OpenEdge Command Center: untangling PAS administration

The OpenEdge Command Center (OECC) was a zero-to-one product for managing IT security and operations across cloud and on-premise environments. It drove an 80% increase in adoption of the latest OpenEdge version. This case study covers one of its hardest screens to get right: administering the Progress Application Server (PAS).

Situation

Administering Progress Application Server was a mess. The UI had a 5-6 level information architecture and users felt lost while using it.

This experience was reducing the OpenEdge CSAT score, and we received many negative comments about it when we interviewed long-term OpenEdge customers.

Task

Declutter the Progress Application Server (PAS) information architecture

My role

Manager, User Experience

Tools

Figma

Team

Two UX designers, Product Manager, Engineering Manager

Personas

DevOps Engineers, OpenEdge ABL Developers

The problem — a chaotic information architecture

The existing server management tool had a very chaotic information architecture, 5-6 levels deep. Users had to click through many links to reach certain configuration pages, and pages kept reloading.

In our interviews, users told us they got lost in the deep hierarchy. Breadcrumbs were present, but they ran long and added to the confusion.

Diagram of the existing PAS administration information architecture: Progress Application Server, ABL Applications, Web Applications and Services, with actions such as start, stop, deploy and undeploy at each level, five to six levels deep

First attempt: everything on one page

In these wireframes I tried to fit everything onto a single page. My engineering manager and product manager gave valuable feedback that sent us back to look for better inputs.

First-attempt wireframe: Progress Application Servers with PAS instances, ABL applications, web applications and web services in four columns on one page

First-attempt wireframe: Edit Configuration form for a PAS instance with an expanded settings menu

First-attempt wireframe: a table of PAS instances beside an expandable tree of applications, web applications and services

Finding insights

We looked at other server management software in the market for inspiration, and we revisited our interview notes and thought carefully about our personas.

Server management and deployment tools we reviewed: Amazon ECS, Amazon EC2, Azure, Google Cloud, Harness, Spinnaker, Chef and Heroku — Some of the software we looked into.

Two OpenEdge personas: Farris, Senior DevOps Engineer, and Mia, Senior Developer, each with a quote about how they work — The two personas behind the redesign.

Eureka

Based on our personas, we realized the ABL Developer cares about ABL application configuration and not much about PAS configuration, while the DevOps Engineer cares about server configuration. So we split the information architecture into two much more manageable pieces.

New information architecture: DevOps Engineer view with PAS, ABL apps and web apps; ABL App Developer view centered on the ABL Application with its PROPATH, environment variables, database and services

New information architecture, based on our user personas.

Action — designing the new PAS UI for OECC

PAS for OpenEdge Instances

Designed with the DevOps Engineer in mind. A DevOps Engineer wants to manage and configure servers and check their status. He wants to know the active transports on the servers and the number of services running in web applications. The details of an ABL application are not his priority.

ABL Applications

Designed with the ABL Developer in mind. He wants to know an application's internals: the status of its web applications and services, its PROPATH, its environment variables and the database connections associated with it.

Next iteration: high availability for ABL applications

The next iteration added application details and a High Availability view for ABL applications.

OECC ABL Applications with the Application Details tab showing web applications and services

OECC ABL Applications with the High Availability tab showing a load balancer and its PAS instances

Light and dark themed screens

OECC ABL Applications screen in the light theme

OECC ABL Applications screen in the dark theme

Result

Customers gave positive feedback, and our analytics showed that actions on PAS servers through OECC increased a lot. OECC is part of the OpenEdge platform, whose CSAT improved by 25%.

"OECC PAS UI is very intuitive and is helping us manage 1000s of our customers servers easily and efficiently."

Benny Scott

Software Architect, QAD

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