CHAPTER 3: Other Administrative Tasks

CHAPTER 3: Other Administrative Tasks

Agile Integration

If your company is using an agile lifecycle management (ALM) software tool, you can integrate your UX360 projects seamlessly into your agile development activities in that tool.

This provides a way to pre-load backlogs from design projects, deliver accurate contextual details to the development team, and sync up changes between design and development as projects progress. UX360 supports integration out of the box with the following ALM toolsets:

·  Version One

·  Rally ALM

·  Atlassian Jira

You can integrate with only one agile application at a time. If your company switches from one of these tools to another, change the integration settings to synchronize with the new application. Synchronization with the new tool will not in any way affect the objects you exported to the previous tool.

For example, if you are using Rally as your ALM tool and you initially integrate UX360 with Rally, and you later switch to Jira and change your UX360 settings to integrate with Jira, your subsequent exports to Jira will not affect any of the objects in Rally, which are no longer synchronized with UX360.

Once the project is created in the ALM tool, you can change user permissions in your ALM tool if necessary to make sure the desired users can access the UX360 projects.

To set up your company’s Agile integration functionality:

1.  On the Admin tab, click Agile Integration to open the agile Integration screen.

2.  Use the dropdown menu to choose the type of agile application you are using.

3.  Enter the URL for your company’s instance of that ALM tool.

4.  Enter the user ID of a valid user account on that site. The account should have permission to create projects in that tool.

5.  Enter (and then re-enter for verification) the password associated with that account. For your privacy, the password is masked on the screen and encrypted in the database.

If the login credentials you enter are valid, a message indicating success will pop up; if the credentials are invalid (for example, if your User ID is your email address, but you only enter the first part of your email address rather than the full address) you’ll see an alert message instead.

Click Reset to clear the fields if you want to enter new information.

Appendix B: Agile Integration

If your company is using an agile lifecycle management (ALM) software tool, you can integrate your UX360 projects seamlessly into agile development activities in that tool. This provides a way to pre-load backlogs from design projects, deliver accurate contextual details to the development team, and sync up changes between design and development as projects progress. UX360 supports integration out of the box with the following ALM toolsets:

·  Version One

·  Rally ALM

·  Atlassian Jira

You can use any one of these tools. If your company switches from one of these tools to another, your UX360 administrator will change the integration settings so that your project exports will be integrated with the new application.

When you first export a project to your ALM software environment, all of the user stories in the project (with their comments and attachments) will be created as new backlog items in that tool.

Use the procedure below to integrate a project with your ALM tool or to update a project you’ve already integrated with your ALM tool.

To synchronize a project with your ALM environment:

1.  On the Projects tab, click the name of the project you wish to export.

2.  On the Project Overview page, click Synchronize.

3.  In your ALM tool, refresh your browser screen to see the new project.

The synchronization between UX360 and your ALM tool is two-way. If you create a user story in UX360 and export it to your ALM tool, then every time you click Synchronize, any comments, files, or details you have added to that user story in either UX360 or your ALM tool will be reflected in both applications. If you create a new user story in your ALM tool and you create another new user story in UX360, then after the synchronization, both new user stories will exist in both places.

If your export or synchronization fails, you will see an error message. Contact your UX360 administrator.

Two-Way Synchronization

The synchronization between UX360 and your ALM tool works in both directions. If there is a discrepancy, the changes made in UX360 will supersede the changes you made in the other application. The following list describes the effects of the effects of two-way synchronization between UX360 and ALM environments.

When you click Synchronize:

·  Any new user stories you have created in your synchronized project, either in UX360 or in your ALM tool, are automatically added to the other application.
For example, if you create user story A in UX360 and user story B in your ALM tool, after synchronization each tool will contain both user stories A and B.

·  Any new comments or attachments you have added to a user story in your synchronized project, either in UX360 or in your ALM tool, are automatically added to the other application.

·  Any comments or attachments that have been removed from a user story in your ALM tool, but still exist on that user story in UX360, will be added back to the user story in your ALM tool. (If you want to remove a comment or attached file, therefore, delete it in UX360.)

·  Any user story that has been renamed in UX360 will be renamed in your ALM tool. Any user story that has been renamed in your ALM tool, but not in UX360, will be reset in your ALM tool to match the name in UX360. (If you want to rename a user story, therefore, rename it in UX360.)

·  Any user story that has been moved (in the hierarchy of an epic) in UX360 will be moved into that same position in your ALM tool. Any user story that has been moved in your ALM tool, but not in UX360, will be reset in your ALM tool to the same position in the epic in UX360. (If you want to move a user story to a different position in an epic, therefore, do that in UX360.)
For example, if a project consists of three user stories—A, B, and C—in both UX360 and Rally, and in UX360 you move A underneath B to create an epic, but in Rally you move A underneath C to create an epic. When you synchronize, the system will detect the discrepancy and will defer to the hierarchy in UX360, and therefore after the synchronization, both applications will reflect the epic you created in UX360.

Note: If you change the name of a synchronized project, it will no longer be synchronized with the project in your ALM tool. Do not change the name of a synchronized project, either in UX360 or in your ALM tool.

Integration with Rally

When you export epics from UX360 into Rally, the hierarchy of those epics is preserved, although Rally does not use the term ‘epics’ to describe user story hierarchies but rather refers to all user stories simply as ‘user stories’ whether they are nested in epics or not.

When you export user stories from UX360 into Rally, a backlink to the user story in UX360 is created automatically in Rally. The link appears at the bottom of the user story information screen, in the Notes section.

Click the backlink to open the user story in UX360 in a separate browser window. (If you are not already signed in to UX360 when you click the link, the window will first open to the Sign In screen and then to the user story after you have signed in).

Integration with Version One

When you export epics from UX360 into Version One, the hierarchy of those epics is preserved, and Version One also uses the term ‘epics’ to describe user story hierarchies.

When you export user stories from UX360 into Version One, a backlink to the user story in UX360 is created automatically in Version One, in the Links section of the user story information window.

In Version One, the link appears as a tab in the information window that opens when you click the user story. Click View on UX360 in the header of the window to open the user story in UX360 right within the Version One information window. (If you are not already signed in to UX360 when you click the link, the window will first open to the Sign In screen and then to the user story after you have signed in).

If you add additional links in the Links portion of the window, the header will instead show the word Links which, when clicked, opens a dropdown menu from which you can choose “View on UX360” or any of the other links you have added.

Integration with Jira

When you export epics from UX360 into Jira, the hierarchy of those epics is not preserved, because Jira does not recognize user story hierarchies but rather presents all user stories as a flat list.

When you export user stories from UX360 into Jira, a backlink to the user story in UX360 is created automatically in Jira. Click the backlink to open the user story in UX360 in a separate browser window. (If you are not already signed in to UX360 when you click the link, the window will first open to the Sign In screen and then to the user story after you have signed in).

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UX360 User’s Guide: Author’s Guide v1.0