Overview of the HP adapter

Use the IBM® Rational® Adapter for HP ALM to link between artifacts in IBM Rational software products and resources in the HP ALM application lifecycle management product.

You can create associations between HP ALM and the Requirements Management (RM) application in the Rational solution for Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM) and Rational Team Concert™ artifacts. You can establish and maintain associations among Rational product artifacts and HP ALM resources throughout the application development lifecycle.

This adapter is for teams that use HP Quality Center for testing or requirements management and that include the following roles:
Restriction: RM capabilities that are provided by the RM application in CLM are licensed as Rational DOORS® Next Generation or IBM Rational Requirements Composer.

With the adapter, you can quickly switch between HP ALM and Rational applications. Testers who view resources in the HP Quality Center application can open the view of the same resource in the adapter with one click. Similarly, you can easily open resources in HP ALM from the adapter with the Launch HP ALM option on each adapter page, which opens a resource in HP ALM.

Linked data tasks

Integration of data is enabled by using the Open Service for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) standard, which uses a linked data model. There is no need to synchronize across repositories. The information that you see is not copied, but taken directly from the product repository. For more information about linked data and OSLC, see the related link.

With the rich hover feature, you can view linked HP ALM artifacts from CLM or the Rational HP ALM adapter interface so that you can work from a single interface if you choose.

In addition to viewing resources across products, with the Rational adapter for HP ALM, you can do the following tasks:
  • Establish and follow links among resources
  • Reconcile RM requirement collections or modules with HP ALM test folders to ensure test coverage of your requirements
  • Reconcile requirements in Rational RM requirement collections or modules with HP ALM requirements
  • Link failed test runs to work items in Rational Team Concert
  • Link change sets in Rational Team Concert to defects tracked in HP ALM
  • Configure predefined dashboard widgets to view data from HP ALM and CLM in one place, open a preview of those resources in the dashboard, or follow the link to open the resource in HP ALM.

Three places to use the adapter

You work with links between Rational artifacts and HP ALM resources in three places:
  • A web-based adapter user interface to work with links and see HP ALM resources
  • The HP ALM dashboard toolbar icons to access Rational dashboards and adapter resource pages, and to reconcile requirements and find suspicious links
  • Rational products to see what links exist between Rational artifacts and HP ALM resources

The HP adapter user interface

The interface consists of a set of resource pages where you can work with HP ALM resources that are linked to Rational artifacts. You use the adapter resource pages to view HP ALM resources that are linked to Rational artifacts and to create and delete links between resources and artifacts. The adapter web client provides a live view of HP ALM data. None of the data that you see is copied into Rational applications.

The adapter banner shows on all resource pages and contains theses elements:
  • Home (x): Returns you to the summary page for all projects.
  • Tools (x): Opens the main administration page for the adapter. From here, administrators can set properties, manage OAuth consumers, and configure friend servers.
  • Help (x); Shows a menu of configuration settings for the adapter or open the Information Center for product help.
  • Launch HP ALM (X): Opens the HP ALM client in a new window.

The adapter banner with the home icon, tool icon, and admin icon

The home page

The home page lists projects that are categorized by domain. The projects are registered to work with the adapter. For information about setting up project associations, see the related links. Selecting a domain lists all projects that are associated with it. You can return to the home page at any time by clicking the Image of Home icon, which shows as part of the adapter banner.

For each project, folders that represent HP ALM modules are shown. Selecting one of the folders shows a summary page for that module. Separate pages for Requirements, Test Plan, Test Lab, and Defects modules are included.

Default domain that is selected and showing the projects for that domain.

Summary pages

From a summary page, you can view project information for that resource type. Also, note the set of tabs for navigation to other resource pages, the search window, and the Launch HP ALM button. The information that is shown is taken directly from the HP ALM repository.

An example of a summary page.

The HP adapter toolbar in HP ALM modules

Toolbar icons and a supporting script are included in the sample HP ALM project that is included with the adapter for the Requirements, Test Plan, Test Lab, Manual Run, and Defects modules. To use other HP ALM projects with the adapter, you must enable these toolbar icons and scripts for the adapter. For information about enabling the toolbar icons and scripts for the adapter, see the related links.

The following table shows the icons that are added to the HP ALM toolbar in adapter-enabled modules.
Table 1. HP adapter icons added to the HP ALM toolbar
Icon Label Action
image of RM Dashboard icon RM Dashboard Opens the Requirements Management dashboard for the associated requirements management project.
image of CM Dashboard icon CM Dashboard Opens the Change and Configuration management dashboard for the associated change project.
image of Rational Adapter for HP ALM icon Resource Landing Page Opens the adapter resource page for the HP ALM module you are working in. The adapter resource page can be one of defects, test plan, test lab, manual run, or requirements.
     
Figure 1. Rational Adapter for HP ALM toolbar

HP ALM test run module with adapter toolbar

Links between types of artifacts

Link from Requirements Management (RM) application Link type Link to HP ALM Project Association
Requirements collection or module Validated by Test folder (test cases) Provides Requirements
Requirement Validated by Test case Provides Requirements
Requirements collection or module References Requirements folder Provides Related Requirements
Requirement References Requirement Provides Related Requirements
The following table lists Rational Team Concert artifacts and linkages and HP ALM resources. The association type must be enabled in the adapter's configuration to use these links.
Link from Rational Team Concert Link type Link to HP ALM Project Association
Defect Affects Test run Provides Defects
Plan item (including stories) Tested by Test case Provides Defects
Work item Related Change Request Defect Provides Related Change Requests
Change set Associated change set Defect Uses Change Sets
Plan item Affected by Defect Provides Related Change Requests
Defect Block Test instance Provides Defects
Development Plan (containing plan items) Tested by Test Folder Provides Defects
Work item Related Defects Test case Provides Defects

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