Release date US: 2024/11/20

Release date AU/EU: 2024/11/20

Test Management Improvements 

Test Plan Organization Updates

Previously, all test plans were organized into a single flat list for a project. With the introduction of the Test Plans tree and folders, you now have a flexible and scalable method for test plan organization and navigation.

Note: If archived test plans existed in a project before Jama Connect 9.8, the system performs a one-time move to relocate all archived plans into a user-managed folder called "Archived test plans." You can remove or keep this folder. All subsequently archived test plans remain in their original location. For example, the system doesn't automatically relocate newly archived test plans.

Test Plan Tree Updates

This release includes improved activity logging and confirmation toasts for activities when adding, removing, and moving items in the test plan tree.

• Bulk move items in the test plan tree confirmation and activity log. 
• Duplicate and delete test plan confirmation. 
• Users with a test runner license can now restore deleted test plans from the project activity tree. 

Enhanced Performance for Test Management

The following options have been improved for significantly faster run times:

• Automatically create test groups by dragging and dropping test cases from the test plan tree to the dotted line container in the test groups page of a test plan.
• Create a new test cycle.
• View test runs within a test cycle. 
• Add a test case to a test group.
• Reorder test cases in a test group. 
• A large batch update for "Sync Test Runs to Test Cases" now completes in significantly less time. 

Note: This release also resolves performance challenges when using the /testruns API endpoint. 

Updated Add Item Experience 

Previously, a window opened for you to add draft text when you added a new item or container. While the window was open and the item was in a draft state, you were prevented from performing other actions in the application. If the open draft item was a test case item, you were prevented from using rich text when writing test steps.

Now, when you add a new item or container, the page opens in an in-app tab, which allows you to perform other tasks while an item is being authored.

You can also write test steps with rich text while the test case is being drafted. 

New Review Center Notification Settings

To reduce unwanted email notifications and enhance control of preferred ones, we've made the following updates:

• On the Review Center page, the options for review notifications are now grouped under Approval review notification settings (must be organization or process admin to update these settings).
• The wording of the options themselves were updated for clarity and additional control:
  • Notify moderators when participants complete reviews
  • Notify participants when other participants complete reviews

• Review participants no longer receive due date reminder emails for completed reviews.

Updates to Baselines

Baselines — Single Item View

Baselined items are now open in Single Item View. This view comprehensively displays all versioned and non-versioned fields, including attachment and link counts, fully capturing the item's state when the baseline was created.

Note: Baselines Single Item View only opens when you select an item from a baseline.

Baseline In-App Comparison Enhancements

The "Comparison Information Bar" feature is now available from baseline in-app comparison. This feature is designed to communicate when there are updates or no changes when you compare baseline to baseline or baseline to current items.

Baseline comparison now shows when items have been removed or deleted from their originating source. We have also adjusted the comparison colors and styles to enhance the accessibility of the comparison view.

When an item is added to a source and a new baseline is captured, added items are now displayed in green when you compare baseline to baseline or baseline to current.

Document View Updates

• The default view for all items in Document View now includes Name and Description until an admin updates the configuration.
• The "Quick add" option is now available from the Inline Insert drop-down menu.
• When the Stream is disabled in Admin settings, the Comment icon is no longer visible in Document View.

Enhancements to Trace View Filters

When you filter items in Trace View, you can effectively manage and analyze your data. This release provides additional filters to further refine your results.

Along with filtering by item type, you can now apply these filters:

• Downstream relationship type
  • Any items tagged as a relationship
• Last modified
  • Today
  • Last seven (7) days
  • Last thirty (30) days
  • Last ninety (90) days
  • Last six (6) months
• User
  • Created by me
  • Assigned by me

Note: Trace View counts in the panel have been removed. 

REST API Access Control

The previous REST API access model was restrictive, granting full access to all users or none. To address this, a more sophisticated access control was developed. Implementing this solution allows organizations to assign tailored REST API permissions to individual users and groups, ensuring that only authorized personnel can access sensitive data and perform critical tasks.

REST API Access Control has a user-friendly interface where admins can quickly add or remove access rights for individual users and groups. Changes take effect immediately, making managing permissions easy and keeping the API secure. This centralized control guarantees comprehensive security and access management.

The new REST API Access Control features include:

• The Access Control page is located in the Admin area of Jama Connect.
• Access Control wizard to help configure the desired type of access.
• Ability to search for groups/users you want to give access.
• Ability to remove REST API access from groups/users.

Implementation:

Cloud customers must contact Support to enable and configure REST API. 

Enhancements to Jama Connect Accessibility 

As part of our ongoing focus to adhere to WCAG 2.2 standards, we've made the following update:

• Color palette was refreshed across Jama Connect to ensure the visual presentation of text has a contrast ratio of at least at 4.5:1.

In this release, we enhanced accessibility landmarks throughout Jama Connect. These landmarks offer a more structured and navigable experience for users who rely on assistive technologies like screen readers. We've added landmarks to headers, navigation menus, main content, asides, and footers to simplify navigation and improve usability. This update is a key step in our accessibility roadmap, paving the way for a more inclusive, efficient, and user-friendly platform. 

Embedded Filter Enhancements

The following updates have been made to embedded filters that you access through the Filter window:

• Under Create rules, you no longer have to add an embedded filter when defining conditions that must be met.

When you open the Add embedded filter window, you see the following enhancements:

• The Select a Project drop-down menu now includes only the options Current Project or All Projects.

• The button to save the addition of an embedded filter is now disabled until all included conditions are filled out. You can't insert an embedded filter where a field is left blank (see below).

• If you edit a saved embedded filter, a new option allows you to remove it.

If an embedded filter contains conditions that are broad in scope, such as searching across All Projects or placing a wildcard in a text field, a new inline alert indicates that performance might be slow when executing the filter. If this alert is visible, change the conditions to narrow the scope of the search.

Authentication and User Management

User attribute management is now limited to organization and user admins. Users can no longer update their own user attributes from the My Profile area of the application.

SAML authentication configured systems are now compatible with the following auto-account provisioning features:

• Invite a new user by email from a review
• Invite a new user by email from the Comment Stream
• SAML new user first-time login

Organization and user admins no longer update attributes manually because configured systems automatically update user attributes during the authentication flow.

Updates from Customer Feedback

Reports History — HTML reports now include a link that opens in a separate browser tab instead of requiring the report to be downloaded first.

BIRT Reports EOL

With this release, BIRT reports will no longer be available. This decision was based on low usage, security, and performance concerns. Jama Software has yet to create any reports based on this format for many years, which has contributed further to this decision. Our community reports already provide many variations of the same data, and we will offer similar replacements to:

• Review Center Comments Report
• Test Plan Detail
• Test Plan Summary

Their Customer Success Manager contacted those leveraging custom BIRT reports to investigate options. If you need help determining which reports in your instance are BIRT, select the report and review the detail at the bottom of the dialog box. Contact your CSM If you have any concerns.

REST API — GET Relationships Performance Update and Transition

We have deactivated the previous method and parameters for calling GET /relationships. This transition focuses on performance enhancements and introduces improvements in the integration experience.

Introduction of lastId Paging

• To achieve a 1000 maxResult limit, utilizing the lastId field is essential. For implementation details, see the REST API Cookbook: https://dev.jamasoftware.com/cookbook/#getrelationships
  

Benefits of lastID Paging 

• Reduced System Load—Using lastId paging significantly reduces the system's load, mitigating potential performance and system stability concerns.
• Improved Integration Performance — The transition to lastId paging enhances the overall performance of your integration with Jama Connect.

Promoting Categories APIs from Labs to v1

The following APIs are now available in v1:

• GET /categories
• POST /categories
• PUT /categories/{categoryPathId}/visibility
• GET /items/{itemId}/categories
• POST /items/{itemId}/categories

Search Performance

The enhancements to the Search Service significantly improve search performance and the user experience. These enhancements provide faster search results, reduced resource consumption, and a more responsive system through query optimization and multi-threading.

Notes for System Admins

General Maintenance and Library Updates 

This release includes updates to several libraries and foundational technology components. These updates align with our continuous improvement objectives to support usability, performance, and security across the application.

Jama Connect KOTS Platform Upgrade Requirement

Upgrading to Jama Connect 9.17 requires first upgrading the KOTS Connect Platform. The Kubernetes (kURL) installer is interactive and prompts you to confirm some steps. Depending on the number of remote nodes in your environment, expect this upgrade process to take at least two hours. For more information, see the Jama Connect User Guide.

Update to KOTS Install Command 

Customers using the KOTS install command must now specify the channel slug. Instead of running kubectl kots install jama-k8s, you must run kubectl kots install jama-k8s/<channel-slug>. For example, use kubectl kots install jama-k8s/standardkots.

Contact Support for the name of your channel slug. 

kURL Installation Host Packages 

kURL bundles and installs host packages without relying on external package repositories, except for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 and Ubuntu 24. If kURL cannot install a required host package, the output notifies you. It this occurs, manually install the missing package and then re-run the kURL installer to proceed. 

Liveness and Readiness Probe Settings

Kubernetes Liveness and Readiness Probe default settings for all pods have been updated, reflecting a more forgiving error tolerance. Additionally, settings for Liveness and Readiness Probes have been exposed in the Jama Connect KOTS Admin Console allowing administrators to adjust probe settings to best suit their KOTS instance. See this Kubernetes Documentation for more information about Kubernetes Liveness and Readiness Probe settings.

SCIM Integration Improvements

This release provides additional enhancements to performance of the SCIM API for user and group provisioning. This improvement primarily affects Azure Active Directory integrations.

KOTS Environment Maintenance: Remove Unused Container Images

After upgrading, your system might have unused service images that are no longer needed. Deleting these images can free up disk space and clean up environments by eliminating images that are no longer in use.

Important considerations

• When you run sudo crictl rmi –prune, all dangling images are deleted from the container runtime managed by crictl.

• Make sure the upgrade is successful before running the commands to remove unused images.

Run these commands to identify and remove unused images

To check the current images on the system:

sudo crictl images

To delete the unused images:

sudo crictl rmi -prune

Resolved Issues 

References

• Success Programs
• Success Catalog
• Datasheets
• Request a Solution Offering or Training from the Success Catalog

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