Learn More About Blueprint
Below are the resources to help customers learn more about the new Blueprint experience.
Check out some additional resources to help you navigate Blueprint, better understand the platform, and leverage its capabilities for all of your teams.
Need help? Our team is happy to answer your questions, clarify any issues, and share useful resources to get you on your way.
How to get started with Blueprint
New to Blueprint? You've come to the right place.
Click below to watch our Getting Started with Blueprint video for a brief tour of the new Blueprint experience to help you get started.
Blueprint Advanced Overview
If you are already experienced with Blueprint, this video will give you a deeper understanding of a few of its more advanced features.
If you are new to Blueprint, we recommend watching the Getting Started video first.
Feature Comparison Datasheet
See a side-by-side comparison of how our latest release of the new Blueprint experience compares to the legacy version of our platform.
Introducing Blueprint’s Newest Features
The new Blueprint experience introduces some exciting new features, capabilities, and integrations to help our users become more productive than ever.
Blog: How to Leverage Digital Blueprints to Drive Faster and Higher-Quality Automation
Digital Blueprints encompass everything you need to efficiently and effectively deliver business solutions for your digital transformation. A typical Digital Blueprint includes:
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Detailed process flows
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Functional and non-functional requirements
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User stories
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Compliance and regulatory requirements
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Both functional and acceptance tests
Considerations when moving from Legacy Blueprint Use Cases to Processes
This document outlines things to consider when trying to decide whether to transition from using Use Cases in the Legacy Blueprint product to Processes in the new Blueprint experience.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the new Blueprint experience?
The new Blueprint experience is the next-generation product that is built for defining solutions for large, regulated enterprises to accelerate and de-risk digital transformations. The new Blueprint experience empowers enterprises to:
- scale business process improvement OPEX across the enterprise
- accelerate higher quality RPA development
- seamlessly align business strategy and compliance with IT execution
- scale agile processes
- understand the business and technical impact of regulatory change, ensuring compliance
- define and maintain strategic business and IT processes
- build and release better products, faster
- leverage automation to accelerate product delivery
- maintain a reliable system of record
What capabilities are in the new Blueprint experience?
Great question! Blueprint's Release Notes outlines the entire suite of capabilities in the new Blueprint experience today.
Is the legacy Blueprint product going away?
While there are no plans to stop support for the legacy Blueprint product, its use depends on Microsoft Silverlight technology which in turn requires the use of the Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) browser. Microsoft has stated that they will end support for Silverlight in October of 2021. It will be up to each customer to determine how long they will continue to support Microsoft Silverlight, IE11, and thus the legacy Blueprint within their enterprise.
Are users of the legacy Blueprint product entitled to use the new Blueprint experience?
Yes! Included in all customers' maintenance are the entitlements to the new Blueprint experience with its entire suite of capabilities to ensure enterprise success with process optimization and automation, agile planning & definition, regulatory change management, and requirements management.
Do we have to convert our legacy Blueprint licenses?
No, there is no license conversion needed. Just ensure you are on the latest release of the Blueprint platform and an individual Blueprint user has a choice of using either legacy Blueprint or the new Blueprint experience.
Do I need new document templates or will my old ones still work with the new Blueprint experience?
Your existing default templates can be used today in the new Blueprint experience with Export to PDF/Word capabilities. However, if you are creating new artifact types (such as a Process or Model) that have been introduced in the new experience, you may have to update your templates to include them. Please reach out to Blueprint Support if you require any additional assistance.
Do I have to convert my data in order to use the new Blueprint experience?
The new Blueprint experience and legacy Blueprint access the same database of information, so artifacts you work on with legacy Blueprint are automatically available to work on in the new experience, and vice-versa. To use the new model editor in the new experience with legacy Blueprint graphical artifacts, users have the option to create a copy in the new format that is editable.
What is involved in changing to the new Blueprint experience?
You can start using the new Blueprint experience immediately. When you open the new Blueprint experience, all your projects and artifacts will be available. While the user interface has been modernized, the layout is similar so with a little exploration and discovery, you should find the features you're used to (and some new ones too!). To assist, we've provided a 'Feature Mapping Datasheet' to help you find the feature you're looking for. In addition, the new Blueprint experience includes product onboarding to walk you through the new experience and capabilities at a pace you're comfortable with.
Does my support and maintenance change?
No. You will still receive new releases as you had before, although expect more compelling, new features per release with the new Blueprint experience than previously with legacy Blueprint. Also, you're still entitled to submit issues or enhancement requests with the same service-levels, and access resources as before.
Is the new Blueprint experience very different than the legacy Blueprint?
Yes and no. By 'no,' we mean that the user interface, while more modern, is very familiar in layout and concept, so it shouldn't take long for a legacy Blueprint user to get used to. By 'yes,' we mean that there are many new and exciting benefits to be had with the new Blueprint experience including:
- a modern, streamlined, more efficient user interface with far less 'clutter' and unused parts removed
- faster response time for most operations — some being dramatically faster
- more powerful and flexible visual modeling technology to support a broader range of model types, with more frequent additions per release
- the ability to leverage Digital Blueprints that encompass everything you need to efficiently and effectively deliver business solutions for your digital transformation
- integrations with leading process mining, process discovery, and RPA tools to scale and enhance your automation efforts across the enterprise
- support for enterprise agile development with the generation of user stories, gherkins (acceptance tests), and traditional functional tests
- sophisticated mechanisms to allow the new Blueprint experience to discover reuse and trace opportunities with Intelligent Recommendations proactively
- powerful workflow capabilities for any artifact type to guide and track the collaborative work of many co-located or distributed teams
- additional browser support for Chrome (recommended for the best application experience), Firefox browsers, and macOS (Chrome Only)
- ability to multitask and work on multiple artifacts at once with support for numerous browser tab instances of the application
- the ability to extend your integration strategy to more toolsets including enterprise collaboration hubs such as Slack with Webhooks
- the ability to increase efficiencies by creating trace relationships to more artifacts faster than ever before
- the power to automate analysis instantly and intuitively by visualizing changes between artifact versions in a document-like redlines view full change control management with the ability to revert artifact versions
- and much more...
Please see the following datasheet for a full feature-list comparison between the new Blueprint experience & the legacy Blueprint.
Will legacy Blueprint users need training to use the new Blueprint experience?
Most likely not. While every organization is different, most to date have not required special training in order to move from using the legacy Blueprint to the new HTML5 experience for a few reasons. First, the new Blueprint experience has embedded onboarding that guides new users through the interface and capabilities of the solution. Second, you'll find the user interface to be very similar to the legacy Blueprint's in layout and approach. If organizations do require some degree of training, we anticipate it will be minimal.
Will the new Blueprint experience have 1:1 feature parity with legacy Blueprint?
No, we are taking the opportunity to enhance a lot of the most highly used features in legacy Blueprint when we build them out in the new Blueprint experience. This can both include adding highly customer-requested enhancements and driving additional value with more compelling feature designs. In addition, we are taking the opportunity to streamline the new Blueprint experience by not bringing over legacy functionality from legacy Blueprint that has low to no usage.
How do I create new Use Cases in the new Blueprint experience?
We have overhauled the experience of creating use cases and completely redesigned it from the ground up with the implementation of the Process Editor in the new Blueprint experience. It provides additional structure to users as they model out their scenarios and improves on the quality of downstream tests generated from the process models. Not only that, but the new functionality in the new Blueprint experience adds the ability to generate both users stories with acceptance criteria and gherkins (for those that support behavior-driven development). Lastly, we have added a rich, collaborative experience to visualize the user journey through a process model and be able to collaborate with stakeholders using Walkthroughs.
Click here for more details on why Processes are better than Use Cases.
Does the new Blueprint experience support additional browsers?
Yes! Chrome is the recommended browser for an optimal application experience, however Internet Explorer 11 and Firefox are supported as well.
Why do I need the new Blueprint experience if my enterprise has other ALM tools available to me?
Many of the other ALM tools out there focus on the management function of only planning and managing work either at the team level or at other levels. The new Blueprint experience is unique in that it provides value in defining solutions in either a visual or textual manner and the context that surrounds them such as business rules, NFRs, and compliance mandates. This is all stored in a strategic repository where assets can be traced in the highest fidelity, visualized, and reused to accelerate and de-risk digital transformations.
Can I still use my current legacy Blueprint product?
Yes. Using the new Blueprint experience does not prevent a customer from using legacy Blueprint, although an individual user can only have one experience active if using different browsers for each experience (i.e. IE11 for legacy Blueprint and Chrome for the new Blueprint experience).
Do our integrations need to be reconfigured?
If you wish to integrate new artifact types introduced to the new Blueprint experience (such as Process or Model) to another system, then your integrations will need to be updated to define mappings for those new types. In addition, native integrations to HP and TFS haven't been migrated over to the new Blueprint experience. If you need help with these, please reach out to the Blueprint Support team.
What methodologies does the new Blueprint experience support?
The new Blueprint experience supports a flexible, highly configurable workspace structure and is agnostic to any particular methodology (i.e. Agile, Waterfall, Iterative, etc.).
