What's New in ALM 12.50

HP ALM Updates

Integrating External Tests

ALM enhances your testing capabilities by enabling you to synch externally executed test results with ALM. Automation tests executed by Jenkins or other testing frameworks will be integrated into ALM along with the latest test runs, giving quality teams comprehensive quality coverage. When working with Jenkins, this integration enhances the Continuous Testing process.

ALM provides two methods for synchronizing your results with ALM:

Synchronizing results from Jenkins

After configuring Jenkins to synch results with ALM, each time you run a job from Jenkins, the external results are synchronized automatically with ALM.

Synchronizing results by external testing tools 

When working with an external testing tool, you synchronize an external result file to ALM by manually importing the file to ALM.

Client Side Deployment:

The ALM Client is deployed once for each ALM version. When client download begins, the ALM Platform loader compares the ALM version on the server with the ALM version on the client machine, and only deploys the client if the versions are not the same. As a result, you can now install ALM in advance. For example, you can:

1.Install the new version of ALM or the new patch on your staging server.

2.From your client machine, link to the staging server. The new ALM Client is now deployed on your client machine.

You can then continue to access the production server, working with the old ALM Client. When the production server is upgraded to the new version of ALM, each client machine automatically works with the new ALM Client.

Also, you no longer need to specify additional servers in the MSI Generator to have a single MSI available for multiple ALM servers.

 Data Hiding

Certain critical fields in ALM cannot be hidden. These fields are marked with a plus sign in Project Customization.

Add Images to Memo Fields:

You can add images to ALM records. You can attach an image, a snapshot of your application, or items from the Clipboard. You can add images to any memo field of an entity that support attachments, such as the Description and Comments sections of a defect.

Locking Out Users:

The ALM site administrator can lock out a user who invalidly attempts to log in. When a user is locked out, the user's status is set to Inactive. You can then activate the user, or set a time period to automatically activate the user and end the lockout.

Global Search:

A powerful global search engine enabling you to search across all or a specific ALM module. It includes the following modules: Defects, Requirements, Tests, Test Sets, and Analysis. For more details on how to install and enable Global Search, see https://hpln.hp.com/contentoffering/alm-global-search.

System Requirements Updates

•Operating system service packs and updates are supported, provided they are compatible with the vendor’s general availability release.

•Database server’ service packs and updates are supported, provided they are compatible with the vendor’s general availability release.

ALM Web Client Updates:

Changes in Feature Availability:

Web Client is targeted for release as part of our next major release cycle. If you are using the 12.00, 12.01, 12.20, or 12.21 Web Client you will need to remain on those versions in order to keep working with the Web Client, as it is not available for version 12.50.

Business Process Testing Updates

Extended View for Test Script Tab:

•You can view information in the Test Script tab's grid view using the new extended view. This enables you to see a more comprehensive view of test components without clicking additional links. The additional information you can see include:

•Snapshot thumbnails, instead of an icon.

•Separate columns for input and output parameters, which include parameter names and if only one iteration, the value for the parameter.

•Links between input and output parameters, without having to open the I/O Parameters dialog box.

Additionally, when working in extended view, you can adjust row heights for your convenience.

HP ALM 12.20 introduces the following enhancements:

Two new introductory editions of HP ALM are available:
l HP Quality Center Express Edition: Provides core functionality for test
management, including manual and automatic tests, and defect management. This
license is limited to 20 named or concurrent users.
l HP Quality Center Community Edition: Provides core functionality for test
management and defect management. This license is free, and is limited to five
named users.
Supported Environments
Here are some of the main additions we've made to the supported system
environments:
Microsoft Office. 64 bit versions of Microsoft Office are now supported
Operating systems. Red Hat Enterprise and Oracle Linux 7.0 64 Bit
Database servers. Oracle 12.1.0.1
For a complete listing of supported environments, see the HP ALM Readme.
Administration Updates
LDAP. You can import and authenticate users based on multiple LDAP servers.
Site parameters. The list of available site parameters can be found with the ALM12.20
manuals on the HP Software Support web site (https://softwaresupport.hp.com).
Usability Improvements
Sort by column header. You can now sort grid and tree items (Requirements) by
clicking a column header. When no sort condition is defined, data is sorted in ascending
order.
Drag and drop attachments. Upload attachments by dragging and dropping them from
your file explorer or email program to the Attachments tab. Similarly, you can drag
items from the Attachments tab to your desktop to download the attachments.
Email enhancements:
l When sending an entity by email, select to add a comment to the entity, including
the recipients of the mail, and any text you type in the Additional Comments field
of the email.
l Send yourself a copy of an email, by selecting a checkbox in the Send Email dialog
box.
Business Models
ALM now supports BPMN 2.0 models exported to XPDL 2.2 files.
Lab Management Hosts
You can exclude hosts from being automatically allocated to a timeslot. Limit the host
to being selected by name, or limit the host availability to a specific user.
ALM Web Client Updates
The ALM Web Client offers an alternative user interface for managing the lifecycle of
your application, and is part of HP's ongoing commitment to providing innovative
products and solutions. The ALM Web Client is user-friendly and easy to navigate, and
with its new features and functionality, shortens work processes and provides an
improved user experience.
Note: Currently, the modules supported by ALM Web Client are Requirements and
Defects.
HP Application Lifecycle Management 12.20 introduces the following new features and
enhancements to the ALM Web Client:
Traceability
l When adding traceability, a preview pane displays the details of the selected entity,
making it easier to identify the correct entity.
Customization
Customization enhancements include:
l Define rules that validate fields when an entity is created, deleted, or modified.
l Define rules that set field values by copying the value from another field.
l Select multiple list values within a business rule condition field. The values are
connected with an Or indicator. For example, Priority is 2-Medium or 3-High.
l Business rules override predefined values, but are themselves overridden by user
defined values.
Additional Usability Enhancements
l Inline editing. Fields of grid items can now be edited directly in the grid.
l Bulk update. Modify up to three fields simultaneously in multiple entities.
l Email entities. Users can now send an entity by email. Recipients can click the link
in the mail to navigate directly to the entity.
Data export. You can now export grid data to an Excel file, in addition to the existing
formats.
l A new Report defect button on the main toolbar simplifies defect reporting. When
you report a defect in this way, the defect is automatically linked to the entity from
which it was reported.
Business Process Testing Updates
Business Process Testing 12.20 introduces the following enhancements:
Run Conditions for business components and flows in business process tests
Until Business Process Testing 12.20, you could only create run conditions for business
components in flows. Now, you can also create run conditions for:
l Business components in business process tests
l Flows in business process tests
For details, see the HP Business Process Testing User Guide.
Automatic promotion of parameters
You can now promote parameters automatically to higher levels when creating a
business component or flow parameter.
This option can be enabled or disabled by the project administrator.
Automatic deletion of unused parameters
You can now delete unused parameters automatically from higher-level flows and tests
when a lower-level parameter is deleted. For example, if you delete a component
parameter, if it is unused at the flow level, it is deleted from the flow also.
This option can be enabled or disabled by the project administrator
Changes to Manual Runner functionality
When running a business process test or flow in the Manual Runner, any steps whose
component's run condition was not met are now skipped when clicking Next. The steps'
statuses are set to No Run, since they have not been run.
Administration changes for Business Process Testing
You can now customize more Business Process Testing features. For details on each of
these changes, see the HP Application Lifecycle Management Administrator Guide.
l Include component instance iterations in the run results report.
l Enable automatic promotion or deletion of parameters. See details above.
l Set the default On Failure behavior if a component fails during a test run.
Integration with Sprinter
You can author manual business components in Sprinter.
This feature is supported according to the following matrix: