The Seapine View

Escalation rules allow you to evaluate a certain condition on a continuous, scheduled basis. The most common use for escalation rules is to prevent inactivity on items. For example, every day at midnight, check for any items that have not been modified in the last 3 days. Escalation rules also allow you to configure an action or actions to perform on any item that matches the criteria, which is specified in the form of a filter.
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We recently released a new requirements management product, TestTrack RM.

The early feedback on the product has been great. TestTrack RM is proving to be a valuable addition to the TestTrack family, which also includes TestTrack Pro (defect management) and TestTrack TCM (test case management).

While TestTrack RM provides many benefits on its own, the real power comes when it is used as an integrated solution with the other TestTrack applications. For example, you can easily determine if you have proper test coverage by ensuring that a test case has been created for every requirement. You can easily flag a test case if a requirement has changed, avoiding testing stale data and wasting time and money. For this post, I want to focus on one of the biggest benefits: complete traceability.
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If you use Surround SCM or any other robust software configuration management tool (gasp!), chances are you are using branches to manage your software development process. Depending on your branch strategy, you may find yourself with a defect that exists across multiple branches. There are many ways to manage this situation, the best one for you will depend on your environment and needs.

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In my last post, SQL Is Still Your Friend,  I wrote about using SQL to query TestTrack data.  As a continuation of that thought, I wanted to bring a query tool to your attention: Microsoft Excel.  There are plenty of alternatives to using Excel for queries but it has two major advantages: 1) almost everyone uses MS Office so your spreadsheet is portable and 2) after you retrieve the data from the database, you can use the extensive library of Excel functions to work with the data.
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My co-workers and I have documented several ways of getting information out of TestTrack including using the TestTrack Software Developer Kit (SDK).  For this entry, I’d like to focus on a tried and true friend: SQL. The Structured Query Language has been used for over 25 years and it still is a good tool to have.  SQL Server, Oracle, mySQL, and PostgreSQL all have a query tool to easily retrieve data.  The TestTrack Native database has a, ODBC driver so you can use products like Microsoft Access to query.

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Last week, Seapine Software presented a webinar called “Transparent Traceability in Life Sciences: A practical approach to compliance in your development lifecycle”.  The program was presented by Paula Rome, Sr. Product Manager, and myself and was moderated by Jay Luis, VP of Marketing.  Preparing for these webinars is harder than I thought but we’re all very happy with the result.
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In this installment of the TestTrack SDK Helpful Hint posts, I am going to discuss ways to troubleshoot issues when programming with the SOAP SDK.

Basic Programming Tips

If you are using the TestTrack SDK, chances are that you have some familiarity with programming, so the following list is probably nothing new to you:

• Run in Debug mode: If you are in an Integrated Development Environment, chances are you have the ability to use breakpoints and run the application in Debug mode. With the TestTrack SDK, you could see how a CDefect object is being built, like the array of CEvents used in the workflow.
• Print out to console: If you are not in an Integrated Development Environment and do not have access to breakpoints, then you might only be able to print to console the values of variables to make sure everything is being built correctly.
• Keep it simple: Start simple and build up until you run into the issue. For example, let’s say you are writing an application that logs in to TestTrack, gets a list of defects based on field values, gets a number of them for modification, and then logs out. When you run the application you get exceptions. So where is the problem?  Break it down. First, write a simple application that logs in and out of TestTrack. Did that cause a problem?  Then add the code to get the defect list. Did that cause a problem? So you get the idea. You keep building it up until the issue appears again. This should allow you to isolate the issue.

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TestTrack 2010, our biggest TestTrack update in recent memory, shipped yesterday. There is something for everyone in TestTrack 2010, including the introduction of our new requirements management tool called TestTrack RM.

Take a look at what’s new in TestTrack 2010 and learn more about TestTrack RM. From requirements management through development, testing, delivery, and customer feedback, TestTrack 2010 provides unparalleled management and traceability of development artifacts. Said another way, TestTrack 2010 is sure to become your best friend if you’re involved in the management of software product development.

When approaching a programming task using the TestTrack SDK, it is sometimes helpful to first think about how you perform the same task using the TestTrack client. The process is often very similar and can help you understand why things need to be done a certain way when using the SDK.

In this post, I will discuss logging in, so think about that process when you log in using the TestTrack client. The process is as follows:

- Open the TestTrack client.
- Select the server to connect to.
- Provide your username.
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From time to time the question comes up about how to move the defects from one TestTrack project to another. The answer depends on how different the projects are.

TestTrack has XML export/import and that is the preferred method. There are some key advantages to this method, namely the ability to move attachments and multiple instances of report by records and workflow events. The disadvantage is that, if fields or workflow events do not match, they are not imported. This is likely to be the case if the projects are different in field layout and workflow configuration.

Text export/import may be preferred if you have different projects because you can map fields. For example, you can import the value from the “Project” field in the source project into the “Component” field in the destination project. You have greater control over which fields are exported/imported.
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