The release notes provide information on the features and improvements in the specified version. The release dates that are related to the version of the release are published in the Curriculum/Workload Management release schedule.
Planned versus Actual
This new development is part of the Workload Management solution. In this case it is added to the Curriculum release notes to actively point out this new development to Curriculum users having both Curriculum and Workload Management.
This release a first step is made to provide a tighter integration between the planned activities in Workload Management and the schedule activities in Core. This is part of enriching the AOP (Academic Operations Platform) vision in closing the gap between planned, scheduled an as a third layer actual information.
This will provide different options to improve insight to improve curricula and steer on changes between planned and scheduled. It also allows to use combination of planned (non-educational) and scheduled/delivered (educational) data for validation of the workload posed on staff. This again can be used for compensation or other actions to prevent over allocation.
The third pilar of actual hours is also implemented. This to support situations where scheduled is not a 100% correct representation of the actual hours. In those cases the 'authorised' user can define the actuals.
The basic idea is to open up and provide access to planned, scheduled and actual information. The functionality will be extended in the future. This first iteration is focussing on the fundamental ground work including the integration with Core, definition of the pillars planned, scheduled and actual, storing the data for the pillars and providing insight on module and person level.
As a System I want to retrieve reservations from Core - CUR-2666
The first story covers the integration with Core and the retrieval of the reservations for the selected module in Curriculum. The new page template reservation-list is added to support the display of the retrieved reservations.
From a 'user' perspective this is not the most useful report, but just for validating the data retrieved the report is ideal. The relevant information used to match the data with the internal Curriculum data (staff member and activity-type) is shown, including the data to filter (select only the last 2 weeks or last month) and the values for calculation (duration) are shown.
As a user I want to see the scheduled activities for a single module - CUR-2665
From a module perspective, the first story is to get both the planned and scheduled activities in one overview. This overview includes both educational tasks (activities) and non-educational tasks. Based on the selected period the information will be shown.
For the non-educational tasks the hours will be calculated based on the default spread for the selected period. This means in case a module coordinator has 110 hours for a full semester (22 weeks), the hours for a 2 week period are 10 hours.
For the educational tasks (activities) the scheduling based hours are the nett hours, e.g. the duration of the activity. Based on the defined calculation rule for the activity type the calculation of the gross hours will be performed. E.g., an activity of type workgroup with a duration of 120 minutes could be 210 minutes, based on the rule: workgroup hours = 1.5 * duration + 30 minutes preparation.
The calculation can only be done correctly in case the formula is based on the activity hours.
The image below provides an overview of the activities per module, using the worklog page-template. This is the same end result as the report defined under the last story in this section, the report providing a full insight on planned versus scheduled versus actual. In a next iteration the screen will be made configurable to only show the 'desired' information.
As a user I want to see my personal planned and scheduled activities - CUR-2667
This story is similar to the story mentioned above, and uses the same worklog page-template. In this case the information is not shown from the module perspective, but from the users personal overview. This overview includes both educational tasks (activities) and non-educational tasks. Based on the selected period the information will be shown, including the above mentioned calculation method.
As a user I want to define my actual hours, and get them approved by my manager - CUR-3303
Based on the fact that there are cases where the scheduling result is not 100% representing the actual hours for a single user, an additional option is added. This option allows the user to see the personal overview of planned and scheduled, and fill-out an additional column with the actual values.
As said this is not required / desired in all cases, since if scheduling is 100% representing the scheduled is equal to the actual hours. But in cases where the fit is not 100% this allows for defining the actuals.
The definition is steered using the standard processes and workflows, allowing the user to see the planned and scheduled results and define the actuals. The next stakeholder in the process (e.g. HR manager) will validate and approve the changes.
The screenshot below shows the final report of the manager providing an overview of the users, activities and their planned, scheduled and actual result. Hover over the planned or scheduled hours will show the calculation rule used to transform the nett duration of the activity to the actual workload.
An indicator shows if the actual hours have been approved.
As a user I want to have an overview of planned versus actual hours - CUR-2667
As a user I want to get insight in the scheduled versus actual hours for a single module. The implementation got a little out of hand, so the report providing the insight can be used at different levels, e.g. study, module-group and module, and is using the hour-report page-template.
The example below shows the overview from a study perspective. In this case the information of one module is shown. In case the report is used at module level, the view is the same, and only reduced to the selected module.
Improvements
The issues in release mentioned under the section improvements are considered as new functionality, user experience improvements or bug fixes. Issues marked as Hotfix have been developed during this Sprint release, but are hotfixed and technically added to the previous release or direct to production based on the impact of the issue.
Admin pages look & feel improved & usability improved - CUR-3289
The administrator interface has had a major overhaul. We will not bother you with the list of changes applied, but just show the end result in three pictures.
The admin interface will first open in the traditional way, showing all the options on a single page. Once selected the first admin function the screen will change as shown in the next picture.
- The Admin function will be clearly displayed, including a brief explanation of the function
- A left side menu bar will appear, using the icons used on the main page too.
- At the bottom a new icon appears that supports the unfolding of the side-bar menu.
Once selecting a menu-group option in the left side-bar, the sub menu items appear. Just select the desired sub menu to quickly navigate to another admin function.
The unfold icon on the left bottom can be used to expand the side-bar and show the menu-group names instead of the icons.
Some visualisation issues and bugs addressed - CUR-3323, CUR-3326, CUR-3300, CUR-3325, CUR-3313, CUR-3312, CUR-3297, CUR-3304 (Hotfix)
Along with the above change in appearance some issues introduced in the move of the administration pages to the new look and feel and technology stack have been addressed. Since they were annoying and sometimes considered blocking these have already been hotfixed:
- The admin page should not require two clicks to open
- The breadcrumbs should be shown correctly and be accessible
- The person and tab configuration filter should filter (correctly)
- The configuration menu should not freeze the screen
- The period ribbon configuration should show the root type
- The calendar save should save the (changed) data
- Multi-value fields should be displayed correctly
The year switcher should follow the year of the selected task - CUR-3320 (Hotfix)
In case a task on the dashboard is selected that is not in the currently selected academic year, the year switcher at the top should follow the year of the task. This was technically the case, but the display of the year switcher didn't change along. This has been fixed and the year switcher will follow the task and display the correct year.
As an administrator I want to define a label with a placeholder - CUR-3239
The edit option for labels with a placeholder was broken. When opening such a label, the 'edit' field was shown empty. Only by fully retyping the new label including the placeholder, the text could be changed. This has been fixed, so the active placeholder will be displayed in the 'edit' field and can be changed and saved.
As an administrator I want configure Welsh as UI language - CUR-3352
A new language pack has been installed. Welsh is from this release an officially supported user interface language in Curriculum.
Supported module types in a module-groups should be respected - CUR-3359
The group type configuration can be used to define the supported module types for that module group, including their status (new, existing, new and existing, none). A mix up was made that caused the configuration of existing only to show new, and vice-versa. This has been fixed, and the configuration is respected again.
As a user I should NOT be forced to type a code for an ad-hoc period- CUR-3280
When using ad-hoc offerings, the user is requested to type a code and the start and end date. For an ordinary user it makes no sense to come up with a code, that even has to be unique. The system didn't support any option to automate the generation of a unique code, which is a common practice for all other objects.
A change is applied to supports the configuration of a 'rule' to automatically generate a unique (period) code when using ad-hoc periods.
Configuration:
- Create a page using the offerings template to support ad-hoc offerings
- Set the checkbox 'Adhoc'
- Define the 'Adhoc period formula' that will auto-generate the code
- Set the 'Adhoc period read only' checkbox to disable the option to edit the code
Filter option in activity-list should support empty week - CUR-2567
The activity list filter could cause situation where previous filters were remembered even after clearing the filter fields. This has been fixed, and clearing the field will also clear the filter.
The overall person availability hours should match the sum of hours per month - CUR-2507
The personal overview of a person shows an overview for the person, including the allocated hours. The detail part shows the division of the allocated hours over the different months.
It was noted that the values shown in the monthly view didn't add up to the shown total in the general part. The cause has been identified and the mis-match is solved by using 6 decimals instead of 2 in the calculation.
As a user I want multiple offerings to be calculated consistent - CUR-2654
In case an educational task, e.g. module leader, is assigned to a module that has two offering periods and per offering 2 offerings (e.g. in different locations), the educational task was calculation for the two periods.
This has been adjusted and the calculation of the hours will be based on the (4) offerings, to provide a more consistent and understandable calculation.
Integration
The issues mentioned under the section integration are considered as extension, improvements or bug fixes related to the Curriculum API, OOAPI and/or CSV import functionality.
API documentation extended with the related endpoint - CUR-2519
The API documentation on https://developer.timeedit.com/ is extended with information on the usage of the Related endpoint. The related endpoint provides an overview of all related objects, e.g. all related studies for a module (and not only the parent).
API documentation Broker added - CUR-3204
The API documentation of the Broker is added and a new administrator guide to provide more context of the Broker is added to the academy.
API import of persons should support FTE - CUR-3299
The API person service can be used to define a person assignment and the related FTE, however it seemed the FTE update has been broken. This has been fixed and the FTE can again be set for the default year.
The Curriculum -> Data Manager integration configuration should support more characters - CUR-3310
When the configuration definition for a Curriculum to Data Manager mapping of activities exceeded a specific length, an error was thrown. This was not caused by the limit of the configuration field, but by the administrator audit trail. A fix is applied to solve this issue and allow for extensive configuration definitions.
Security
An integral part of our development and build process is automatic scanning for known security vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities will be fixed based on their impact, which means that in some cases an immediate hot-fix will be applied, and in other cases the vulnerability will be fixed in the current or next Sprint (release). The security section provides an overview of the vulnerabilities mitigated. For more information on reported vulnerabilities, see the central database of vulnerabilities.
Results mitigation from the security assessment
The regular security assessment has been executed and this time two minor issues has been reported. Both are immediately picked up and mitigated in this version.
- Image upload via the HTML editor should be restricted
- The HTML editor should not support images not hosted by Curriculum
Refer to the Workload Management manual for configuration guidance.