Copies of this release may be downloaded from the Metastorm ProVision Customer Support Center website. This announcement provides a summary of the new features found in Release 6.1. A full list of issues addressed in this release can be found in the Release Notes which are included in the software installation or available from the Online Documents webpage within the Metastorm ProVision Customer Support Center.

Release 6.1 of Metastorm ProVision and Metastorm Knowledge Exchange introduces a range of enhancements to better support large Enterprise Architecture programs, provide extended reporting and analysis, and enhance interoperability with other software applications. These enhancements include:

• Enhanced reporting and analysis
• User interface enhancements that allow users to focus on a targeted portion of the enterprise
• A bi-directional XPDL Interface
• A new Rational software interface
• Improved management of custom properties
• Intelligent check-in
• Scalability enhancements that improve performance for larger repositories

Metastorm ProVision

Reporting and Analysis
We are pleased to announce Release 6.1 of Metastorm ProVision and Metastorm Knowledge Exchange is now available. Copies of this release may be downloaded from the Partner Zone. Release 6.1 is scheduled for general availability on March 31, 2008. This announcement provides a summary of the new features found in Release 6.1.

Release 6.1 of Metastorm ProVision and Metastorm Knowledge Exchange introduces a range of enhancements to better support large Enterprise Architecture programs, provide extended reporting and analysis, and enhance interoperability with other software applications. These enhancements include:

• Enhanced reporting and analysis
• User interface enhancements that allow users to focus on a targeted portion of the enterprise
• A bi-directional XPDL Interface
• A new Rational software interface
• Improved management of custom properties
• Intelligent check-in
• Scalability enhancements that improve performance for larger repositories

Metastorm ProVision

Reporting and Analysis
Release 6.1 provides reporting and analysis capability in the areas of Portfolio Management and Six Sigma. These reports produce information in a format other than Metastorm ProVision’s interpreters and provide alternate methods for analyzing the content of project notebooks. There are a number of Portfolio Management reports available on the Metastorm ProVision Customer Support website for current users to download covering Project Portfolio, System Portfolio and Technology Portfolio management. There will also be reports for those engaged in Six Sigma/Lean Sigma projects.

Metastorm has made available a number of pre-written analysis macros for the Minitab and JMP software products that analyze the discrete-event simulation results from Metastorm ProVision. These macros can be run against the log files produced by the Discrete-Event Simulator to analyze each event that occurred during a simulation run. These statistical analyses can pinpoint the time and conditions that occurred during a simulation run where a process bottlenecked or excessive costs were incurred, for example. The macros are available for download from the Metastorm ProVision Customer Support website and may be used as is or modified to suit your specific statistical analysis requirements.

Enhanced Object Selection
Metastorm ProVision 6.1 extends the ability to select the object instances that appear in association and property grids through the addition of filters. Filters allow the user to focus on a subset of object instances in a notebook for reference or modification. A filter can specify a range of instances to be selected, or select objects by specifying a key word contained in an object’s name or other property. As objects that satisfy the filtering criteria are added to the notebook, the grids will be dynamically updated to include them.

XPDL Interface
Metastorm ProVision 6.1 contains new interface capabilities with the WfMC XPDL process definition interchange standard. This feature provides the ability to both export and import XPDL process definitions. These interfaces are performed using the CIF (Common Interchange Format) facility in Metastorm ProVision. During export, the CIF XML is transformed into XPDL 2.0 which may be read by software adhering to that standard. The import mechanism can translate either XPDL 2.0 or 1.0 file formats into CIF for importing into Metastorm ProVision. Both workflow models and business class models are exchanged using the XPDL interfaces.

Rational Software Interface using XMI 2.1
Metastorm ProVision 6.1 contains enhanced interface capabilities with the Rational software products. These interfaces provide both an export to and an import from Rational Software Architect (RSA) and Rational Software Modeler (RSM). The export interface generates XMI 2.1 that can be imported by RSA/RSM or any other software tool that conforms to this standard. The Rational software product will then contain models and objects sourced from Metastorm ProVision.

The import interface works in the reverse of the export approach. Selected models in the Rational software are first exported to the XMI 2.1, Rational EMX or Rational RAS Asset format. Any of these file formats are transformed using the XMI 2.1 import facility to produce CIF data readable by Metastorm ProVision.

Metastorm BPM Release 7.6 Simulation
Enhancements have been made to the CIF interface that enables the introduction of a simulation Wizard to Metastorm BPM Release 7.6. This allows a process model built in the Metastorm BPM Designer to be generated in Metastorm ProVision so that simulations can be performed. Users may decide to manually input simulation data or to sample historical data collected by the Metastorm BPM Process Engine and base simulations upon that historical data. For human-centric processes, actual activity execution data can be collected using Metastorm Discovery and directly imported into ProVision. Running simulations of process models reduces the risk when making changes to these models and facilitates ongoing process improvement.

These new interoperability capabilities demonstrate Metastorm’s commitment to continue to support and enhance CIF interoperability. CIF is Metastorm’s approach to maintaining an open interface to standards and other third party software packages.

Metastorm Knowledge Exchange

Dynamic Inventory Structure
To aid the user in accessing specific objects in inventory more quickly, Metastorm Knowledge Exchange’s thin client now provides a dynamic inventory structure. This capability breaks large inventory lists into segmented lists, and provides grouped subsets of objects in the inventory tree. For example, if the inventory contains hundreds or thousands of instances of a certain object type, an intermediate level is inserted into the tree structure to provide equally sized sub-groups. Each sub-group displays the name of the first and last object in its group name. The size of these groups can be set with a user-controlled preference.

Custom Property Administration
Version 6.1 improves the control that an organization has over custom properties. Custom property management is now an administrative function of Metastorm Knowledge Exchange. An additional user permission has been provided in the administration area to permit the introduction and modification of custom properties. The consistency of custom property definitions between Metastorm Knowledge Exchange and Metastorm ProVision are also monitored. Changes to custom property definitions during check-out and check-in will be identified and controlled appropriately.

Intelligent Check-In
Metastorm Knowledge Exchange has extensively modified its check-in tactics. An intelligent algorithm has been implemented that determines the intent of the user and replicates those actions on the server. For example, when an activity is placed into a workflow model lane, Metastorm Knowledge Exchange ensures all models affected by the change are updated.

Improved Memory Management
A number of enhancements have been made to improve scalability by better managing the memory resources in Metastorm Knowledge Exchange. The enhanced memory management strategy includes improved coordination with the Java Virtual Machine to free up resources when needed which provides the ability to handle a higher volume of work. The most significant improvements are in the areas of custom properties and model layout information.

Data Schema – taking advantage of the DBMS
Metastorm Knowledge Exchange has redesigned its underlying data architecture to more effectively utilize the technology upon which it is implemented. This allows Metastorm Knowledge Exchange to take advantage of built-in database functionality which results in improved performance when, for example, generating model and object inventories.

The improved memory management and redesigned data architecture have given preliminary results of a 50% reduction in check-in and check-out durations.

Product Information

Downloading Release 6.1
Customers with current maintenance contracts and the appropriate licenses may download the software from the Metastorm ProVision Customer Support Center as follows:

• Metastorm ProVision 6.1 is available on the Product Downloads webpage.
• Metastorm Knowledge Exchange 6.1 is available on the Knowledge Exchange Downloads webpage.
• The reports and statistical analysis macros are available on the Reports and Analysis Downloads webpage.

Documentation
A complete set of documentation for each product is provided with the product’s installation.

Compatibility
Release 6.1 of Metastorm Knowledge Exchange is only supported with release 6.1 of Metastorm ProVision. Users of prior versions of Metastorm ProVision will need to upgrade if they wish to take advantage of Metastorm Knowledge Exchange 6.1.

Migration
Repositories maintained in a prior version must go through a schema conversion for use in release 6.1. Both Metastorm ProVision and Metastorm Knowledge Exchange contain an automatic conversion utility that will be initiated when repositories from a prior version are opened. Users will then have the option to retain a back up repository before the conversion is performed.

Local Language Versions
The initial release of Metastorm ProVision 6.1 will be in English. The French and Japanese language versions are scheduled for April, 2008. The Spanish language version is expected to be available in mid-May. Release 6.1 is also the initial release of Metastorm ProVision in the German language. This release is scheduled for June, 2008.