What's new and changed in Decision Optimization

Decision Optimization updates can include new features and fixes. Releases are listed in reverse chronological order so that the latest release is at the beginning of the topic.

You can see a list of the new features for the platform and all of the services at What's new in IBM Software Hub.

IBM Cloud Pak for Data Version 5.1.2

A new version of Decision Optimization was released in March 2025.

This release includes the following changes:

Customer-reported issues fixed in this release: For a list of customer-reported issues that were fixed in this release, see the Fix List for IBM Cloud Pak® for Data on the IBM Support website.

IBM Cloud Pak for Data Version 5.1.1

A new version of Decision Optimization was released in February 2025.

This release includes the following changes:

Customer-reported issues fixed in this release: For a list of customer-reported issues that were fixed in this release, see the Fix List for IBM Cloud Pak for Data on the IBM Support website.

IBM Cloud Pak for Data Version 5.1.0

A new version of Decision Optimization was released in December 2024.

This release includes the following changes:

New features

This release of Decision Optimization includes the following features:

Compare tables in Decision Optimization experiments to see differences between scenarios

You can now compare tables in a Decision Optimization experiment in both the Prepare data or Explore solution view. This comparison shows data value differences between scenarios displayed next to each other.

Decision Optimization table comparison side-by-side with values highlighted

For more information, see Compare scenario tables.

Customer-reported issues fixed in this release

For a list of customer-reported issues that were fixed in this release, see the Fix List for IBM Cloud Pak for Data on the IBM Support website.

Deprecated features

The following features were deprecated in this release:

Python 3.10 is now removed

You can use Python 3.11 with the Decision Optimization environment. Python 3.10 is no longer supported.

Python is used to run and deploy Decision Optimization models that are formulated in DOcplex in Decision Optimization experiments. Modeling Assistant models also use Python because DOcplex code is generated when models are run or deployed.

To update your environment, see Configuring environments.
To update existing deployed models, see Changing Python version for an existing deployed model with the REST API.

Microsoft Excel files are deprecated for OPL models

Microsoft Excel workbook (.xls and .xlsx) files are now deprecated for direct input and output in Decision Optimization OPL models. To connect to Excel files, use a data connector instead. The data connector transforms your Excel file into a .csv file.

For more information, see Referenced data.