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ThoughtWorks Studios has unveiled a new release of its Mingle project management tool. Features of Mingle 3.0 focus on collaborative communication and extending reporting and manager visibility across multiple projects for improved program management.

Mingle is the project management component of ThoughtWorks Studios' recently launched Adaptive ALM toolset that includes Twist (test automation) and Cruise (release management). The result is an automated solution that supports the software development and delivery lifecycle from requirements definition and portfolio management to test automation, quality assurance and release management.

"Having the ability to centralize a range of unstructured communications and associate them collectively with a specific project artifact will reduce wasted time sifting through past correspondence to stay on task," said Cyndi Mitchell, managing director for ThoughtWorks Studios. "This new version of Mingle also provides managers with new levels of visibility on progress and how resources are being used across multiple projects."

New features in Mingle 3.0 include:

• Online Team Collaboration. ThoughtWorks Studios has designed an new communications platform called "Murmurs" that captures conversations that would otherwise have been lost through unstructured communications -- such as IM chats, emails, etc. -- and associates team conversations with Mingle project artifacts. All software development team members can share ideas, better track progress in real-time, and improve intra-team and cross-team visibility and traceability. The first external integration of Murmurs uses Jabber chat.
• Program Management Capabilities. New program-level management features provide cross-project visibility, traceability and extended reporting capabilities. It includes a pre-built cross-project reporting macro and extends the Macro Developer Tool Kit to enable flexible reporting from multiple projects in real time. Managers now can copy cards and create links between projects to manage work between projects.
• Enterprise Scalability. The application now supports Mingle clustering, which facilitates horizontal scaling for larger organizations.
• Simplified Reporting. The new Macro Editor helps users new to Mingle Macros by automating syntax within projects thus simplifying the creation and preview of charts.
• Enhanced Usability and Support. Additional reporting capabilities include a Macro Creator for developers. This helps simplify and automate syntax for powerful reporting within Mingle projects when creating reports and previewing charts. Other enhancements add support for software configuration management (SCM) through Subversion 1.6.5, API updates that provide better access to information within Mingle for integration with external applications or systems, and updates to available MQL database queries. Personalization upgrades allow end-users to manage history notification subscriptions and add personal icons to a user profile page.

Mingle 3.0 includes enhanced support for project team members by way of Tasktop Pro. The Mingle Connector for Tasktop Pro will bring the power of Mingle to the desktop, allowing Mingle users to access task-focused work from the development environment. The connector also will provide cross-repository accessibility and dependency management so that team members can easily relate Mingle cards to artifacts within other tracking systems supported by Tasktop Pro. In addition, Tasktop's automated time-tracking solution will integrate with Mingle, providing a much needed integration layer between developer tools and the Agile ALM stack. This allows team members to accurately track actual hours on the desktop, submit them in aggregate to related Mingle cards and provide improved visibility for the entire team. Tasktop Pro also allows team members to enrich their day-to-day conversations via direct integration with the new Murmurs collaboration feature in Mingle.

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