HP Application Lifecycle Management 11.00

HP Application Lifecycle Management 11.00

HP Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) empowers IT to manage the core application lifecycle, from requirements through deployment, granting application teams the crucial visibility and collaboration needed for predictable, repeatable, and adaptable delivery of modern applications.

ALM supports you through all phases of the application lifecycle management. By integrating the tasks involved in application management, it enables you to better align IT with your business needs. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: HP ALM Overview.

ALM also includes Performance Center functionality, enabling you to manage all aspects of a large-scale performance testing project, including resource allocation and scheduling, from a centralized location accessible through the Web. For details on new features in Performance Center, see What's New in HP ALM Performance Center.

The ALM solution also includes Application Governance functionality. This component is primarily a design-time governance platform for service infrastructure. For more information, refer to the HP ALM Application Governance documentation.

HP ALM Editions

HP Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is also available in three editions which provide subsets of ALM functionality — HP Quality Center Starter Edition, HP Quality Center Enterprise Edition, and HP ALM Performance Center Edition.

HP ALM Edition	Description
HP ALM	Complete HP ALM functionality, providing core functionality for managing the Application Lifecycle and scalable Quality Management for mature organizations and Centers of Excellence (CoE) involved with managing enterprise releases.
HP Quality Center Starter Edition	For quality management teams managing small releases.
HP Quality Center Enterprise Edition	For quality management teams managing medium to large releases.
HP ALM Performance Center Edition	For managing all aspects of large-scale performance testing projects.

For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: ALM Functionality by Edition.

Installation

The following updates have been made to the installation process. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management Installation Guide.

Supported Environments 

For the supported and recommended system configurations for your ALM server and client machine, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management 11.00 Readme.

Important: The supported environment information in the HP Application Lifecycle Management 11.00 Readme is accurate for the ALM 11.00 release, but there may be updates for ALM 11.00 patches. For the most up-to-date supported environments, refer to the HP Software Web site using the following URL: http://www.hp.com/go/TDQC_SysReq

ALM offers integrations with other HP testing tools. To verify that you are using a supported version, on the Add-ins page, click the More HP Application Lifecycle Management Add-ins link. Choose the ALM 11.00 integration matrix.

Installation Wizard 

·Validations have been added throughout the installation process.

·The installation wizard now consists of two stages: file delivery and server configuration. This means that you can reconfigure the server without having to reinstall the application.

Data Security 

ALM encrypts information for accessing external systems (databases, Windows, and LDAP), and secures communication with other HP BTO applications.

ALM Client 

Optimized Project Repositories

Project files are now saved over an optimized repository system, that ensures better performance for common actions, and extends the capacity of the file system.

Files in the project repository are stored in an optimized folder structure that allows maximum storage space. In addition, any two files with identical content are stored in the repository only once. This results in a significant reduction in disk space. For example, if you attach the same file to several ALM records, the file is stored only once in the project repository.

For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management Administrator Guide: About the Optimized Project Repository.

When upgrading from Quality Center 9.2 or 10.00, ALM migrates files from the legacy project repository to the optimized project repository. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management Administrator Guide: Repository

Side-by-Side ALM Clients

You can now run multiple versions of HP Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) side-by-side on a workstation. This includes multiple ALM 11.00 clients connecting to different ALM Platform servers, and a single Quality Center 10.00 or 9.2 client.

For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management Installation Guide.

Project Planning and Tracking (PPT) Releases

Using the Project Planning and Tracking (PPT) feature, you can now track application readiness by defining milestones for activities of an application release in the Releases module. PPT uses key performance indicators (KPIs) to analyze the data of your defined milestones. The overall health and deployment readiness of a release in displayed in the form of a scorecard. The scorecard monitors and tracks how well each milestone is being met on a daily basis. To further analyze your output, you can generate dashboard reports and graphs.

For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Project Planning and Tracking (PPT) Releases.

PPT is not available for HP Quality Center Starter Edition, HP Quality Center Enterprise Edition, or HP ALM Performance Center Edition.

Business Process Model Integration

You can now import business process models created in external model authoring tools. Importing business process models into the new Business Models module automatically creates a framework of requirements representing each model and activity. You can then create test coverage and assess the quality of your business process models.

In addition, you can add path entities to your models that represent end-to-end sequences of activities, enabling you to test your business flows.

For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Business Process Models Overview, and to the HP ALM Business Models Module Best Practices Guide.

The Business Models module is not available for HP Quality Center Starter Edition or HP ALM Performance Center Edition

Traceability Matrix

You can now determine the extent of relationships between requirements and other requirements, and between requirements and tests using the Traceability Matrix view in the Requirements module. The traceability matrix helps you verify that all requirements are met, and identify changes to the scope of your requirements when they occur. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Traceability Matrix.

Test Configurations

Using the Test Configurations tab in the Test Plan module, you can now design tests that run according to different use-cases, each with different sets of data. Each use-case is called a test configuration. Values for the test configurations are supplied from within your ALM project or from an external data resource. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Test Configurations.

New Manual Runner - HP Sprinter

You can now run manual tests in ALM from the Test Lab module using the new HP Sprinter. Sprinter provides enhanced functionality and a variety of tools to assist in the manual testing process, including:

·         the ability to create and annotate screen captures

·         capture movies of your run

·         record and run macros on your test application

·         automatically enter data into fields in your application

·         automatically include the list of your steps or user actions in any defect you submit

·         replicate your user actions on multiple machines with different configurations

For more information, refer to the HP Sprinter User Guide, available from the HP Application Lifecycle Management Adds-ins Page (select Help > Add-ins Page).

Sprinter functionality is not available with HP Quality Center Starter Edition or HP ALM Performance Center Edition.

Project Reports

A new Project Report reporting tool is available in the Analysis View module, enabling you to design and generate comprehensive reports of project data. Using templates designed by the project administrator for each ALM entity, users create project reports, by selecting the entities that are included in report sections, and defining data filters.

Project reports offer the following advantages:

·         Rich style and layout option using MS Word templates.

·         Enhanced performance.

·         Single configuration for multiple output formats (doc, docx, html).

·         Centralized template management.

For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Project Reports.

User Updates

This section describes usability enhancements in HP Application Lifecycle Management 11.00.

Module Navigation

A new module navigation sidebar enables quick access to the modules available in ALM. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: ALM Common Areas.

Favorite Views

You can now add subfolders to help you organize your favorite views. For example, you can create folders to organize favorite views by product, release version, or team. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Favorite Views Overview.

Library Enhancements

The following enhancements were made in the Libraries module:

·The library creation process has been improved. It includes the following enhancements:

·Filtered libraries. Previously, when you created a library, all records within the folders you selected were added to the library. In ALM 11.00, when you create a library, you can also define a filter for each entity tree you include, providing you with better control over library content.

·Automatically include related entities during baseline creation. Previously, when you created a library that included tests, you also needed to select all the related entities that were required for the tests to run, such as called tests and test resources. In ALM 11.00, these related entities are automatically included when you create a baseline for the library.

·Add tests to a library based on coverage. When you select tests to include in a library, you now have the option to automatically include only those tests that cover requirements in the library.

For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Content Tab.

·Export baseline and library comparison results. You can now save baseline and library comparison results in .csv file format. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Compare Baselines Tool Dialog Box or Compare Libraries Tool Dialog Box.

The Libraries module functionality is not available for HP Quality Center Starter Edition.

Requirements Enhancements

The following enhancements were made in the Requirements module:

·Requirements Ordering. Previously, requirements were added to the requirements tree by order of creation. To arrange the order, you sorted the tree by selected fields. In ALM 11.00, you can move the requirements in any logical order in the tree. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Move Up and Move Down buttons.

·Rich Text Editor. The rich text feature has been improved in ALM 11.00. It includes the following enhancements:

·changed from a Microsoft Word-based editor to an HTML editor

·expanded the viewable area

·improved performance of opening and saving rich text

·available as searchable field

·enables using a rich text template

For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Rich Text Tab.

Test Execution Enhancements

The following enhancements were made in the Test Lab module:

·The Test Lab module now contains two main tabs:

·The Test Sets tab displays the test sets tree view.

·The Test Runs tab displays all project runs in a grid.

The Test Sets Grid View is no longer available.

·Run management. You can now view and filter all runs for your project in a single grid view. This is available from the new Test Runs tab in the Test Lab module. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Test Runs Tab.

·Draft runs. You can now set a test as a draft run to instruct ALM to ignore the run results. This enables you to try out tests while they are still in development or after they have been modified without impacting statistics such as test or coverage status. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Draft Runs.

·Run State field. The new test run State field enables you to track the status of a run in progress. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Test Lab Module Fields.

·Blocked run status. A new status has been added to test runs. The Blocked status indicates that the test cannot run. This enables you to distinguish between tests that were not completed, possibly due to lack of time, and those that could not be completed for some other reason, such as network problems or hardware failure. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Test Lab Module Fields.

·Execution summary. You can now instruct ALM to send a summary of test results in an email to specified users when test set execution completes. This option is available from the Automation tab. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Automation Tab.

·The Test Instance Properties dialog box is renamed the Test Instance Details dialog box.

Dashboard Enhancements

The following enhancements were made in the Dashboard module:

·The Dashboard module now contains two sub-modules:

·The Analysis View module contains the analysis items that were previously displayed in the Analysis View tab.

·The Dashboard View module contains the dashboard pages that were previously displayed in the Dashboard View tab.

·Graphs. The following enhancements are introduced in graphs:

·Sharing Graphs. You can now share graphs for viewing in a Web browser, without downloading an ALM client. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Share Analysis Item Dialog Box.

·Configuration Options. In progress and trend graphs, you now have full control over the time period that is covered by graphs. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Configuration Tab - Graphs.

Task Manager

You can now view the progress and status of asynchronous tasks run in your project. The new Task Manager dialog box enables you to view tasks that run in the background, such as creating a baseline or importing a library. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: Task Manager Dialog Box.

Session Reconnect

When your ALM session is inactive for a period of time, the session expires. Previously, this required you to log out and log in again, which includes reloading project customization.

Now, when your session expires, you are prompted to reconnect. If the project administrator has not made any significant changes to the project customization, the customization does not reload, enabling you to reconnect quickly and continue working where you left off.

For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management Administrator Guide: Understanding the Project Customization Window.

Administration Updates

This section describes administration enhancements in HP Application Lifecycle Management 11.00.

Importing LDAP Users

Previously, you could import LDAP users by browsing and filtering the LDAP tree. In ALM 11.00, you can search LDAP users by entering keywords. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management Administrator Guide: Managing ALM Licenses.

Enabling Project Extensions

You can now enable extensions for a project while creating the project. Previously, you could enable an extension for a project only after creating the project. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management Administrator Guide: Creating Projects.

Cross Project Customization

When you apply template customization, module access customization in the template is now applied to linked projects. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management Administrator Guide: Applying Template Customization to Linked Projects.

Cross Project Customization is not available for HP Quality Center Starter Edition or HP Quality Center Enterprise Edition.

Deactivating Users

You can now deactivate users in Site Administration. An inactive user cannot log in to any ALM project. This enables you to temporarily deny a user access to projects, while maintaining user details, and preserving a user's settings and permissions. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management Administrator Guide: Deactivating and Activating Users.

Update Test Types

After registering custom test types with ALM, you are now required to synchronize changes with active projects in Site Administration. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management Administrator Guide: Understanding Site Administration.

QC Sense

You can now analyze ALM usage and performance data using QC Sense, the new internal monitoring tool. QC Sense collects data on user actions performed in the ALM user interface, and monitors all client and server activity resulting from those actions. You can generate reports based on QC Sense data, enabling you to examine and compare performance. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management Administrator Guide: QC Sense.

Site Configuration

In the Site Configuration tab, the following parameters were added:

·DEBUG_CLOSURE_LOG_DOM_PROJ

·DISABLE_PASSWORD_OTA_ENCRYPTION

·ENTITY_LINK_HOST

·ENTITY_LINK_PORT

·EVENT_LOG_PURGE_PERIOD_DAYS

·EXTENDED_MEMO_FIELDS

·FAST_RECONNECT_MODE

·LIBRARY FUSE

·REQUIREMENTS LIBRARY FUSE

·REST_API_DEFAULT_PAGE_SIZE

·REST_API_MAX_PAGE_SIZE

·REST_SESSION_MAX_IDLE_TIME

·SSO_EXPIRATION_TIME

·SUPPORT_TESTSET_END

The following parameters were removed:

·ALLOW_REQ_COVERAGE_BY_TEST_INSTANCE

·LIBRARY_BROKEN_LINKS_VERIFICATION_FUSE

For more information on the new parameters, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management Administrator Guide: Setting ALM Configuration Parameters.

Workflow Events

Workflow event procedures were added for the following modules.

Module	Events
Releases	·         ReleaseFolder_AfterPost
Business Models	·         CanReImportModels ·         A set of events (such as _MoveTo, _FieldChange) for the BusinessModel, BusinessModel_Activity, BusinessModelPath, and BusinessModelFolder entities.
Business Components	·         CanAddComponentstoTest ·         CanRemoveComponentsFromTest ·         CanAddFlowsToTest ·         CanRemoveFlowsFromTest ·         CanDeleteGroupsFromTest ·         Component_CanDelete and ComponentFolder_CanDelete. (Separate CanDelete event syntaxes are now available for components and component folders.) ·         A set of events (such as _New, _FieldChange) for the ComponentFolder entity.
Test Plan	·         Test_CanDelete and TestFolder_CanDelete. (Separate CanDelete event syntaxes are now available for tests and test folders.) ·         A set of events (such as _New, _FieldChange) for the TestFolder and TestConfiguration entities.
Test Lab	·         RunTests_Sprinter ·         TestSet_CanDelete and TestSetFolder_CanDelete. (Separate CanDelete event syntaxes are now available for test sets and test set folders.) ·         A set of events (such as _New, _FieldChange) for the TestSetFolder entity.

Other enhancements include:

·The GetDetailsPageName event is now supported for all entities, not just defect entities.

·Certain events are no longer supported for new projects, but for purposes of backward compatibility, are available in upgraded projects (for example, MoveToSubject and GetNewReqPageName).

For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management Administrator Guide: Workflow Customization.

Changes in Feature Availability

The following features are no longer supported in HP Application Lifecycle Management 11.00:

WinRunner EOL

You can no longer create WinRunner tests in ALM 11.00. However, if you are upgrading from a previous version of Quality Center, you can still run your existing WinRunner tests.

Defect Customization: Visible Fields in Add Defect Dialog Box

The Visible Fields in Add Defect Dialog Box field in Groups customization is no longer available in ALM 11.00. To determine which Defect fields are visible, use the Select Fields dialog box from the Data-hiding tab of the Groups and Permissions page in the Customization module. Alternatively, you can create a workflow script.

Printing Defects

In the Defects module, you can no longer print defects directly from the Defects Grid. Instead, you can export defect data, or generate graphs and reports of defect data.

Library Broken Links Verification

The verification of broken links is no longer a part of the baseline creation process in ALM 11.00. The baseline creation process now automatically includes all the related entities that tests in the library need in order to run. For more information, see Library Enhancements.

Fixed Columns in the Defects Grid.

The option of setting non-scrolling columns displayed in the Defects grid is no longer available.

Add Required Fields to Grid

When adding a test to a test set, or creating or updating a defect, the option to automatically add required fields to the grid is no longer available. Instead, you can use the Select Columns option to add the required fields.

Assigning Existing Sets of Permissions to User Groups

When you create a new user group, you can assign the privileges of an existing user group that has similar access privileges to those you want to assign to the new group. The option of later resetting one user group's permissions according to another group's permissions is no longer available.

Adding Users to Projects from a Previous Version

In ALM 11.00, you cannot add users to a project from an earlier version before you upgrade the project.

API and Database Updates

This section describes API updates:

·         ALM 11.00 can use Client-Side Deployment so that a client can connect to more than one ALM Platform. This affects APIs in the following ways:

·         The OTA type library is no longer registered automatically on the client machine. Before connecting to an ALM Platform with an OTA application, register the library for the server by running HP ALM Client Registration from the ALM Add-ins page. For more information, see Registering ALM on a Workstation in the HP ALM Installation Guide.

·         The coding and installation of custom test types has changed. See the HP ALM Custom Test Type Guide.

·         There are now ALM REST resources available. For details, see the HP ALM REST API Reference.

·         The content of the HP Quality Center Entity Dependencies API Reference that was published with Quality Center has been merged into the HP ALM Open Test Architecture Reference. The dependencies reference is not delivered as a separate help with ALM.

·         The following properties of the OTA CustomizationPermissions object are now read-only:

·         CanAdditem

·         CanAllowAttachment

·         CanModifyField

·         CanModifyItem

·         CanRemoveItem

·         CanUseOwnerSensible

·         The following methods of the OTA CustomizationAction object are obsolete:

·         AddGroup

·         RemoveGroup

·         The OTA TreeMananager object is now responsible only for the Test Subject tree. For project lists, use Customization.Lists.

·         Rich text fields are now saved as memo fields and not as .DOC files.

·         The Site Administration API's CreateProjectCopy method no longer supports the SA_PROJECT_CREATION_FORCE_IF_ACTIVE option. A project must be deactivated before it can be copied.

·         The HISTORY table no longer exists. Events are now logged in the AUDIT_LOG and AUDIT_PROPERTIES tables. There are corresponding changes to OTA.

·         New items in the API and database references are marked with a red tag in the table of contents. The tag is at the object or table level. Individual fields, methods, and properties are not tagged.

·          

Business Process Testing

New HP Application Lifecycle Management 11.00 features are also supported for Business Process Testing entities. In addition, the Business Process Testing features described below have been introduced or enhanced in ALM 11.00.

Improved Performance when Running QuickTest Automated Components

To improve performance, business process tests or flows that contain only QuickTest automated components now compile as QuickTest tests using a mechanism called BPT wrapper tests. The tests and flows are automatically wrapped when QC executes the test without any action on the user's part. For more information on running tests with the BPT wrapper test mechanism, refer to the HP Business Process Testing User Guide: Running Automated Business Process Tests or Flows.

Availability

Business Process Testing is now available with both the Quality Center Starter Edition and the Quality Center Enterprise Edition. For more information, refer to the HP Application Lifecycle Management User Guide: ALM Functionality by Edition.

Enhanced User Interface

The following enhancements were made to the Business Process Testing user interface:

·The "look and feel" for business process tests and flows in the Test Plan is redesigned. For example, the flat list of components is now replaced by a tree-like view, enabling you to collapse and expand groups of components in the tree.

·The Iterations dialog box now provides additional capabilities such as searching for values, toggling between single and multiple iteration views, and more.

Application Area Improvements

Application areas are now standard test resources and are available from the ALM Test Resources module. As a result, you can easily recognize the components linked to each application area and each application area's content (such as object repositories and function libraries).

Improvements include:

·Application areas can now be created in the ALM Test Resources module, without having to open the QuickTest Professional testing tool. For more information, refer to the HP Business Process Testing User Guide: Creating the Application Area.

·Component dependencies on application areas can now be viewed.

·Application areas are included in libraries and baselines, and can be compared and imported.

·Application areas (excluding the BusinessComponentTemplate10 template application area) that are not associated with a component can be deleted from within ALM without having to open the QuickTest Professional testing tool.

Test Configurations that Access Static and Dynamic Data

Business Process Testing supports test configurations that access static data and test configurations that access dynamic data.

·While ALM test configurations access static data at a configuration level, business process test configurations enable you set different data values at for each iteration.

·You can create test configurations for business process tests that access dynamic data. Dynamic data enable you to run test instances using test configurations based on an external data resource file, such as Microsoft Excel.

The granularity of requirement coverage is expanded, because a requirement can be covered by a business process test and several of its test configurations (use cases), each test configuration testing different data on the same test script.

For more information, refer to the HP Business Process Testing User Guide: How to Define Test Configurations to Run with Different Values.

Criteria

When creating coverage between requirements and business process tests, instead of covering each requirement only at the level of a test, you can define coverage by a test criterion such as a business component and/or a flow.

This feature expands the granularity of requirement coverage, allowing more accurate results to be propagated to the ALM Requirements module. You can select which components and flows interest you from the coverage perspective, and only those components and flows affect requirement coverage calculations.

For more details on test criteria, see the HP Business Process Testing User Guide: Working with Criteria for Requirement Coverage.

Additional Features in the New Manual Runner - HP Sprinter

In addition to the features listed above under New Manual Runner - HP Sprinter, the following enhanced functionality is available for Business Process Testing:

·the ability to view parameters in your steps

·flows can be expanded and collapsed as any other entity in the test hierarchy

·the ability to navigate to the previous/next components in the Steps sidebar

For more information, refer to the HP ALM Sprinter User Guide, available from the HP Application Lifecycle Management Adds-ins Page (select Help > Add-ins Page).

Changes in Feature Availability

·The grid view for the Business Components module was removed.

·Parameter types were removed. All parameters are now of type string.

Documentation Library

The following updates were made to the HP ALM Documentation Library.

New Look

For some user related functionality, the documentation content has been reorganized to enable quicker access, with feature descriptions divided into topics:

·Use concept topics for background, descriptive, or conceptual information about what a feature does.

·Use task topics for step-by-step guidance to help you work with the application and accomplish your goals.

·Use reference topics to look up specific reference information relevant to a particular feature. This includes understanding user interface elements, such as a window, dialog box, or wizard.

New Documentation

The following additions have been made to the documentation:

·The HP ALM Documentation Library now includes Performance Center documentation. Note that the previous HP Performance Center Monitor Reference is now incorporated into the new HP ALM Performance Center Guide. This guide now includes both user and administration documentation.

·Best Practices Documentation includes two new guides:

·The HP ALM Upgrade Best Practices Guide provides methodologies for preparing and planning your ALM upgrade.

·The HP ALM Business Models Module Best Practices Guide provides best practices for working with the new Business Models module.

·API References now includes a new online HP ALM REST API Reference. You can use the REST API to access and work with ALM data.

Discontinued Documentation

For gaining more insights in the automation using QTP log on to below url :

Automation Testing Using QTP