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question asked: Mar 05 '13, 4:25 p.m.
question was seen: 6,408 times
last updated: Mar 07 '13, 4:14 p.m.

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Test Execution Records are not available in a copy of a test plan

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Roland Mueller (102●3●9●9) | asked Mar 05 '13, 4:25 p.m.

If we are going to release a new major version of a product, we copy the test plan of the previous version along with all the test cases and then add the test cases for the new features.

However the test execution records (in my understanding the combination of a test case with a test environment) are not copied to the new test plan, as there is a one to one relation between test execution record and test plan. We have to create new test execution records in the new test plan. This is inefficient, as the existing test execution records typically do not change, moreover, the names of the new test execution records created within the new test plan are by default identical with the names of the old test execution records (the name of the test case and the test environment are the same! ). That causes a bunch of test execution records with the same name , which can only be differentiated by their ID and test plan association (makes it difficult to pick the correct test execution record in various drop down lists).

Now the question: Is there a way to make the existing test execution records available in a new test plan, which uses the same test cases as in another, older test plan. What is the reason, that a test execution record can only be associated with one test plan?

The same holds true for test suite execution records

Best Regards, roland

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Sterling Ferguson-II commented Mar 05 '13, 8:36 p.m.

@Roland,


Is your team using the automatic generation of TERs?


We generated about 900 a while back....seemed quick.

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Bob Gallagher (321●1) | answered Mar 06 '13, 12:40 p.m.
RQM 4.0.1 
Could you consider not doing a copy of Test Plans and instead use TimeLines associated with a singe Test Plan? The Timeline could be structured around you releases. When the time comes to set up for the next testing cycle Test Execution Records in the Test Plan can be copied to a new Iteration from the timeline and new Execution Records could be generated for newly added test cases.

Roland Mueller selected this answer as the correct answer

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David Mehaffy (901●2●33●38) | answered Mar 05 '13, 6:09 p.m.
JAZZ DEVELOPER
 There is more that goes into a Test Execution Record (TER) than test case and environment.  There are 4 things and they have to be unique for any given TER - Test Plan, Test Case, Environment, and Iteration (Milestone).  You can't have a TER that has all these the same.

It is the right behavior not to duplicate these when you duplicate a test plan as the test plan name has changed and it would be very rare to have the same iterations in a new test plan for a new release.  

As to regards to picking the correct execution records there are several ways to do that - if you drill through the test plan (there is an actual section you can add to a test plan that will display all the TERs for that test plan) or you can easily set up a filter on the execution records by test plan and / or iteration to get the right ones.  

We have been using RQM for almost 5 years and this is the behavior you really want - there was a time that what you suggested happened (a bug in a fix pack) and it made our test planners go nuts trying to sort out things as to what were the real and what were not.  TERs are really not a reusable artifact because they describe a specific execution (plan, test case, environment and time)

If you look at the schema you will see that TERs are central and everything hangs off of them - not the way you are used to thinking of all things hanging off the test plan.
Comments
Roland Mueller commented Mar 06 '13, 6:09 a.m. | edited Mar 06 '13, 6:11 a.m.

Hi David,

thank you for the answer -  it at least clarifies, that it works as designed -  however, could guide me the answer of the two questions:

1. What is the fastet way to have a working copy of a test plan   - which needs test execution records - asuming that they are unchanged in the copy as they are in the old test plan.
The scenario is: a new release of our product will have some new feautres, but the regression tests of the old, released version of course have to be executed as well.

2. How can avoid after the fifth copy of test plan , that I have five test exection records witg identical names - yes I understand that they can be filtered with the test plan - however at some places you have drop down list with the name only (for example if you want to run a test suite -  see picture: Drop down list with identical test suite execution records

Roland Mueller commented Mar 06 '13, 6:10 a.m.

Hi David,  answer conitinued....

Here you have to guess, which one might be the one related to the test plan. Even if you run the test suite from the context of the test plan -  you are offered all test execution records, even the ones related to other test plans.

I discussed with out testers, they still can not see why we need seperate records for a test execution records, if they are identical in the aspects -  Test script, test environemt. but anyway - if you can recommend an easy to use option to avoid such confusing drop down lists without manually editing hundreds of newly generated test execution records I'm fine.

Thank you , Roland

Roland Mueller commented Mar 07 '13, 10:46 a.m.

Hello  -  we will consider not to copy the test plans (with the consequence of having duplicate TER's) but to use new timelines for the new releases.

Nevertheless, the possibility to copy the test execution records across iteration would be helpfull for copied test plans as well. Would you consider that as enhancemend request -  or to automatically encode the test plan name in the test execution record when the test execution records are generated for the new testplan.

both would avoid the long list of identical names in the drop down list, when you select a test execution record for the test plan.

Thank you for the discussion Roland

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Chad Meadows (31) | answered Mar 07 '13, 4:14 p.m.
JAZZ DEVELOPER
This capability is being considered for 4.0.3.
See this story
As a user, I can choose to copy an execution record to different plan, test case, or iteration (80168)

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