I’m glad you asked, because there’s a new site for making Request For Enhancements (RFE) for Blueworks Live, as well as most of the products in the IBM Digital Business Automation portfolio. Previously, RFEs were submitted for Blueworks Live to developerWorks RFE, but now Aha Ideas is the platform for capturing roadmap suggestions, and it has some pretty cool features. Make a note of the new link: https://dba.ideas.aha.io/?project=BWL1
To add an idea or vote, you’ll need to log in with your IBM ID. If you don’t have one, it only takes a few seconds to set one up (and you can opt-out of receiving notifications, if you wish). Once you arrive at the Aha Ideas site, you’ll see some welcome verbiage. Scroll down to the submissions, which look like this…
You can open each item up by clicking on the title and you can read the full submission, with sections for Use Cases and Business Justification and often there are attachments too. If you see an enhancement that you agree with, you can add your vote by simply pressing the Vote button. Even better, you can add a comment to the enhancement, explaining why it would be helpful to you or your organization.
You’ll notice a status button under each submission. “Submitted” means a user has added a new idea, but the IBM team has not yet put it into consideration. When they do, you’ll see the status “Under Review,” at which point, they could “Request more information,” approve the idea (“Plan for Future Release”), put it into “Future Consideration,” or reject it (“Not Under Consideration”). Rejected ideas are usually because there is already a similar one in progress, or in some cases, the enhancement lies outside the scope of the product. For example, a recent suggestion was to put a feature into Blueworks Live that they wished was in BAW, and the team decided it was just too far out of scope.
On the left side, you have some Navigation and filtering features and the button for submitting a new idea. When you click it, you’ll see a drop-down menu to pick the product.
Once you select the product, a form opens up and you can lay out your idea, with details and reasoning. When you’ve finished filling in all your information, click on “Add Idea” and your submission is entered.
Not all submissions will be implemented, but the team encourages submissions from users and the voting system indicates how popular an idea might be, which definitely carries weight. Note that each team at IBM works on a different schedule. Some ideas can be implemented right away, others may be placed on the roadmap for later. For anything marked, “For Future Consideration,” know that it is being discussed by the team and may be moved to “In Development,” at any time. For Blueworks Live, all of the previous RFEs have been brought over to the Aha Ideas site, so if you have already submitted one, you should be able to find it and check on its status.
Meanwhile, keep those ideas coming. It truly does help IBM make better products. Click here to visit the Aha Ideas portal.
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