What's New in 16.1.100

The following new features and enhancements are introduced in the ALM Octane 16.1.100 release.

What's New video

Learn about some of the new features included in ALM Octane 16.1.100:

Reporting and analytics

The following reporting and analytics enhancements are now available:

Area	Enhancement
Dashboard enhancements	The following dashboard enhancements are available: Global filter. You can now set a global context filter for the dashboard module. By default, the global filter is applied to all new widgets added to the dashboard. You can override the global filter for individual widgets. Filter the dashboard by date range. You can also filter the dashboard data by setting a date range. This option is available from the dashboard's global filter, or in the scope of individual widgets. Cross-workspace reporting. The predefined cycle time dashboard widgets now support cross-workspace reporting. Export dashboard to HTML. You can now export a dashboard page as an independent html file. This provides you with a static version of the dashboard that you can use as a baseline or for auditing purposes. Define executed phases for the test runs burn down. For the test runs burn down widget, you can now define which test run phases are considered executed. The non-executed phases will be added to the Planned line. For details, see Widget descriptions. Favorites' title. The title of the currently-loaded dashboard favorite is now displayed in the module's banner. Access to Dashboard templates. You can now access the dashboard templates directly from the toolbar. Trend widgets enhancement. You can now see run trends for specific backlog items. You can specify Backlog’s last test runs as an item type in the graph’s scope, and filter run item types by Backlog Coverage. For details, see Dashboard.
New Done date field	The date on which features and backlog items enter the Done metaphase is now captured in a new Done date field. You can display the new field in grids and add it to the item details view. For details, see Grids and views.
Track waste time for backlog items	Waste time tracking is now extended to stories and defects. For details, see Track waste.
Export to Excel: include fields of related items	Exporting a grid to Excel now includes the grid's related entity fields. For details, see Export data.
Document report enhancements	The following document report enhancements are available: Adding widgets to document reports (previously technical preview) is now fully supported. For details, see Document reports. When adding a widget to a document report, you can now use a link to open the selected dashboard favorite. This helps you identify the necessary widget. For details, see Document report headers and footers.

Release processes

The following release process enhancements are available:

Area	Enhancement
Release process widgets	You can now create custom widgets to report on release process items. For details, see Dashboard.
Preview pane	A preview pane is now available in the Process Flow grid, allowing you easier access to comments and quality gate evaluations. For details, see Run a release process.
Auto action enhancements	The following auto action enhancements are now available: Auto actions can now run Deployment Automation application processes using snapshots and component versions. Auto actions can now run TeamCity and Bamboo jobs. You can now define parameters for a multi-branch Jenkins job. Also, branch name validation for multi-branch jobs has been enabled. For GitLab jobs, you can now use the Branch name field to define the CI tags. Unlike with branches, where jobs run on the latest version of code, tags help you run jobs on specific versions, regardless of the commit time. Auto action can now send emails and add comments to features and backlog items. You can now define auto actions and quality gate criteria that operate on a release process' related item. For example, in an Update Entities auto action, you can indicate to only update those work items that are linked to the current release process. For details, see Auto actions.

Area

Enhancement

Release process widgets

You can now create custom widgets to report on release process items. For details, see Dashboard.

Preview pane

A preview pane is now available in the Process Flow grid, allowing you easier access to comments and quality gate evaluations. For details, see Run a release process.

Auto action enhancements

The following auto action enhancements are now available:

Auto actions can now run Deployment Automation application processes using snapshots and component versions.
Auto actions can now run TeamCity and Bamboo jobs.
You can now define parameters for a multi-branch Jenkins job. Also, branch name validation for multi-branch jobs has been enabled.
For GitLab jobs, you can now use the Branch name field to define the CI tags. Unlike with branches, where jobs run on the latest version of code, tags help you run jobs on specific versions, regardless of the commit time.
Auto action can now send emails and add comments to features and backlog items.
You can now define auto actions and quality gate criteria that operate on a release process' related item. For example, in an Update Entities auto action, you can indicate to only update those work items that are linked to the current release process.

For details, see Auto actions.

For details, see Release processes.

Quality

The following quality enhancements are now available:

Area	Enhancement
Testing enhancement	You can now add attachments to suite runs. For details, see Plan and run test suites.
Pipeline favorites	You can now save all visible configurations, such as filters and widgets, as part of your favorite. You can then apply this favorite configuration to additional pipeline runs, without having to set up the filters and widgets again. For details, see Customize your pipeline display.
GitLab plugin enhancement	The GitLab plugin now supports running automated tests from the test framework. For details, see Functionality supported by CI integrations.
Developer license	Using a Developer license, you can now perform a manual run of a BDD scenario. For details on working with BDD, see Create and run BDD scenarios.

Administration

The following administration enhancements are now available:

Area	Enhancement
Custom system messages	Admins can now set a custom message that is displayed to users the next time they log in to ALM Octane. For details, see Advanced admin tasks.
Assign teams to programs	You can now assign teams to programs. You can then assign work items to teams according to their program association. For details, see Create teams.
Auto populate fields	Using business rules, you can now auto populate fields based on multi-value reference fields. For example, you can copy tags to a defect from its related requirements. For details, see Rule examples.
Editable release types	You can now adjust the names of release types to the methodology adopted by your team, by editing the Agile Type list items. For details, see Releases.
Link in email to document report generated by auto action	Admins can now configure emails to include a link to the document report generated by an auto action. For details, see Email templates.
New Date field type	You can now create custom fields of type Date. Unlike the DateTime type, the Date type does not include the time component. For details, see Custom fields.
More searchable fields	Admins can now configure Long string and Memo type user-defined fields to be searchable. For details, see Add a custom field.

Azure DevOps support

The following enhancements for supporting Azure DevOps are now available:

Area	Enhancement
Full support of the Azure DevOps extension	The Azure DevOps extension integration which had been technical preview is now fully supported. The extension integration supports Azure DevOps Server 2019 and later, and Azure DevOps Services. For details, see ALM Octane Integration Extension.
Multi-branch support for Azure DevOps	Multi-branch jobs are now supported for the Azure DevOps Services extension integration. For details, see Functionality supported by CI integrations.
Support for parameters in Azure DevOps pipelines	You can now run an Azure DevOps pipeline with parameters. For details, see Run pipelines.

Area

Enhancement

Full support of the Azure DevOps extension

The Azure DevOps extension integration which had been technical preview is now fully supported. The extension integration supports Azure DevOps Server 2019 and later, and Azure DevOps Services.

For details, see ALM Octane Integration Extension.

Multi-branch support for Azure DevOps

Multi-branch jobs are now supported for the Azure DevOps Services extension integration. For details, see Functionality supported by CI integrations.

Support for parameters in Azure DevOps pipelines

You can now run an Azure DevOps pipeline with parameters. For details, see Run pipelines.

Docker support

You can now use ALM Octane in Docker.

For details see "Upgrade ALM Octane in Docker" in the ALM Octane Upgrade Guide.

Synchronizer deprecation

This release of ALM Octane and ValueEdge is the final release which includes ALM Octane Synchronizer. No new versions of Synchronizer will be published, but the tool will be supported until the next LTP release in 2023.

Going forward, Micro Focus Connect is the designated synchronization solution for ALM Octane and ValueEdge, for which additional functionality is likely to be added. There is a migration process available from Synchronizer to Micro Focus Connect. Please contact the Go Octane team for further details and migration assistance.

Feature availability

The following Private and non-selectable fields will be deprecated in OData:

Sprint entity: work_item_planted_for_sprint
Release entity: work_item_has_release, work_item_detect_in_release, sprints
WorkItem entity: item_origin, children, child_tasks
ProductArea entity: test, work_item

REST API

The following REST API changes are introduced in version 16.1.100:

The defect_indirect field in the run and run suite entities is no longer available.
The phase_change_date field in the work_item entity is no longer available.

The time_in_current_phase field was made PUBLIC for the work_item entity.
The flag_rules field was removed from the test and work_item entities on isolated spaces.