new feature
Today v.2.21.7 has been released to our customers.
Email Notification Templates
In this version we introduce a new feature: possibility to edit subject and body of email notifications.
Now you can create custom content in HTML or plain text, preview the draft and go back quickly to the edit form.
At any time you can reset the template back to the default one, used previously.
Improved Performance
In 2.21.7 performance for all the lists has been slightly improved as we added extra caching and cut down on db requests.
Read-only REST Services
The long anticipated read-only REST services are coming in this release as well! Check our REST getting started, overview and complete REST API reference. REST API will be improved based on your feedback. Join TargetProcess developers group to ask questions and provide feedback.
Bugzilla Integration Plugin
Now it’s possible to map all Bugzilla users to one TargetProcess user. Just add wildcard for Bugzilla user to user mapping:
Fixed Bugs
#33941 Endless redirect loop when “Https only” option is used but user tries to access login via http
#33929 Installer does not copy files needed for Source Control plugins
#32522 Fix “HttpContext.Current.Session is empty” in log
#33737 Test Case Report not showing results if test run is run again in order to be completed
#33685 New build creation: Missing default value for Time field when ‘es’ locale set
#33683 Filter by Release/Iteration in lists works incorrectly when only Release (without iterations) selected
#33939 [Plugins] Profile storage data cannot be retrieved after version update.
#32863 Iterations list: filtering by iteration doesn’t work
Version 2.21.6 has been released to free packs last Friday.
Task Creator Plugin: User Story Template
This plugin works as a template for user stories. Though not exactly a template, it creates sets of tasks on the fly. See how:
As soon as tasks are created, the command is auto-cut from user story name. So, in the end, user story includes Design, Implementation, Testing, Specification tasks.
Go to Settings – Systems Settings – Plugins to work with Task Creator.
Application Root URL is now used for email notifications only (for TargetProcess on-site).
Now this link is used in email notifications only. No application links depend on it anymore.
New option in ‘Customize’ menus: show/hide Total sums
You can now disable/enable the Show Totals option in lists. With Show Total turned off, lists are generated much faster.
Fixed Bugs
#33434 User Story list: Effort sum is calculated for stories from one page only
#33398 Exception when editing build with iteration moved to another project
#33172 Prioritize UserStories by Release only (leave off Iterations)
Version 2.21.5 has been released to our customers today.
Features
There are two additions to existing functionality and a change in General Settings in the new version.
* We added filtering by person to Prioritize screen.
Now Scrum Master or Team Lead is able to easily prioritize Bugs, User Stories and Features for a certain TP user.
This option has been added to Prioritize screen filter:
* ‘Email Settings/SMTP’ area were moved to a separate page under ‘System Settings’.
A new set of pages called ‘Email Notifications’ will include some new features we’re currently working on. You’ll see them in future releases.
* If User Story is converted to Feature, its Tasks get converted into User Stories.
Version 2.21.5 also fixes a big annoyance: User Stories were losing all their Tasks when converted to Features. Now Tasks convert to User Stories within new Features respectively.
As usual, apart from functionality changes a number of minor bugs were addressed.
Fixed Bugs
#33351 User Story List takes too much time to load with more than 4000 Features in the system.
#33321 Custom Fields of drop-down type: selected value reset on entity edit.aspx.
#33270 Some stories missing estimate and effort fields on edit page (after making a pair role non-pair).
#33186 JIRA integration: resolutions with spec symbols not decoded and correctly recognized.
#32625 Time element not shown in audit history views.
Features
Company Name added to email notifications
If you use Help Desk Portal and your customers post requests there, they get email notifications (if configured). As of now they still see [TargetProcess] prefix in email subject and body. Starting from 2.21.1 your company name will appear everywhere in email notifications, if you set it up in Settings > General Settings.
New Comment Added Email Notification
Now you can configure the default process for any entity (bug, user story, request etc.) so users with certain roles get email notification as someone adds a new comment.
Fixed Bugs
#32404 Support: Find duplicate does not work for specific database
#32402 Unable to enter time remaining on Task Board
#32351 Custom field filter not working for our slash (“/”) custom field
#32342 Error during serialization or deserialization using the JSON JavaScriptSerializer
#32136 SVN plugin: cannot change state to multi-word state in particular case
#31714 Process improvement: comment notification option added to entities
Here’s how the bug duplicates functionality works and looks.
All the action links have been moved up to the right from Estimate & Effort box in the bug view; a new option ‘Find Duplicate’ has been added at the end of these actions list.
It’s also available in the ‘Actions’ pull-down menu of Bugs list.
As you click on this link, you’ll get to the bug finder with the selected bug details on the left and lookup on the right. In the right panel you can search for duplicates by bug ID, name or state
As you select the replica bug from search results, a pop-up with the details for both primary and duplicated bug appears.
If it turns out that they are not actually duplicates, you can click the lookup icon, get back to the search panel and go on searching for the appropriate one.
Now as you spotted duplicates, you can choose which bug is primary and which one should be marked as duplicate. You can also change the state of a duplicate issue right here.
As both the primary and duplicate bugs are defined, you can see a new ’Duplicate’ section added to the primary bug:
and a hyperlinked tag added to the duplicate:
Duplicated bugs relations are powered by tags. You can quickly mark bug Y as a duplicate of bug X if you update it with a tag ‘duplicateOf#X’ (the finder pop-up does the same, this is just another option).
To undo the duplicate action you can just delete the tag from duplicate issue or click the ‘Unduplicate’ link in primary bug detail view.
All duplicates can be easily found in the bug list view by tag with our new wildcard search for tags feature! Just type ‘duplicate*’ to the ‘Tags’ text box and you’ve got the list of bugs filtered by all tags which start from ‘duplicate’.
You can filter this list by release/iteration, states, owner, etc. for review or export the list to a CSV file.
We would be happy if you try new features and share your impressions and opinion on the UX: ux@targetprocess.com
In the 2.20 release we’ve redesigned multiple projects support in TargetProcess.
So what have been changed and which new features do we have now? Check the new features listing for v. 2.20.
Now as we’re getting closer to the final release, you can play with the beta version:
http://demo.tpondemand.com/Default.aspx
login: admin, pswd: admin,
Your feedback is very welcome.
Take a look at some presentations of upcoming UX concepts for some of TargetProcess features:
Some projects might have a complex workflow with many roles involved e.g. a User Story can have Developer, QA, Analyst, Verifier roles associated with it. So you might want to know who’s currently working on a User Story as you look at USs list, with no sideway clicks to other pages.
That’s why we implemented the active role highlight in TargetProcess 2.18.4:
We’ve got an interesting new tool in TargetProcess 2.18.1 — the Bug Pain plugin. It emerged from our own “bug pains” to empower decision making for QA team as they pull some bug to fix, with no Product Owner involved.
Disclaimer: QA Team are aware of the product development strategy, they just need some help with prioritizing bugs if the Product Owner is not available to talk.
The Bug Pain value in TargetProcess depends on “Severity, “Visibility” and “Class” values as below:
“Severity” indicates bug severity per se. This could be some grave error that ruins the whole release or a small UX flaw. We’ve got the following “Severity” values:
5 – Much anger & crying – No workaround
4 – Anger & swearing – Difficult workaround
3 – Annoyance & frustration – Easy workaround
2 – Confused
1 – Laugh if notice
“Visibility” indicates how many users are likely to spot bug and how soon. E.g. it takes 10 steps to reproduce bug (random not straightforward steps), in a browser used by 1% of people – or this is an error on Login Page for 100% users as they attempt to login. Our Visibility values are:
1 – ~5%
2 – <50%
3 – >50%
4 – ~100%
“Class” shows relevance of bug in the context of product development strategy. This value can differ for each particular company/project/product. Speaking of TargetProcess, improving usability is paramount for us at the moment. So, a bug with usability related Class will be more important than a bug found by Trial User. Here’re the Classes we’ve got:
1 – No customer, Security
2 – Free/Trial user, Cosmetic
3 – Paid Customer, Usability, Whoops
Bug Pain is calculated based on this formula:
[Bug Pain] = X * [Severity] + Y * [Visibility] + Z * [Class],
where X, Y, Z are specified in the plugin setup (8, 5 and 4 respectively). These values have been identified experimentally based on common sense for a cloud of bugs and may vary for each particular company/project/product:
Next, bugs can be filtered by Bug Pain value. The most important and urgent bugs will be on top of the list and should be fixed first:
This plug-in is a helpful tool for Product Owners and QA Teams as they prioritize bug fixes.
Bug Pain plug-in comes out-of-the box with TargetProcess now.
We released TargetProcess 2.18.2 today with several fixes and cute pics in Kanban board: visual bugs and tasks count for user stories.
This is not an ultimate health diagnostic utility for user stories, but it’s at least possible to see right away how many bugs and tasks are wrapped in in it.
If you have any better images for “bugs” and “tasks” :), you’re welcome to submit your comments to TargetProcess UX Group:
http://groups.google.com/group/uxtargetprocess
