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INTRODUCTION TO APPLICATION LIFECYCLE 12.0

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Module 001 INTRODUCTION TO

APPLICATION LIFECYCLE 12.0

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort.”

– John Ruskin

Overview of the Course

Students learn how to manage quality information throughout the

development cycle, from constructing requirements, designing and executing tests,
through monitoring defects.

Students learn how to work with the Desktop client and the new Web client. In
addition, using the HP Sprinter and its new features are discussed, including:

. Using HP Sprinter on manual tests

. Using version control to keep track of changes and also to create and
manage libraries
. Creating and comparing baselines
. Importing and exporting from Microsoft Excel
. Generating reports and graphs using the dashboard
. Using cross-project customization and Project Planning and Tracking
(PPT)

Objectives:
After completing this module, you should be able to:

 Describe HP’s Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) product

 Describe the ALM hierarchy and roadmap

 Navigate through the ALM modules

 Describe the key features and benefits of ALM

 Identify what’s new in ALM version 12.0

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 Identify additional helpful resources

Researching beyond the coverage of this module is highly encouraged to

supplement your understanding of the topics covered. Always, think and see
beyond the box.
The citation provided is a guideline. Please check each citation for accuracy
before use.

So, what are we waiting for? Let us now explore the Lifecyle
Management of Application

Introduction

Challenge: Delivering Change Continuously and

Fast Is Risky

Applications are more complex than ever. Unlike single mono-block

Super Apps that were somehow easy to control, applications now are made of
multiple building blocks that must run coherently to deliver business processes.
Therefore, change in one place means change to the whole.
Change is constant for applications. New implementations, support
packs, and customizations continuously change apps. Speed of any change has
bottom-line impact. Change also comes with a cost, whether it is
implementation cost (project running cost per day) or maintenance cost. The
faster the change implemented, the lower the implementation costs.
As a result, delivering application changes under immense time-to-
market pressures increase the applications’ costs and, therefore, the business
costs. And this risk grows over time as more and more application changes built
on top of each other.
That’s why quality assurance by comprehensive testing is essential to control
risks while delivering changes fast.

Application Lifecycle Management

HP’s strategy and software approach for modern application delivery

starts with a unified platform. This platform is shared by HP ALM, HP Quality
Center (QC), and HP Performance Center (PC) and is designed to unify and
simplify the processes associated with delivering software applications and
enterprise releases. ALM allows stakeholders to work in their unique user
environments yet share information, workflows, tasks, and assets between
domains with complete traceability.
The integrations and traceability between these areas is key to ensuring
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management, visibility, and quality in the application lifecycle.

ALM addresses the key personas involved in the application lifecycle and who
are working toward one single, collaborative solution. These include:

 Business analysts
 Project reams
 Development reams
 QA reams

The Core Application Lifecycle

ALM empowers IT to manage the core application lifecycle, from

requirements through deployment, granting application teams the crucial visibility
and collaboration needed for predictable, repeatable, and adaptable delivery of
modern applications.
ALM supports you through all the phases of application lifecycle
management. By integrating the tasks involved in application management, ALM
enables you to better align IT with your business needs.
ALM has the following features:
 Provides a web-based repository for all testing assets and a
foundation for the entire testing process
 Establishes seamless integration and smooth information flow from
one stage of the application lifecycle process to the next
 Supports the analysis of test data and coverage statistics to provide
a clear picture of the accuracy and quality of an application at each
point in the lifecycle

The ALM Roadmap

This slide shows the ALM roadmap. ALM supports each of these key areas in
the
application build process. Release Specifications
ALM allows you develop a release and cycle management plan that will help
you
manage application releases and cycles more efficiently. You can track the
progress
of an application release, divide a release into cycles and then assign requirements
and defects to those release and cycles. You will then have the ability to review
those requirements and defects against your plan to determine whether your
release is on track. Requirement Specifications
ALM helps you define requirements to meet your business and testing needs.
You can manage the requirements and conduct multi-dimensional traceability
between requirements, tests, and defects across multiple releases and cycles.
ALM provides real-time visibility of requirements coverage. The links you create
allow you to keep track of the relationship between your requirements and tests.
In the Test Plan module, you create requirements coverage by selecting
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requirements to link to a test. Requirements coverage assists you in assessing the

impact of a change in the test or requirement. A test can cover more than one
requirement. The direct coverage status of a requirement reflects the execution
status of the tests covering the requirement and associated defects to evaluate
quality and business risk.
Test Planning
Based on the project requirements, you can build test plans and design tests.
ALM provides a repository for both manual and automated tests.
Test Execution
You can create a subset of the tests in your project designed to achieve
specific test goals. ALM supports sanity, functional, regression, and advanced
testing. You can execute scheduled tests to diagnose and resolve problems.
Lab Management
You can run server-side functional test sets immediately or you can schedule
them for the future. Functional test sets are run without user intervention and
can be run as a part of a build verification suite to automate and streamline the
deployment and testing process.
Defect Tracking
You can submit defects and track their repair progress. Analyzing defects and
defect trends helps you make effective go/no-go decisions. ALM supports the
entire defect lifecycle from initial problem detection through fixing the defect
and verifying the fix.
Throughout the application lifecycle, you can monitor and control strategic
points by generating reports and graphs.

The ALM Core Portfolio

The full ALM edition contains additional features that enable sharing
across projects. These features include the ability to import, synchronize, and
share libraries, share defects, and perform cross-project customization.
This course is based on ALM 12.0. For information about training for
the full ALM edition, contact the HP Software Education group at
www.hp.com/software/education.

ALM User Interface (UI)

The ALM landing page has seven links:

The ALM Desktop Client and the ALM Web Client links provide access to
ALM through either the traditional desktop client or the new v12 Web client.
Note: You can view the Web client using a variety of web browsers, but the
traditional desktop client is limited to the standard browsers.
The Lab Management link supports continuous integration and delivery
practices, by providing tools for automatically deploying test environments and
scheduling functional and performance tests with or without user intervention.
The My Performance Center link is most often used by the performance test
team, to manage and execute performance based automation and test results.
An HP ALM – Performance Center license must be purchased and installed for
this module to be in working order.
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Your site administrator uses the Site Administration link to perform such
tasks as managing ALM domains and projects and for controlling ALM user
access.
The Tools link provides access to additional tools available for use with
ALM. For example, the HP Quality Center Connectivity add-in enables you to
work with other HP and third-party testing tools.
The Readme link provides access to the latest product release notes.

ALM Hierarchy

At the top level of ALM is the domain. You can set up domains in ALM in
any way you want based on your requirements and associated processes.
For example, you can use a domain to distinguish a particular line of business
(LOB) within an organization. An LOB is an independent business unit within an
organization that has its own set of rules, standards, processes, resources, and
objectives. Each LOB can customize its ALM domain to align directly with its
own unique business requirements and internal processes.
Each LOB is typically responsible for one or more software applications.
You can manage each application within an organization separately and group
them by projects in ALM.
You can develop and manage software development projects using
different releases. A release represents a group of software changes that is
available for distribution to a customer at the same time.
Each release can have a number of cycles. A cycle represents a
development and QA cycle based on a project timeline. Both releases and cycles
have defined time lines.

ALM Site Administration

The ALM system administrator creates and manages both domains and
projects using the ALM Site Administrator feature. This screenshot displays how
the domains and projects are managed from the Site Administrators point of
view.
To understand more about Site Administration and Project
Customization, you can register and attend the ALM350 – ALM Site and Project
Administration course.

ALM UI – Web Client

The ALM Web client offers a new alternative UI 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.
Currently, the modules supported by ALM Web client are Requirements
and Defects.
The ALM Web client has features not available in the ALM Desktop client, such
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as:
Author mode – A document-centric viewing mode that enables you to see
a list of requirements in a single document view and allows for quick
editing of descriptions. This helps you to better understand the big
picture.
 Category views – A dynamic hierarchical structure based on virtual
folders allows for flexibility in manipulating the Requirements view.
Views can be updated on-the-fly by selecting new category fields. This
flexibility lets you determine the way in which requirements are
organized.
Because the ALM Web client does not download client components on to
your computer, you do not need administrative privileges to use ALM. The ALM
Web client is not browser-dependent and works on various operating systems.
See the ALM Release Notes for supported browsers and operating systems.
To access ALM, open your Web browser and enter your ALM URL: http://<ALM
server name/IP address>[<:port number>]/qcbin
Note: If ALM was configured for external authentication, the Name and
Password fields do not appear in this window.

ALM Cross-Browser Support/What’s New

Seamless Identity Management/What’s New

External Authentication
ALM supports external authentication systems, such as Smart Card
Authentication and Single Sign-on (SSO):
 Smart Card Authentication – Smart cards are physical devices used to
identify users in secure systems. These cards can be used to store
certificates both verifying the user's identity and allowing access to
secure environments. Currently, ALM supports one type of smart card
authentication, Common Access Card (CAC). ALM is Joint
Interoperability Test Command (JITC) certified
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 Single Sign-on – SSO is a session/user authentication process that

permits a user to enter one name and password to access multiple
applications. Currently, ALM supports one type of SSO authentication,
SiteMinder.
ALM can be configured to use these external authentication systems in place
of the standard model of each user manually entering a user name and
password.

ALM UI – Accessing the Web Client

Requirements Management and Defects Management are the two

modules that have been completely redesigned as part of this release of ALM.
Working in the Requirements module using the ALM Web client helps
you to define, manage, and track requirements at all stages of the application
lifecycle.
Using the ALM Web client, you can report flaws in your application and
track their repair during all stages of the application management process.

ALM UI – Web Client Requirements Page

Managing Requirements/What’s New

New Traceability View

The new Traceability view feature provides more comprehensive
traceability capabilities, including:
 Grid views are available for drilling-down to specific traceability links. In
these views, you can filter items and select the fields to be displayed
 When viewing traceability for requirements, you can choose to include
child requirements. You can also include both direct and indirect links
when viewing
Defects Linked to a Requirement
You can now search requirements by description name and then link
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them, rather than just linking them by ID.

Authoring Requirements/What’s New

The improved functionality when authoring multiple requirements as

part of a single document now lets you:
 Add or delete requirements from within the document view
 Choose between using the ALM Desktop Client Rich Text tab or the
Description field as the body of each requirement in the document
 Export requirements to HTML, PDF, and Word formats

ALM UI – Web Client Defects Page

Managing Defects/What’s New

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Creating and Sharing Workspaces/What’s New

Simple Customization/What’s New

General Enhancements Added to Customization

Enhancements include:
 A new Edit & Lock feature that enables one administrator to have
exclusive access to customization, while others can view existing
settings.
 Staging and production. You can now define your business rules and
forms in a project set up for staging, and when ready, export the business
rules to the project in production
Forms
Improvements to the form designer and to form rendering make it easier to
create forms:
 Drag and drop fields can be reordered when you design a form.
 A read-only system default form is now available. You can duplicate this
form to create your own forms. You can also always revert to the system
default form, if necessary
 The ALM Web client can now optimize space by determining how many
fields fit on one line in a form.
Business Rules
Additional functionality provides the administrator with more capabilities for
enforcing organization policies and for dictating workflow. Key new business
rules features include:
 Filtering the list of rules in the grid by entering text. Only rules whose
action, condition, or remark match the text are listed.
 Creating rules without a condition. That is, they will be evaluated
unconditionally.
 Basing your rule condition on the values of fields that refer to other
modules, such as a Target Release or Target Cycle from the Releases
module
 Defining rules that:
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 Select different lookup for both user-defined and system fields

 Limit filed lookup list values to a subset of those values
 Send emails when an entity is created, deleted, or modified
 Set field values when an entity is created or a field is modified

ALM UI – Desktop Client

The ALM Desktop client opens the ALM client application in the browser
or stand-alone with access to all project modules.
Each time ALM is run, it carries out a version check. If it detects a newer
version, it downloads the necessary files to your machine.
If file downloads are prohibited through your browser, you can install
these files by using the HP ALM Client MSI Generator add-in, available from the
HP Application Lifecycle Management Add-ins page (Help ␣ Add-ins).
After the ALM version has been checked and files have been updated (if
necessary), the ALM Login window is displayed.
Note: If ALM was configured for external authentication, the Name and
Password fields do not appear in this window.
To access ALM, open your Web browser and type your ALM URL:
http://<ALM server name/IP address>[<:port number>]/qcbin

Simplified User Experience/What’s New

ALM UI – Desktop Client GUI

The ALM masthead, sidebar, and Pinned Items panel are common to all
ALM views.
You can pin a requirement, test plan, or defect to enable you to jump to
that item quickly, no matter which module you are in.
Example
Assume you are a program manager and want to monitor the
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implementation of a specific requirement. By pinning it, you can quickly access

it from any module in ALM, without having to open the Requirements Module
and search for it. ALM lets you pin as many as 10 items for any project. A pinned
item is specific to the user name with which you logged on.
To exit and return to the ALM Login window, click the Logout button
located in the upper-right corner of the window. Alternatively, on the ALM
masthead, click <Domain, Project> and choose Select to log in to a different
project.
Note: When an ALM user session is inactive for a period of time, the session
expires. This releases the license in use, making it available for other users.

ALM UI – Help and Documentation

The Help section enables you to open the ALM documentation library
and other online resources.

Focus, Micro. Customized Application Lifecycle Management 12.0 Essentials

Student Guide Part 1 of 2. Micro Focus. VitalBook file.

The citation provided is a guideline. Please check each citation for accuracy
before use.

Project Planning and Tracking

ALM project planning and tracking (PPT) functionality enables quality

assurance managers to track application readiness by defining goals for
activities of an application release. You can track application readiness by
defining milestones for application release activities in the Releases module and
use of KPIs to analyze the data of your defined milestones.
The overall health and deployment readiness of a release is displayed as
a scorecard. The scorecard monitors and tracks how well each milestone is met
on a daily basis. To further analyze your output, you can generate dashboard
reports and graphs.

Baselining

Baselining allows you to capture a group of requirements, tests, or test

assets at strategic points in the project lifecycle to mark specific milestones. You
can compare baselines to assess the impact of changes and enable rollback of
assets, if required.
Key Benefits
The key benefits of baseling include:
 Providing a snapshot of the project state at a particular point in time
 Enabling rollback of assets to key points in the application lifecycle
 Comparing baselines to assess changes
 Using baselines in test execution
Key Capabilities
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The key capabilities of baseline include:

 Creating baselines, including traceability between assets
 Comparing baselines, both at a high level and in drilldown to specific
changes
 Reporting and printing baselines for sign-off
 Controlling who can create and modify baselines

References and Supplementary Materials

Books and Journals

Micro. Customized Application Lifecycle Management 12.0 Essentials

Student Guide
Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
http://hp.com/software/education

Markov, Georgi and Druzhinina, Olga; 2011; Towards an industrial ALM

(Application Lifecycle) Tool Integration; Blekinge Institute of Technology,
School of Computing