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Managing Quality Assurance Work for Release Manager (End User)

After Engineering enters engineering tasks in Release Manager, QA testers can begin recording the progress and results of testing efforts in Siebel Field Service. Their managers can monitor the information that they enter.

This topic contains the following related information:

• Creating Test Plans and Linking Features
• Creating Test Strategies
• Recording Test Passes and Linking Test Plans
• Associating Change Requests with Test Passes
• Monitoring Test Results

This task is a step in Process of Managing Release Manager.

Creating Test Plans and Linking Features

After QA identifies the features for a release, QA can begin revising existing test plans or developing new plans to exercise new product functionality. QA tracks test plan development in Release Manager. The test plan available as an attachment to the test plan record. Parties such as product marketers who are associated with the development of the test plan are linked to the record, they can record their approvals.

For each test plan, QA logs the portion completed and the target completion dates so that potential issues are addressed before they are critical. The QA manager determines whether they must run a test plan to validate 1 or more test strategies, and if so, then specifies those strategies.

To create a test plan and link features

1. Navigate to the Release screen, then the Test Plan Administration view.
2. Create a new test plan record, and complete the fields as appropriate.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Target Date	Select the expected date of the test plan completion.
   QA Owner	Select the employee who performs the testing.
   Release	Select the name or number of the product release associated with the test plan.
   Suggested Strategies	Select the test strategies to apply to the test plan. Available selections come from test strategy records that the administrator enters in the Strategy Administration view. For more information, see Creating Test Strategies.
   Test Set	Select the grouping of tests for the test. Groupings might reflect, for example, the parts of the product that apply to multiple tests.
   Special Tag	Select the tags that your company defines for convenience in grouping or querying tests. You can specify multiple tags. For more information about defining special tags, see Setting Up Lists of Values.
   Tag Summary	Displays all of the tags that you select in the Special Tag field. This field is for convenience in querying for the tags in the Special Tag field.
   Related Feature	Select the features to associate with the test plan.
   Product Line	Displays the product line. The values in the Area and Subarea fields determine this field value.
   Complete %	Type the percentage of the test plan that is completed to date.
   Test Plan Owner	Select the individuals associated with the test plan. Set the author of the test plan as Primary.
   Automated	Select this check box to indicate the test is automated.
   % Auto	Type the percentage of the test that is automated.
   % Auto Platforms	Type the percentage of platforms that is automated for the test.
   % Auto Horizontal	Type the percentage of the cross-industry version of the product that is automated for the test.
   % Auto-International	Type the percentage of the international version of the product that is automated for the test.
   Tools	Select the software used to automate the test.
   Auto Complete Date	Select the date the automated test is completed.

An activity plan originates from a predefined activity template. An activity template contains multiple predefined activities to associate with a release item. Users can use activity templates instead of manually entering each activity, and activity templates help to standardize activities for QA teams.

To add an activity plan to a test plan

1. Navigate to the Release screen, then the QA Test Plans view.
2. Drill down on the Test Plan number (#) field for a selected a test plan, and click the Activity Plans view tab.
3. Create a new activity plan record, and complete the fields as appropriate.

   When you associate the activity plan with the test plan, all the activities in the activity plan are associated with the test plan and appear in the Activities view.

Creating Test Strategies

At the beginning of a release cycle, you define a set of criteria (or matrix) that identifies the various combinations for running any QA test plan. For example, the matrix for a software product might include criteria such as Server, Database, Browser, and so on. These criteria sets are test strategies.

To create a test strategy

1. Navigate to the Release screen, then the QA Test Strategies view.
2. From the visibility filter, select Strategy Administration.
3. Create a new strategy record, and complete the other fields as appropriate.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Release	Select the name or number of the product release associated with the test strategy.
   Test Class	Select the type of test pass for the test strategy.
   Web Srv App	Select the application that runs on the selected Web server.
   Interactivity	Select a value that indicates whether the test is in the high-interactivity or standard-interactivity client.

   After you save the test strategy, it appears as a choice in the Suggested Strategies field in the Strategy Test Plan Admin view.

4. Drill down on the Title field to access the QA Test Plans view if you want to associate test plans with the test strategy.
5. Select the test plan you want to associate to the current test strategy.

Recording Test Passes and Linking Test Plans

After a complete QA test plan is associated with a test strategy, you can run tests to validate the test plan. Because test plans are linked to features in Release Manager, QA managers can focus efforts of their teams on those test plans that are associated with the greatest number of new features. After executing each test, QA testers record the results in Release Manager and link each test pass to the test plan that it executes.

To record a test pass and link a test plan

1. Navigate to the Release screen, then the QA Tests view.
2. Create a new QA test record, and complete the fields as appropriate.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Tester	Select the individuals associated with the test. Set the individual who conducted the test as Primary.
   Release	Displays the name or number of the product release associated with the test.
   Date	Select the date and time when you conduct the test.
   Status	Select the prototype stability that you assess during the test.
   Cover %	Type the percentage of the test plan that test covers.
   Pass %	Type the percentage of the test plan that passed the test.
   Type	Select the type of test that you conduct.
   Build	Select the product prototype that you test.
   Server OS	Select the type of operating system running on the server computer in the test environment.
   Client OS	Select the type of operating system running on the client.
   Database	Select the type of database running in the test environment.
   Client Type	Select the type of test computer that you use.
   Interactivity	Select a value that indicates whether the test is in the high-interactivity or standard-interactivity client.

3. Drill down on the Test Plan field if you want to associate tests with the test plan.

Associating Change Requests with Test Passes

While performing a test pass, QA testers might encounter product defects and ideas for design improvements. QA testers record these defects and ideas as change requests and associate the change requests with the test pass where they find them. For more information about entering change requests, see Quality Management.

To associate a change request with a test pass

1. Navigate to the Release screen, then the QA Test Defects view.
2. In the Change Requests view, select the change requests that you want to associate with the test pass.

Monitoring Test Results

QA managers can then review test summary information to assess overall product quality and determine when the product is ready to ship.

In the QA Test Plans view, the tester assesses the number of test plan executions (passes) and the status of the last test plan execution. The more test plan passes and the higher the stability of the tested area, the greater the overall product quality.

QA managers can run queries on fields to pinpoint areas of risk to product quality. To identify the new product features that are minimally tested, and the features that might be unstable, complete the procedure in this topic.

To monitor test results

1. Navigate to the Release screen, then the QA Test Plans view.
2. In one of the following fields, create a query to identify the features that are incompletely tested or unstable:
   • In the Passes field, enter < n, where n is the minimum number of test iterations that you think is adequate at this point in the release.

     In each test plan the query returns, click the Related Features field to display the features that are at risk because they are not fully tested.

   • In the Last Build field, enter Unstable or another value in the Status field on the QA Tests view that represents a low-quality assessment.

     In each test plan the query returns, click the Related Features field to display the features that are at risk because they were not functional in the most recent test.