Application Life Cycle Management Tool – HP Quality Centre 11.0 for Beginners

Posted on the 14 January 2014 by Asik Ali @Asikali077

Hi All,

HP Quality Center is quality management software offered from the HP Software Division of Hewlett-Packard with many capabilities acquired from Mercury Interactive Corporation.[1] HP Quality Center offers software quality assurance, including requirements management, test management and business process testing for IT and application environments. HP Quality Center is a component of the HP Application Life cycle Management software solution set. (Taken from Wiki)

I have been working in QC right from version 9.0 to 11.0. There are so many key functionalities added to the new version.
I hope most of them worked in Quality Centre as a Management Tool. Here I will explain for those who want to learn QC and its modules.

QC is a web tool, user can access from anywhere but only in INTRANET (specific to your company we). You cannot access outside of your company. Projects will be created and by QC Admins and the access to the projects will be given by QC Admins as per your Role. Quality Center has so many functionalities and a user cannot access all of them and can use most of them based on the access given.

  1. If you are a Test Analyst, you will not have access to delete any entity that’s created folder level.
  2. If you are a Test Analyst you will not have access to move the defects from Analysis status to retest status.
  3. If you are a Developer you will only have access to move the defects from Analysis status to retest status.
  4. If you are a Test Lead / Dev Lead , you will have most of the access
  5. If you are a Test Manager you will have access to all the functionalities existing in Dashboard module

Logging into Quality Center:

  • Use the URL (Web Link)
  • Login Name – Enter your User Id (Mostly Windows Login user Name)
  • Password – Enter your password (You will be entitled to a Default password @ the time of user id creation and you can change the password by Tools à Customize à Change Password.
  • After entering User Name and Password and Check the Authentication of your user name and password by clicking Authentication button.
  • After Clicking it, it will show the Domain and Project Name that is assigned to you, If you are assigned to more than one project the use the drop down and select the Project that you wanted to work.
  • You can change the project from the QC Home Screen (Top Left Corner) Change project.

Module 1à Dashboard Module:

In Dashboard Module user can see two types of View, Analysis and Dashboard View. Analysis view can be used to get the reports for the particular Test Sets, Defects from particular Test Sets and Reports from particular project. Dashboard views will be used by the Test Managers, and they can create a report across programme level. In each View you will have two folders, Public and Private. If you create any Reports under Private then it’s visible to the creator only but if you create a report in Public then it’s visible to all the users who are accessed to the Domain and the Project.

1. Analysis View

In this user can create a Graphical Report or Standard Report. There is a button (+), if you click you can see

Graph Wizard, New Graph, New project Report, New Excel Report and New Standard Report.  Click on the type of the report that you wanted and choose where you wanted to post the report either in Private or in Public.

Now I am using New Graph functionality.

  1. Click on New Graph (Under Private section)
  2. Upon clicking you will get a New Window where you need to select1.
    1. Entity (Defects, Tests etc.,)
    2. Graph Type (Progress , Age, Summary, Trend)
    3. Graph Name (Project Name  – User Specific)
    4. After creating the Test Report, you can see the Project Name that you have created under the Private Section. (Left Side of the tool)
    5. Click on the Project then check your right hand side, you can see 3 tabs, Details, Configuration and View.
    6. Details tab – the use can’t edit anything, its auto populates the values that we had given when created the project.
    7. Configuration tab – this is the place that we need set up what we need in the report.
      1. X- Axis – Choose from the drop down what you need to see in the X- Axis
      2. Y- Axis – Choose from the drop down what you need to see in the Y- Axis
      3. Grouped by – Choose the entity by which the X-Axis and Y-Axis needs to be grouped by
      4. And you can see a button Filter (Funnel Symbol) click on that then you will get a Pop up window where you need to set the target folder from where you get the data for the Graph.
      5. In that window you will have Filter and Cross filter tabs. Choose Cross Filter tab and you can see different sections like Defects, Test Sets, Requirements etc,
      6. Choose the Entity that you need, right now I want to show to my lead how many test cases that I have executed over a period of time so I will choose Test Set section.
      7. Under Test Set section you will have 3 radio button, click on the radio button that shows next to None radio button.
      8. At the end of the text box you will have (…) 3 dots. Click on it. It will take you to the Test Lab where you can see all the Test Sets created under a given domain.
      9. Select the Test Set that you want from the Test Set tree.
      10. And Click Ok now Click on View you can see the Graphical representation of the data that you have in your Test Lab.
      11. By Clicking Data Grid on View tab you can see the data in Numbers.

Module 2 > Management Module:

Management module will allow the Test Managers or Test Leads to set up the Cycle Start and Cycle End date to the given Test Set in Test Lab. A user can’t access a Test Set after the Cycle End date. This module can give the data to drive the Test Metrics related to Effort.

Module 3 > Requirements Module:

Business requirements are captured in this module. You can add the actual business scenarios or you can add the test conditions as requirements. You can add requirements by simple clicking the Add New Requirement button or you can upload using the Excel upload add in manager.

By capturing the Testable requirements we can achieve the requirement traceability. Suppose if you are testing a log in screen then you will set up a test condition as

‘Verify the Login Screen is working as expected by giving valid user name and password’

This test conditions can be furthermore explained in detail steps under Test Plan module.

The key points that we need to maintain when setting up the Test Conditions are

  1. We need to set the Priority to each test conditions
  2. We need to write the meaning full test condition name
  3. We need to choose the correct requirement type from the drop down box (Right top most corner)
  4. Author name will be auto populated from your Login credential (if I logged in then my name will be populated as Author name)
  5. You can’t delete a created Test Requirement whereas you can Cut and Paste into Recycle Bin folder. (Requirement, Test Plan and Test Lab modules will have the Recycle Bin to keep the rubbish contents)
  6. The created Test Conditions will be mapped to Test Cases from the Test Plan module. If you have not mapped then you can see Direct Cover Status as Not Covered, if you have mapped but not executed then you can see it as Not Completed, you have executed the Test Case if the test case is Passed or Failed then you can see it in Direct Cover Status.

Module 4 > Testing

Under Testing module we will have below mentioned tabs

Test Resources – This tab will be used for QTP to keep the Scripts

Test Plan – Marinating all detailed steps involved in particular Test Conditions

Test Lab – We will pull the test cases under Test Lab for Execution

Test Plan

We can simply add a Test Case using New Test button or we can write the test cases in spread sheet and upload it into QC using QC Excel Add in Manager.

The key points that we need to maintain when setting up the Test Plan are:

  1. Click on the New Test button , you can see a window opened
  2. Enter a Valid test name, mostly it should match with the name that we had given for test conditions
  3. Select the type of the test that we are performing (right top most corner)
  4. If you see any sections are marked as Red then it’s a mandatory column and you need to enter the value.
  5. Select the SDLC phase from drop down box like System Test, E2E Test, Regression Test etc
  6. Select the Priority from the drop down box, this priority should match with the priority that we had given for Test Conditions.
  7. Select the Test Type from drop down , what kind of testing that you are doing, like Functional or Non Functional etc.,
  8. Capability mostly Do Not Know
  9. Select the Application that you are going to work in and this will be pre-defined by the QC Admin team
  10. When you are creating the Test Case please keep the Reviewed question as Not Reviewed and assign the Reviewer name.
  11. Once you save the Test Case the Auto Email will be sent to the Reviewer.
  12. Now reviewer will be reviewing the test case and will set the status as Reviewed.
  13. Under the Description Section we need to enter the following details, these details will be pre-defined by the QC Admin team and will be populated to all the resources associated to the domain.

Objective:

Description:

Pre-Requisites/Data Setup:

Expected Results:

  1. We have set up the Test Case, now we need to map this Test Case to the Test Conditions. To do that please Click on the Test Case name from the left side pan so that you can see the below mentioned tabs on your right side
    1. Summary – All the details related to that test cases (what we had given when creating) will be populated
    2. Design Steps –  will have the Details steps that will be performed on the Test Conditions
    3. Parameters – the data that needs to be passed for Automation Frameworks
    4. Test Configuration – auto populates the values
    5. Attachments – if you like to add any documents that related to this particular scenario you can add under this tab
    6. f.    Requirement Coverage – from this tab we can search the Test Requirement (test conditions) that related to the test case and drag and drop using Select Requirement button
    7. Linked Defects – Defects can be attached to Test Case or to Test Steps. So the attached Defects will be shown under this tab
    8. Dependency – This tab is used for Automation tests, where you need to create dependency between different modules.

PS: After mapping the Test Conditions to Test Cases please go to Requirement module and check the Direct Cover Status, if the Status is Covered then leave it else Refresh it reflect the status.

Test Lab

We have set up the Test Conditions and Test Cases and linked them now we need to pull them into Test Lab and make them available to Test Execution.

Before pulling the Test Cases into Test Lab, please create a Test Set folder using New Test Set button. By Clicking it you will be getting a window where we need to enter the logical test set name.

Now we have created the Test Set and pull the test cases into test lab by going to Execution Grid tab in the Test Lab module and Click Select Tests this will take you to Test Plan module where you browse the test cases that you wanted to move.

Pull all the test cases that you wanted. All the modules in QC you will have the Select Columns button to customize the details that you wanted to display in the Screen, so play across the needed columns and make them available in your screen.

The key points that we need to maintain when setting up the Test Lab are:

  • Running the Test Case
  1. You have Run button to execute the test case. In Run we will have Run With Manual Runner and Continue Manual Run.
  2. By simply clicking Run will lead you to Run with Manual Runner option. Now you can see the test steps that are written in Test Plan module.
  3. To pass the Test Case, we can click CTL+P to fail the Test Case CTL+F. Please attach a Test Evidence for each Test Case that you are executing.
  4. Do not execute the test cases more than one, if you do then it will create an Instance for each time that you are executing this will annoy your test reports
  5. If you kept a Test Step as Not Completed for any reason @ first time of execution and you wanted to execute that particular test step then choose Continue Manual Run under RUN tab.
  6. If you are failing a Step then you can create a Defect from Test Plan module.
  7. After failing the Defect, go to Linked Defects tab and Click Add (+) button it will take you to defect module from there you can create defect and it automatically linked to that particular step.
  8. If you are keeping a Test Case as Not Applicable then you need to attach a Evidence why this test cases are chosen as Not Applicable
  9. If you are keeping a Test Case as Deferred  then you need to attach a Evidence why this test cases are chosen as Deferred

Module 5 > Defects

Defects can be added from Test Plan module or from Defect Module. If a Defect is attached to a test cases then please do link the test case to this defect. You can raise an Orphan defects without linking them to any test cases.

Go to defect module and click Add Defect button then you will get a window where we need to input the defect details.

  1. Summary – Brief description about defects
  2. There are few columns will be auto populated as per the QC configuration
  3. When we raise the Defects it will be in New Status as per the Defect Life Cycle
  4. Defect Type – We need to select the defect type from the drop down like Application Code, Requirement Defect etc.,
  5. Discovery Phase – We need to select on which phase the defect is Injected like System Test, UAT, E2E etc.,

And there will be more than 10 mandatory fields that we need to enter as per the project specific details.

  1. Description – Testers needs to give the detailed description about the defect in Description section

Test User Name/ID
Pre-requisite
Steps to Replicate
Expected Result
Actual Result
Test Data Reference (Account id, Branch name etc which resulted in defect)
Test Case Reference [Test Case Name (Step number)]

 Defect Life Cycle in QC

  • New – (When the defect is created)
  • Analysis – (When the defect is moved to Developers)
  • Fix – (When the fix is given by the developers)
  • Deploy –(when the developers deployed the defect fixed code into test environment)
  • Retest – (When the code is ready for retesting)
  • Closed – (when the defect is retested and closed by the testers – once you closed the defect we can’t modify the defect.

Note: User can’t jump from one status to another status by by-passing one status in between.

Setting up the Priority and Severity to the Defects:

Do you remember we have kept Priority to a Test Requirement when we have created in Requirement module? I have raised a Defect that related to the Test Case which was set to Priority Low then keep Defect priority as Low.

Cheers – Asik


Filed under: Data Warehouse Testing - Learners Guide Tagged: Business intelligence, Data warehouse, Extract transform load, Header (computing), Teradata