HP Quality Center Tutorial (Day 6) – Defect Management

Through the series of these tutorials we have seen how to create releases, cycles, requirements, tests and test sets in ALM. We also saw how we can establish logical relationships among these entities to make metric collection as well as traceability an inbuilt activity in our testing process.
You can check all these tutorials listed in our first QC tutorial here.
Also in the Test lab, we executed some tests. If the test passed, then all is well. If it fails, there is a reason for the same. Commonly, any deviation from the expected value is a defect.
Apart from that, defects can be:

1. Variation in expected and actual results
2. Documentation errors
3. Un-testable requirements that you want to report and track
4. Environment failures that prevent you from testing

QC has a wonderful mechanism that lets you create and track any kind of defects. In the following steps, we will see how defect management is supported through ALM.

How to add a defect to ALM

Step #1: Login to ALM to the right project and go to “Defects” tab by navigating from the sidebar. The lists of defects under the project are displayed in a list here.
Step #2: Click on “New Defect”.  Enter the required details. As you can see all the fields in red are mandatory to enter. (click on any image to enlarge)

Step #3: Choose defect type

Step #4: Choose severity

Step #5: Enter other details and describe the defect in the “Description” box. You can provide attachments. The other tabs in this dialog are for additional details. Again, project specific.

Step #6: This defect will now appear in the list. It has a unique ID to be identified with.

Step #7: You can now change its status.

Step #8: Assign it to another user:

Step #9: Or if this defect is linked to any other defect or you can do so, by choosing “Linked Entities” from the left side bar and choose the other defect that is causing or effecting this defect.

How to link the defect to a test case:

Step #1: Go to Test lab tab and choose the test that failed and the defect is related to that failure.

Step #2: Click on “Linked Defects”. Here you can either add a new defect and link it by click on this icon: . If you do so, follow the steps that you did in the above section and the defect created will get linked.

Step #3: I am going to choose the icon:   To link already created defect

Step #4: Enter the ID and Click “Link”. The defect gets linked.

Step #5: The linked defect can be seen in the test plan as well as requirements.


That finishes our end to end flow from Release to defects.
Tip: Please take a moment and try to see all the field values in the defect details. This will help you get excellent insights into how QC has a field for everything you can ever think of to add to the description to make it completely complete. I specially emphasize on the “Status” field. This will show how QC is not just a tool to place all your defects at one place but it actually is at the crux of the defect management process. All the states that you would find in a defect life cycle can be set through the “Status” field. I find that it’s most wonderful feature.
For more details on how to write a good defect report, refer this sample defect report.

Points to note:

1) We have worked with adding a new cycle under a release in the tutorial number 3 and it is mainly a testing related activity. Similarly, you can add a “New Milestone” signifying a certain step in your Project Management Activities.
2) Even though ALM is test management tool, the development and other support teams also have access to it. One of the reasons is to update the defect status.
3) The attachments for a defect are not mandatory but always provide a screenshot of the error in the attachment whenever applicable and possible.
4) The mandatory fields to be entered during the creation of a defect are defined by your Admin and may differ from project to project.
5) The other drop-down values are also defined by your admin.

Conclusion:

Now you are equipped with everything you needed to know on how to use QC for all your test management activities.  All we need to know now, is how to use its analysis features to make the test reporting and metric collection activities an integral part of your QA process.
We will learn the “Dashboard” side bar option that facilitates the same in the next tutorial which happens to be our last.
Again you may want to visit and bookmark our first Quality Center Tutorial page where we have listed all the tutorial in this training series.