Published Release Notes

Associate project management work items with application features

You can associate project management work items that you create in Agile Workbench with features in your application stack. Work items include bugs, user stories, and feedback. Associating a work item with a feature improves traceability in your application.

For more information, see Associating a project management work item with a feature.

Pega Agile Studio integration

You can configure the new Agile Workbench tool to integrate with Pega^® Agile Studio so that bugs and user stories are synchronized between the two systems. In addition, you can improve traceability in your development environment by using the Current work feature to associate a user story or bug with development changes.

For more information, see Integrating Agile Workbench with Pega Agile Studio and Tracing development changes to work items.

Generate an XSD file for XML format output

You can now use Business Intelligence Exchange (BIX) to generate an XSD file for existing XML output when the Get all properties check box is selected on the Definition tab of the Extract rule form. You can now validate the XML output and generate DDL statements by using the generated XSD file. Some tags might not be included in the generated XSD file because of missing values in the XML output.

For more information, see Generating an XSD file for XML output.

Project sizing supports real-time feedback

You can now size a project based on the stories that you create in the Agile Workbench tool. By capturing feedback from your stakeholders in stories, you can improve the accuracy of your estimated timeline and costs in real time.
For more information about project sizing, see Sizing an application development project.

Improved usability for feature management

You can now manage your features more effectively by implementing the following changes in your application:

• Move features to different levels to change the structure of your feature hierarchy.
• Provide descriptions that are longer than 256 characters to improve the readability of features.
• Quickly remove irrelevant features without having to manage dependencies on built-on applications or previous application versions.
• Consolidate features into one application layer when you are ready to ship your application.

For more information about feature management, see Managing the features in your application.

Real-time statistics added to application overviews

You can now use the Application Overview landing page to get information about the number, type, and status of work items that are associated with your features. By referring to the statistics and progress bars that update as your team creates and resolves work items, you can track feature development in real time without interrupting your development team for status updates.

For more information, see Real-time statistics for feature development.

Agile Workbench supports bulk actions

You can now create stories in bulk by importing a story template to Agile Workbench. By defining stories in bulk before you start development, you can size your project more quickly.

For more information, see Bulk actions in Agile Workbench.

Guided tours and online help added to application guides

You can now create application guides that display content from a Pega^® Platform help topic or a sequence of tour stops in a guided tour. By providing supporting information in an interactive format, you can help users complete tasks more quickly.

For more information about displaying help topics, tour stops, and other types of information in a task, see Interactive tasks in an application guide.

Support for the decisioning-enabled NLP text analyzer in IVAs and Email Bots

You can now use the new intelligent natural language processing (iNLP) text analyzer in Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistants™ (IVAs) and Pega Email Bots™. This advanced text analyzer is decisioning-enabled and empowers IVA or Email Bot for all conversational channels to provide smarter responses. The decisioning capability in the system integrates text analytics with strategies, prepositions, and interaction history, to provide the context for making better next-best-action decisions.

For more information, see Use the decisioning-enabled NLP text analyzer in IVAs and Email Bots, Defining advanced Facebook text analyzer configuration and Facebook channel behavior.

Upgrade impact

Existing channels remain with the current configuration, and their current functionality does not change. Channels created after the upgrade automatically use the new text analyzer.  

What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?

The new text analyzer is enabled or disabled using a new interactive API (iAPI) selection, which is selected by default for new channels. You can disable the iAPI for new channels if you want to maintain current functionality. You can also enable it for existing channels if you want to move existing channels to the new functionality.

Support for multiple work queues in the Email Manager portal

Pega Email Bot™ now provides multiple work queues in the Email Manager portal. With this functionality, operators, such as customer service representatives, can now triage cases more efficiently by selecting different work queues. Operators have access to work queues only for the current Pega Platform™ application.

For more information, see Email Manager portal.