Rational Quality Manager 5.0 New & Noteworthy

Rational Quality Manager is an integral part of the Rational solution for Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM). For new and noteworthy information about other CLM applications, see these pages:

• Jazz Foundation (Jazz Team Server) 5.0
• Change and Configuration Management 5.0
• Requirements Management 5.0

New in previous versions of Rational Quality Manager

For details about new features and functionality in the previous release, see Rational Quality Manager New & Noteworthy 4.0.6.

New in Rational Quality Manager 5.0

• DevOps and agile development
  • Name uniqueness for test artifacts
  • Command-line adapter support for parallel execution requests
• Development intelligence
  • New widget for the Test Case parameter in reports
  • Reportable REST API improvements for Rational Publishing Engine reporting performance
    • Fields selection support
    • Embedded referenced resource properties
    • XML compaction
• Systems
  • Offline mobile application
    • Support for search and saved queries
    • Usability enhancements
• Consumability and ease of use
  • Updates to the manual script editor
  • Linked test artifact categories are shown in execution record views
    • Display of "test case categories" columns in the test case execution record table
    • Display of "test suite categories" columns in the test suite execution record table
  • Stronger messaging when multiple people are concurrently editing the same test artifact

DevOps and agile development

Name uniqueness for test artifacts

Project administrators can enforce name uniqueness for artifact types. By enabling name uniqueness, you can ensure that new artifacts will not reuse names that are already in use. You can enable or disable this option in the project area configuration in the Name Uniqueness section. In that section, you can also decide which artifact types to enforce name uniqueness on. For example, you might enable name uniqueness for test plans and test cases, but allow duplicate names in test scripts. Or, you might enable name uniqueness for all artifact types. If this project setting is enabled and you try to create or rename a test artifact with a name that another artifact of the same type already uses, a message prompts you to use a different name.

Existing artifacts are not affected by this setting until you try to modify them after the property is enabled.

Command-line adapter support for parallel execution requests

You can use the command-line adapter to serve multiple automation requests at the same time. These executions are initiated in parallel, and the corresponding results are created in Rational Quality Manager after the tests are complete. As in earlier versions, you can see the progress of the tests during the execution.

To enable this setting, open the commandline.properties file. In the com.ibm.rqm.commandline.maxservedrequests field, enter an Integer value and save the file. For example: com.ibm.rqm.commandline.maxservedrequests=3. Then, start the command-line adapter with standard input parameters.

In Rational Quality Manager, you can now run multiple tests on the command-line adapter in parallel. After the maximum number of requests that the adapter can server is reached, the remaining requests are queued on the server. For instance, in the earlier example, the maximum number of requests is 3. As and when the adapter can pick up the queued requests, the requests are initiated. The higher the value of maxservedrequest field, the more resources the command-line adapter consumes.

Development intelligence

New widget for the Test Case parameter in reports

Reports that use Test Case as a stand-alone parameter now show a widget from which you can individually select the test cases to be added as parameters. This widget aids in performance because the product will not list all test cases. The widget also aids in usability, as you can filter to quickly find the relevant test cases for your report.

Reportable REST API improvements for Rational Publishing Engine reporting performance

In the Rational Quality Manager Reportable REST API, several functional and performance improvements were made to improve the reporting performance related to Rational Publishing Engine.

For more information, see [RQM] Improve RPE performance when reporting on RQM data.

Fields selection support

Fields selection is supported for all supported test resource properties. The Rational Quality Manager Reportable REST API is now a Rational Publishing Engine REST data source instead of an XML data source. Report authors can use fields selection to reduce the amount of properties that are included in test resource XML data. For more information, see fields selection in the API documentation.

Embedded referenced resource properties

Referenced test resource properties are embedded in the test resource XML. When you specify a fields selection expression for one or more referenced test resource properties, the following resources will embed the referenced test resource properties:

• Test plan resources that reference the test case resources
• Execution result resources that reference test plan, test case, test script, and/or test execution record resources

Report authors can use these embedded referenced resource properties in reports without requesting the reference's resources. For more information, see the Embedded referenced resource properties.

XML compaction

Unused XML namespace declarations are removed from test resource XML. Report authors can use the nscleanmode request parameter to remove unused XML namespace declarations from test resource XML to reduce the size of the XML transported and processed by Rational Publishing Engine. For more information, see the nscleanmode request parameter.

Systems

Offline mobile application

We know you can't always be connected and with Rational Quality Manager (RQM) 5.0 you can now run manual tests offline on your mobile device. The new mobile application allows tests to be run while disconnected capturing verdicts and results. This is ideal if you're "in the field" without access to your Quality Manager server. You can then upload your results when you're back on the network. Testing on the go is now a possibility.

There are versions of the application available in the "All Downloads" section of the jazz.net for Windows 8 and Android. We are working on getting them into the respective app stores and support for other devices.

You may already have taken a look at the mobile application when we posted beta versions for Android with prior releases. Here's a summary of some of the new changes (for more details go to wiki links from the download page)

Support for search and saved queries

You can now search lists from a mobile device. Also, support for query filters is added so that you can select a predefined test case execution record query that you created by using the web version of Rational Quality Manager.

Usability enhancements

The application now features improved theming for the Android version.

Consumability and ease of use

Updates to the manual script editor

In version 4.0.4, the editor for authoring manual scripts was updated. For an overview of the work that was done, see Manual script editor improvements. In this release, the improvements to the editor were extended to include running manual scripts and viewing results of manual tests. The improvements include changes to the various view modes to present the script in a way that is optimal for the type of content you are working with. The improvements also include user-flow optimizations, such as moving the step verdict icons closer to the actual results and the ability to resize inserted images.

The following significant changes were made:

• Configurable layouts
  You can configure the execution steps area by stacking the step content from left to right, which is the traditional layout, or from top to bottom. You can also maximize the step editing area to make better use of the space in the views.
• Improved actual result editing
  When you run a manual test, the actual result editor now occupies the entire width of a step. The apply verdict bar is also a part of the step that is being run. These changes move the options to apply a verdict closer to the step. Also, accelerator keys are provided for commonly used verdicts.
• On-demand display of information
  Defects, attachments, comments, requirement links, and assisted data entry and verification are now consolidated on one panel that you can show or hide as needed.

Figure 1. Running a manual test

Figure 2. Viewing a manual test result

Linked test artifact categories are shown in execution record views

When you analyze tests to run through test execution records, it is helpful to view the organizational metadata that is associated with the test artifacts to be run. For example, you might want to know which category values are assigned to the test case that is to be run in the test case execution record. This linked data can be integral in making decisions about what to run, progressing towards testing goals, or providing testers insight into data that is needed to successfully run a test.

Display of "test case categories" columns in the test case execution record table

In the test case execution record table, you can show test case categories in individual columns. The test case category type name is indicated with an icon to distinguish it from categories of test case execution records.

Test case category type columns are not enabled by default. You can enable them from the Change Column Display Settings window. After you add the columns, you can filter, sort, and group by the test case category types. You can also filter test case execution records based on multiple test case category types and other criteria, and save the filter settings as a query. Then, you can show the results of the query on a dashboard widget.

For more information about this feature, see this Jazz.net enhancement: 75888: Expose test case / test suite categories in the TCER / TSER table view as a column or columns.

Display of "test suite categories" columns in the test suite execution record table

Similarly, in the test suite execution record table, you can show test suite categories in individual columns. The test suite category type name is indicated with an icon to distinguish it from categories of test suite execution records. Test suite category type columns are not enabled by default. You can enable them from the Change Column Display Settings window. After you add the columns, you can filter, sort, and group by the test suite category types. You can also filter test suite execution records based on multiple test suite category types and other criteria, and save the filter settings as a query. Then, you can show the results of the query on a dashboard widget.

For more information about this feature, see this Jazz.net enhancement: 75888: Expose test case / test suite categories in the TCER / TSER table view as a column or columns.

Stronger messaging when multiple people are concurrently editing the same test artifact

Sometimes, two people edit the same test artifact at the same time. If both people try to save their changes, the second person cannot save and will lose their changes.

In earlier versions of Rational Quality Manager, when the second person starts editing the artifact, a warning is displayed in the banner, stating that someone else is editing that artifact. However, customers have provided feedback indicating that the warning is sometimes not effective.

As of this milestone, you can enable a warning window to be displayed instead of the warning banner. When the window opens, the person must explicitly dismiss it. To enable this more rigorous messaging, go to the Advanced Server Properties page and set "Show dialog for concurrent editing warning" to TRUE.

For more information, see 110064: Improve concurrent access message to indicate possible action to avoid conflict.