RQM 2.0 Beta 1 - Feedback - TER Defect Status
In the RQM 2.0 Beta 1.0 release to have the Defect Status icon displayed for a specific Test Execution Record (TER) it can only be linked by doing it manually or by performing the following steps:
(1)Run a TER (2)In the Execution Result, in the "weight Distribution" section, have the blocked weight distribution to be something greater than 0. (3)In the Execution Result, in the "Defects" section, select the checkbox for the defect and click the "Change Defect Blocking Status". (4)Under the TestCase go to the Test Execution Records section and click the "Refresh Test Execution Records" button. I was hoping there would be multiple Defect Status icons, ie one for a Blocker status, one for a Critical status, one for a Major status, etc. In addition to this, I was hoping there would be other Use Cases for how the Defect Status icon could be displayed for a specific TER. For example, if a defect with a status of Blocker is created during execution then it is automatically marked as a blocking defect. And as a result the defect status icon under the TER is automatically displayed. Does this make sense? |
6 answers
The 'blocked' icon really reflects that the TER is blocked and not necessarily the severity of the defect. This is saying that the TER is blocked from running again since there is an outstanding defect against it. The additional checkbox when creating a work item is to be able to mark the TER as blocked.
One of the nuances of RTC is that the list of possible severities that you can select when creating a work item is actually a modifiable list. For your project, you may decide not to have Blocking, Critical, Major etc and may do it completely differently. So we can't really rely on that. Finally, the blocked status of the TER is updated when the work item is resolved and this is done in the background automatically. Hope that helps. |
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In the Execution Results before the work item (ie defect) is marked as blocked it is displayed with an orange empty circle,
And then once the defect is changed to a blocking status it is displayed with an orange filled circle: Has any thought been given to possibly changing the icon for the defect before it is marked as blocking? Because both icons are so similar its hard to quickly determine if a defect is blocking. By making the 2 icons more distinct it would help users quickly identify a defect as being blocking. Maybe instead of having an orange empty circle this icon could be changed to the following: What do you think? |
I think I noticed that there was no hover text when looking at the icons in the table. Do you think that would help to differentiate the two?
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I think having the hover text when looking at the icons in the table would help. In addition to this I think changing the icons color and shape will help even more. For example, if a defect is NOT blocking then maybe display the icon like this:
And once a user marks it as blocking the icon changes to this: Also when the defect is resolved which results in the blocked status of the TER being updated automatically in the background, maybe have the icon in the Test Execution Records under the defect status, ie What do you think? |
Some background regarding the defect status icons.
The original request for these icons was to indicate the status of the defect, not the presence of one. Defects were either blocking or not and users needed to be able to change their states as well so representing that state is of highest priority in the icon. The icon for changing the status uses the state icon to directly imply the action to take place as well. Showing a plain defect icon (no status) is just showing defects and then I am not sure the purpose anymore. In response to changing the icon, we need to consider ALL status ( outside of this column). We already use a green circle with checkmark to represent a Pass state. We need to be careful to not mix messages. I will acknowledge that the status decorators on the icons are too small considering their importance. I opt to finesse the size of the decorators themselves and not the metaphor since this will have impact on other state icons. |
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As you may know, there are 3 places where the various defect icons are displayed, (1)in the test script, (2)in the "Defects" section of the Execution Result, and (3)under Defect Status in the Test Execution Records section of a test case. My thinking was by showing a plain defect icon (in the "Defects" section of the Execution Result) it would signal to the user that a defect exists but that its not blocking. Blocking defects are displayed with an orange filled circle. In my earlier post when I wrote, "a green check mark instead of an orange empty circle". I stated this because when a defect is "resolved" it is displayed with a green check mark. Also, when a defect is resolved the Defect Status icon in the Test Execution Records is updated with the orange empty circle icon. By replacing the orange empty circle with a green check mark it would be more consistent with the icons used to represent defects being resolved, ie green check marks. Making the icons larger is a good start. In my opinion it gets very confusing when icons, which have the opposite meaning (blocking vs non-blocking), have the same colors and shapes (orange circles). Ideally the icons representing blocking defects vs resolved blocking defects should have different colors and shapes. What those colors and shapes should be is up for discussion. |
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