Micro Focus Quality Center Tutorial (Day 7) – Project Analysis Using the Powerful Dashboard Tools

HP Quality Center/ALM is now changed to Micro Focus Quality Center/ALM but still, the content on the page is valid on the new Micro Focus domain as well as tools.

Here, we are at the end of the QC series. If you are here for the first time, I highly recommend you go through all the Quality center tutorials published as of now. After reading these tutorials, I’m sure you should be able to start using this tool for your live projects. If you are thinking of introducing a Test Management tool to your project, you can also recommend it to the management team for evaluation.

=> Click Here For ALM Quality Center Tutorials Series

This last topic will help you use the inbuilt analysis feature of Quality Center in a way that reduces a lot of work on the tester or test manager’s end to explicitly record, collect and understand the data related to the entire QA process.

Quality Center Dashboard

The analysis feature in Micro Focus ALM/QC is so robust & extensive and this is what makes many companies or projects to go for it.

Nobody wants to go deeper into their projects without knowing how far you have come and how much longer you need to keep going or if you need to keep going at all. ALM provides excellent insights into this.

There are many graphs that are readily available and if that does not work for you, you can always define what you would like to view.

Apart from the graphs, ALM can generate Excel reports and Project reports for you.

QC Dashboard has the following 2 components:

1) Analysis View
2) Dashboard View

Let’s discuss these components in detail:

#1) Analysis View Module

It contains the Analysis tree in which you organize all your analysis items.

There are two tabs for this view.

• Analysis View
• Analysis Menu

Tab #1) Analysis View

You can use the “Graph Wizard” that will guide you to add the graph or you can add a custom graph.

a) Using the “Graph Wizard”:

Choose the Graph type:

Choose Entity:

Choose Project:

Choose Filter:

Select Graph Attributes and click “Finish”.

The graph gets generated and you will have the option to add it to the Analysis tree.

b) Custom Graph:

Here you can create Graphs and Reports that are custom to your project. To do so, you can create a folder. Under the folder you have the option to create the following:

Choose the relevant option. I am going to go with “New Graph”. The following dialog opens up.

Under Entity, you have the following option, and depending on the entity you choose, the graph type field is populated.

For example, for defects, given below are the options.

I am going to leave the default values as-is and choose the graph name as “Test” and click “OK.”

As you can see, the “test” graph is added under the folder. I can now configure the values as I wish and view the graph.

Tab #2) Analysis Menu:

This second tab to the Analysis view has a lot of inbuilt reports based on each sidebar menu item. Choose the report you would like to view. I chose “Tests with Linked Defects”. On the right-hand side you can see its details:

Once you click on the “Configuration” tab, you can set the proper parameters for the Report or Graph you would like. Set the parameters and click on “Generate”.

The view tab will have a link to the previously generated Reports.

The Report:

#2) Dashboard View Module

This is similar to the portfolio page of your Demat account.  This is where all the Graphs and Reports that you have created using the Analysis view are displayed for you in a single view.

Click on this icon to create a new dashboard page.

Provide a name for the page and click OK.

Once the page is created, you can add the graphs that you would like to be a part of this page. Graphs will be from the Analysis view.

You can choose the graphs you would like. I am just going to choose one for the sake of this tutorial – “test”. It gets added to my “Configuration tab” and I can view it from view.

View tab:

Now let’s add both the graphs to our dashboard page and see how it looks.

Configuration Tab:

View Tab:

So, there you have it, all in one place!

Miscellaneous Topics

I am now going to introduce to you the other options that are available in the sidebar of ALM. They are not widely used (at least not so far) but I believe that they come with huge potential. So, I encourage you to try and use them in your projects (if applicable) and see if they would help.

The topics are:

#1) Libraries and Baselines: Libraries are nothing but a set of entities in your projects and the relationships between them. For example, a library can have all the requirements that are specific to UI changes that are being made to your AUT

ALM lets you share libraries among projects so that you can identify dependencies.

To create a library – Click on the “Libraries” option from the sidebar and on any folder (or create a folder), right-click and choose “New Library”. The following window opens up and as you can see, a library can consist of Requirements, Resources, Components, and Tests. You can choose them in the below window.

Once you create a library you can create a baseline with it. A baseline is a snapshot of your library at any given time. To create a baseline, you can right-click on any library and select the “Create Baseline” option.

So when you compare different baselines, you will know what the progress of your library has been like at a certain time.

#2) Test Resources:

• If you have a consolidated sheet in your project (MS Excel) of user IDs and passwords that you can use for your testing. Instead of having a local copy on each machine, you want to maintain it in ALM. You can do so by uploading it to QC as a Test Resource.
• Test resources can be used for one or more tests.
• You can also define what tests depend on what resources.
• To sum up – You can upload and download resources, link resources, and view dependencies through ALM.

Points to Note:

• ALM can be used for Agile, Iterative, or Sequential models of projects.
• Version control is an inbuilt feature.

Conclusion

This finishes our QC tutorial and I sincerely wish that you got to get a feel of what this tool is all about and what it can do for you through this series.

=> Visit Here For ALM Quality Center Tutorials Series

If you feel we missed any Quality Center topics, then do let us know and we will try to include them in the upcoming days.

Please leave your comments and questions.