QC - Concepts - GUI

Quality Centre – Concepts

http://www.learnqualitycenter.com/requirements-module-quality-center/

Table of Contents1. What is Requirements Traceability in Quality Center?........................................................................1

8 Features of HP Quality Center you should know......................................................................................3

2. Requirements Module.........................................................................................................................6

3. How to map test cases to functional requirements in QC ?...............................................................16

3. Test Plan Module in QC: Part1 (Introduction)....................................................................................18

4. Test Plan Module in QC: Part 2 (Test Plan Tool Bar)..........................................................................19

5. Test Plan Module in QC: Part 3 (Creating Test Folders and Tests).....................................................21

6. Test Plan Module in QC: Part4 (3 ways of creating test steps)..........................................................24

7. Test Lab Module in QC Part1: Creating test sets, loading test scripts and running scripts manually.30

How to create Test Sets and load test scripts from Test plan module to test lab module?...................30

Creating a new test set......................................................................................................................31

Moving Test scripts to Test lab from Test plan..................................................................................32

Running Test Scripts manually...............................................................................................................34

8. Test Lab Module in QC Part2: Logging Defects from test lab.............................................................41

9. Test Lab Module in QC Part3: Running Automated Scripts from Test Lab.........................................45

Defects Module.........................................................................................................................................51

Export Test Cases from QC to Microsoft Word..........................................................................................61

Step 1. Locate Test Case path in Test Plan Module...............................................................................61

Step 2.Open Document Generator window..........................................................................................61

Step 3. Test Plan....................................................................................................................................63

Step 4. Subject Tree...............................................................................................................................64

Step 5. Subject Tests..............................................................................................................................66

Step 6. Test List......................................................................................................................................70

Step 7. Add to Favorite.........................................................................................................................70

Step 8. Generate the Document............................................................................................................71

Dashboard Module....................................................................................................................................73

1. What is Requirements Traceability in Quality Center?

You may have heard the term RTM (Requirement Traceability Matrix) being used frequently by testing professionals. In any software development project the objective is to address a business problem.

BRD FRD/FSD Test Cases

Business Analyst

business problem Business Requirement Document(BRD)

Systems Analyst

Detailed Functional Requirement Or Specification Document

( FRD or FSD )QA/Tester Tests ( Test Cases )Requirement Traceability Matrix(RTM)

Are all the BRD covered in all the Test Cases ?

Generally the business problem will be documented and elaborated by a Business Analyst in the form of BRD (Business Requirement Document).

Then the System Analyst converts the BRD into a detailed functional requirement or specification document (FRD or FSD).

QA/Testing staff will convert those functional requirements into tests (test cases) which can be used for test execution on the AUT (Application Under Test) when it is deployed or installed in the test environment.

RTM facilitates in tracking whether each of the business requirement is covered (i.e., tested) through one or more tests.

Thus the quality of the software product (AUT) is tested thoroughly before it is shipped or released to the market. The components of the RTM would be as follows –

Business requirement -> Functional or System Requirements -> MODULES -> Test Cases -> Defects (in case of a FAILED tests)

In organizations where the budget is limited for procuring costly COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) software tools such as HPQC, they would create RTM in simple Microsoft Excel spreadsheet itself. However, the organizations that have procured HP QC as their test management tool can leverage the built-in feature of the tool to map requirements to test cases to defects.

NOTES

1. The above described documents such as BRD, FRD, and FSD could vary across organizations depending on the standards or processes they have defined for their SDLC (Software

Development Life Cycle) model. Similarly, the roles Business Analyst/System Analyst could also vary depending on the organization hierarchy laid by the management.

2. It is possible that the relationship between requirements and tests is many to many.

For example: In an Order Management System, the following mapping of requirements to tests is a valid situation.

8 Features of HP Quality Center you should know

1. HPQC has feature for RTM (Requirement Traceability Matrix) i.e., it allows the requirement mapped to a relevant test case(s) and defects. This will help the project team to take informed decisions on the test coverage before Go-live. For e.g.: Double click on a defect (which is already linked to a requirement and test case), navigating to “Linked Entities” shows the relevant requirement and test case connected to the defect as below.

2. By default, the requirements, test plan and test lab module are displayed in the tree (hierarchy) structure. The defects module will be shown “Grid View”. However, User can always go to “View” Menu -> “Grid View” to change the view from tree view to Grid view and can customize the display columns.

The entire rows or selected rows can be exported to Excel, Word, Notepad and HTML

3. E-mail notifications: The QC Admin can customize the email notifications each a time change in status happens to a Defect in Defect module.

4. All the roles in the QC will fall under mainly under following groups, i.e., TDAdmin, Project Manager, QA Tester, Developer, and Viewer.

5. Analysis Menu allows the user to generate different types of reports or graphs (Bar chart or pie chart etc).

6. Click on Help > Add-ins page menu, will display the useful plug ins that are available to connect to Quality Centre i.e., integration with other HP Testing tools such as Quick Test Professional and Word and Excel Add-ins to import tests into HPQC.

7. Click on Tools > Document Generator allows the user to create all or selected tests (requirements) into a complete Word document which will be handy in case of unavailability of QC during maintenance window timelines.

8. Favorites allow the user to create public or private “Customized settings”. The public favorite allows the setting to be visible for the entire project team who logs into particular project in HPQC, whereas private favorite allows the setting to be visible only for local user. For e.g.: public favorites will be useful for daily Defect Triage meetings during test execution. Private favorites can be used by testers for him to see how many test cases he has executed or high priority defects raised etc.

2. Requirements Module

Requirement module helps user in specifying the requirements at the start of the project.

Here we will show the various features present under requirements module, in a step-by-step fashion.

You can click on the images below to view them in full size.

1. Open QC application and provide the valid user name and password. Select the domain name and the required project name from the drop down list.

2. Navigate to Requirements module present on the left hand side of the application. The snap shot is provided below.

3. Requirements are classified as User Requirements, Business Requirements and System Requirements.

4. Create a new folder by clicking on the “New Folder” option present below the Requirements menu bar.

5. Provide a name to the requirement folder and click on OK.

6. A new requirement folder is created successfully. Click on “New Requirement” button present beside the new folder.

7. A pop up appears, Provide the Requirement Type(Business,User,System) and Requirement Name in the edit box and click on OK.

8. Once the user clicks on OK a new window opens.Provide all the details in the fields specified.

9. The fields marked in red such as Category and Workstream are mandatory fields. Without providing values for these fields, a requirement cannot be submitted. Input all the other details such as Custom, Business Function, Bus/Tech etc and submit the

requirement.

10. Once the user submits the requirement, all details inputted by the user will be displayed as shown below.

11. A user can create multiple child requirements by following the steps as mentioned above.12. Requirements Traceability – Requirements can be traced in every project through the

functions Trace From and Trace To.Trace From – Requirements that affect <Test1>Trace To – Requirements affected by <Test1>

Find the snap shot below for more info.

13. A requirement can be converted to a Test. Right Click on the Requirement and select “Convert to Tests”.Find the snap shot below.

14. Defects can be added and linked to the requirements as per the snap shot shown below.

15. Attachments can be attached to a particular requirement.

16. Every requirement should be tagged to a release and a cycle. Consider an example given below for a release and a Cycle.

17. Consider a new project is started and it spans over a period of three months. This three month period can be tagged as a release and there may be many phases such as Analysis, Development, Deployment etc.All these activities can be tagged as cycles and requirements can be tagged to the cycles as a part of execution.

18. Navigate to Requirements present on the menu bar and click on “Assign to Release” and tag the particular requirement.

19. Navigate to Requirements present on the menu bar and click on “Assign to Cycle” and tag the particular requirement

20. If the requirement tree is very huge and user needs to find the requirement, a user can provide the requirement ID and click on “Go To Requirement”

21. A Requirement and its details can be sent via an email to the specified user. Navigate to Requirements present on the menu bar and click on the option “Send by Email”.

22. The Requirement view can be changed to three different views as mentioned below “Requirements Tree”, ” Requirement Details” and “Requirements Grid”. Requirement Details:

Requirements Tree:

Requirements Grid:

3. How to map test cases to functional requirements in QC ?

In this article we will learn the fundamental concepts on tracing (mapping) the requirements to the other software artifacts or deliverables in the SDLC model and how to leverage HP QC for mapping the tests to the requirements.

There are 2 options to do this.

1. “Requirements” Module: When you enter a requirement here, you can link a requirement to a test through “Test Coverage” sub module, provided a relevant test exists.

2. “Test Plan” Module: When you write a test here, you can link it to a requirement through “Req Coverage” sub module, provided a relevant requirement exists.

Option 2 explained in detail (i.e., mapping tests to functional requirements in “Test Plan”)

Step 1. In the Test plan, navigate to the required test for which you need to map the requirement.

Step 2. Select “Req Coverage” tab.

Step 3. Click “Select Req” button to bring the requirements tree structure on to the right pane.

Step 4. Expand the Requirements folder and select the relevant requirement

Step 5. There are four ways you can map a requirement to the selected test

a. Right click and select “Add to Coverage (Without Children)” from the pop-up menu

b. Click “Add to Coverage (Without Children)” button

c. Hold left mouse control and drag the requirement on to the coverage grid. (Coverage Grid is the space containing “Entity Name” and “Req Description”

d. Double click the requirement.

Best Practice: Enter the requirements into HP QC first, write tests relevant to those requirements and use option 2 to link each of the tests to the relevant requirements.

NOTES

1. Use the “Add to Coverage” arrow and choose “Add to Coverage (Include Children)” to add the requirement, in situations where you are sure that a single test can be mapped to a requirement group. (e.g., if there is a requirement group called “Authorised User Requirements” which will have two sub requirements such as, login to the Order Management System and create an order, then a test called “Authorised User Test” can be mapped to the entire requirement group).

2. By default, the coverage is possible for the following requirement types: Functional, Testing, and Undefined.

3. Test Plan Module in QC: Part1 (Introduction)

In this article you as a tester will learn about how to use “test plan tool bar” to create manual tests in the “Test Plan” module. Test Plan is a component (or module) of HPQC where the tests can be created and stored.

Note: Test cases are called Tests in HP QC and throughout this article, the term “Test” has been used to represent “Manual test case”.

The test creation workflow is as follows Navigate to Test Plan > Create Test Folders > Create Tests > Write Detailed Test Steps

Navigating to Test Plan

Once you login to HP QC, click on the “Test Plan” button on the left navigation menu that will take you the “Test Plan” Module.

Test Plan Tree: HPQC allows the tester to create all the tests according to functionalities of the AUT (Application Under Test) and logically group them into the Test folder. The sub folders can also be created under the main folder. The tester will have the flexibility to create or define the folder structure in such a way that it would be possible for tests to be grouped as per test cycles, for e.g., System Testing, Integration Testing etc.

Subject: is the highest folder (root folder) in the Test plan, under which all the test folders can be created.

Unattached: is the folder which contains all tests that are deleted from a test folder. For now, just analogize (consider) it as “Recycle bin”.

4. Test Plan Module in QC: Part 2 (Test Plan Tool Bar)

This tool bar contains the buttons for frequently used actions while creating a test tree or hierarchy.

New Folder: allows you to create the main folder (parent) for all your tests.

New Test: allows you to create the test in the test folder.

Delete: allows you to delete the folder or test from the tree, except the root (subject) and Unattached folder.

Refresh All: refreshes the entire test tree structure so that recently added or deleted or updated tests and test folders are displayed properly.

Set Filter/Sort: allows you to filter and display only the specified tests based on the conditions set. Also, it allows the tests to be sorted in descending or ascending order as defined.

By choosing the second option (Clear Filter/Sort) in the drop down list of the same button, you can remove the filter

conditions and sort criteria.

Convert to Component: allows you to convert existing manual tests into business component.

Sort folders: opens the “Sort Folders in Test Plan Tree” dialog box and allows you to custom sort the folders. By default, folders are sorted by name.

Flag for follow up: opens the “Flag For Follow Up” dialog box and you can add, modify or clear flag for a test. Note: Quality Center allows you to add your own alerts known as “Flag for Follow Up”, to remind yourself to follow up on something. (For example, you

can set a flag for reminding yourself about getting tests reviewed by the Business Analyst at a future date)

Send by E-Mail: allows you to email the selected test to the selected recipient (project team members as in HPQC) or to any other email addresses. By choosing the 2nd option

(Send by Email to Designer) in the drop down list of the same button, you can send the test to the Designer who created it originally.

Text Search: Opens the “Text search pane” in the lower part of the window, and allows you to search for “string” or “text” in “Tests” or “Design steps”.

5. Test Plan Module in QC: Part 3 (Creating Test Folders and Tests)

This is part 3 of our series of articles on Test plan module in Quality Center. In this part we “ll see how we can create tests folders and tests under Test plan module.

Step 1: Place your mouse cursor on the “Subject” folder in Test Plan.

Step 2: Click on the New Folder button, to create the main folder for your AUT.

Step 3: This will open a dialog box “New Folder”.

Step 4: Type the folder name that you wish in the “Text Field” and click “OK” to save the folder name.

In the above screenshot, a generic name as “AUT” has been used. You could use any name depending on the application or system you are testing. (for example: Flight Reservation System, Banking Software, Order Management system, Hospital Management, Library management software etc).

(Note for all the dialog boxes: Clicking on “Cancel” button or “X” (Close) button would close the relevant dialog box and the action will not be performed (in this case, the test folder will not be created. Clicking on “Help” button would open the “HP QC Help Window”)

After clicking on “OK”, a test folder called “AUT” would be created under “Subject” folder as in below screenshot.

Step 5: Repeat step 2 to 4, to create the sub folders as you wish, to group different types of tests together. (For example, see the following screenshot)

Step 6: Click on the “New Test” button to create test in the selected test folder. By Default “Test Type” selected will be “Manual”. Type appropriate “Test Name” in the edit field and click “OK”.

A test with Manual Test Icon will be created.

6. Test Plan Module in QC: Part4 (3 ways of creating test steps)

Once you create the tests in the Test plan tree, you need to create detailed test steps for your tests in the Test plan. This quick reference procedural article lets you learn that quickly and practice. It appropriately explains this in different ways i.e., using standard tool bar buttons, menu items or short cut keys.

Step 1. In the Test plan, navigate to the required test for which you need to write detailed test steps.

Step 2. Select “Design Steps” tab.

Step 3. There are three ways to create test steps. You can insert as many steps as you want for your test by one the following way and pressing OK button.

a. Right click and select “New Step” from the pop-up menu

b. Click “New Step” button

c. Press Alt+N shortcut key

Step 4. Depending upon which step the mouse cursor is placed the next step will be inserted subsequently. In the following screenshot there are 14 steps added in random order. Next time when you create next step, you can notice that “Step Name” edit box shows incremented value as “Step 15” in “Design Step Editor” window. This is the feature of HPQC. However you can always change the step name as wish you.

Best practice, it is recommended that you keep Step # as the prefix and add meaningful Step name (for example, Step 1 Launch application), so that when you use “Renumber Steps” feature, the steps gets renumbered properly.

Step 5. Enter the exact action you as a tester going to perform on the AUT in the “Description” edit box and the behavior of the AUT that is expected after the action in the “Expected Result” edit box.

Step 6. You can renumber the steps in two ways.

a. Right click and select “Renumber Steps” from the pop-up menu

b. Click “Renumber Steps” button . You could notice that the step number properly gets renumbered (as in below screenshot)

In the next article we “ll talk about ways to change the existing test step, action (description) or Expected Result

7. Test Lab Module in QC Part1: Creating test sets, loading test scripts and running scripts manually

Test Lab module helps user in pulling the test cases from the test plan to test lab. The user can execute the test case on the application designated and the results can be updated in this module.

This is a series of articles on Test Lab module in Quality Center. In this series we’ll see how to create test sets, how to load test scripts from test pan to test lab, how to manually run those scripts and how to run those scripts using automated tools provided by HP. (You can click on the images below to see them in full size)

How to create Test Sets and load test scripts from Test plan module to test lab module?

[Pre-requisites: All the test scripts should already be uploaded to the test plan module]

Creating a new test set

Click on the Test lab icon on the main menu bar. It will open the Test lab module as shown below. Right click on the concerned folder in the Test lab tree and click on New Test Set as shown below.

A pop up window appears as shown. Fill in the “Test Set Name” and click on Ok button.

Another pop up window appears. Provide the description.

A new Test set will be created under the selected folder as shown below

Moving Test scripts to Test lab from Test plan

Select the test set created and right click.We can look into an option “Select Tests”. Click on the option.

This opens up a Test Plan tree as shown below.

Select the test set and the test cases which needs to be moved to the test lab

All the Test scripts present in the selected Test Set of the Test Plan tree will be moved to the selected Test set in the Test Lab as shown below.

Multiple test cases can be pulled from the test plan tree to the test set as shown below. Select the folder which needs to be pulled. A pop up appears to confirm the test case pulling from Test plan tree. Click on Yes and all the test cases will be moved to the test set.

Running Test Scripts manually

We will now see how to execute test scripts from the test lab.

Select the Run button as shown in the screenshot below.

When Run Manually is selected, the manual runner Pop up window will be displayed

The Manual Runner screen will display all the steps in the script.

Select ‘Attach To Step’ from the Attachment dropdown if any attachment is to be uploaded.

Any number of attachments can be uploaded (might be snap shot, doc, code snippet, errors etc) to the step for a particular test case. The maximum size of an attachment would be 5 MB. Once the attachments have been attached, you can close the attachments section.

Click on ‘End Run’ once the status is updated and attachments have been uploaded.

The main QC page opens with the status of the test case changed to Passed.

There are a few criteria’s defined below for the status field of a particular test case.

1. If all the steps in the test case pass then we can readily select ‘Pass All’. This updates all the steps of a test case to Pass.

2. If any step in a test case fails because of an issue then we can go into the step and update the status of the step to be ‘Failed’.

3. If any step is left as ‘No Run’ in a test case, the test case status will get changed to “Not Completed”.

When end run is clicked the status of the test case will be changed as shown below.

In the next article we’ll see “How to raise a new defect from inside test lab.”

8. Test Lab Module in QC Part2: Logging Defects from test lab

This is in continuation of our series of articles on Test Lab Module in QC. In the first article we saw how to create a test set, move scripts from test plan and run them manually

In this article we’ll see how we can raise a new defect from the test lab itself for a particular script. (Click on the images below to view them in full size. Press ‘Esc’ key when you wish to return to the article)

Once you find a particular test case is a failure and you’re sure it’s a defect, then follow the steps mentioned below.

1. Click on the option Run –> Select Run Manually from the drop down list.

2. Click on Begin Run as shown below.

3. If any/all steps are failing for a test case then update the status as Fail Selected/Fail All as per the snapshot shown below.

4. Once the status is updated as “Failed” click on the “New Defect” option present beside the attachment section.

5. A new window opens. You would need to input the details of the issue in various fields given below and hit Submit.

That’s it, a new defect will be logged in the system.

In the next article we’ll see how to run automated test scripts from the test lab module.

9. Test Lab Module in QC Part3: Running Automated Scripts from Test Lab

This is in continuation of our series of articles on Test Lab Module in QC and it is the last article of series. In the first article we saw how to create a test set, move scripts from test plan and run them manually, in the second article we discussed how to log defects from test lab module

In this article we’ll see how we can run automated QTP scripts from Test Lab in QC.

Before you try to run your automated scripts from test lab, you need to make sure that your tool (QTP/ WinRunner ) is connected with Quality Center. Here are the steps to connect QC to QTP.

First you need to ensure that  Allow other Mercury products to run tests and components option present under Tools > Options > Run in QTP is checked.

If you are running the tests on the same computer where you have QC client installed, then you will need:

QTP Connectivity Add-In QTP Add-in

If you are running the tests on the different computer than where you have QC client installed, then you will need:

QTP Add-in where QC client is installed. QTP Add-in and QC connectivity Add-in where QTP is installed.

QC connectivity can be found at QC server URL > ‘Add-Ins Page’ link > ‘QC Connectivity’ link > ‘Download Add-in’. QTP Add-in can be found at QC server URL > ‘Add-Ins Page’ link > ‘More QC Add-ins’ link > Download and install QTP Add-in according to its version.

We will now see how to execute the automated test scripts from the test lab module. (Click on the individual images below to view them in full size, press ‘Esc’ key to return)

Navigate to Test Plan module in QC.

Create a folder under the root folder and right click to create a new test as shown below.

Once New test option is clicked a pop up appears as shown below. In the Test Type box, select QUICKTEST_TEST to create a Quick Test Professional test, or select WR-AUTOMATED to create a Win Runner test.

In the Test Type box, select QUICKTEST_TEST to create a Quick Test Professional test, or select WR-AUTOMATED to create a Win Runner test.

Once Test Name is provided and user clicks on OK.It takes to the next step where we need to provide the description as shown below.

Once the user clicks on OK, a test is created as shown below.

Once the automated test case is created. Click on Test Script tab present on the right hand side.A script is generated based on the design steps of the test case as shown below.

Navigate to Test Lab module present on the left hand side of the application.

Navigate to the folder created and add a test set “Test” as shown below.

Right click and select the option “Select tests” which open a test plan tree as shown below.

Select the tests from the test set by clicking on the left arrow in the test plan tree present on the right hand side.

The selected test will appear in the test set.

Select the required test case and click on the “Run” button present on the top, below the menu bar.

The automatic runner pop up opens up, where the test to be run will be selected. Then click on Run.

This connects to the automation tool which is integrated with the QC application and gives us the result of the run for the particular test case.

When a test has finished running you can view the test results in your selected testing tool

To view the test results in Quick Test Professional, click the ‘Launch Report’ button. To view the test results in Win Runner, click the ‘View Report’ button.

Defects Module

Till now we have discussed various modules of Quality Center. In this article we will discuss another important module of HP’s Quality Center (ALM) know as Defects Module.

Defects Module of QC helps a tester in logging defects when any issues are found in test case execution.

Here is a step by step introduction to this module. (Click on the images below to view them in full size)

1. Log into the Quality Center with your user name and password. Select the domain name and project name.

2. Click on the Defects module present on the left hand side of the application.

3. When a new project is created the defects window will be blank – without any data.

4. Click on the “New Defect” (Alt+N) button present below the menu bar to create a new defect.

5. Once the “New Defect” button is clicked, a window opens up as shown below.

6. There are various fields such as Summary,Priority,Reproducible,Severity,Detected by, Description etc.The ones marked in red are the mandatory fields and they need to be filled by the tester.

7. The tester should fill in all the details for the new defect as shown below.

8. After entering the summary, we would now give a detailed account of the defect under description area

9. For a better explanation of a defect, we can divide it into following: 1. Steps to reproduce:This would include the step wise reproduction of defect, right from

the login of the application being tested to the logout. It can also include: The Pre-conditions required to reproduce the defect. Test Data required to reproduce the defect.

2. Expected Result: This includes the expected system/application (under test) behavior as opposed to the defect (Actual result). It can also include:

Design document references. Requirements document references.

3. Actual Result: This includes the current system/application (under test) behavior as opposed to the expected result.

10. Severity/Priority: The most important of all is deciding the severity & priority of defect. When raising a defect, testers are often confused about the difference between defect’s severity and its priority. The dictionary speak the following:Severity – Causing very great pain, difficulty, anxiety, damage, etc.Priority - Something that is very important and must be dealt with before other things.

The severity is the domain of the tester and they should be capable of recording this. For testers, severity is the impact of the defect on the application and their ability to continue testing. The priority is the domain of the business and should be entered by them against each defect raised to reflect the importance of the change to them. For instance, a spelling mistake would be deemed as a low severity by the tester, but if this mistake occurs in the company name or address, this would be classified as high priority by the business.To summarize:Priority = Business = Order of FixingSeverity = Tester = Failure of Application Above order of priority and severity can be changed to maintain consistency.

11. QC will auto navigate you to the previous screen (summary of defects screen), and here we would have our newly raised/logged defect with a unique defect id auto assigned by QC

12. The user (tester) can attach screenshots by clicking on “Attachments” tab next to “Description”

tab 13. Click on “Attach” section and add the snap shots for the corresponding defect logged as per the

snap shot as shown below.

14. Comments can be provided in the Add comments section on the right hand side of the window.

15. Defect details can be viewed once the user double clicks on the defect as shown below.

16. There is a field on the left hand side “Linked Entities”. Here a user can link similar defects created for different platforms. Example: A tester while executing a test case finds a similar issue across Win 2000, Win XP, Win 7 etc then the tester can log three different defects but link all the

defects to each other so that a developer can fix all the defects at once.

17. The defect ID that was generated above should be supplied here for linking the defects to each other as shown below.

18. A user can navigate to any defect by clicking on the option “Go to Defect”. This option can be found on the “Defects tab” present on the menu bar.

19. You also have an option – “Send by Email” to send an email for the defect created.

20. Under the Menu bar we have an option to select the columns required to display on the defects window.

21. Once a user clicks on the “Select Column” field the pop up opens as shown below. A user can then select the required columns needed to be displayed on the Defects Window.

That is all about the Defects Module of Quality Center.

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Export Test Cases from QC to Microsoft Word

In this article we will learn how to export test cases from a Quality Center project to Microsoft word.

The Document Generator enables you to create a hard copy of the data contained in a Quality Center project. You can select information from the Quality Center modules. For example, from the Test Plan module, you can choose which folders and tests to include from the test plan tree, sort this data alphabetically or in a custom sort order, and display the data as lists or tables.We are going to be exporting for this article the test cases that are in the folder “Flight Reservation” in Test Plan module.

Follow these steps:

Step 1. Locate Test Case path in Test Plan Module.

Step 2.Open Document Generator window

To start the Document Generator, click the Tools button on the upper-left of  the Quality Center window. Choose Document Generator. The DocumentGenerator opens.

Click on Document to set formatting instructions that control how the document will look and what is included in the cover page. By default, the Document link is selected in the Document Generator tree and the Document Settings tab is displayed

Document Setting tab type a title for the document, Author Details, Initial and email address and description of the document. These information are optional.

Options tab, select what you want to include or see in your document. For example, , create a table of contents and an index, and place test scripts and file attachments in the text of your document.

logo tab, you can load image from file, unload image that you would like to display in your document.for example, you can print a company logo on eachpage of the document.

Customization You set formatting instructions in order to determine how your project document will look.

Step 3. Test Plan

Since the information for the document that we want to generate is located in Test Plan, we have to select  Test Plan and expand the Test Plan node in the Document Generator tree.

Expand the Test Plan node in the Document Generator tree. Select the Subject Tree check box and click the Subject Tree link. The Subject Treepage is displayed

Step 4. Subject Tree

You use the Subject Tree pages to specify the information from the test plan tree view of the Test Plan module that should appear in the project document.

Select the Subject Tree check box and click the Subject Tree link. The Subject Tree page is displayed

Determine the order (Alphabetical or Custom) under Tree Sort. In our case select Custom.

Specify  under Folders, which test plan tree you want to include (All or Selected).

Choose Selected to export just the test cases contained in folder Flight Reservation from the Test Plan tree structure on to the right pane

Select attachment if you want to include in the document.

Page break after each folder to insert page break in project document  after each test folder subject.

You can also include graphs by selecting Graphs.

Step 5. Subject Tests

You use the Subject Tests pages to specify the information from the test plan tree view of the Test Plan module that should appear inthe project document

Under Tests select Selected, Design steps and click on Filter & Sort Button to bring up Filter window.

On filter Condition Tab, look for Subject field Name and hit the button in filter condition column.

This will bring up Select Filter Condition Window. As you can see it has Test Plan tree structure.

Click OK button to go back to Filter Window. As you can see, now Subject field has a value in Filter condition column.

Hit on OK button to return to Document Generator Window.

Under Layout select Full Page or Tabular.

To include test scripts in the document, select Test scripts.

If you use Business Process Testing, you can include the layout of the components included in the tests. Select Components detailed layout andchoose what to include in the detailed layout:

To include component steps, select Component steps. Click the Customize button to open the Tabular Layout dialog box to customize the component steps table. Use the Tabular Layout dialog box to choose the defect columns that will appear in the table, and to set the column order, width and captions.

To include the iteration list, select Iterations list.

To include test attachments in the document, select Attachments.To display a list of all the changes made to the tests, and which user made each change, select History.To insert page breaks in the project document after each test, select Page break after each test.To include a table of linked defects, select Linked defects. Click the Customize button to open the Tabular Layout dialog box to customize thelinked defects table. Use the Tabular Layout dialog box to choose the defect columns that will appear in the table, and to set the column order, widthand captions. You can also specify whether to display only defects that have been directly linked to tests or to include indirectly-linked defects as well.

Step 6. Test List

You use the Test List page to specify the tests from the Test Grid that should appear in the project document. For more information about the Test Grid.

Expand the Test Plan node in the Document Generator tree. Select the Test List check box and click the Test List link. The Test List page is displayed. Repeat the steps from step 5.

Step 7. Add to Favorite

After you have set the formatting instructions and specified the document’s content, you can save the document settings as a favorite view for future useand generate the document.

Click in Add to Favorites button, Add Favorite dialog box opens, enter a name in the name box and set the location as Private or Public and hit the OK button to return to Document Generator Window.

Step 8. Generate the Document

After you set formatting instructions and specify project data, you can generate the project document. You save the document as a Microsoft Word file.

Tip: You can generate a preview project document that enables you to quickly see how the document will look, without all the detail included. To generate a preview project document, click the Preview button. Quality Center opens Microsoft Word and displays the preview project document.

To generate a project document:

If there are open project document files from previous runs of the Document Generator, close the files.

Click the Full Document button. The Save As dialog box opens. In the Save As box, set the location for the document in your network file system. In the File name box, assign the document a name. Click the Save button.

Quality Center begins generating the document and a dialog box displays document creation progress. To cancel document generation, click the Stopbutton.When the process is complete, Microsoft Word opens and displays the document.If the generated document contains links to attachments, a folder is created in the same location as the document, and the attachment files are copied to this folder. The name of the attachment folder is the name of the document with the suffix “_Attachments”. If you send the document to someone, you can send the attachment folder along with it so that the recipient can access the attachments by using the links

After document generation is complete, you can view and edit the document in Microsoft Word. The information for each module that you select is printed in a separate chapter of the project document.

Close Document Generator window to return to your project.

Dashboard Module

Till now we have covered Requirements Module, Test Plan Module, Test Lab Module and Defects Module of Quality Center. In this article we’ll discuss Dashboard Module.

(Click on the images below to view them in full size)

Dashboard Module enables a user to create customized reports. Knowledge of SQL and VB Scripting is required, as queries should be written in SQL for fetching the details of various modules in QC.

Here is a step by step introduction to Dashboard module.

1. Open QC application and provide the valid user name and password. Select the domain name and the required project name from the drop down list.

2. Click on the “Dashboard” module present on the left hand side corner of the application as shown below.

3. The window opens as shown above. We find two tabs in the menu bar “Analysis View” and “Dashboard View”.

4. Click on Analysis View and the user can find two folders by default “Private” and “Public”. A user can create the reports in private folder and only he/she can view the report and nobody else can

look into the report present in private folder. A report created in public folder can be viewed by everyone who have access to the particular project.

5. Click on the New folder(Ctrl+Alt+F) option present below the menu bar to create a new folder.

6. Navigate on the new folder created and click on the new Item option present below the menu bar for creating a new report.

7. Once the user clicks on the option “New Item” four options will be available to choose. Select “New Excel Report” for creating a customized report.

8. Once the option “New Excel Report” is selected a pop up opens up asking the user to enter the name of the new report. Provide a name for the report as shown below.

9. Once the user clicks on OK a new blank report is created under the Test folder as shown below.

10. The user can view three options on the menu bar Details,Configuration and View o Details – This tab contains the name of the new report, Owner, Type of report etc.o Configuration – This tab contains the actual query, Post Processing section and all the

other options for generating the report.o View – This tab contains the data and the report results of the report generated.

11. Under the Configuration tab we have three more sub tabs as mentioned below. o Query – Here the user can write SQL queries for every moduleo Post Processing – The user needs to write VB Scripts for getting the data received from

the queries in a readymade fashion. For Example:- A user writes a query to get the defects logged by him/her but when the user runs the query an excel sheet is generated which gives data in a raw format.But with Post processing section a user can readily get the count of the defects logged without filtering the data in the excel sheet.

o Generation Settings – This tab gives user the information of the path where the reports will be saved.

12. Click on “Query Builder” option present beside the Generate tab. The following tab opens as shown below.

13. The Entities present on the right hand side of the window are the table names and the corresponding field names. The user should pull the required table name and the fields required

for generating the report.

14. As per the snap shot above, we have selected *(select all the fields from the table name) from Requirements table name which pops up all the field names present in the Requirements module.

15. Once the user clicks on “Run Query” the Query builder runs the query and gives the results to the user as shown below.

16. A user can perform the following operations: o Add Query – A User can add multiple queries by clicking on this option for different

modules.o Delete Query – A user can delete the existing queries.o Rename Query – A query can be renamed by clicking on this option.o Test Query – This option is used to test a query for a limited set of values (max 10).o Run Query – This option is used to test a query for all the values present in the particular

module.

17. A user should write the VB Script in the post processing section for generating a readymade report.

18. This is a sample report generated after inputting the query and the writing a VB script in the post processing section.

With that we come to the end of Dashboard module. I hope you like this article.

If you’re planning to take Quality Center Certification, don’t forget to check our mock QC certification questions.