HP ALM – Find the ActionName of the object and action

Looking to find the action that you want to ascribe code to?  Here’s a quick tip to get the correct ActionName of the buttonpress in HP ALM:

In the ALM Script Editor (Tools | Customize | Workflow | Script Editor) copy this function to the Defects module script:

Function ActionCanExecute(ActionName)

On Error Resume Next

msgbox "The ActionName is: " & ActionName

On Error GoTo 0

End Function

Save and exit the Script Editor and return to the main screen, selecting Major Change where prompted.

To test this we’ll go to the Defects module and press the [New Defect...] button. We get two messageboxes telling us what the ActionNames are (you’ll need to click through the first box to get the second one):

If you’re on a system being used by other testers, don’t forget to go back into Script Editor and delete or comment out your code. I’d recommend just commenting it out so that you can easily reuse it next time – be sure to add comments to the code so that other Admins know what it is there for.

HP ALM - Internet Explorer Protected Mode

A new user received the following error when trying to start HP ALM for the first time. Windows 7, Internet Explorer 8:

Internet Explorer is configured to run in Protected Mode. Deployment is Aborted.

Contact your system administrator. For details, see the Loader log file.

Select Tools | Internet Options | Security to enable or disable the Protected Mode:

Integration Testing Handover Sheets

I picked up a tip from a fellow tester a while ago and it's been serving us well in our last couple of deployments - handover sheets (aka runsheets).

All of our integration scenarios are in HP ALM, and given the modular nature of the scenarios we have folders for each activity in the scenario so that testers from the relevant stream can include their tests:

This layout is fine for modularisation, and we can report directly on overall test progress (total planned, executed, pass/fail) from ALM's reporting ability.

However, as we're running multiple test scenarios concurrently it did pose us with two problems - whereabouts are we with each scenario, and is there an easier way for each tester in the scenario to follow the document trail other than having to go into each preceding test to review the test results to glean the document numbers.

Enter the handover sheet. It's a paper sheet that summarises the scenario in business-speak, and the testers note down their material document numbers once they've completed their parts of the scenario, literally being handed over from tester to tester as each part of the scenario is completed.

It's an easy way to keep the trail of the scenario, and it's more visual than the document numbers hidden amongst the tests in ALM.  It's also very easy to simply hand over the finished sheet to anyone who wants to trace the scenario through the test client (auditors, etc).