XQual discount for EuroSTAR conference

We'll be at EuroSTAR in Amsterdam from 6-8 November and are please to bring you a 10% discount on your ticket!

Register at http://www.eurostarconferences.com and simply use the code: XQAL2012

See you there!

XStudio 1.7: Public search/filters

Starting with XStudio 1.7 you have the possibility to share your search/filters on:

- tasks, 

- requirements, 

- specifications, 

- tests/test cases,

- and of course bugs.

Here is how it looks like for the bugs:

A new toolbar allows to create a new search/save/save as/edit/delete the search.

To open a predefined search/filter, just click on the open button and pick one in the list.

Note that the search/filter window is NOT modal so you can keep it aside and use it when you want. Clicking on an entry in the search window will select the item in the main XStudio window: pretty easy and practical as you have a filtered view + the normal tree accessible in parallel.

The item list is as usual updated dynamically while you edit the criteria.

Release of XStudio 1.6sp4

XStudio maintenance release 1.6sp4 has been delivered.

Here is the change log:

   * Ability to create and link bugs from manual launchers when interfaced with
     JIRA, Mantis, Bugzilla, TRAC, Generic connectors
   * Include the name of the schedule in the session's name
   * Defect report: include 'Found in' and 'Fixed in' (SUTs)
   * Keep as much as possible the former order of the tests in a campaign when:
     - adding/removing some tests from this campaign
     - copying this campaign (and adding/removing tests on the fly)
   * All dialogs are now NOT modal and NOT on top anymore except for MOVE/DELETE
   * Manual launchers's dialog NOT on top anymore
   * Bug-fixes:
     - Schedule's SUT not identifiable
     - Impossible to submit a commment on not executed manual tests
     - Performance issues with Free, Pro and Business licenses
     - Now able to use "All combinations", "Pairwise", and "Import Dataset from
       CSV" feature even with a single parameter
     - Wrong header order in the specification report
     - When creating/linking some bugs from the Tabular_manual launcher they
       do not appear in the list on the test cell   
     - Exception when retrieving tests and testcases including special characters
       in their name because of the parametrization (pairwise algo/dataset)
     - Tabular manual launcher: display DISTINCT bugs in the test cell
     - Create generic bug on the fly fails
     - Oracle db: exception while affecting a bug to session's tests
     - Localization typos 
     - Couldn't delete a bug of type "generic"
     - Duplicate custom field values (from SUT/test cases) sent to the launcher
     - Generated tests from requirements/specs cannot be executed
     - Third-party requirement or bug-tracking system should not appear while
       editing a team's access rights 

XStudio 1.7: Automatic generation of residual tests campaigns

Let's imagine you have 4 different test campaigns that have been possibly executed by different people.

These 4 campaigns may have tests in common (maybe all of them, maybe none...)

They have been executed possibly several times each.

Now, I'd like to create a new campaign containing only a selection of the failing tests from these 4. This could be tests that failed once in the iterations or only those that have failed in the last iteration etc.

This manual task may be pretty tough and boring.

But it's easy enough with XStudio 1.7's automatic generation of residual tests campaigns.

Step1: Select all the source sessions

Step2: Choose a destination folder and define the rules that will be used to generate the residual campaign

Step3: It's done!

  

Release of XStudio 1.6sp3

XStudio maintenance release 1.6sp3 has been delivered.

It fixes a couple of minor issues (mostly only when used with an Oracle database):

   * Additional protection while printing the custom fields (in the launchers)
   * Additional protection on changes information length <= 255 chars
   * Bug-fixes:
     - Localization of certain terms not found in not-English languages
     - Files in the doc tree are never detected as locked (Oracle only)
     - Improved Spanish localization
     - Some large text fields does not support > 4000 characters (Oracle only)
       * defect: defect_description, step_to_reproduce, fix_description
       * test: test_description, test_prerequisites, additional_info
       * test case: testcase_steps, testcase_description, additional_info
       * requirement: requirement_description
       * specification: specification_description
     - Couldn't change the value of the defect custom fields (Oracle only)
     - Do not escape CLOBS when inserting them (Oracle only)
     - Workaround to avoid having a " " canonical path

XQual on Sogeti's alliances web site

XQual on Sogeti's Spain alliances page:

http://www.es.sogeti.com/Como-trabajamos/Nuestras-Allianzas/ 

GREAT new partner!!!

http://www.xqual.com/products/partners.html

Release of XStudio 1.6sp2

In case you missed it, XStudio 1.6sp2 has been released on http://www.xqual.com

Change log:

   * New certificate (valid until 2015)
   * Read-only fields more readable
   * Bug-fixes:
     - Merge rules updated (not executed status never taken in consideration)
     - Couldn't execute XAgent with an Oracle database (Exception while
       retrieving the schedule candidates)
     - XAgent don't execute the tests!  
     - Exception possibly thrown if requirements retrieved from JIRA while:
       . generating some specifications from requirements
       . generating some tests from requirements (if specs are disabled)
       . selecting requirements associated with a specification
       . selecting requirements associated with a test (if specs are disabled)
     - Scheduling of sessions not working with Oracle DB
     - xls2xml_reqs_specs_tests.xls does not support UTF-8 characters

Release of XStudio 1.6a6

This has been released yesterday.

It includes many bug fixes as well as the major new feature that add to your SUT and campaign tree a "Quality" column indicating an index of quality of the SUT.

Details of the 1.6a6 add'ins:

   * Quality metrics on the SUT tree
   * Quality metrics on the campaign tree
   * New unified colors for progress bars
   * New areas selector on the left-hand side
   * Agent not responding timeout set to 30 seconds
   * Bug-fixes:
     - Incorrect UI indicators when a session is queued too long on
       an agent
     - Session not starting when queued more than 15 minutes on a remote
       agent busy with some other sessions
     - Refresh the progress at the end of a session execution
     - Too many stats recorded: XStudio frozen when selecting the integrated
       bug-tracking root node
     - Wrong color returned for the graph in the iPhone/iPad app.
     - Incorrect statistics reported in email notifications when re-executing
       a manual session
     - Exception while selecting some folder in the Campaign's content tab in
       the upper test tree
     - Main tree refresh issues (ordering) if defect tree is not in the user
       profile
     - Exception and inconsistent behaviour when modifying sprints and backlogs
       (due to velocity chart refresh)
     - Incorrect Bamboo report generated in case of test failure with messages
       (typo in the CDATA opening tag)
     - No more timeout on the sessions that have been queued for a long time.
       The 30s timeout for "not responding agents" now applies only starting
       from the point where the session has really been started by (at least)
       one agent.
     - Wrong background in the campaign tree in some cells
     - Force the stop even when a session did not really started (in ARMED
       state)
     - setCampaignSessionAgentStatus() called only the first time
     - Error while trying t get the ascending/descending icons
     - "generate spec" vs "generate test" button depending on if the
       specifications are enabled in the PLC
     - Coverage label different in the form depending on if the specifications
       are enabled in the PLC
     - Generate specifications does not update coverage on the requirement if
       necessary
     - Generate tests does not update coverage on the requirement if necessary
     - Same width on progress bars in the same tree
     - Wrong new SQL query to retrieve latest results (for quality)

Enjoy!

XStudio 1.6: New outstanding quality metrics!

When it's about test management, you're looking for some simple ways to know the "quality" of the system under test. It's often something impossible to obtain easily.

You can get it without a single click with XStudio Business or XStudio Enterprise 1.6a6.

The new indicators appear first on the SUT tree so that you have for each SUT its quality. The quality is computed from:

- its functional coverage percentage

- the latest results of each meaningful test cases (test cases covering the SUT):

Mixed with the recently added Coverage column, this is just amazingly powerful. You can also get the details of the meaningful test cases results on the next column on the right.

You will also get the same indicators on the campaign tree. In this case for each session, the quality is computed from the test case results obtained (only test cases functionally covering the SUT are retained) vs the total number of test cases covering the SUT (associated with the session):

Simple isn't it?

XStudio 1.6: New progress metrics

One of the most important question you need to figure out when you're a test manager is "when my test campaigns execution will be completed".

You can get the answer to this question without a single click starting with XStudio 1.6a5.

There are 2 different types of progress metric you can get:

• Progress in terms of test cases executed versus test cases left
• Progress in terms of timing: how much time has already been spent but more importantly how much time will be necessar to complete the execution. When you create a test in XStudio you will be asked to give an estimated time for execution. But each time this test is executed, XStudio measures the effective time spent and correct the original estimation. The time necessary to execute a test is calculated from the ten last execution and allows estimating the time necessary to complete the session execution.

The metrics are available directly from the general campaign tree.

When you select "Test cases executed" in the selector at the top of the tree you 'll get the progress in terms of test cases executed:

If you select "Estimated time" in the selector at the top of the tree you 'll get the progress in terms of time spent vs time still needed to complte the session:

The even better news is that If you organize your campaigns in folders that represent something (a functional area, a complete release, a package etc.), the system will consolidate the progress and recursively propagate the metric to parent folders.

This way you know how much time is necessary to finish all the sessions included within a folder for instance.

This feature is available in XStudio Professional, XStudio Business and XStudio Enterprise.

 

Release of XStudio 1.5sp4

XStudio 1.5sp4 has been released and is available for download here: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html

This is a minor maintenance release. 

No schema update or configuration changes are necessary.

Changes:

   New web package html home page
   Bug-fixes:
     - CReqTreeModel used in specification's traceability matrix
     - Cannot delete bug attachments
     - Test cases are not automatically created
     - User can assign user group's member only when he has the relevant rights
     - Typos in rights management tree
     - Do not truncate the test and test case path in the tabular manual launcher
     - Auto-wrap long test and testcase names in the right panel
     - When a test name is very long, running the test directly can produce sql failure
     - Params: additional checks on the number of combinations
     - Pairwise algo: negative number of combinations displayed in the preview panel
     - Specification priority and status not imported

XStudio 1.6a2: Oracle support completed!

It has been tough! very tough!!!

Much more time-consuming than we planned.

We saw here the limits of SQL standard ;) 

But anyway, here we are :)

XStudio now supports Oracle 11g.

A new "Database server type" setting has been added where the user can select either MySql or Oracle from the drop-down menu. Then, the user needs to provide appropriate information to connect to the Oracle instance:

That's the only change visible...
This will be available with XStudio 1.6a2+ (as a plugin)

Atom feed created

... so that it should be easier to automatically import feeds in LinkedIn groups etc.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/xqualblog

XStudio 1.6a1: Requirement coverage on sessions

Some new coverage metrics will be added in XStudio 1.6a1 including probably the most interesting one everybody is looking for: requirements and specifications coverage.

Here is how it looks like:

What you can observe in this new "Requirements" tab design:

- individual results of requirements/specifications (not covered, success, failure, unknown)

- for each container, the nb of requirement with a specific result

- for each container, some visual indication on the percentage of each

Hope you like it!

XStudio 1.6a1: Mixed test campaigns

Mixed campaign is a long story. This feature has been requested for long but it was technically requiring so many changes in the code architecture that it had been delayed several times. 

But now it's done!

In terms of GUI, the changes are minimal though. you will notice only a couple of new radio buttons in the campaign's "Order" panel:

When you create a new test campaign, just select all the tests you want to be part of that campaign. These tests can be of different kinds (i.e. 3 Selenium scripts + 2 JUnit tests + 4 manual tests). You can reorder those tests manually by using the order toolbar but you can also use one of the two automatic ordering buttons (this will reorder automatically your tests by dependencies or by priorities).

Here comes the news: you have now 2 new options:

1) execute tests from different categories in parallel

In this case, tests from each category will be gathered and executed in a separate and independant thread. Within a single category/thread, all the tests will be executed following the order globally defined but each category will be running on its own and only its set of tests. In this case, there is NO synchronization between categories/launchers.

2) execute tests from different categories in sequence exactly as defined in the order you just set

In this case, the system will execute the tests exactly in the order you defined. At one time there will be only one launcher working.

This second option makes it possible to create sequences of tests mixing completely automated tests with manual tests. For instance, this could allow to manually configure a system then run all the automated tests and complete the campaign by performing some additional manual cleaning operations. This also allows mixing different types of automated tests in one single sequence.

I Cannot think yet about all this brings but it definitely brings a lot of opportunities in your way to test!