What is new

• We have updated the Code Pipeline dashboard to include an anomaly detection swim lane. This allows development managers to view zAdviser anomaly detection.
• We have updated the following visualization dashboards to display the Code Pipeline Sub-application ID, which is added to Code Pipeline in version 22.01:
  • Code Pipeline dashboard
    • Most active applications
  • Development Productivity dashboard
    • Life Cycle: Component versions completed by application show the sub-applications for each application.   
    • The Development Path Analysis Visualization now includes a count of sub-applications in a specific development path.

What's new: April 2024

We have added the following updates for the April 2024 release:

Updated zAdviser Subscription Center

We have updated the zAdviser Subscription Center with the following enhancements:

• You can now subscribe to KPI metrics by using the Application ID and Subapplication ID. To subscribe, you must be using version 22.01 of the BMC AMI DevX Code Pipeline .
• Quarterly reports on new product versions are sent on the seventh day of the last month of each quarter. These reports list all products and their versions running on your system, including any unsupported products.
• You can now access the Subscription Center by using your BMC Support ID and password.

Support for Tenant ID

The zAdviser administration documentation web page now supports Tenant ID functionality, enabling administrators to create Tenant IDs. Administrators can now access information on active Tenant IDs and associated LPARs with data.

A Tenant ID is an additional identifier for zAdviser data, supplied as a parameter in the CWGLxx member of the CMSC. All data is then be created with this Tenant ID, allowing segregation by LPAR. You can use the same Tenant ID across multiple LPARs.

To use the Tenant ID, you must apply BMC AMI DevX Enterprise Common Components PTF CXSK41A.

Updated the monthly notification for product adoption

Abends are now identified in Batch, CICS, and IMS environments. Previously, they were only identified in Batch and CICS environments.

Enhanced the Machine Learning anomaly detection model for production abends

The Machine Learning anomaly detection model for Production Abends has been enhanced to monitor Batch, CICS, and IMS abends separately. Previously, it only monitored Batch and CICS abends. This feature is exclusive to zAdviser Enterprise.

What's new: January 2024

We have added the following updates for the January 2024 release:

Generative AI

The BMC AMI zAdviser Enterprise now uses generative AI to summarize, analyze, and offer improvement recommendations for the monthly DORA metrics data included in the KPI notification. zAdviser Enterprise customers may subscribe to this email in the zAdviser subscription center.  

Product release email subscription

zAdviser now provides quarterly update on the various products listed in the zAdviser data over the last three months. This notification is designed to highlight releases that have reached the end of their support lifecycle.

Updates are sent at the onset of the second month of each quarter. BMC AMI zAdviser and BMC AMI zAdviser Enterprise customers may subscribe to this email in the zAdviser Subscription Center.

What's new: October 2023

We have added the following updates for the October 2023 release:

• Introducing BMC AMI zAdviser Enterprise
• New integration with BMC AMI Db2 Utilities in zAdviser
• Redesigned dashboards for BMC AMI Ops Automation

Introducing BMC AMI zAdviser Enterprise

We are pleased to announce the introduction of BMC AMI zAdviser Enterprise, a premium SaaS service. Subscription to zAdviser Enterprise includes a private tenant providing enhanced features and future functionality.

BMC AMI zAdviser continues as a no-cost subscription, providing in-depth insights into the usage of BMC AMI applications and delivering monthly notifications, particularly focusing on the DevX product set. Existing zAdviser users should not expect to see any immediate change to their user experience.

BMC AMI zAdviser Enterprise provides the following features:

• Data capture and reporting:
  • DevOps KPI metrics
  • Product usage data
• Machine learning anomaly detection notifications for Code Pipeline regressions, production batch, and CICS production abends.
  • The Abend-AID dashboard now displays two new visualizations that emphasize time periods with anomalies: Production Batch Abends Anomalies and Product CICS Abend Anomalies.
    Enterprise feature: Machine learning anomaly detection for production abends
    

  • The Code Pipeline dashboard now displays code pipeline regression anomalies by analyzing the code pipeline application ID. For a specific time period, select Apply Time Range Selection. For more detailed anomaly data, navigate to the Anomaly Explorer.
    Enterprise feature: Machine learning anomaly detection for Code Pipeline regressions
    
    In the Anomaly Explorer, you can determine the exact time when a specific anomaly occurred and identify the associated application for which it was detected.

    Enterprise feature: Anomaly Explorer
    
    

    
    

• Integration with third-party SCM and ITSM data.
• Monthly notifications:
  • Code pipeline customers receive KPI metrics including DORA metrics, development productivity, and quality metrics. 

These metrics include the current month's average, the previous month's data, the average over the last three months, and the yearly average. A bar chart visually represents the monthly fluctuations in the KPI over the past 12 months.

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  • Product usage report has data on the following metrics:
    • Overall product usage
    • Workbench adoption
    • Debugging activity
    • Abend-AID activity
    • Total Test activity
      

BMC AMI zAdviser Enterprise is designed to enhance your experience and provide valuable insights into your operations and product usage.

New integration with BMC AMI Db2 Utilities in zAdviser

We have added BMC AMI Db2 Utilities zAdviser. zAdviser now collects and reports data from the BMC AMI Db2 Utilities.

Redesigned dashboards for BMC AMI Ops Automation

We have updated the BMC AMI Ops Automation dashboard to reflect the new data and introduced a new look and feel to the product. BMC AMI Ops Automation can now collect additional data points in zAdviser.

What's new: April 2023

We added the following updates for April 2023 release:

• BMC AMI Portfolio transformation
• Integration with BMC AMI Change Manager for Db2
• Data Privacy update

BMC AMI Portfolio transformation

As part of the BMC Automated Mainframe Intelligence (AMI) transformation, all products in the BMC Compuware brand have been renamed to reflect the BMC AMI brand. Our BMC Compuware application development and DevOps solutions are now BMC AMI DevX, to reflect our commitment to the mainframe developer experience. We have updated all of the zAdviser data and many of our dashboards to reflect the new product names.

Integration with BMC AMI Change Manager for Db2

• BMC AMI zAdviser is now integrated with BMC AMI Change Manager for Db2.
• In the new Change Manager for Db2 dashboard is added, where you can:
  • Get dashboard-based, management-level visibility into database change activity.
  • Get usage metrics and KPIs that enable database administrators and managers to understand database activity and identify areas to improve efficiency.

Data Privacy update

zAdviser has updated its Data Privacy policy. To know more about the new policy, see Support Privacy Policy.  As part of the new policy, BMC has set a retention policy of 2 years for all zAdviser data. On a monthly basis any data older then 2 years old will be removed from zAdviser.

What's new: July 2021

We added the following updates for July 2021 release:

• BMC AMI Ops Automation
• New Quality-focused Dashboard

BMC AMI Ops Automation

zAdviser records can now be created for customers that have at least one BMC Compuware tool licensed on the LPAR.

New Quality-focused Dashboard

A new dashboard around quality will highlight new KPIs Escaped Abend % and Time to Abend since Compile.

• Escaped Abend % is the ratio of Unique Abends that occur in Production compared to Unique Abends that occur in a DEV/TEST environment. 
• Customers will supply the Production and Dev/Test LPARs to BMC Compuware to properly calculate the KPI.
• Time to Abend since compile is the number of days since the program was last compiled to the time it abended.

What's new: April 2021

Welcome to the April 2021 release of zAdviser. As announced in the January 2021 Roadmap we focused on Machine Learning with the delivery of the next phase of Feature/Function Adoption around the Strobe, Abend-AID, CICS, and CES products.

We also worked on building out our zAdviser Online Documentation, with many new documentation pages and videos.

A new Specialty dashboard was added named Data Browse/Edit which is a File-AID Browse/Edit activity dashboard.

This quarter saw several new visualizations being added to existing Product Usage Dashboards as well as numerous new events being added by the product usage teams. Several fixes were also implemented. The latest enhancements include:

• Product Versions dashboard: updated to show administrators what version of Topaz specific users have installed.
• Topaz Workbench dashboard: update to allow users to see which versions of Topaz Wrokbench have been installed and adopted.
• Topaz for Total Test dashboard: to show the user which test execution method was used to launch a test.
• Xpediter dashboard: updated to include new and updated visualizations.

Specialty Dashboards

A new Specialty Dashboard was added named Data Browse/Edit showing File-AID Browse/Edit activity in both Topaz and the legacy File-AID products.

Product Versions Dashboard

Updates include new visualizations as well as:

• Showing Administrators what version of Topaz specific users have installed
• Logic for the Supported and Unsupported tables to better reflect if a product is in or out of support.

Topaz Workbench Dashboard

Topaz Workbench Version information: a new visualization allow users to see which versions of Topaz Workbench is installed and how many users have adopted that version.

Topaz for Total Test Dashboard

Test Execution Method: a new visualization allows users to see which test execution method was used to launch a test.

Feature/Function Dashboard

Added additional products to the data: Strobe, Abend-AID for CICS, and CES.

Xpediter Dashboard

New and updated visualization added.

What's new: January 2021

Welcome to the January 2021 release of zAdviser. As announced in the October 2020 Roadmap we focused on Machine Learning with the first phase being Feature/Function Adoption around the Topaz, Xpediter, and File-AID Family of products.

We also worked on building out our zAdviser Online Documentation, with many new documentation pages and videos.

This quarter saw several new visualizations being added to existing Product Usage Dashboards as well as numerous new events being added by the product usage teams. Several fixes were also implemented. The latest enhancements include updates to:

• Feature/Function Adoption
• zAdviser Online Documentation
• Product Usage Dashboards

Feature/Function Adoption

zAdviser reports on user adoption of Compuware products. This helps you understand various aspects of product adoption such as:

• Who is or is not using particular products and product capabilities
• What products and product capabilities are not being used by your organization.

Development organizations in particular want to know if their teams are not using the full potential of Compuware products in order to understand the untapped potential of what’s available.

As a development manager, you want your teams to leverage the capabilities of available development tools so that they can perform development-related tasks more effectively.

Here are some important questions answered by this new dashboard:

• Are my teams leveraging the capabilities of Compuware products?
• Of the product capabilities that are underutilized, which are most important for my teams to learn to use?
• Which developers are using Compuware product capabilities the least?
• Are my teams getting better at using product capabilities over time?

zAdviser Online Documentation

Updates include new visualizations as well as:

The online documentation has taken a huge step forward this quarter with the addition on several new pages and videos.

New pages include:

• Accessing a zAdviser Private Tenant. learn how to access a zAdviser Private Tenant. (Compuware can provide this to organizations who need to create or modify the read-only dashboards and visualizations that are available to all customers.)
• Capturing SCM/ITSM Records. Describes capturing data from Source Control Management and IT Service Management (ITSM) tools needed to provide a full complement of KPIs.
• How Topaz Captures usage data. Describes how Topaz Workbench captures and transfers data to zAdviser.
• Private Tenant How to Videos. The Private Tenant page provides how-to’s for navigating and using your Private Tenant:
  • Multifactor Authentication
  • Dashboard Navigation
  • Date and value filtering
  • How to create and save dashboards
  • How to create and save visualizations
  • Recovery Code Usage

Product Usage Dashboards

New visualizations were created around the Abend-AID Viewer that shows how users are connecting to the Viewer from. Sources include 3270, Topaz, Web Browser, and CLIST. Also new is a table showing Viewer activity that describes exactly which reports and which report sections were viewed users.

Other New Product Events

New product events added this quarter include:

• Topaz GDG usage – Use of GDG groups and GDG data sets were added to the Allocate, Create Filter, Delete, and Host Explorer Search Type functions.
• Topaz Editor Find/Replace – describes the use of the Find/Replace function in the Topaz Editor
• File-AID for IMS – New events include FLEX dialog, Selection Criteria, XREF, and Application Relationships.
• Description data – Additional ISPW description data.

What's new: October 2020

We added several new dashboards for October 2020:

• Benchmarking
• Developer Productivity
• Modern Online Documentation Site

Benchmarks Dashboard

Compuware zAdviser further aids in the use of KPIs to drive improvements in mainframe DevOps performance by both capturing developer behaviors and benchmarking those behaviors against metrics captured from across a broad range of other organizations engaged in mainframe agility initiatives.

Developer Productivity Dashboard

The zAdviser ISPW Development Productivity dashboard provides development teams insights for improving velocity and efficiency, including how much value is being produced and where bottlenecks exist.

Modern Online Documentation Site

zAdviser continues to roll-out its new a modern, online documentation experience, including navigation, search and embedded video and animated GIF media and much more.