

  • It is now possible to create custom data columns in the Work Breakdown Structure Editor. These can be used to tag WBS elements with team- or organization-specific attributes, such as priority, relevant subsystem, issue tracker ID, etc. (The values entered can be used to filter team reports, and are also accessible to data warehouse queries.) To create a new column, choose "Custom Columns" from the "Tabs" menu in the WBS Editor.
  • After a computer crash or other unexpected event, the dashboard may find corrupt files in its data directory. Although rare, these events could leave a user with a broken dataset, displaying error messages on each subsequent startup about "Could not parse null." New logic has been added to help users recover from these external corruption events, by restoring the last known good version of a corrupted file from historical backups. When such a repair is made, the user will be shown a warning about the problem, encouraging them to review recently entered data for completeness.

Changes in build 2.1.13

  • The Project Data Scanner report now includes a chart showing the cumulative defect removal curve for a team project.
  • REST APIs are now provided to open the defect dialog and to mark tasks complete.

Changes in build 2.1.12

  • It is now possible to export defect type standards to an XML file, then import them into another team or personal dashboard.
  • Fixes were provided for bugs #292, #293, and #294.

Changes in build 2.1.11

  • The Team Dashboard contains a new "Project Data Scanner" report, which analyzes team project data to look for common problems and highlight opportunties for improvement. This is a preliminary version of the report to illustrate the core concept; additional analyses will be added to the report in the future. If you have ideas for new analyses, please contact Tuma Solutions so they can be added in a future release.
  • In the personal dashboard, the Hierarchy Editor now allows individuals to move team projects to a different folder, by using the "Cut" and "Paste" buttons. Individuals can use this to move old project cycles to an "archive" folder.

Changes in build 2.1.10

  • In the WBS Editor, the File menu now includes an option to "Highlight and Review Changes." This option can flag all of the cells that have been modified since a certain date. Selecting a flagged cell then displays the history of how the value has changed over time, along with the name of the individual who made each change.
  • The Relaunch Wizard should not be run against a data backup ZIP file opened in the Quick Launcher, because it would truly relaunch the real project files out on the network. To help people avoid this mistake, the Relaunch Wizard now includes a check for this condition.

Changes in build 2.1.9

  • A new report is available that displays a chronological list of changes that have been made to the WBS of a team project. The report displays information about tasks that have been added, deleted, and modified, and shows changes to the planned time for various WBS items.
  • When you open the WBS Editor from a personal dashboard, it will now automatically select the task in the WBS that is currently active on the main dashboard window.
  • A fix was provided for bug #291.

Changes in build 2.1.8

  • In the past, organizations that created their own custom metrics collection frameworks were required to refresh those frameworks each time a new version of the dashboard was released. This task is no longer necessary; teams will enjoy the full benefits of each new version simply by upgrading the dashboard.

Changes in build 2.1.7

  • In the WBS Editor, you can now choose a subset of the team and focus the colored balancing bar on those individuals. This makes it possible to see optimized balanced completion dates for a subgroup of people on a multidisciplinary team (for example, just the developers or just the testers). Subteams can be saved for use in future WBS editing sessions.
  • The active task selector now dynamically moves older tasks into a "Completed Items" submenu. This reduces clutter and makes it easier to focus on active tasks. Users can configure the length of time that should pass before a completed task is moved into this menu.
  • The active task selector has always allowed users to navigate either hierarchically or within an EV task list. Now, the task list navigation mode supports rolled-up task lists. This allows users who are matrixed across several projects to navigate within an EV rollup they've created of their active projects.
  • When you relaunch a project, the Relaunch Wizard will now bring forward project-specific settings such as the quality planning parameters and the team defect type standard.
  • In organizations that use ReviewBoard, it is now possible to deploy an organization-wide default value for the ReviewBoard server URL.
  • A fix was provided for bug #287.

Changes in build 2.1.6

  • The WBS Editor now provides a "Reapply Workflow" menu option. This can find tasks in the WBS that were created by applying a workflow in the past, and update those tasks based on the current workflow definition, to include:
    • Inserting new workflow steps in the right order
    • Updating the names and types of workflow steps that have changed
    • Rearranging workflow steps if necessary
    • Deleting WBS tasks for workflow steps that have been deleted
    • Automatically assigning new tasks to individuals based on previously assigned workflow roles
    • Reallocating time across tasks based on updated workflow rates and/or percentages
  • When a project contains a large number of workflows, the Workflow menu would sometimes extend past the bottom of the screen. This problem (bug #283) has been corrected. In addition, a new menu item has been added to the Workflow menu that allows the user to select and apply a workflow by typing its name, with autocompletion support.
  • A fix was provided for bug #289.

Changes in build 2.1.5

  • A number of new Earned Value charts have been added:
    • A trend chart showing how the CPI has changed over time
    • A variation on the Direct Time Trend chart which shows a line for each team member
    • A variation on the Earned Value Trend chart which shows a line for each team member
    • A two-dimensional trend chart displaying the evolution of actual/plan ratios for direct time and task cost
  • The Cumulative Earned Value and Cumulative Direct Time charts now include a "Replan" line.
  • The buttons on the main toolbar now have larger icons when the "large fonts" preference has been enabled, and the icon for the reports/scripts/tools button has been updated to better suggest its function.
  • Fixes were provided for bugs #249, #250, #269, #277, #279, #280, #282, and #285.

Changes in build 2.1.4

  • The WBS Editor includes several powerful new features to make assigning and balancing work easier:
    • The workflow editor includes a new "Performed By" column. You can enter generic role names like "author," "reviewer," "tester," etc. in this column; or if a specific person is always responsible for a certain task, you can enter their initials. When the workflow is applied to the WBS, team member initials result in automatic assignments, and role names are displayed as placeholders. You can click on a placeholder like «author» to assign an individual to all of the matching tasks.
    • In the past, the Assigned To column was only editable for leaf tasks. Now, it is editable for parent components as well. This makes it simple to reassign all of the tasks under a given component from one person to another.
    • Autocompletion support is provided in the Assigned To column as you type the initials of the assigned team members.
  • In the Task & Schedule window, you can now right-click on a task for a menu of quick options:
    • Open the time log or the defect log, pointing to the task in question
    • Copy information about the current task to the clipboard for pasting into another program.
  • In the Task & Schedule window, you can now use copy-and-paste to mark several tasks complete with the same completion date.
  • A fix was provided for bug #276.

Changes in build 2.1.3

  • The WBS Editor now includes a feature to create and edit proxy tables, which can be used to quickly estimate the size and time of WBS components.
  • The WBS Editor has historically allowed the creation of "leaf" components, that have a time estimate but no subtasks; these are useful for many purposes such as capacity analysis and strategic planning. Now, it is also possible to assign such a component to one or more individuals, to model ownership and to perform rough capacity planning at the personal level.
  • When a project contains a large number of milestones, the "Balance Work Through" menu could sometimes extend past the bottom of the screen, making it impossible to select late-project milestones. This problem (bug #267) has been corrected. In addition, the WBS Editor will now remember the milestone you were last balancing through, and restore it the next time you restart the WBS Editor for that project. (Ref bug #268)
  • Fixes were provided for bugs #271, #272, #273, and #274.

Changes in build 2.1.2

  • Several enhancements were made to the WBS Editor:
    • It is now possible to highlight an individual milestone to assist with workload balancing: just click on a milestone segment in one of the colored balancing bars.
    • To visualize the workload balance of multiple milestones, you can now choose to recolor the balancing bars by milestone (rather than by individual).
    • The WBS Editor now includes an option to hide the horizontal and vertical bars that depict the balanced team duration.
    • When you close and reopen the WBS Editor for a particular team project, it will now remember the tab you were viewing and display the same tab on startup.
  • When the Task & Schedule window opens, it will automatically select the row for the current week, and display it with a bold font.
  • In the Chart dialog (accessible from the Task & Schedule window), you can now right-click on a chart and choose "Copy" to copy the image to the clipboard.
  • By default, the dashboard will select the next task after you mark a task complete. If this behavior is undesired, it can now be disabled via the Preferences dialog.
  • When a forecast calculation produces a date far in the future, the earned value charts would become difficult to read. Now, disabling the forecast line will rescale the chart to focus on the lines that remain.
  • The charts in the PROBE Wizard will now automatically adjust the zoom to ensure that the bottom-left corner shows the point (0, 0).
  • If the planned time in a process phase is zero, the quality model calculations will now detect this scenario and plan for no defects to be removed in that phase. B
  • In the past, calculations for planned inspection rate/density would utilize actual size data if any was present. This behavior has been disabled by default, but teams can reenable it on the Project Parameters and Settings page in the Team Dashboard. B

Changes in build 2.1.1

  • The "Import from CSV" option in the WBS Editor can now import data into any WBS data column. This can assist with the import of WBS data from external systems.
  • On the Workflow Process Analysis report, the filter to "Show data for this project only" was not working properly. This defect has been corrected.

Changes in build 2.1

  • When a team project has been relaunched, the team members will automatically receive invitations to join the new project.

Changes in build 2.0.16

  • When running from the Enterprise Server (version 3.4.0 or higher), the dashboard can now display charts, reports, and data as it appeared at some point in the past.
  • The Workflow Process Analysis report can now display data for a single team project, or from all projects.
  • In certain unusual situations, a "task list missing" error can occur on a team rollup. Now, that error includes a "Help" hyperlink with information on how to fix the problem.
  • A license is no longer required to view the enhanced charts in the Team Dashboard.

Changes in build 2.0.15

  • The active task selector has been redesigned to make better use of available space, and to better support complex projects with deep work breakdown structures. The main window now displays as much of the active task name as possible, and the portions that do not fit are displayed in an overflow menu.
  • The "Find Task" functionality (available in the personal dashboard by typing Ctrl-F) has been improved for better usability. Completed tasks are indicated with a strikethrough, and past projects can be collapsed so they do not participate in the search operation.
  • The Size Estimating Template now includes a field for the entry of Total Size. This field reminds developers to enter the value during Postmortem, helping them to avoid a common data entry error.
  • A new user preference enables the main window's title bar to display timing information for the currently active task.

Changes in build 2.0.14

  • The Process Dashboard's internal web server has been enhanced to support Java servlets and JSPs. This makes it possible to develop custom reports using standard Java technologies, and run them against the project data in the Team Dashboard.

Changes in build 2.0.13

  • The WBS Editor has traditionally displayed values with only one digit of precision after the decimal point. When numbers in a plan were smaller than 0.1, unusual rounding errors would sometimes occur. These problems have been corrected.

Changes in build 2.0.12

  • Organizations who use the Process Dashboard Enterprise Server (version 3.3.1 or higher) can take advantage of the following enhancements:
    • When an individual is added to the Team Member List of a team project, they will now receive a notification in their personal dashboard inviting them to join. Clicking the notification begins the joining process. (This streamlined approach helps new users to avoid a number of potential mistakes, such as forgetting to open their personal dashboard first, or joining the wrong dashboard to the project.)
    • Historically, some organizations have been unable to use the Enterprise Server due to network configuration challenges (such as firewalls, proxy servers, and internally-signed SSL certificates). New options in the Dashboard and the Server make it possible to overcome some of these challenges, expanding compatibility to a broader range of network configurations.
    • Improved security measures have been added to the communications between the Enterprise Server and the Process Dashboard client.

Changes in build 2.0.10

  • Significant new features have been added for Common Team Workflows:
    • In the Team Dashboard, a new "Workflow Process Analysis" report is provided on the script menu. This report shows the time spent in each step of the workflow, along with high-level metrics such as cost of quality and historical productivity rates. C D
    • When defining a workflow, teams can now add a special "Personal PROBE Planning" element. This element enables the assigned individual to use the Size Estimating Template and PROBE Wizard to generate size and time estimates for their work. It also provides a personal Project Plan Summary for the component, as well as a "To Date" report showing aggregate metrics for other components that the individual has produced using this workflow. A D
    • In the WBS Editor, different icons are now used to visually distinguish tasks that were created by the application of a workflow. This makes it possible to track the process origin of a particular task in the plan. C D
  • When an individual is participating in more than one team project simultaneously, they can create an EV Rollup in their personal dashboard to display a consolidated plan for their work. Now, the Task & Schedule window for that EV Rollup provides special support for balancing available task hours across the various projects. Clicking on the PT (planned time) column for a schedule row opens an interactive dialog for visually reallocating time and managing the total amount of time that has been committed across all of the projects.
  • If an individual leaves the timer running for several hours, the dashboard will now display a warning message asking if they did this intentionally. This can help individuals catch their mistake if they forget to stop the timer (for example, if they leave it running overnight).
  • The embedded database in the Team Dashboard now includes information about the workflows that were used to generate various tasks in a project plan. C

Changes in build 2.0.8

  • A new Relaunch Wizard is provided to help teams prepare for team project relaunch meetings. This Relaunch Wizard: B
    • Creates a new Team Project to hold the plan for the new iteration.
    • Copies the workflows, milestones, and team member schedules from the old plan to the new plan.
    • Copies incomplete components and tasks from the old plan to the new plan, and adjusts the planned times of in-progress tasks to account for work that has already been performed.
    • Marks the old project as closed, indicating that no additional work will be performed there. The next Sync WBS operation will help team members to close the remaining tasks on the old project.
  • The Task & Schedule dialog now has an "Expand All" option on the View menu.

Changes in build 2.0.7

  • The Task & Schedule dialog now provides new options for working with multiple baselines:
    • You can now save multiple baselines for an EV schedule, providing a name and optional comment for each one.
    • You can view the list of baselines that have been saved for a schedule, edit their details, and delete them if necessary.
    • You can review the saved baselines for a schedule and select the one that should be "active" for the purposes of charts, reports, and calculations.
  • A new option in the Team Member List makes it easy to move the start date of the entire team at once. This option is provided in the "Team Schedule Settings" window that appears when you click the date customization hyperlink.
  • New performance tunings were added to improve the startup and shutdown time of large team and personal dashboards.

Changes in build 2.0.6

  • The Weekly EV Report has always displayed the total actual time logged against each completed and in-progress task. Now, it also displays the amount of time that was logged to each task during the week in question. This makes it possible to distinguish between active and idle tasks.

Changes in build 2.0.4

  • It is now possible to move time log entries to a different task by dragging and dropping rows in the time log editor.
  • A fix was provided for bug #241.

Changes in build 2.0.3

  • When individuals join a team project, they will experience a new streamlined joining process: B
    • Instead of being presented with page after page of questions, they will see a single form that collects all the necessary information.
    • The new form provides reasonable default values whenever possible. Fields that need attention are visually highlighted so they stand out from the fields that already have a workable default value.
    • As the user clicks on various fields, context-sensitive help is displayed to explain the data that is needed.

Changes in build 2.0.2

  • Milestones receive significantly improved support within earned value schedules: A, B
    • The Task & Schedule window, EV report, and weekly report display a new Milestone column (rather than folding milestone data into the Labels column).
    • When a task is projected to miss a milestone commit date, the new Milestone column will visually flag an error and provide a tooltip with more information.
    • In Flat View, an individual can check a box to highlight all of the tasks associated with a particular milestone. When they do this, a dashed line is drawn over the list of tasks to illustrate the commit date when tasks must be completed. These features help the individual as they rearrange tasks to meet the deadline.
  • A new Milestones chart is available for earned value schedules in both the team and personal dashboard. This chart displays a horizontal bar for each milestone, comparing projected progress to the milestone commit dates. When the plan is not projected to satisfy a given milestone date, you can click on the corresponding bar and view a Gantt chart to determine which tasks are responsible for the slip. A, B
  • When filtering a report in the Team Dashboard, two new tokens are automatically available. "Completed_Tasks" filters the report to display the tasks that have been marked complete, and "Completed_Components" filters the report to show data from team project components that are 100% complete. B
  • The Common Team Workflows window will now allow teams to prepopulate workflows with labels and notes. To do this, teams can click a button in the top-right corner of the workflows table to select the optional workflow columns they wish to edit. C
  • Additional keyboard shortcuts are now available for many actions in the WBS Editor. C
  • Fixes were provided for bugs #237, #238, and #240.

Changes in build 2.0

  • More helpful error messages are displayed on startup if missing metrics collection frameworks prevent the display of project data.
  • A large number of new Spanish translations have been added, including support for the use of Spanish during the installation process.
  • A new item in the Preferences dialog allows non-English speakers to disable or scale back the amount of translation that occurs in the dashboard.
  • A number of browser compatibility problems have been fixed, relating to "Export to Excel" and "Size Estimating Template" functionality in Chrome and Internet Explorer 10.

Changes in build 1.15.8

  • For over a decade, the Team Dashboard has reused the same graphical user interface as the "personal" Dashboard. With this release, the Team Dashboard now displays a redesigned user interface that focuses on the needs of coaches, team leaders, team role managers, and other users of consolidated team data. The new interface provides quick access to team tools and reports, improving productivity of existing teams, and reducing the learning curve for teams that are new to the Process Dashboard.

Changes in build 1.15.7

  • Fixes for a number of bugs in the new database logic:
    • When some data backup files were opened in the Quick Launcher, the Team Project Rollup Summary report would show all zeroes for team data rollups.
    • The database logic was not calculating rollups for brand new Team Projects (i.e., projects which were newly created via the Team Project Setup Wizard) until after a shutdown/restart of the Team Dashboard.
    • In certain rare scenarios, multithreaded file I/O could cause a database error window to be displayed. The database loading logic has been made more robust.
    • When the database logic is unable to read a data file (for example, due to incorrect filesystem permissions), a more helpful error message is now displayed.

Changes in build 1.15.6

  • The various reports, charts, and calculations in the Team Dashboard have been rewritten to take advantage of the data warehouse database plugin. As a result, Team Dashboard reports are displayed 100 to 1000 times faster than before. Team Dashboard memory usage has also decreased significantly. Together, these improvements introduce a dramatic change in the scalability of the Team Dashboard for large and long-running project teams. (Please note important upgrade consideration B.)
  • Beginning with Process Dashboard 1.15, individuals could sometimes encounter a rare problem that would prevent them from performing a "Sync to WBS" operation. This problem has been corrected.

Changes in build 1.15.3

  • Historically, some teams have observed extremely long startup times for the Team Dashboard - especially when opening the data over a VPN, WAN, or other slow network. This version introduces a change to the storage strategy for team projects, enabling significantly faster startup times for the Team Dashboard. (Please note important upgrade considerations A and B.)
  • When the Team Dashboard and Process Dashboard shut down, a task runs to export data for various team projects. Historically, as more team projects are added to a particular dashboard, this export step takes longer and longer. In this version, the export task has been streamlined significantly, allowing the dashboard to shut down much faster. B
  • The Common Team Workflows window includes a button allowing you to export workflows to an external file. Unfortunately, on Mac OS X, the file selection dialog was only allowing you to export to a file that already exists. This problem has been corrected.

Changes in build 1.15.2

  • A new data warehousing plugin is available. This plugin exposes team project data in a relational database, making it possible for external tools to query project data via SQL queries. For more information, please see the documentation on the data warehousing plugin.
  • Significant improvements have been made to the efficiency of the earned value calculation logic, enabling earned value reports to display much faster than before.
  • On some Mac OS X systems, the script button was not successfully opening the web browser. This problem has been corrected.

Changes in build 1.15.1

  • The Defect Log Editor now includes an option to import defects from the Review Board code review tool.
  • A new REST API has been provided that makes it possible for external tools (running on the same computer as the personal Process Dashboard) to add entries to the Size Inventory Form for a Team Project. B
  • The splash screen appears more quickly after clicking an icon to launch the Process Dashboard.

Changes in build 1.15

  • The Quick Launcher can now open ZIP files that were created using the "Save A Copy" option from the "File" menu of the WBS Editor. These ZIP files can also be opened using the "C > Tools > Open Dataset" option.
  • Sometimes, teams might create a workflow by copying and pasting elements from the main WBS into the Common Team Workflows window. Unfortunately, that copy/paste operation could accidentally transfer undesirable attributes (such as time estimates and assignments to specific individuals) into the workflow definition. Those accidental attributes are now scrubbed from the tasks in a workflow.

Changes in build 1.14.7

  • The WBS Editor now includes a filtering function. This makes it possible to focus in on the set of components and tasks that contain certain words in the name or notes, that are assigned to various people, that are complete/incomplete, or that have certain labels or milestones.
  • The WBS Editor now includes a search feature. This makes it possible to quickly find components or tasks whose name or notes contain particular words.
  • Teams sometimes encounter, fix, and log defects that should not technically count against their quality metrics. (For example, they might fix a defect in legacy code that they inherited from some external source.) Individuals can now enter 0 in the "Fix Count" field of the defect dialog to indicate that a defect should not count against quality metrics such as yield or defect density. A
  • The dashboard has always allowed individuals to configure multiple collections of "To Date" data that can be used to track different types of work. Now, new options on the Team Project Parameters and Settings page allow individuals to select which "To Date" rollup they would like to use for new PSP tasks.D
  • Several common items on the script menu have been given clearer, simpler names to reduce confusion and to lower the learning curve for people who are beginning their first team project.D
  • In certain unusual situations, the Sync to WBS logic was incorrectly creating "Planned" entries in the Size Inventory form for individuals who did not need them. This problem has been corrected.D

Changes in build 1.14.6

  • During a project launch, teams commonly need to perform high-level capacity planning - for example, to estimate the end-to-end project schedule and to choose the scope for various project iterations. Several changes were made to the Work Breakdown Structure Editor to facilitate this activity:
    • The WBS balancing panel now includes a "Team" row in addition to the colored bars for each team member. This new team row displays the balanced completion dates for each milestone, making it easier to distribute work across a series of future iterations.
    • In earlier versions of the dashboard, teams would have to create "placeholder" tasks to record time estimates for this future work. Now, rough time estimates (and milestones) can be entered directly on WBS components that have no subtasks, and the vertical black balancing bar will take these time estimates into account.
    • Teams may wish to enter vacation time or other schedule exceptions in the WBS Editor Team Member List months in advance. In the past, this would cause the team earned value charts to extend artificially far into the future (to include the week when the exception was recorded). The earned value charts have been enhanced to avoid this problem.
  • When saving a data backup file, it has historically been possible to save in either ZIP or PDBK format. Now, a third option is available: "Redacted Process Dashboard Backup." Choosing this format allows you to select various categories of data (for example, names of individuals, projects and tasks) that should be scrambled or removed from the backup. This can be a useful tool to protect privacy or confidentiality.
  • In this release, simultaneous editing of the WBS has been enabled by default. Important: This new feature is still a "release candidate," so it may contain latent defects. Teams who make use if it should immediately report any error messages that are displayed by the WBS Editor during a "Save" operation. For additional information and deployment considerations, please click here.

Changes in build 1.14.5

  • When creating workflows in the WBS, it is a best practice to use a PSP Task to represent the software development activities of a particular individual, followed by Design and Code Inspection tasks to represent the associated peer reviews. When this practice has been followed, the Task & Schedule "Flat View" will now automatically insert the inspections into the correct order within the phases of the PSP task. (Note: this behavior will only apply to tasks that are created after an individual upgrades to 1.14.5; inspection tasks that are already present in an individual's personal plan will not be retroactively reordered.)
  • Several changes were made to the Work Breakdown Structure Editor:
    • In the WBS Editor, the Task Details tab now contains a "Data Problems" column. When a coach, planning manager, quality manager, or other individual discovers a problem for a particular component or task, they can type a description of the problem in this field. Doing so will display a red highlight behind the component/task, making it easier to bring the item to the attention of another individual.
    • When generic "Component" objects are created in the WBS, these components will no longer display "LOC" as their default size metric. Instead, the size metric will remain blank until planned LOC is actually recorded for the component. This change can reduce confusion for teams that do not develop software.
    • Historically, if a Team Dashboard was opened in read-only mode, the read-only flag would also propagate to any WBS Editor windows that were opened. This linkage has been broken. As a result, an individual can now open the Team Dashboard in read-only mode (for example, to view team rollups), and then open the WBS Editor to make changes if problems are noted.
    • Move Up and Move Down buttons are now provided on the toolbar of the WBS Editor Milestones window.
  • When applying a label filter to the Team Project Rollup Plan Summary, autocompletion support is now provided as you type. D
  • When logging defects, the Process Dashboard allows individuals to record that a defect was injected "Before Development." Although useful, this category is officially an addition to the traditional TSP quality model. In the past, the dashboard's yield calculations were not handling these nontraditional defects gracefully, potentially resulting in phase yields that were negative or greater than 100%. In this release, the yield calculations have been adjusted to take Before Development defects into account. D
  • In data rollup reports such as the PSP Data Analysis center, reports R3 and R4 have been given more descriptive names.
  • The Preferences tool now allows the user to enable large fonts throughout the application.
  • In different countries around the world, numbers may be written with a decimal point or with a comma. In the past, if an individual collected defect data on a computer that used one numeric format, then someone else viewed that data on a computer with a different numeric format, the "Fix Time" values would be interpreted incorrectly. (This could occur, for example, if an English-speaking PSP Instructor was viewing the data for a French-speaking student.) This problem has been corrected.

Changes in build 1.14.4

  • It is now possible for multiple individuals to edit the Work Breakdown Structure at the same time:
    • In this release, teams that wish to use this feature must manually enable it by following the steps described here.
    • When simultaneous editing has been enabled and you save changes to the WBS, the application will check to see if other individuals have recently saved changes as well. If they have, the save operation will merge their changes into your view.
    • If you wish to merge other people's recently saved changes into your view without saving your own in-progress edits, a new "Refresh Data" option is available on the "File" menu for this purpose.
    • In either case, if the merge identifies editing conflicts (where you and another individual have made conflicting edits to the same value), warning messages will be displayed. These warnings include hyperlinks that help you to locate and recover from the editing conflict.
    • Important: This new feature is still a "release candidate," so it may contain latent defects. Teams who make use if it should immediately report any error messages that are displayed by the WBS Editor during a "Save" operation. For additional information and deployment considerations, please click here.
  • The Tasks In Progress chart is now configurable, allowing you to change the red overspent rings to either black or white.
  • The colored balancing bars in the WBS Editor have been enhanced to calculate dates that align more closely to the "Replan" dates in the team earned value report.
  • The WBS Editor's memory footprint has been changed to help improve performance for teams with very large work breakdown structures.
  • Version 1.14.4 contained bugs that were addressed in later releases:
    • In version 1.14.4, two people who were editing the WBS simultaneously might encounter an error message if they had applied a workflow to a component before saving the WBS. This problem was fixed in version 1.14.4.2.
    • In version 1.14.4, if you opened the Team Member List directly from the Script Menu, you would not be able to save changes. The workaround was to open the WBS Editor first, then open the Team Member List. This problem was fixed in version 1.14.5.
    • In version 1.14.4, the WBS Editor might fail to open on some computers which have a 32-bit version of Java and over 3 GB of RAM. This problem was fixed in version 1.14.5.
    • In version 1.14.4, two people who were editing the team member list simultaneously might encounter an error message if they both make changes to the same team member, and at least one of them removes a schedule exception for that team member. This problem was fixed in version 1.14.6.
    • In version 1.14.4, an error might occur if two people simultaneously edit the same WBS value (such as the milestone or note) for the root node of a team project. This problem was fixed in version 1.14.7.

Changes in build 1.14.3

  • In the Task & Schedule window, it is now possible to choose the set of columns you prefer to see in the Task list. This can reduce clutter and make it easier to focus on the information that is most important to you. In addition, if the table columns are resized or rearranged, these changes will be remembered the next time you open that task list.
  • Historically, clicking the script button has opened the "default" script, form, or report for the currently active task. To view the menu of other available scripts and forms, it was necessary to click the small down-arrow to the right of the script button. In practice, however, opening the script menu is a far more common action. Accordingly, the behavior of the main script button has been changed to open the menu instead of opening the default script. For users who prefer the former behavior, a checkbox is provided in the Tools > Preferences window to revert back.
  • Several enhancements were made to the Work Breakdown Structure Editor:
    • The "Task Time" tab of the WBS Editor includes a column called "Task Size." When you create tasks underneath a component, the numbers in this column are automatically inherited from that component. Now, these numbers are editable as well, so you can override the size for a particular task.
    • The bottom-up time panel can now display the typical number of hours per week each team member has in their schedule. A new menu option makes it possible to toggle this display on and off.
    • On the bottom-up time panel, it is now possible to hide the colored diamonds and commit date lines for selected milestones. This can help reduce clutter when many intermediate milestones are present.
    • The %C column would previously show "0%" for a PSP task in progress. This has been enhanced to show the accurate percentage based on the subset of PSP phases that have been marked complete (and the planned times for those phases). The bottom-up time panel also utilizes these refined numbers to display a more accurate rebalancing projection.
    • When you change the order of team members in the Team Member List, the initials in the Assigned To column will reflect the new order immediately. (Previously, the Assigned To column would not detect the reordering change until the WBS Editor was restarted.)
  • The Weekly EV Report has always included "Previous" and "Next" links to scroll forward and backward in time. Now, it also includes a link for jumping directly to a specific date.
  • If you drag-and-drop an empty directory onto the Quick Launcher, it will now ask you if you wish to create a new Team or Personal dataset there.
  • The "Sync to WBS" and "Export My Data Now" operations were previously stalling on the "Please wait" page when Internet Explorer security settings were set to HIGH. This problem has been corrected.

Changes in build 1.14.2

  • The Work Breakdown Structure Editor now includes a feature to save data to a ZIP file. This feature can be used to:
    • Create multiple alternative plans during a launch
    • Explore what-if replanning scenarios in the middle of a team project iteration
    • Save edits if the network server is temporarily unreachable
    • Copy components tasks, milestones, team members, and workflows into a new team project iteration

Changes in build 1.14.1

  • When dashboard data is stored in the Process Dashboard Enterprise Server, users can now check a box on the "C > Tools" menu to "Work Offline." This enables individuals to open their personal dashboard whenever they like, even if they do not have a connection to the server. (Requires Enterprise Server version 2.6 or higher.)
  • The LOC counter now includes support for counting changes made to files in a subversion repository. The count can include uncommitted changes made to a working copy as well as changes made in past revisions. Multiple past revisions can be listed, and need not be not consecutive.
  • The LOC Counter report is often used during the postmortem phase of a PSP project to measure added, deleted, and modified lines of code. Now, individuals can drag data from that report and drop it onto a row in the Size Estimating Template to apply actual size metrics.
  • When viewing the Kanban chart for a team, you can now filter the list of tasks by assigned individual.

Changes in build 1.14

  • By default, the bars on the Gantt charts depict dates from the Forecast column of the task list. Now, a configuration button makes it possible to depict Plan, Replan, or Baseline dates instead.
  • In the past, the Weekly EV report used generic phrases such as "Tasks Completed This Week." This wording was confusing for views of data in the past or the future. These section headings have been altered to be clearer and more descriptive.
  • If the Enterprise Server is unreachable when a team or personal dashboard shuts down, that dashboard will not have an opportunity to save locally modified data to the server. In the past, these changes would be lost; but with this release, the dashboard will attempt to save the changes the next time it starts up (as long as no other user has opened and modified the dataset in the meantime).
  • In the past, some users have made the mistake of deleting a project from their personal dashboard, thinking they can simply rejoin the team project again. A new warning dialog has been added, advising that this operation will irretrievably destroy all of the actual metrics that have been collected for the project.
  • Bugfix: roundoff error was sometimes preventing the strikethrough font from being displayed in the Task & Schedule window for completed tasks.
  • The Process Dashboard installer is now capable of creating shortcuts for users on Unix and Linux platforms.
  • The charts in the Rollup Plan Summary report will now use consistent colors to represent the various phases in the TSP and PDSSD metrics collection frameworks. This makes it easier to correlate data between several charts.

Changes in build 1.13.0.17

  • When a team leader creates a new team project, the dashboard will now intelligently suggest an appropriate metrics collection framework to use, based on the framework which has been used most often for past team project iterations.

Changes in build 1.13.0.16

  • It is now possible to customize the set of charts that appear on the earned value report. In addition, clicking on these charts now opens a page displaying a larger chart with helpful instructions on how the chart can be used and interpreted.
  • The final page of the PROBE Wizard has always performed a sanity check on the planned productivity. If it is unrealistic, the wizard prints a warning message and takes the user back to reevaluate their estimates. Unfortunately, that warning message was easy to overlook, resulting in confusion when the PROBE wizard looped back to the earlier pages. The buttons and messages on the sanity check page have been altered to make it more clear that a planning error may be present.
  • In the defect log editor, a combo box displays the defect type standard that has been set at each level of the hierarchy. In the past, when a defect type standard had been set at the team project level, nothing was displayed in this combo box for individual, leading people to think that their standard had not taken effect. Now, this combo box will display the name of the defect type standard that was set by the team project, minimizing confusion.

Changes in build 1.13.0.15

  • The LOC counter that is built in to the Process Dashboard will now count lines appropriately even when comment indicators appear within string literals.
  • On some versions of Unix (for example, Solaris and RedHat), the Process Dashboard would sometimes appear to hang at the splash screen. This was occurring when a dialog box was displayed (to prompt for some type of input), because the Unix window manager was improperly stacking the dialog box behind the splash screen. This problem has been corrected.

Changes in build 1.13.0.13

  • The earned value report now includes a "Kanban View" of the tasks that have been completed recently, the tasks that are in progress, and the tasks that are planned for the near future.
  • In the past, when a leaf task in the WBS was subdivided, the next "sync to WBS" operation would often result in a "top-down-bottom-up" error in the personal plan of the affected individual. This problem has been corrected.
  • When a note is attached to the root node of the project in the WBS Editor, that note will now be copied down into the personal plans of each individual. This can be used to record helpful project-specific URLs for team use.
  • A performance enhancement has been added to speed the startup sequence for individuals who open their personal dashboards from the Enterprise Server over an extremely slow network.
  • Bugfix: if an individual moved their operating system clock significantly forward and backward in time while the dashboard was running, their changes might stop being saved to the Enterprise Server. This problem has been corrected.

Changes in build 1.13.0.10

  • The "Generic" process template now allows the use of the Size Estimating Template and PROBE. (This functionality will appear for projects created using the Generic process template after upgrading to version 1.13.0.10.)
  • The "C > Tools" menu now includes an "Open Dataset" option, giving all users the ability to open data backup ZIP files.
  • Numerous small changes were made to provide better support for the SEI PSP courses:
    • A new Student Profile element has been added to the PSP course assignment sequence, giving students an opportunity to answer questions about their job position, experience, and so on.
    • The Analysis Report exercises now allow the use of the Size Estimating Template and PROBE.
    • "To Date" metrics are no longer reset on the first PSP2 project in a PSP Fundamentals & Advanced course.
    • During the PSP course, PROBE Method D for Size will require students to use their Estimated Proxy Size verbatim; they will not be allowed to edit the number.
    • During the PSP course, the PROBE Wizard will not offer PROBE Method C1 for Size as a selectable option.
    • When students are allowed to edit the quality plan and they produce phase times that do not sum up properly, an error message is now displayed on the Project Plan Summary.
    • Student data can now be exported to an XML file (in anticipation of a corresponding XML import feature in the SEI PSP Instructor Support Tool).
  • If the dashboard data directory was unreachable (for example, because it was on a network drive that was unavailable), or if other operating-system-specific problems prevented the dashboard from locking the data, the dashboard was incorrectly displaying a message claiming that someone on another computer had locked the data. This error message has been corrected and clarified.

Changes in build 1.13.0.9

  • A new help topic has been added that explains the difference between Plan, Replan, and Forecast dates. This help topic explains these three calculations in detail, so users can understand and appreciate the differences between the dates that are generated.
  • Significant changes were made to the installer for the Process Dashboard:
    • On 64-bit Windows, sometimes the installer would not create Process Dashboard shortcuts. This problem has been corrected.
    • If a user has less than 800MB of memory (for example, because they are running in a virtual machine), the Process Dashboard shortcuts would fail to start the application. The installer has been adjusted to create shortcuts that work on systems with only 500MB of memory. (Note that the Process Dashboard does not require or use that much memory; the problem was with the shortcut icon itself, not the application.)

Changes in build 1.13.0.7

  • The Earned Value report now includes a "More Charts" hyperlink. Clicking on this link makes it possible to see all of the EV charts in the web browser. (Previously, many of these charts were only available in the "Chart" dialog of the Task & Schedule window.)
  • New topics have been added to the online help for each of the earned value charts. These topics explain how to interpret the data in each chart, and provide helpful analysis tips for people who are new to earned value tracking. While viewing a chart from the Task & Schedule window, press F1 to bring up the corresponding help topic.

Changes in build 1.13.0.6

  • When capturing defect data, individuals can now:
    • Make a single entry to represent several related defects that were found and fixed simultaneously.
    • Mark a defect as "pending" (i.e. found, but not yet removed).
    • Alter the date associated with the defect entry.
  • The Task & Schedule Chart window now includes charts for Earned Value Trend and Direct Time Trend.
  • The "Export to Excel" hyperlinks have been tweaked to improve compatibility with a variety of web browsers and with newer versions of Microsoft Office.
  • When users filter the Time Log Editor to display the current week, they can now easily select which day of the week to use as the starting point.
  • In the past, when a user made a change to a data value within the Process Dashboard, that change might take 30 seconds to appear on the Project Plan Summary form in their web browser. Now, these changes will appear in the web browser immediately.

Changes in build 1.13.0.4

  • The WBS now has a special "personal editing mode." When the WBS is opened from a personal dashboard instead of the Team Dashboard (and the team leader has not disabled edits by team members), the WBS becomes aware of the individual who opened it, and changes its behavior:
    • Newly created tasks are automatically assigned to the individual who opened the WBS.
    • If the individual makes a change that affects one of their coworkers, the WBS will display a warning and offer to undo the change.
    • The individual is only allowed to edit their own row in the Team Member List.
    • The individual can disable these features if desired by toggling a checkbox in the "Team" menu. (So for example, these new features will not prevent a Planning Manager from making changes to their coworker's tasks.)
  • In the past, if a node was deleted from the WBS and a new node was created in its place with the same name, the Sync to WBS operation would perform a similar delete/recreate operation. Now, the Sync to WBS attempts to detect this scenario and reuse the existing node instead of deleting/recreating it. (Note: deleting/recreating nodes in the WBS is still discouraged; but now when the mistake occurs, the consequence should be less severe.)
  • In the past, the WBS editor would display a confirmation prompt every time you request to delete a node. Now, the WBS Editor will only display this confirmation prompt when the node to be deleted has actual time associated with it - and the warning message has been altered to describe this new condition.

Changes in build 1.13.0.3

  • When all the tasks in a earned value task list share a common path prefix (common for team projects), the Flat View will extract that common prefix, making the display easier to read.

Changes in build 1.13.0.2

  • The Team Project Setup Wizard will now provide suggested default values for the name of the EV schedule and for the location of the Team Project Network Directory.

Changes in build 1.13.0.1

  • Actual Size is now displayed in the WBS Editor for each component in the hieararchy.
  • If an individual enters their initials incorrectly when joining a team project, the "Sync to WBS" operation will detect this error and display a message, helping them to correct it.
  • The "Import Defects from Code Collaborator" feature was not working against Code Collaborator version 6. This problem has been corrected.

Changes in build 1.13

  • Several enhancements have been made in the Work Breakdown Structure Editor:
    • A strikethrough font is now used in the "Assigned To" column to indicate which individuals have completed a multi-person task.
    • "Move Up" and "Move Down" buttons have been added to the toolbar.
    • The Team Member List will now allow you to reorder individual team members using drag-and-drop.
    • If you are starting a new project iteration, you can now use Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V to copy and paste team members from the old team member list to the new team member list.
    • In the past, when individual team members open the WBS from their personal dashboard, the WBS Editor would sometimes unexpectedly open in read-only mode. This problem has been corrected.
    • In the past, the Team Dashboard's Team Project Parameters and Settings page displayed a checkbox allowing the team leader to decide whether team members could edit the WBS. This checkbox has been moved into the Work Breakdown Structure Editor itself, in the "Edit > Preferences" dialog. As a result, if a team leader has locked down the WBS (forbidding edits by team members), they will need to reaffirm this choice in the "Edit > Preferences" dialog of the WBS Editor after upgrading to version 1.13
    • If you insert a workflow underneath a component that has a LOC size estimate, the "Code" or "PSP" task in that workflow will automatically inherit that LOC estimate.
    • The selection colors have been modified to produce better readability on Mac OS X.
  • Several enhancements have been made in the WBS Common Team Workflows window:
    • It is now possible to define a workflow that distributes time across various phases using percentages, even if your team does not use size estimates or historical productivity rates.
    • The keyboard accessibility of the Common Team Workflows editor has been improved. Keystrokes such as Tab, Enter, Delete, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, and Ctrl-X will now perform more intuitive, spreadsheet-like behaviors when the focus is not in the first column.
    • The Task Size Units column now supports autocompletion.
    • The semantics of the "%" column have changed for tasks in a workflow that are performed by more than one person. Please consult the help documentation for more information.
  • Several enhancements have been made in the Task & Schedule window:
    • When an individual views one of their personal earned value task lists in the Task & Schedule window, they will see a "Notes" column that allows them to view and edit the notes associated with each component or task.
    • A strikethrough font is now used to indicate tasks that are 100% complete.
    • When an individual views one of their personal earned value task lists in the Task & Schedule window, the schedule pane (in the lower portion of the window) now contains a "Notes" column. This column can be used to record arbitrary information about a particular schedule period, such as the reason why a particular week has an unusual number of planned or actual direct task hours.
    • When you toggle from "Tree View" to "Flat View" and back, the currently selected task will be preserved.
  • The Defect Log Editor now provides a feature to Import defects from the system clipboard. This can be used to copy and paste defects from an external source, like a web page or an Excel spreadsheet.
  • The "Tools > Preferences" dialog now provides an "Always on Top" option. (This feature will only appear if you are using Java 1.6 or higher.)
  • If you pause the timer on the main dashboard toolbar, it will pause the "Fix Time" timer on the currently active defect dialog as well. If you subsequently resume the main dashboard timer, it will resume the defect fix timer as well.
  • The dashboard has always allowed you to set an "END" date for a personal earned value schedule. (This feature is typically used to record the date when an individual will unequivocally leave a project team, due to an impending reassignment.) When an individual with an END date is assigned too much work, their personal schedule may project that certain tasks will "never" be completed. Although that information is useful at an individual level, it can result in a frustrating lack of insight at the team level. Now, when one of these schedules is a part of a team schedule, the team rollup schedule will hypothetically rebalance these tasks to the rest of the team, calculate the date when the rest of the team might complete the tasks, and display that completion date in the team's "merged" view. The "Assigned To" column for such a task will indicate that the task has been hypothetically rebalanced to the team.
  • Fixes for several bugs: #3064050, #3064051, #3064053, #3064054, #3064057, #3064059, #3064060.

Changes in build 1.12.1.3

  • When individuals join a team project, the Team Project Setup Wizard will provide default values for the name and location of the new project, and for the name of the new earned value schedule. This can allow people to join the project with less hand-holding on the part of the coach/team leader.

Changes in build 1.12.1

  • Version 1.12 contained a bug that would prevent some users from deleting defects from the defect log. Longtime dashboard users are unaffected by this bug. Individuals who began their use of the Process Dashboard by installing version 1.12 are encouraged to upgrade.

Changes in build 1.12

  • It is now possible to attach HTTP URLs to the elements in a Common Team Workflow. This could be used, for example, to associate organizational process scripts or wiki pages that describe the steps in a workflow. (Note: this feature will only be available for team projects that are created using Process Dashboard 1.12 or later.)
  • The "Status of Team Member Metrics" page has always displayed the date when each team member last exported their metrics. Now, it also displays the date they last performed a "Sync to WBS" operation.
  • The EV Report will now display a warning message if tasks have been marked complete in the future, or if time has been logged in the future. This can help in the troubleshooting of problems caused by data entry typos.
  • On the Weekly EV Report, the "Tasks Completed Last Week" table now displays a total row.
  • If read-only file permissions caused the installation process to fail, a confusing error message would be displayed. The error message has been altered to be more helpful.

Changes in build 1.11.0.7

  • The Process Dashboard can now display Gantt charts for earned values schedules.
  • A new "External Commitment Chart" has been added to the Task & Schedule Chart window. This new chart makes it simple to compare the projected completion dates of various tasks to external team commitments.
  • Teams can optionally choose to have the WBS Editor prompt for read-only mode on startup. (This option can be controlled on a project-by-project basis.)
  • In the WBS Editor Team Member List, the column headers now display dates in a locale-sensitive manner for non-US teams.
  • The Perforce LOC counter can now count LOC in integration changelists. This functionality is designed to support the workflow where an individual makes changes in a personal sandbox, then integrates those changes back to the main line of development. In that case, the individual can point the LOC counter at the changelist where the files were integrated back to the mainline, and receive a LOC count of the effective changes.
  • Some international dashboard users have seen problems with corruption of accented characters in the Team Dashboard. A new feature is provided in the Preferences dialog to help those teams.
  • In the personal dashboard, the Team Project Tools and Settings page has previously included a checkbox to "Include all WBS components and documents in sync operations." This checkbox represented obsolete functionality, and now only causes problems when individuals enable it out of curiosity. To avoid those problems, the feature has been removed.
  • This version included a fix for bug #2962084.

Changes in build 1.11.0.6

  • Teams that have upgraded to a recent version of the Code Collaborator server were finding that defect types were no longer being transferred by the "Import from Code Collaborator" feature. This problem has been corrected.

Changes in build 1.11.0.5

  • Data from earned value schedules can now be exported to Microsoft Project in the new MS Office XML format.
  • In the past, the components and tasks in a rolled-up team EV schedule would sometimes not appear in the same order that they appear in the WBS. The reporting logic has been enhanced so the EV schedule will follow the WBS element ordering more closely.
  • Charts have been added to the PSP project plan summary forms to display time, defects, and PQI.
  • When the time log has been filtered to a date range in the past and you click the button to add an entry, that new entry will be given a date within the filtered time period.
  • The dashboard now provides better support for nonstandard PSP courses that include a PSP3 task.
  • This version included fixes for bugs #2962101 and #2962103.

Changes in build 1.11.0.2

  • A new, TSP(SM)-compatible metrics framework is now available for general distribution.
  • Installers are now available for the PSP Fundamentals and Advanced courses.
  • In the WBS Editor and in the EV reports, when a percent complete number is greater than 99.5% but less than 100%, it will be rounded down to 99%. This helps to avoid confusion, since 100% will now only appear for tasks that are truly complete.
  • Fix for bug #2864333.

Changes in build 1.11.0.1

Changes in build 1.11

  • URLs can now be attached to any component or task in the dashboard. Just use the WBS Editor or the dashboard to edit the free-text note associated with a particular item, and enter a URL within the body of the note. The dashboard will discover the embedded URLs and add them to the script menu for easy, one-click access.
  • The WBS Editor now uses a strikethrough font to highlight tasks that are 100% complete.
  • The dashboard can now display a warning message when you begin logging time to a previously completed task. This message is purely an aid to help avoid data collection accidents; it can be disabled if desired.
  • The Task & Schedule Flat View now displays the Replan date column.
  • Several enhancements have been made to the support for the PSP course, including a new chart to detect overlapping time log entries. PSP Instructors who have already customized their Grading Helper will want to customize the page again add add the new elements.
  • Note: this version of the dashboard changes the way data files are stored on Unix/Linux platforms. After Linux/Unix users upgrade to this version of the dashboard, they should not downgrade to a previous version.

Changes in build 1.10.6

  • When you first create a team project, the Team Project Setup Wizard prompts you for the name of a directory where team data should be stored. Later in the project, you may discover that you need to move these files to a different location on the network. A new feature makes this possible. (Note: this new feature does not support team projects that are registered with a Team Server.)
  • The PSP scripts and forms in the Process Dashboard have been updated to match the materials in the 2005 book, A Self-Improvement Process for Software Engineers. (Up to now, they have been based upon the 1995 book, A Discipline for Software Engineering.) With this change, the scripts, forms, and wizards now match the materials and terminology used in the most recent PSP courses from the SEI.
  • On the Size Estimating Template, the estimated size of an "added part" will be computed automatically after an engineer estimates its type, relative size, and number of items. Engineers can create their own size-per-item lookup tables in support of this functionality.
  • On the Size Estimating Template, an interactive chart now appears to help engineers visualize the relationship between estimated base, added, deleted, and modified size. Engineers can drag handles on a slider to visually estimate base additions, modifications, and deletions as a percentage of base program size.
  • Significant changes have been made in support of the PSP for Engineers courses:
    • The dashboard traditionally baselines "Planned" and "To Date" project data at specific points during a project. Although this strategy is very helpful for the planning and tracking of real-world project work, it becomes an impediment to the quick-turnaround learning objectives of the PSP course, because the "frozen" values prevent students from correcting errors in earlier assignments. To address this problem, this "freezing" mechanism has now been disabled for the assignments in the PSP course.
    • If students forget to enter the actual size of Program 1, an error message will appear on their Program 2 Project Plan Summary form.
    • It is now much easier for students to create the quality plan for their first PSP2 assignment.
    • Error messages now appear on the Project Plan Summary form to warn engineers about common mistakes.
    • A new "Grading Helper" has been created for PSP Instructors. After installing a special "PSP Instructor" add-on, this grading helper will appear in the script menu for PSP course assignments. The grading helper automates many of the data analysis tasks and consistency checks that are part of the grading process. Instructors can customize the form to match their grading preferences.
  • The PSP Project Plan Summary forms are now customizable, in support of personal process improvement goals.

Changes in build 1.10.5

  • When running the installer for the Process Dashboard, teams using the Team Server can now enter an "http" URL as the data location for a Team Dashboard that already exists.
    • Please Note: with the introduction of this feature, Team Dashboard shortcuts on Windows will have a slightly different format. When you view the "Properties" for a Team Dashboard shortcut, the team configuration directory will no longer be specified via the "Start In" field. Instead, it will be at the end of the "Target" field, specified as the "-location" parameter.
  • The installer will now save the directory locations selected during the installation process. The next time the installer is run, these saved locations will be recalled, reducing the chance for error during an upgrade.
  • This version includes fixes for several rare bugs:
    • If the Team Dashboard was configured with a malformed URL for the location of team data, the Team Dashboard could fail to start, and could fail to display an error message about the illegal URL.
    • On some versions of Linux, the Save button might fail to save large or complex customizations to the team project Rollup Plan Summary form.

Changes in build 1.10.4

  • A new Preferences dialog is available on the "C > Tools" menu, providing easy access to the most common configuration settings.
  • Several enhancements were made to the usability of the WBS Editor:
    • Pressing the Enter key in the WBS Editor typically inserts a new task. A new button is now provided to toggle this behavior on and off.
    • A "New Tab" button is now displayed, providing one-click access to the functionality on the WBS Editor "Tabs" menu.
    • Teams with very large work breakdown structures may see slight improvements in the responsiveness of the WBS Editor.
  • The defect log now includes an "Import from Code Collaborator" button. Teams that use Code Collaborator can take advantage of this new import feature to reduce double-entry of defect data.
  • When work is reassigned, the "Sync to WBS" operation will offer to delete the tasks from the personal plans of the affected individuals. Unfortunately, the sync operation would never offer to delete tasks of type "PSP." This bug has been corrected.
  • The dashboard has always included advanced earned value features to support iterative project planning. Unfortunately, some teams would inadvertently trigger these advanced features by choosing a start date in the future (for example, the week after their project launch). To avoid this confusion, the iterative planning feature must now be explicitly enabled in the "Tools > Schedule Options" dialog of the Task & Schedule window.

Changes in build 1.10.3

  • Geographically diverse teams - such as teams split between India and the United States - would sometimes see inconsistent data in the earned value reports. New time-zone awareness logic has been added to address these problems. Geographically diverse teams are encouraged to upgrade and provide feedback. A
  • When recursively comparing two directories on Windows systems, the LOC counter tool would double-count files if the capitalization of the filename had changed.

Changes in build 1.10.2

  • In version 1.9.4, a new server-based component was introduced to improve performance over slow network connections such as VPNs. This functionality has been enhanced so team members can participate in a team project without direct connectivity to the team data directory.
  • On Mac OS X, the WBS Editor would encounter problems if the operating system had been configured to use Java version 1.6. These problems have been resolved.

Changes in build 1.10.1

  • Version 1.10.1 contains fixes for several bugs:
    • Some users have reported periodic error dialogs describing "Network Connectivity Problems." This problem has been resolved.
    • The play/pause button may look incorrect on Mac OS X, depending on the version of Java that is currently installed. This problem has been resolved.
    • Some users reported 100% CPU and/or timeouts when viewing quality reports for their team project. These problems have been traced to the Percent Defect Free calculation, which has temporarily been disabled.

Changes in build 1.10

  • The Process Dashboard is now released under version 3 of the GNU General Public License.
  • Play and pause now appear as separate toggle buttons.
  • The Team Dashboard Users Manual is now included in the dashboard's searchable online help.
  • When starting a new project or iteration, you can now bring forward the data from historical earned value schedules. As a result, the dashboard can calculate forecast dates and prediction ranges during a team project launch, even before any actual data has been collected. C
  • The WBS Editor no longer prompts to save if no changes were made. C
  • The quality profile chart can now be added to team plan summary forms. C
  • Charts now display tooltips when you place your mouse over individual data points. C
  • A new checkbox is provided on the Team Project Settings page, allowing team leaders to turn off the automatic export of data by team members on a project-by-project basis. This can significantly improve the shutdown time for individuals who have participated in many historical team projects. A
  • A new, XML-customizable LOC counter makes it easier to define custom LOC counting rules.
  • On Unix/Linux systems, the default web browser has been changed from Netscape to Firefox.
  • Bugfixes and enhancements for better operation on Mac OS X: #2060094, #2060141, and #2060172.

Changes in build 1.9.4

  • The WBS Editor now includes support for project milestones: A
    • It is possible to define a list of project milestones, and optionally enter commit dates
    • Each component and/or task in the WBS can be assigned to a particular milestone
    • Marks appear on the colored balancing bars to indicate when each individual could potentially finish their work for each milestone
    • The colored balancing bars can be configured to balance work for the entire project or just for the next milestone(s)
    • Future milestones can be marked as "deferred," and the sync operation will not copy the associated tasks into team member plans.
  • Several changes have been made to improve the usability of copy/paste in the WBS Editor: C
    • The copy/paste behavior of the "Assigned To" column is now more useful. In most cases, copying these values will simply reassign tasks without altering the estimated times. Copying multiple-person assignments will scale the time per person based on the "Hrs/Indiv" value on the destination task.
    • When using copy/paste to duplicate a section of the WBS, it is now easier to distinguish the original items from the duplicated items. (References: #T198, #T199)
  • Historically, "PSP Tasks" were required if a team wanted to capture planned and actual LOC for their project. Now, LOC can be captured for "code" tasks as well. A D
  • A new "timing reminder" feature is available. This feature can periodically display pop-up alerts, reminding the user to start or stop their timer or to change the active task. (This feature is not enabled by default, but can be turned on by individuals who wish to use it. To enable this feature, right-click on the tray icon and choose "Reminder > Enable Reminder.") C
  • If another individual has the Team Dashboard locked for editing when you attempt to open it, the dialog that appears will now tell you the name of that other individual. (This feature will only work if both you and the other individual have upgraded.) C
  • It is now possible to export a snapshot of the Work Breakdown Structure to Excel. The resulting Excel spreadsheet can be printed or shared with external stakeholders. C
  • Historically, some teams have experienced poor performance when opening the Team Dashboard or the WBS Editor over a slow VPN connection. A new server-based component is available to help such teams. If your team would benefit from this feature, please contact Tuma Solutions for more information.

Changes in build 1.9.3

  • Installation and operation of the dashboard on Mac OS X is greatly improved.
  • The vertical scale of the filtered earned value chart was incorrect; this problem has been resolved.
  • Several small changes/enhancements to the joining process: #T200, #T201, #T202.

Changes in build 1.9.2

  • It is now possible to attach free-text notes to the components and tasks in the work breakdown structure. These notes can be viewed and edited in the WBS Editor and in the Personal Dashboard. In the personal dashboard, a new icon on the main toolbar provides quick access to the notes associated with the active task. D
  • The Process Dashboard now supports baselines for earned value data. You can save a baseline for any earned value schedule, then view baseline metrics in the task list and EV charts. C
  • For new team projects, created after the installation of this update, a new task structure will be used: D E
    • Previously, the process phase of a task (e.g. Planning, Code, Test, etc) was recorded via a final "stub" that appeared at the end of each task in the hierarchy. Now, these stubs are no longer created. This change reduces clutter, makes it easier to subdivide existing tasks, and reduces the memory usage of the Process Dashboard.
    • In a new-style team project, individuals will have a project plan summary report similar to the one on the team side: it can be edited to include custom charts, reports, and tables of data.
    • Important: Data from new-style and old-style team projects can still be rolled up together into master projects.
  • For a new-style team project that is underway, new columns will appear in the Work Breakdown Structure Editor to display actual metrics: D E
    • Actual time spent on each task
    • Actual completion date
    • Percent complete
    • Percent spent
    Among other things, this makes it possible to see which tasks have been completed, which are in progress, and which have not yet started.
  • When changes are made in the WBS, individuals use the "Sync to WBS" operation to copy those changes into their personal plan. In a new-style team project, the synchronization is now bidirectional. When individuals make changes to the following data in their personal plan, the changes will be propagated back into the WBS automatically: D E
    • Changes to the planned time for tasks
    • Changes to the planned hours in the schedule
    • Changes to task notes/comments
    • Changes to the phase type of a task (e.g. Planning, Code, etc.)
  • The colored bars in the WBS Editor are a useful tool for balancing work between team members. For a new-style team project that is underway, these bars can now be toggled between two modes: D E
    • Show End-to-End Plan: This mode takes all tasks into account. The dates calculated for each team member will correspond to the "Planned Completion Date" for that individual in their personal earned value schedule.
    • Show Remaining Work: This mode subtracts out tasks that have already been completed, as well as effort spent on in-progress work. The dates calculated for each team member will correspond to the "Replanned Completion Date" for that individual in their personal earned value schedule.
    The new "Remaining Work" mode is a powerful way to rebalance work during a relaunch. Teams can also use it throughout a project iteration to continually rebalance work.
  • The weekly earned value report now includes a "Tasks In Progress" section. This section displays tasks that have been started but not yet completed, making it easier to spot problems such as overspent tasks. C
  • The WBS Editor allows you to enter a list of team members, and has historically allowed the entry of a rough schedule for each person. That rough schedule only supported a start date and an average number of hours per week. Now, it is possible to enter detailed schedules for each team member, to include start dates, end dates, and planned time exceptions on specific weeks. The colored balancing bars in the WBS Editor will use these detailed schedules to produce more accurate planned dates. A D
  • A new metrics status report (accessible from the Team Project Tools and Settings page) displays the list of individuals who have joined the team project, the date/time of their last data export, and the version of the Process Dashboard that they are currently running. This makes it easier to see if all individuals on a team have upgraded to the latest version of the dashboard. C D
  • In previous releases, the Task & Schedule window has provided a "Filtered Chart" button that displays EV metrics and charts for a subset of the project. Now, A "Filtered Report" button is also available. This makes it possible to view the EV report and weekly report for a hierarchically drilled-down subset of the project. C
  • The "Task Labels" column in the WBS now supports typing autocompletion to help avoid typographical errors during data entry. C
  • If you rename the earned value schedule associated with a team project, the Rollup Plan Summary will no longer break. Also, a new field has been added to the project parameters and settings page, allowing teams to select a different EV schedule for their project if desired. C D
  • Previously, the WBS Editor would not allow you to assign a task to an individual until a time estimate had been entered for the task. Now, it is possible to assign a task to an individual even while the task's time estimate is still zero. Agile project teams may use this feature to support on-the-fly cost estimation. A D
  • A new project-specific parameter allows teams to disable (permanently or temporarily) the alerts telling individuals that they need to sync to the work breakdown structure. A D
  • The Team Dashboard is now more responsive when navigating from team project to team project. C D
  • Several common operations have been optimized, and now require much less time. For example, the dashboard may start in half the time, and export data in one-fifth the time. D
  • Fixes for several miscellaneous bugs: #1878620, #1878622, #1878625, and #1878628

Changes in build 1.9.1

  • Individuals who connect to their organization's network over a slow VPN should see significantly faster startup times when launching their personal dashboard.
  • The "Tasks to Complete Next Week" section of the weekly earned value report will now display tasks for the coming week, even if an individual is ahead of schedule.

Changes in build 1.9

  • The Process Dashboard now displays an icon in the system tray:
    • Users can click on the icon to start/stop the timer, and tell from a glance at the icon whether the timer is running.
    • The tooltip on the icon displays the active task. Ctrl-click on the icon allows the user to select a new active task.
    • The popup menu on the tray icon provides quick access to many commonly used dashboard features.
  • In the Team Dashboard, you can now expand the weekly earned value report to show data for each individual team member. This resulting report can be very useful in weekly team meetings.
  • The play/pause button now displays new icons that make it easier to determine whether the timer is running or stopped.
  • Tasks labels (assigned in the WBS Editor) are now displayed for each task when you open an earned value plan in the Task & Schedule window or view a report in your browser.
  • Warning icons now appear when a task is planned to be completed before its dependencies.
  • Since version 1.7.1b-9, team members have been able to open the Work Breakdown Structure directly from their personal dashboard. A preference on the Team Project Parameters and Settings page controls whether individuals should be allowed to make changes to the WBS. Previously, this setting defaulted to "read-only," but with this release, the default is to allow edits. Teams that wish to keep the WBS read-only will need to adjust the value of this setting after upgrading.

Changes in build 1.8.2

  • The Work Breakdown Structure Editor now allows the creation of additional tabs with user-selected data columns.
  • Background tasks (such as periodic backups and exports) now limit their use of system resources, to avoid pegging the CPU at 100%.
  • Previously, when data exports failed, they would delete the target "pdash" file from the team's data directory. Now, if file or network problems thwart a data export operation, the "last known good" version of the "pdash" file will be left in place. As a result, "Task List Missing" errors should be much less common in the team's earned value schedule.
  • A new mechanism has been added that allows defects to be copied from an external RDBMS into the dashboard's defect log. This mechanism is targeted for integration scenarios where data is collected in an external system, but the organization still prefers to use the dashboard as the "official system of record" for defect data. As such, it might be appropriate for defects captured in peer reviews, but not for defects found during system testing. Organizations that are interested in using this feature should contact Tuma Solutions for assistance.
  • Fixes for several miscellaneous bugs: #1771159, #1771160, and #1771162

Changes in build 1.8.1

  • Version 1.8 (followed by a minor point release, 1.8.1) addressed a security vulnerability in the Process Dashboard.

Changes in build 1.7.1b-9

  • A new option on the team project script menu makes it easy for individuals to quickly open their earned value Task & Schedule. B
  • Individuals can now open the team Work Breakdown Structure directly from their personal dashboard, via a new option on the script menu. (The Team Dashboard does not need to be running, and the individual does not need a Team Dashboard shortcut, to use this feature.) B
    • This can be configured to open the WBS either in read-only mode or editable mode. The default is to open the WBS read-only, for viewing purposes. To grant team members the ability to edit the WBS, open the Team Project Parameters and Settings page for the project, and check the appropriate box.
    • If individuals open the WBS using this approach, add new tasks, and save the changes, the new tasks will appear in their dashboard immediately (a sync occurs automatically).
  • If another individual has the Work Breakdown Structure locked for editing when you attempt to open it, the dialog that appears will now tell you the name of that other individual. C
  • Backups of the team Work Breakdown Structure are now created each time the WBS is saved, and kept for 30 days. This makes it possible to recover from catastrophic edits that are made to the WBS accidentally. C
  • In the past, if you opened the WBS for editing, then lost and regained network connectivity, your lock on the WBS could be silently lost. This would open the door for you and another individual to edit the WBS simultaneously, and possibly overwrite each other's work. This problem has been resolved. C

Changes in build 1.7.1b-8

  • It is now possible to view the rolled up time log for team and master projects. Time log entries from all individuals are consolidated anonymously into a single list, and displayed in a user interface similar to the Time Log Editor. Time log entries can be analyzed by WBS component, and filtered by date. A B
  • It is now possible to select time log entries in the personal Time Log Editor or team Time Log Viewer, and copy these to the clipboard for analysis in another program like Excel.
  • A new option in the Quick Launcher makes it possible to launch a dashboard instance without searching for external templates, processes, scripts, or add-ons. For coaches that are on a different network than their project teams, this can significantly reduce the time required to open a team data backup. C
  • If you don't have permission to modify the files for the WBS, a warning will be displayed immediately when you open the Work Breakdown Structure Editor. Previously, the editor would open normally, and you would only see an error when you attempted to save changes. C
  • Bugfix: in the Work Breakdown Structure Editor, top-down-bottom-up errors would sometimes occur if the value in the Time column was only changed by a small amount. This error has been corrected. C
  • Bugfix: some users on Windows Vista were receiving an error when starting the dashboard, complaining that the time log file could not be read. This error has been corrected.

Changes in build 1.7.1b-7

  • If an individual needs to perform a "Synchronize to WBS" operation, they will receive an alert shortly after starting the dashboard. When changes to the WBS are saved, an automatic "Synchronize to WBS" operation will take place in the Team Dashboard immediately. B
  • A new visual indicator has been added to the main Process Dashboard toolbar, displaying the percent spent for the current task. This makes it simple for individuals to notice that they are overrunning the cost estimate for a given task.
  • A new "Replan" column has been added to the earned value task list. This column displays the planned dates that would result if you were to "replan from today." This column can be a useful tool for projecting completion dates in the face of schedule slips - particularly early in the project, when the forecast dates are too volatile to be trusted. A
  • In addition to the "Chart" button, the Task & Schedule window now contains a "Filtered Chart" button. This button will display a filtered view of the earned value charts and statistics, for the selected portion of the hierarchical task list. At the team level, this generalizes the existing "Individual Chart" feature, making it easy to view earned value charts and statistics for any hierarchical subset of the project. C
  • It is now simpler for a user to add tasks to a team project within the Hierarchy Editor. A new task can be added with a single step (rather than adding a subtask then adding a phase underneath). In addition, the Common Team Workflows defined by the team will appear as entries underneath the "Add Templates" menu in the Hierarchy Editor. B
  • The earned value report now includes clickable column headings for sorting data. Also, the "Weekly View" link has been moved from the bottom of the page to the top of the page. C
  • It is now possible to define a defect type standard at the team level for shared use by the members of a team project. (This feature is available on the Project Parameters and Settings page) A B
  • Many teams do not use the full list of phases provided by their team metrics collection framework, and the extra/unused phases clutter their team project plan summaries and charts. The Project Parameters and Settings page now allows each team to select the set of phases they wish to appear in team forms, charts, and reports. B C
  • For convenience, the dashboard's LOC accounting tool has been added to the Tools menu.
  • For convenience, many of the buttons on the Team Tools and Settings page have been replicated in the script button's drop-down menu. B C
  • When a user manually enters interrupt time in their time log, the delta time is now adjusted accordingly.
  • When the Task & Schedule window and Work Breakdown Structure editors are opened, tasks will initially be expanded and collapsed as they were the previous time the schedule or WBS was viewed. C
  • The Work Breakdown Structure Editor now includes an expand all button on the editing toolbar. C
  • Overzealous internationalization logic in the dashboard was preventing the proper operation of team functionality for users speaking Spanish, Japanese, or Chinese.

Note: Build 1.7.1b-5 and Build 1.7.1b-6 were internal builds, released to limited groups for testing purposes only. Their changes are included in the list above.

Changes in build 1.7.1b-4

  • A new "Quick Launcher" tool is provided for quickly opening a dashboard instance without making a shortcut first. This launcher can open any arbitrary pspdata or teaminstance directory you specify, as well as any backup file (such as the ZIP files automatically exported by individuals). The launcher can even find dashboard data in ZIP files inside another ZIP files. C
    • For access to this new tool, run the installer, select the "Tools for Team Leaders" option, and create shortcuts.
    • To use the launcher, simply drag and drop a directory, ZIP file, or PDBK file (see below) onto the Quick Launcher icon. Alternatively, you can start the Quick Launcher application by clicking on the icon, then drag and drop files onto the Quick Launcher window.
  • Some teams are currently using the "backup.extraDirectories" configuration setting to export snapshots of individual dashboard data to a network directory, for coaching and mentoring purposes. The backups created in this way now include data disseminated by the team dashboard. As a result, you can open one of these files using the Quick Launcher, and the status of dependent tasks will be correct (as of the time the data was backed up), even if you cannot see that team's data directory from your local area network. A
  • A new option has been added to the "C > Tools" menu, allowing the user to save a backup of their data directory to a file of their choosing. The backup can be saved either in ZIP format, or Process Dashboard Backup (PDBK) format. (The latter format is provided as a convenience for organizations that have difficulty emailing ZIP files.) The resulting files can be opened in the Quick Launcher from any computer, at any point in the future, with or without network access, to view exactly what that dashboard instance looked like at the moment the backup was made. This new option provides several powerful uses:
    • Individuals can save a snapshot of their personal Process Dashboard instance, and send it to a team leader, TSP launch coach, or PSP instructor for mentoring or other support.
    • Team leaders can save a snapshot of their Team Dashboard instance, and send it to a TSP launch coach for mentoring / support. The coach can open the resulting file with the Quick Launcher, see their team plan, open their WBS, and even edit the WBS - all without modifying the "real plan," and without needing access to the shared network directory where team data is stored.
    • Team leaders can save snapshots of their entire Team Dashboard instance on a periodic basis. Unlike the current plan summary snapshots, these data backups capture the complete state of the team plan at an instant in time, with full interactivity. This makes it possible to open a historical version of the team dashboard, and see exactly what the team plan looked like at some time in the past.
    • A team leader can save a backup of their team data directory, then open that backup to perform limited "what-if" analyses, without altering the real team plan.
  • The PROBE Wizard is now displayed in a larger, resizable window to address width problems with the "Historical Data" page. Also, when the user has mismatched size and time estimates, the final page of the wizard now includes a hyperlink allowing them to accept those estimates and quit anyway.
  • A bug in the PSP for Engineers template was preventing students from adding phases to their Interim Report and Final Report tasks. This bug has been corrected.
  • The injection phase of a fix defect is now initialized by default to the removal phase of the causative defect.

Changes in build 1.7.1b-3

  • When displaying the Flat View of tasks in the earned value report, tasks are now sorted chronologically by forecast date. (Previously, they were sorted by the "Assigned To" individual's name.)

Changes in build 1.7.1b-2

  • Drag-and-drop can be used to reorder tasks in the Flat View of an earned value schedule.

Changes in build 1.7.1b-1

  • Forecast dates are calculated for every task in the EV schedule. A
  • Whenever the status information for a task dependency is displayed, it will now display the dependent task's forecast completion date instead of the planned date. (If the forecast date is unavailable, the planned date will be used as a fallback.)
  • On the "Combined" earned value chart, the "Actual Time" line has been replaced with an "Actual Cost" line. With this change, the three lines on that chart are now displaying traditional BCWS, BCWP, and ACWP metrics. A
  • When you apply a label filter to the team project plan, that filter will affect all parts of the earned value report and the week report.
  • Now, the weekly earned value report always has a "Next" hyperlink. You can move as far into the future as you like, without being constrained by the preexisting schedule boundaries.
  • If you turn of the "Assigned To" column on an EV report, it will also turn of the names of individuals in the task dependency status details. The resulting report should not indicate the name of any real person, making it safer to share with external stakeholders.
  • Fixed a bug that caused a "sync to WBS" operation to run forever when the WBS contained two tasks with duplicate names.

Older Changes

Installation Considerations

In the change list above, some features are marked with superscripts. These superscripts indicate additional considerations that should be taken into account by teams as they upgrade. Those considerations are listed below:

Note A: Teams are encouraged to upgrade together. This feature may not work properly until all team members have upgraded, then exported their data at least once.

Note B: Teams using a built-in metrics collection framework will enjoy this functionality simply by upgrading. Teams that have defined their own custom metrics collection framework will need to refresh the definition of that framework.

Note C: Team leaders, mentors, and coaches can safely upgrade to take advantage of this feature, even if team members themselves do not upgrade.

Note D: Teams that have defined their own custom metrics collection framework will need their framework definition refreshed. Unfortunately, the metrics framework generator on this site is configured for an earlier version of the Process Dashboard. To generate a metrics framework that utilizes the most recently released functionality, please contact Tuma Solutions for assistance.

Note E: This feature is only available for new-style team projects. To use this feature, teams will need to upgrade the dashboard, then create a new team project during their next team launch/relaunch.