Process Dashboard Version 2.0 has been released, containing many significant new features.
- The Process Dashboard now includes a powerful new Data Warehouse component. This component stores team project data in a relational database, making it possible for external analysis and reporting tools to access project data via SQL queries.
- The various reports, charts, and calculations in the Team Dashboard have been rewritten to take advantage of the Data Warehouse component. 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Significant improvements have been made to the efficiency of the earned value calculation logic, enabling earned value reports to display much faster than before.
- 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.
- The splash screen appears more quickly after clicking an icon to launch the Process Dashboard.
- Fixes are included for a number of bugs.
Upgrade Considerations
Teams are encouraged to upgrade together.
Teams using one of the built-in metrics collection frameworks (e.g. TSP(SM) or PDSSD) will enjoy the new functionality simply by upgrading. Teams that have defined their own custom metrics collection framework will need to refresh the definition of that framework to receive the benefits of faster startup, reporting, and shutdown.