Quality Clouds 23.17.0.0 Release Notes

Release date: December 20th , 2023

New general improvements

• New widget in Profiling dashboard: Time Machine.

Pre-requisites: User must have access to the Profiling view.

Description:

The Profiling dashboard provides detailed information about the instance through different performance indicators related to the code inventory (New lines of code, applications, new configuration elements, custom tables, etc).

The Time Machine widget provides a historic view of how customisations and issues have been introduced in an instance from the first time an instance has development activity (which may be before the instance go live date) until the launch of the first Full Scan. This is available from the first Quality Clouds scan of the instance, and provides a back-in-time view of the full history of changes made to the instance, including when the issues detected in the first full scan were introduced.

The Time Machine widget is available to all users (Normal user, Customer Admin, and Project user) and on all platforms (ServiceNow, Salesforce, or Office365 instance). 

How to:

→ How to find the new Time Machine widget:

• • Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
  • Select ServiceNow, Salesforce, or Office365 instance.
  • Select the Profiling dashboard on views.
  • On the left side of the Profiling view, scroll down until you find the Time Machine widget and click on it. 
  • The Time Machine graphs will be displayed, with the following information:

           Functionality added over time

 This chart shows a time series with the number of configuration elements created on each day, from the earliest created on date of any configuration element detected by the scan, up to the date of the first full scan. The time series includes three values for each day:

• CEs Over Time - The cumulative number of configuration elements included in the Quality Clouds scan. This includes configuration elements added to the instance by the customer, as well as out of the box modified elements in the instance.
• CEs Added per day - The number of configuration elements included in the scan created on the specific day.
• CEs Added with issues per day - Out of the total of configuration elements created on the specific day, how many had at least one issue on the date of the first Quality Clouds scan.

Issues added over time

This chart shows a time series with the number of issues introduced in the instance per day. The time series includes two values for each day:

• Issues Over Time - The cumulative number of issues over time.
• Issues Added per day - The number of issues added on each day. An issue is considered to have been added on a specific day based on the created on date of the configuration element on which the issue was found.

Impact:

Time machine is accessible to all existing and new customers and provides accurate information about past trends of instance customisation.

Use cases:

• • Examine the historical trend of customisations and issues in an instance after a single scan.
  • Assess different instances in terms of their customisation history.
  • Identify peaks of technical debt introduction in the instance and link them to past development activities. This can aid in proactively preparing for future development in order to avoid repeating past patterns of technical debt introduction.

• The information shown in the "Issue Activity" related to a specific Write-off, in the Peer Review-Issue detail section, has been improved.
  

Pre-requisites: The Peer Review feature must be enabled, and the permissions to access the Peer Review dashboard must be granted to the user.

Description:

In the Peer Review dashboard, by clicking on a specific requested write-off all the issue activity, related to that specific write-off, can be identified tracking the history of the activity of an specific issue with detailed information in the “Action” column which now shows more visible information.

→ How to access the data in the Peer Review dashboard:

• • Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
  • Go to the Peer Review dashboard.
  • Select the write-off you would like to check in the Done column
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
  • Check the "Issue Activity" tab.

• • You can easily track and view detailed information.

Use cases: 

• • Any peer review requested against the issue that results in changes will appear within the 'Action' section of the 'Issue Activity' tab. 
  • Issue reopened due to write-off expiration, tracking the information associated with the old Peer Review ID.
    • Write-off approved.
      
    • Write-off requested.
    • Write-off rejected.

• Loading spinner in Debt Manager dashboard

Pre-requisites: Have access to the Debt Manager dashboard.

Description:

When the Debt Manager is loading, the filters are displayed in grey, signalling a temporary suspension of user interaction. Additionally, a spinner appears below, providing a visual indicator of the ongoing page loading process. This improvement ensures a more straightforward and transparent user experience, allowing users to stay informed during the loading phase.

→ How to access the data in the Debt Manager dashboard:

• • Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
  • Go to the Debt Manager dashboard.
  • Click on the tabs to load the information/values/filters.

• Showing OOTB Modifications for tables and Dictionaries in Upgradeability view 

Pre-requisites: Have access to the Upgradeability dashboard.

Description:

The Upgradeability dashboard shows the elements that had been modified in you instance. The OOTB Modified elements tab shows the total number of all elements delivered out of the box in a clean ServiceNow instance and modified by you. 

With this improvement you can enable/disable the toggle adding OOTB Modifications for Tables and Dictionaries in the graph and grid. 

This improvement will affect all the customers using ServiceNow. 

→ How to access the data in the Upgradeability dashboard:

• • Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
  • Go to the Upgradeability dashboard.
  • Enable or disable the toggle "Include Tables and Dictionaries".
  • If the toggle is enabled, view the issues that have custom applications. 

• "Owner" filter and column removed

Pre-requisites: Have access to the Debt Manager dashboard.

Description:

We have enhanced the Debt Manager dashboard by addressing a deficiency in the "Owner" filter within the "closed" tab. This filter was previously providing inadequate information and was absent from the "open" tab, leading to confusion among users.

To rectify this, we have decided to temporarily remove the "Owner" filter and its corresponding column from the issues grid and export functionality across all tabs of the Debt Manager dashboard. 

This improvement will affect all the customers using ServiceNow, Salesforce and Office 365 and all users (Admin user, Project user, Normal user) with access to Debt Manager dashboard.

→ How to access to the data in the Debt Manager dashboard:

• • Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
  • Go to the Debt Manager dashboard.
  • Go to the Closed (fixed) tab. 
  • You are not longer going to see the "Owner" filter and column.

• Best practice Modified OOTB Elements for all supported CE types. 

Pre-requisites: Have the best practice Modified OOTB Elements active.

Description:

We addressed the absence of the best practice "Modified OOTB Elements" for certain CE types. The improvement involves reviewing the supported CE list and adding the corresponding entry in the "best_practices_to_elements" table for this rule.

As a result of this change, all configuration Elements that appear in the Upgradeability dashboards will be shown as new issues (warning) in the dashboards after launching a scan. Therefore, the number of warnings of type "Modified OOTB Element" should match the number of out of the box modifications shown in the Upgradeability dashboard.

This improvement will affect all the customers using ServiceNow and all users (Admin user, Project user, Normal user).

• Naming convention rules for ServiceNow CEs improvement. 

Pre-requisites: Have the naming convention rules for ServiceNow CEs active.

Description:

We have improved the naming convention rules in ServiceNow by making them less restrictive. Before this enhancement, users who had the naming convention rules for Configuration Element (CE) types activated were experiencing a high number of issues.

 This improvement will affect all the customers using ServiceNow and all users (Admin user, Project user, Normal user) after launching a full scan and Update set LiveCheck.

Use cases: 

• • If the naming convention rules for CE Types were active before this rule improvement, many issues will be closed automatically.
  • If these rules were not activated prior to this enhancement and are now activated, they will specifically detect only non-English characters. 

• The condition 'is created record' for a best practice has been removed.

Pre-requisites: Have the naming convention rules for ServiceNow CEs active.

Description:

For historical reasons, issue detection was previously only occurring at the time of a table creation (meaning that when the table was modified, the issue would be closed). Now, the issue will persist as long as the table exists, even when changes are made to the table.

→ How to view new open issues

• • Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
  • Launch a scan.
  • New open issues will appear within the dashboards.

Use cases: 

• • If this rule was activated prior to this enhancement, now it's possible that more open issues may be created as a result.

• The Upgradeablity Dashboard now includes a view of active and inactive out of the box modifications at the same time.
  

Pre-requisites:  Have access to the Upgradeability dashboard.

Description:

Before this enhancement, in the Upgradeability dashboard, when displaying the OOTB modified elements, it was only possible to show active or inactive elements in the graph, and in the data grid. A new option labelled "All" has been added to the Active dropdown menu.

When selecting "All" in the Active dropdown menu, right now, both Active/Inactive, (Yes/No) OOTB modified elements, are visible at the same time.

This improvement will affect all the customers using ServiceNow and all users (Admin user, Project user, Normal user).

→ How to access the data in the Upgradeability dashboard:

• • Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
  • Go to the Upgradeability dashboard.
  • Select OOTB Modified Elements View.
  • Select the 'All option' in the Active filter. 

New ServiceNow Best practices

There are no new ServiceNow Best Practices included in this release. However, you may see the number of issues and warnings detected increase due to the changes in the implementations of the rules "Modified OOTB element" and "Tables created in global and custom scopes"

New Salesforce Best practices

• Avoid using size() in SOQL queries.

New rule for Salesforce (SF-AVOID-SIZE-IN-SOQL).

Description:

This best practice advises against using the size() method in SOQL for loading large collections to obtain total counts. To address this use the count() SOQL function in your query instead of the size() method in the SOQL output list. 

Bug fixes

• Filters in the 'Update Set Scans' history section didn't work properly

Bug explanation:

The filters in the 'Update Set Scans' history section within the Admin portal were not functioning correctly. When applying certain filters, the displayed results did not align with the specified filters.
Solution:

The bug has been fixed. Now, when searching for the history of an update set scan, the filter cascade mode functions properly, ensuring that the results are displayed correctly. 

• Not able to create a daily schedule
  
  Bug explanation: 
  When a customer admin user requested to create a daily schedule, without changing the week days option an error message was shown. 
  
  Solution:
  Disabling the Week Day option and enabling it again, and then clicking on save, the schedule is saved properly.
  

• Salesforce and Dynamics Configuration Elements are considered as active
  
  Bug explanation:
  Salesforce and Dynamics doesn't have any active or inactive lines of code.
  
  Solution:
  Salesforce and Dynamics Configuration Elements don’t have an 'active' property, so all Configuration Elements are considered as active by default.
  
  
• An Admin Portal link goes to an update page

Bug explanation:

In the Admin portal, there was a link in the Quality Gates section which directed users to an outdated documentation page.

Solution:

The bug has been addressed and resolved. Clicking on the links in the Quality Gates section now leads users to the updated documentation page, providing accurate and current information.

• Improvements in the information shown in Issues of the Profiling Report

Bug explanation:

The total number of issues in the issues section of the Profiling Report needs to coincide with the sum total of issues in each of the following values: the issues overview, issues by severity, issues by Impact area and issues by group. In the issues by Impact area section, the values included the warning issues and therefore the total number issues was not matching.  

Solution:

The bug has been fixed. Now, the issues by Impact area exclude the warning issues, so now it matches. 

• Livecheck view showed New Ces, updated Ces and OOTB modification incorrect values
  
  Bug explanation:
  OOTB modification showed a number.  New CE and updated CEs each show the total number of CEs.
  
  Solution:
  OOTB modification now shows a percentage and the dashboard is showing that clearly. The new CEs and Updated CEs each shows its own value adding up both total number of CEs.
  
  
• Incorrect user label in Logs after deleting inactive user

Bug explanation:

When a customer admin deletes an inactive user, the logs section inaccurately displays the username instead of the expected 'Removed User' label in the Action column.

Solution:

The bug has been addressed and resolved. After deleting a user, the Action column in the Logs table shows 'Removed User' instead of the username.

→ How to access the Action column in the Logs table:

• • Log in as a Customer Admin.
  • Navigate to the Admin Portal.
  • Go to My Account and the Users section. 
  • Delete an inactive user.
  • Access the Logs section.
  • View the Action column.