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1. 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 45 aes dy Moving Parts What kind of consumer are you Are you the kind who buys a new product off the shelf takes it home carefully unpacks the product and accessories and then begins to meticulously read through the instructions or user manual No of course not That s a rare person one who should be watched closely and not trusted with sharp objects Most of us react to the purchase of a new product much the way a four year old reacts to a freshly wrapped present on Christmas morning We tear right into it And so you may find yourself sitting on top of a newly installed defect tracking system proud of your team s accomplishment but still a bit foggy on how the thing actu ally works So let s walk through some of the basics of ClearQuest navigation 45 aoe LY 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 46 aes Yl 46 Chapter 4 Moving Parts By no means is this chapter a comprehensive list of all the features and functions and doodads included in your ClearQuest release rather this is just a quick overview of the major activities you ll need to know to move around the inside of the application ClearQuest is a customizable defect and change tracking system designed for working within a dynamic environment that requires steady workflows but also offers the ability to change on the fly How ever using the application itself is not too complicat2. known as referencing Postponed close postpone postpone reject Opened State resolve Submitted State Closed State Resolved State Assigned State open validate duplicate unduplicate duplicate reopen Duplicated State Figure 4 2 Life of a software defect ae NE 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 50 di ME 50 Chapter 4 Moving Parts ClearQuest Components As outlined in the ClearQuest manuals see Introducing Rational ClearQuest IBM Rational Software ClearQuest consists of several components that work in a client server environment Table 4 1 de scribes these components Table 4 1 ClearQuest Components Component Used By Use To Client Tools ClearQuest for Windows Everyone Submit modify and track change requests analyze project progress by creating and updating queries charts and reports ClearQuest for UNIX Everyone Submit modify and track change requests support project analysis by creating and updating queries ClearQuest Web Everyone Access ClearQuest across multiple platforms using Netscape Navigator or Microsoft s In ternet Explorer to submit modify and track change requests support project analysis by creating and updating queries and reports Administrator Tools ClearQuest Designer ClearQuest Customize ClearQuest manage ClearQuest administrator schemas and databases administer users and user groups C
3. Requi sitePro Blank Contains only system fields Use this schema to create a schema from scratch Common Contains metadata that is common to all of the ClearQuest schemas DefectTracking Contains the fields necessary to start using ClearQuest to track defects in a software development environment DevelopmentStudio Is compatible with Rational Suite DevelopmentStudio Contains fields and rules that work with Rational Purify Quantify and PureCoverage Enterprise Is used with Rational Suite EnterpriseStudio Contains fields and hooks that work with all Rational products TestStudio Is compatible with Rational Suite TestStudio Contains fields and rules that work with Rational TeamTest Req uisitePro Purify Quantify and PureCoverage UnifiedChangeManagement Supports the UCM process by providing integration with Rational ClearCase as W 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 62 di ME 62 Chapter 4 Moving Parts Rational ClearQuest ClearQuest schemas consist of various packages that provide specific functionality You can add indi vidual packages to an existing ClearQuest schema or to your own customized schema For a full list of schemas and de scriptions see Administering Rational ClearQuest Coming Up for Air You should now have a basic understanding of how to navigate your way through the application and perform some of the more impor tant administration functions Obviously we ve taken g
4. and defining associ ated behaviors One concern with any change management system is whether or not people will log in and use it A great automation feature and one that helps alleviate this concern is the ability for your administrator to as W 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 56 aes Yl 56 Chapter 4 Moving Parts configure ClearQuest to automatically send e mail to various team members when a change request is submitted or changed To take advantage of automatic e mail notification all ClearQuest users must set up their e mail options Moving Change Requests Through the Workflow You work with change request records by moving them through vari ous states In each state you can perform actions such as modifying a record or moving it to another state The Actions menu lists the actions that you can perform on the record while it is in any given state including assigning modifying and opening and resolving change requests Your ClearQuest administrator can restrict actions to specific user groups For example the administrator might allow everyone on a team to resolve a change request but restrict the verify action to members of the quality assurance group Tracking Your Change Requests ClearQuest queries make it easy for everyone on your team to track change request records as they move through your system This is done primarily through personal queries and public queries Any queries char
5. several projects together in one database Something important to consider however is that if you want to generate reports and charts across several projects you will want to put the projects in the same database Another important note Projects that share a database must use the same schema once a database is associated with a schema it can be upgraded only with a newer version of that same schema In other words the database cannot use an older version of the schema or a completely different schema so plan accordingly Starting ClearQuest Designer A ClearQuest schema defines the process of working with a record along with the Record form and relevant fields Records have a vari ety of different states The defect record begins in the Submitted state from there you can change the state of the record to Closed or you can modify the record without changing its state However to further automate your system the administrator will use ClearQuest Designer to make targeted changes to the overall schema Again you can start with the standard schema and make changes after everyone feels more comfortable with the application At this point you will want to do some customizations Here are some of the steps and activities 1 Check out the schema To customize a schema you must first check it out of the schema repository 2 Add a new state The ClearQuest Designer State Transition Matrix shows the various states that a record ca
6. Public Queries H E Aging Charts EE Customers H E Distribution Charts E Email Rules PrinkReportFormats EJ Report Formats H3 Reports I Trend Charts f All Defects H keyword Search FH My Hot List EF My To Do List FEA Needs verification wa it Ta a H Record Count 2 Figure 4 3 ClearQuest main window report from the Public Queries folder over to your Personal Queries folder and from there modify it to suit your own individual require ments More about that in a minute Submitting Your Change Requests The first action you might take in ClearQuest is to submit a change request This creates a record in the user database that everyone on the team can view and track within the system Within the Submit Defect form Figure 4 4 you will describe the change request in detail and then attach any relevant code fragments and other sup porting information that will help define the problem or suggestion and help the development team reach a quick and appropriate solution 6356ch04 qxd_jt 54 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 54 di Si Chapter 4 Moving Parts B Hain Attachments ii Customer ID SAMPLOOOOOD44 State Submitted Hajda H l Cancel Keyword Eki Project ie Sapen Priority Symptoms Owner Description Figure 4 4 Submit Defect form S 4 1 Users can save frequently used field values as defaults so they wont have to reenter
7. dministra tor can designate one of the forms to be both the Submit Defect form and the Record form which will simplify the process by making one form represent both So no worries S 4 2 Attachments are an important part of helping a user or cus tomer describe an issue or enhancement In fact when dealing with external customers the attachments screenshots documentation and so forth can be the one factor that helps development resolve an issue ClearQuest allows you to attach any file to a record that s right it supports any format Your attachments are stored directly in the database and you can attach as many as needed All attach ments can be seen as icons on the Attachments window within the Submit Defect form One other important feature Although it s not required you can add keywords and symptoms to help define your change request You can also select them from a dynamic pick list Adding keywords and symptoms will help you search for your request and related records later when creating reports or searching for patterns in your change requests The ClearQuest administrator can also create additional record types For example you might want to separate different record types such as hardware defects from software defects and enhance ment requests Again the application is flexible enough to allow you to set up your processes to suit your needs You can also customize Record forms including adding tabs and fields
8. eart grab a bar of chocolate and settle down to read this chapter At least it will provide you with the basics and then you can move on to more complex topics at your leisure ClearQuest Fundamentals T 4 1 As you ve probably already discovered ClearQuest includes multiple interfaces into your data repository for streamlined and consistent submission of change requests and easy access to the data within the underlying databases With any standard installation your system will include a complete change request lifecycle solu tion which will allow your team to get up and running quickly Right out of the box ClearQuest allows you to immediately begin tracking your critical activities such as assignment of tasks prioritization of enhancements and the all important allocation of your limited re Sources A 4 1 For those of you with a more robust set of applications in your change management ecosystem ClearQuest also provides integra tion with those critical applications and management systems such as ClearCase and Unified Change Management UCM Whether you are accessing ClearQuest from Windows UNIX or the web client the basic capabilities remain the same Users can submit change requests view and modify existing records and create and run queries Digging a little deeper into the mechanics ClearQuest uses a three tier architecture as shown in Figure 4 1 The first tier includes the various ClearQuest clients Of cour
9. ed ClearQuest can manage every kind of change activity associated with software development even with the base install As you grow familiar with its capabilities you can begin to customize the application and realize its full potential It shortens development lifecycles by unifying your entire team around a single process for defects enhancements and artifact modifications as shown in the following examples e Development engineers can identify and prioritize action items that deal with their sections of the code e Test engineers can track the status and resolution of change requests to verify software quality e Project managers can get an overview of the effort allowing them to better allocate development resources streamline workflow and accurately determine release dates e Administrators can integrate with ClearCase or another exist ing tool and customize it to fit the organizational needs For a complete and comprehensive overview of how to use Clear Quest youre going to need to break the plastic seal on your user manual and commit yourself to some in depth and viscerally stimu lating reading Or you can trap your team s ClearQuest administra tor in the hallway and grill him or her for answers to all of your problems most of which should probably relate to ClearQuest as W 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 47 di Si ClearQuest Fundamentals 47 For the four year olds at h
10. f hook code e Field hooks provide a way to validate the contents of a field or to assign field values e Action hooks implement tasks at key points in the lifecycle of a record e Record scripts allow you to associate a hook with a control such as a pushbutton or a shortcut menu option on a sin gle record e Global scripts allow you to reuse hook code within other hooks as W 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 61 di ME Administering and Customizing ClearQuest 61 Use the ClearQuest Script Editor to edit the hook so that it initializes the value of the associated field 8 Check in the schema At any time while working on a schema you can test your work in progress This upgrades the test database with your latest changes which provides a quick way to test your changes in the ClearQuest client without affecting your production user database When youre satisfied that your schema changes are working correctly check the schema into the schema repository Once the schema is checked in you can use it to upgrade your user database ClearQuest prompts you to back up the schema repository and the database before upgrading 9 Select a ClearQuest schema Table 4 2 shows a list of the pre defined schemas included in ClearQuest see Introducing Table 4 2 Predefined Schemas Schema Description AnalystStudio Is compatible with Rational Suite AnalystStudio Contains customization for use with Rational
11. ide a summary of the tasks ahead of you ClearQuest Databases and Schemas A 4 2 Now were starting to get into the nuts and bolts of your change management system A ClearQuest schema contains the metadata that defines the process for how users work with records in ClearQuest The schema includes the following e Record type definitions e Forms used to submit and modify a record e Field definitions and behavior e States a record can be in e Actions used to modify or change the state of a record e Hooks written in VBScript or Perl that further customize fields and actions ClearQuest includes several predefined schemas that you can use as provided or customize to fit your workflow you can also create and implement your own schemas What you do depends on your devel opment processes and your comfort level with the system If you re relatively new to the system your best bet is to implement the stan dard ClearQuest configuration out of the box and then slowly modify the system as your users and administrator grow more comfortable with the system as W 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 59 di ME Administering and Customizing ClearQuest 59 ClearQuest stores schemas in a schema repository A ClearQuest in stallation usually consists of one schema repository and one or more user databases depending on how you segment your user popula tion You can have separate user databases for each project or group
12. iew the status of your project at a glance You can also create your own cus tomized reports and charts ClearQuest charts display record data graphically Distribution charts show the current status of data trend and aging charts show historical information ClearQuest also includes reports and report formats that you can use to create reports from ClearQuest data You can also use Crystal Reports Professional Edition to create new re port formats You can save these formats in your Personal Queries folder and use them to format ClearQuest reports Remember that the ClearQuest online help contains detailed information to assist you every step of the way Obviously this section does not cover all of the capabilities of a stan dard ClearQuest installation We re just attempting to jump start the process and show you how easy it is to navigate through the basic features of ClearQuest Please check your user manual if you have more specific questions as W 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 58 di ME 58 Chapter 4 Moving Parts Administering and Customizing ClearQuest For complete information about administering ClearQuest includ ing a description of how to get your users up and running see Administering IBM Rational ClearQuest which you should have received with your software You can also pull the manual from the IBM website Either way you ve got a lot of reading to do The fol lowing subsections prov
13. learQuest Import Tool ClearQuest Import data including records history and administrator attachments from other change request sys tems and between ClearQuest databases ClearQuest Export Tool ClearQuest Export ClearQuest data from one ClearQuest administrator user database to another user database ClearQuest Maintenance Tool Everyone Set up and connect to the schema repository during installation and when upgrading to a new ClearQuest version Rational E Mail Reader ClearQuest Enable ClearQuest users to submit and administrator modify records by e mail as W 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 51 di ME ClearQuest Components 51 ClearQuest includes predefined schemas that provide ready to use change and defect tracking processes as well as standard integra tions with various IBM Rational software products You can use ClearQuest schemas out of the box or customize them to fit into your organization s workflow depending on your specific requirements ClearQuest provides the following support for your software devel opment environment e Supports Microsoft Access Sybase SQL Anywhere Microsoft SQL Server Oracle relational databases and IBM DB2 e Integrates with IBM Rational ClearCase and Microsoft Visual SourceSafe so you can associate change requests directly with changes in your evolving software e Integrates with Rational TeamTest VisualTest and the prod ucts now bundled as Rational PurifyPlus P
14. n be in and the actions that move the record from one state to another as W 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 60 di ME 60 Chapter 4 Moving Parts 3 Add a new action The Actions grid shows all of the actions that can be performed on a record To add a new action you first add the action to the Actions grid and then associate it with the appropriate states 4 Create a new field To create a new field open the Fields grid This grid shows all of the fields on the Record form their types and their default values 5 Define the behavior of the new field The Behaviors grid shows how fields behave when the associated record is in each state You can define whether a field is read only mandatory or optional in each state or define default behavior for all states You can also create a user behavior that restricts user access to the field Open the Behaviors grid then right click on the field and use the popup menu to define the behavior of the field 6 Add a new field to the Record form After creating a field you must add it to the Record form 7 Create an action hook A hook is a trigger for pieces of code that ClearQuest executes at specified times to more fully im plement your workflow ClearQuest provides many prede fined hooks that you can easily modify to suit your needs You can also use the ClearQuest API to write hook code in Microsoft VBScript or Perl ClearQuest supports four types o
15. pen close assign postpone reject validate or duplicate A state is a def inition of where the change request is within the lifecycle opened closed assigned postponed rejected resolved submitted or dupli cated dh W 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 49 di ady Change Request Lifecycle 49 Actions and states represent all of the various lifecycle variables your change requests can encounter within your process The standard ClearQuest training materials contain a great model shown in Figure 4 2 that outlines each step of a basic software defect Let s introduce some additional terminology that you may find im portant as you navigate through ClearQuest In a relational database you re probably familiar with the use of ta bles to organize your data In ClearQuest these tables are called record types For example defects and enhancements are two record types There are two different kinds of record types state based and stateless State based records have a state transition model to repre sent their lifecycles in the defect and change tracking process a stateless record type does not have these transitions Once a user submits a new record of a stateless record type it will stay in the database forever until it is explicitly removed In other words the stateless record type is suitable for records that do not require lifecycle tracking The relationship between different record types is
16. reat liberties to remove all of the specific information about how to accomplish your tasks and replaced them with general information and pretty pictures We re hoping that you get the gist of it and are ready to move forward Feeling confident For detailed information on what we ve just covered please review the ClearQuest Designer help index Otherwise let s now move on to some more complex topics developerWorks Links T 4 1 http www 128 ibm com developerworks rational library 4194 html A 4 1 http www 128 ibm com developerworks rational library 2111 html T 4 2 http www 128 ibm com developerworks rational library 4194 html S 4 1 http www 128 ibm com developerworks rational library 4513 html S 4 2 http www 128 ibm com developerworks rational library 3883 html S 4 3 http www 128 ibm com developerworks rational library 3936 html S 4 4 http www 128 ibm com developerworks rational library 4327 html A 4 2 http www 128 ibm com developerworks rational library 4114 html as W
17. se for the web component you will need to use a supported web browser For the e mail client your administrator will need to configure the environment to allow ClearQuest requests through your e mail server To allow the ClearQuest e mail reader to pull information into the systems you ll also need to set up a dedicated e mail account for ClearQuest ClearQuest supports Apache Rational Web Server dh W 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 48 ZTS ar 48 Chapter 4 Moving Parts l Windows UNIX Web E mail Eclipse Tier Client Client Client Client Client Tier Relational Database Tier ClearQuest Core Figure 4 1 ClearQuest architecture The second tier includes the core ClearQuest functions including application logic and business rules These APIs implement your specified business rules and regulate all access to the ClearQuest database The third tier is a relational database where ClearQuest stores change requests and metadata such as user tables Future chapters provide more information on how to link existing systems to ClearQuest and how to further integrate ClearQuest within your change management ecosystem Change Request Lifecycle One important concept to understand before we dig deeper into the system is that of the change request lifecycle The first step in under standing this concept is to know the difference between an action and a state An action is a step you take to resolve a request o
18. them each time they submit a change request In addition users can submit change requests directly into Clear Quest from Rational TeamTest Purify PureCoverage Quantify and VisualTest Or they can submit and modify change requests by e mail It all depends on your existing or planned development processes the system is fairly flexible When you submit a new change request you will be prompted to select a record type If you know the record type of your change re quest e g you know it s a defect or maybe it s a new product en hancement coming from someone on the product management team then make the appropriate selection If you re not sure how to define your request off the top of your head just click the arrow and choose from the defined record types within the database youre ac cessing By this point you ve probably noticed that ClearQuest uses forms for data entry and display The Submit Defect form is your primary win dow for submitting change requests the slightly less intuitive Record as W 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 55 di Si Moving Around in ClearQuest 55 form is where you ll review your change request records In general the Record form includes more information than does the Submit Defect form because the Record form is where all of the entered in formation is posted and summarized whereas the Submit Defect form is a simple input screen Take heart however your a
19. ts and reports created by a user are stored in that user s Personal Queries folder See the next section for a discussion of charts and reports The ClearQuest Query Wizard will walk you through the process of building a custom query It will prompt you on the fields you want to display as well as all of the fields and corre sponding values you want to use as query filters To modify an exist ing query first drag the query to your Personal Queries folder and then use the Edit Filter and Edit Display Field Wizards See Editing an Existing Query in Chapter 9 page 163 as W 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 57 aes Yl Moving Around in ClearQuest 57 Certain ClearQuest packages also include ready to use queries that help you locate records by project or component by assigned engi neer by level of severity and so on The ClearQuest Administrator can save queries to the Public Queries folder and can assign this privilege to other users ClearQuest users with admin access can copy any of their personal queries into the Public Queries folder to make those queries available to anyone with access to the appropri ate user database Gathering Project Metrics S 4 3 S 4 4 A change management solution is only as good as the data it generates to let you manage your development processes Certain ClearQuest packages provide predefined charts and reports that you can run on Windows and on ClearQuest Web to v
20. urify PureCover age and Quantify allowing you to submit change requests to ClearQuest directly from these testing tools e Works with Business Objects Crystal Reports so you can cre ate custom reports from ClearQuest data e Allows you to integrate with other standard Windows tools such as Microsoft Excel and Word through an advanced Com mon Object Model COM interface e Provides access to the Rational Unified Process RUP through the ClearQuest extended help menu e Supports integration with all tools in the Rational Team Unity ing Platform TUP e Provides seamless integration of ClearQuest into the Eclipse environment through the ClearQuest client for Eclipse 1 For more information about TUP see http www 306 ibm com software awdtools team 2 For more information about the ClearQuest Client for Eclipse see http www 128 ibm com developerworks rational library 04 r 3089 as W 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 52 di ME 52 Chapter 4 Moving Parts For more ClearQuest user questions all the information you will need can be found in the ClearQuest online help on the IBM Rational website Administrators however will want to track down copies of the following ClearQuest Release Notes Installing Rational Clear Quest Administering Rational ClearQuest ClearQuest Designer Tutorial the online help for ClearQuest Designer and the ClearQuest API Reference Installation We
21. will offer just a couple of quick thoughts on installation An im portant part of the installation process is the creation and configura tion of the user databases for your implementation Once added the names of these databases then appear in the dropdown list of data bases when users log in to ClearQuest As the administrator you will use ClearQuest Designer to set up user login accounts and to define user access privileges Moving Around in ClearQuest T 4 2 The first step is to log into the application for which you must have a ClearQuest user account When you reach the login screen you must then select a database from the dropdown list You ll have access only to those databases to which you are a subscriber The administrator will control which databases you ll have access to and also help resolve any problems with your user account The ClearQuest main window appears once you open the applica tion Figure 4 3 The Public Queries folder in the Workspace contains all of the stan dard ClearQuest queries charts and reports as well as any custom items created by your administrator The beauty of ClearQuest for the common user is that you can drag and drop any query chart or as W 6356ch04 qxd_jt 7 18 06 03 13 PM Page 53 D Moving Around in ClearQuest 53 Rational ClearQuest SAMPL Test Bug stuff File Edit wiew Actions Query Window Help E E Workspace Queries Charts i Personal Queries 3y
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