Defect Management in QC ALM

In the Test lab, we executed some tests. If the test passed, then all is well. If it fails, there is a reason for the same. Commonly, any deviation from the expected value is a defect. Defect management is nothing but reporting the newly found defect to developer, the developer fixes it and sends back to Tester for retesting. If the defect gets fixed then the test is closed or else it repeats.

QC has a very good mechanism that lets you to create and track any kind of defects. The following steps will explain how defect management is supported through ALM.

How to add a defect to ALM

Step 1:  First of all, Login to ALM to the right project and go to “Defects” tab. The lists of defects under the project are displayed in a list of the defects.

Step 2: Click on “New Defect”.  Enter the required details. As you can see all the fields in red are mandatory to enter. 

Step 3: Choose defect type

Step 4: Choose severity of the defect in project.

Step 5: Enter other details and describe the defect in the “Description” box. You can provide attachments like screen shots of errors etc. The other tabs in this dialog are for additional details. Again, project specific.

Step 6: This defect will now appear in the list. It has a unique ID to be identified with.

Step 7: You can now change its status.

Step 8: Assign it to another user:

Step 9: If this defect is linked to any other defect, we can also link it, by choosing “Linked Entities” from the left side bar and choose the other defect that is causing or effecting this defect.

 

Create Test Set in Test Execution in QC ALM 10.0

Test Lab/Test Execution Phase includes following approach:

Create Test Set:

Create Test sets and choosing which tests to include in each set.

A Test set is a group of tests in a quality centre project designed to achieve specific testing goals.

Steps to Create Test Set:

• Step 1: Select Root Folder
• Step 2: Go to the “Test Sets “ menu
• Step 3: Click on “New Folder”
• Step 4: Give name as “Mercury Tours”
• Step 5: Click on “New Folder”
• Step 6: Give name as “Secured Login”
• Step 7: Click on Ok Button
• Step 8: Click on “Assign to Cycle” list box
• Step 9: Select “Cycle1 – Comprehensive Testing “
• Step 10: Click on OK Button.

Creating Test Cycles:

Steps to Create Test Cycles:

• Step 1: Select “Secured Login Folder”
• Step 2: Go to the “Test Sets” Menu
• Step 3: Click on “New Test Set”
• Step 4: Give the name as “Comprehensive Testing “
• Step 5: Click on OK button

Repeat the same process to create number of test cycles.

HP QC ALM 11.0 Upgrade Benefits

In one of the HP’s obsolescence announcement around Quality Center 10, its support in organizations is no longer being available the next year, had entitled to a no cost software upgrade to version 11.0. HP will allow you to upgrade from the same level to the same level of Quality Center by providing you the updated software files for install. If you would like to upgrade to a higher level (such as QC 10 Enterprise to ALM 11.0), there is a slight up in charge for the New version QC 11.0

HP ALM QC version 11.0 has a number of cost and time saving benefits to keep in mind. Some of these features will help your organization better manage requirements, build/execute manual, automated and performance types of test cases, increase visibility of defects, plus gather and report on metrics with the touch of a button instead going through a lengthy navigation process.

1. Project planning and tracking:  

Only in ALM 11 we can find HP’s new PPT (Project Planning and Tracking) functionality that allows us to track application readiness by defining goals for activities of an application release.This functionality provides the opportunity to define these goals and activities at a more granular level and then use Milestones and KPI's (Key performance Indicators), Planning Charts and Scorecards to monitor, analyze and report on your progress.

2. Reporting:

If you gather and report metrics using manual processes, ALM 11 will speed up time to market by allowing the publishing and integration of graphs and scorecards directly from ALM to HTML types of pages (including Wiki & SharePoint), and the data will dynamically update when the information in ALM changes.

3. Requirements Management enhancements: 

Business process modeling: This feature helps in import and display business process models (BPMs), visually representing and communicating defined business process flows. A requirements hierarchy is automatically generated and directly linked to the BPM, allowing for detailed drill down to avoid the risk of requirements duplication or oversight.

New Rich Text editor: Enables rapid, easy adoption across our teams with a familiar content editor with the same functionality for data input as Microsoft Word. Content is fully searchable and report able.

4. Test configurations:

QA can design tests that run according to different use cases, each with different sets of data, creating lower script-maintenance costs. Each test configuration can be directly traced to the requirement, resulting in better test accuracy and coverage. HP Sprinter HP Sprinter dramatically reduces the time involved in manual testing, and improves accuracy

5. Development management

Improve collaboration and communication with developers in their home environment via out of the box integration with:

• Visual Studio/TFS
• Eclipse
• CollabNet 

6. Administration and Integration and Performance:

Side by Side Clients: Allows running multiple clients connecting to different versions of ALM and QC Servers (ALM 11; QC 9.2, 10.0, 11.0) Client Installation: User can install client on desktop without system administration rights REST APIs: New web services technology for simple integration with ALM platform. The ALM Synchronizer now leverages the REST APIs. QC Sense: Internal monitoring tool that collects data and reports on user actions performed in the user interface, and all client and server activity resulting from those actions. Smart Repository: Optimized repository system, that creates better performance for common actions, and reduces the size of the file system

Test execution in QC ALM 10.0

After defining requirements development team starts their design and development process while testing team start designing tests that can be executed once the build is deployed.

Entry Criteria for Test execution:

• All test cases are prepared and reviewed
• Establish Test Environment
• Test Data Available
• Application under Test (AUT/SUT) is delivered.

Test Execution levels:

Test Lab/Test Execution Phase includes following approach:

Create Test Set:

Create Test sets and choosing which tests to include in each set. A Test set is a group of tests in a Quality Center project designed to achieve specific testing goals.

Schedule Runs:

Quality Center enables to control the executions of tools in a test sets. We can set conditions and schedules date and time foe executing your tests. We can also set the sequence to execute the tests.

Run Tests Manually:

Once we have defined the test sets , we can begin executing the tests.When we run a test manually, we execute the test steps that defined during test planning. We decide each step pass or fail depending on whether the applications actual results match the expected output.

Run Test Automatically :

When we run an automated test, the selected testing tool opens the automatically, runs the test and exports the test results to Quality Center.

Analyze the Test Result:

We can analyze the test results to determine which test instances failed and which steps caused the failure.

Requirement Coverage in Test Planning Phase of QC ALM

In requirement coverage we have to link each test plan tree with a requirement or requirements in the requirement phase.

By defining requirements coverage for a test, we can track of the relationship between the tests in test  plan and original requirements.

Navigation:

Step 1: Select require test case

Step 2: Go to the “requirement Coverage” menu

Step 3: Click on “Select requirement” tab

Step 4: Double Click on requirement which we want to associate with test case

Step 5: Click on Yes

Repeat the same process to associate all test cases with corresponding requirement.

Analyze Test Plan:

Review Test plan to determine how well it meets the goals that we defined at the beginning of the application management process. Then, analyze test plan by generating reports and graphs

Navigation:

Step 1: Go to “Analyze “ menu

Step 2: Select Report/graphs

Step 3: Click requirement reports/graphs to analyze