Integrity Lifecycle Manager 12.1 is now available

[KartikOak]

Hello All,

                 I’m pleased to announce the release of Integrity Lifecycle Manager 12.1

Continuing from 12.0, this release also has significant updates described below -

Server Configuration and Administration

• Integrity Lifecycle Manager provides OSLC capabilities, which enable integration with other product system of records.
• A Reference Solution based on Requirements and Validation that uses integrated processes for Project Management and Change Management to relate Requirements, Tests, and Defects.
• RESTful Web Services for consumption by PTC integrations such as Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) and ThingWorx Integration & Orchestration 8.4.
• Ability to install a Critical Patch Set (CPS) or Maintenance Release using the Integrity Lifecycle Manager installer.
• Updated Oracle JDBC drivers for the Oracle database used for installing the Integrity Lifecycle Manager server.
• jTDS JDBC driver replaced with Microsoft JDBC driver (mssql-jdbc-6.2.2.jre8.jar) for accessing the Microsoft SQL database.

Third-Party Integrations

• Support for integration with Eclipse 4.8

Security

• Support for Single Sign On (SSO) with capabilities such as Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) version 2.0 protocol for user authentication and Open Authorization (OAuth) version 2.0 protocol for delegated authorization.
• Integrity Lifecycle Manager now supports Transport Layer Security (TLS) version 1.2 as the default TLS version for secure communication.

Miscellaneous

• Support for Microsoft SQL Server 2017
• Support for Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) release version 1803+
• Support for Firefox 60.2.0 ESR
• Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5
• Support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3.

Special Note –

The following Integrations would be released along with Integrity Lifecycle Manager 12.1 CPS 01

• Matlab
• Jenkins
• Excel Integration
• Project Integration

Regards

Kartik Oak

[fbamberg]

Hi Kartik,

this is great news.

However, I have some questions:

• What about the planned usability improvements (Drag&Drop Consistency, Bookmarks & Hyperlinks) shown on the roadmap slides during PTC Integrity Day 2018? I could not find anything related in the release notes or in this comment.
• If I understand correctly from the release notes, old server side integrations do no longer work with 12.1. However, there are no new integrations published yet. You promise this with 12.1 CPS01. When will this be released?
• Unfortunately I could not find much information regarding the new reference solution. Could you please share some knowledge with us on how this solution is an advance to the current ALM solution.

Many thanks in advance.

[KartikOak]

Hello,
The usability improvements around bookmarks and drag and drop are included in 12.1
Integrity Lifecycle Manager 12.1 has just released and we have started planning for the CPS. Other than the integrations mentioned below under special note, everything else like Visual Studio, Eclipse, Word Gateway are included.
About Reference solution for Requirements & Validation, the documentation has been also released for the solution and you should find it under documents shortly.

Thanks & Regards
Kartik Oak

[fbamberg]

Hi Kartik,

I managed to update our test system to 12.1.

However, I do not see any improvements of bookmark or drag&drop handling.

Nor is there a hint in the help guide in section "What's new in ILM 12.1".

Can you please point me to documentation of these improvements?

Regarding the reference solution:

After reading the documentation it's not clear how this new solution model can help a customer who is already using a customized version the of previous ALM solution nor is there a documentation on how this new solution model fits to existing solutions.

I do not see any added value for an existing customer who is already using a solution.

[KartikOak]

Hello,

           Drag & Drop and Bookmark is an existing functionality and hence will not find space again under What's New.

The work done here is based on the feedback received from customers. In the guide you will find a completely new section introduced for Item Drag & Drop. An issue around data loss encountered during drag & drop, has also been fixed. A similar situation had arisen over a couple of releases with Item Links, Hyperlinks, Bookmarks when working in the Document View. We have made an attempt to clean these up to provide a more consistent experience.

Switching to your question about the Solution - at this point if a customer already has a solution we wouldn't recommend you to deploy it. But if you want to use OSLC or ThingWorx Flow then the REST API is based on this solution {deployment is not required} and customers would have to map their solution types in order to use these functions.

The PTC solution approach is a long term approach for all customers and we are making changes under the hood in ways where we can work with upgrade & migration. More to come on this as we develop it in a way for consumption by all.

Thanks

Kartik

[JPe]

Hi Kartik,

After reading the documentation of the new Reference Solution in version 12.1
(based on Requirements and Validation that uses integrated processes for Project Management and Change Management to relate Requirements, Tests, and Defects)
the benefits are not clear for users of the previous ALM solution.
Can you provide a best practice (or examples) for a customer solution that requires at least document types for inputs, requirements, architecture/design and test that meet the following criteria?

1."System of system" approach with a project specific definition of subsystems (including disciplines system engineering, software, electronics, mechanics,...)
   1.1 The approach shall work also inside of the Integrity project (special case)
   1.2 The "system of system" approach shall work also across projects (standard use case)
2. The traceability requirements of ASPICE must be met
3. Create traces via drag & drop (based on the project specific definition of subsystems) with monitoring of the permitted traces across levels and domains

Many thanks in advance.