New features in IBM Rational DOORS for HP Quality Center Interface

New features in IBM Rational DOORS for HP
Quality Center Interface
More control and flexibility to synchronize DOORS and Quality
Center data

Skill Level: Advanced

Ian J. Compton (ian.compton@uk.ibm.com)
Senior Test Architect
IBM

31 May 2011

New features in the latest release of IBM® Rational® DOORS® for HP Quality
Center Interface, Version 3.5, help you to better manage the synchronization of large
amounts of data between the two tools. They also give you more flexibility and more
control. This article explains how and why.

Overview of interface benefits and new features
The IBM® Rational® DOORS® for HP Quality Center Interface allows you to
synchronize data between the Rational DOORS requirements management software
and the HP Quality Center, a test and defect management tool. Requirements can
be transferred from Rational DOORS modules to an HP Quality Center project, and
tests and defects can be transferred in either direction. This enables DOORS users
to access test and defect information related to requirements and HP Quality Center
users to access information about requirements related to test cases, each without
switching to another tool.

Significant new features

Version 3.5 introduces the following major capabilities:

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• Improved performance of single synchronization tasks
• Improved scalability of multiple synchronization tasks
• Enhanced administration features
The sections that follow describe these new capabilities.

Improved performance of single synchronization tasks
This feature is of particular interest if you need to perform synchronizations of large
amounts of data as a single task. The rate at which data can be exchanged is limited
by the slowest part of the link, which was found to be the rate at which data can be
read and, even more particularly, written to HP Quality Center. This limit can be
exacerbated if version control is being employed on the HP Quality Center project,
because that adds overhead to the rate at which data can be written.

In this version, this lag time is alleviated because you can now configure the data
connection to the HP Quality Center, splitting a single large, sequential
synchronization task into a number of smaller tasks that run in parallel. You can
specify the number of sessions to use and the number of objects to synchronize in
each session, as Figure 1 shows.

Figure 1. Modify the configuration


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For example, if you were to configure the Quality Center connection to have 3
sessions, with 1024 objects in each chunk, then a synchronization of 5120 objects
would run 3 parallel sessions, each synchronizing 1024 objects, followed by 2 more
parallel sessions that synchronize the remaining two sets of 1024 objects.

There is overhead incurred in splitting the task, and the number of sessions to use
will depend on the capabilities of the server that you are running the interface on.
But you now have the potential to greatly reduce the time that it takes to complete
large synchronization tasks.

Improved scalability of multiple synchronization tasks
This feature is of particular interest if you need to perform many synchronizations of
small amounts of data, as separate tasks. Previously, you could run only one task at
a time. You can configure this new version to allow parallel processing (see Figure
2), and you can then run up to four tasks in parallel.

Figure 2. Enable parallel synchronization tasks (optional)



For example, if you set the global synchronization options to enable parallel
synchronization tasks, and you had a schedule that ran many tasks, then up to four
of these would run in parallel. This potentially greatly increases throughput, with the
extent depending on the capabilities of the server where you are running the
interface. Figure 3 shows the task scheduling window, where you specify the
scheduled time, recurrence frequency and days, and recurrence time range.

Figure 3. Select scheduling options for tasks



Larger view of Figure 3.

In conjunction with this change, a new option has been added to the scheduling
configuration for specification of the priority of a task, from 1-5. With the ability to run
several tasks in parallel, you will be more likely to schedule multiple tasks to run at
the same time. Setting a priority allows for control over which tasks are selected first
when more tasks are scheduled to run than can be run at the time.

Enhanced administration features
The UI for Interface Administration now gives you more flexibility and more control of
the configuration of synchronization tasks.

Configuration of types of synchronization

This new version introduces a new synchronization configuration option that you can
use to specify what aspects of data are synchronized: content, structure, or links
(see Figure 4). This increases the efficiency of synchronization, because you can
update only the aspects of the data that you are interested in keeping synchronized,
thus it takes less time.

Figure 4. Configure type of synchronization




Here are configuration suggestions for particular user scenarios:

• You want to transfer requirements from Rational DOORS to an HP
Quality Center project, and then you want to rearrange the structure of the
requirements in the HP Quality Center project, moving them to different
folders. You can now achieve this by configuring your synchronization
task to synchronize content but not structure. Any changes to the data in
the requirements will get synchronized, but any changes to structure will
not.
• You want to synchronize the linking of requirements and tests after the
requirements have been signed off for a release. Because you know that
the contents of the requirements are not going to change further, enable
only synchronization of links. Then the overhead of checking for changes
in data and structure is eliminated from the synchronization task, thus
reducing the time that it takes.
• You want to synchronize requirements from Rational DOORS to an HP
Quality Center project so that test cases can be written against them. This
is an early stage of the project, and you are not interested in seeing the
linking between requirements and tests in DOORS until test and



requirement development is closer to complete. Enable synchronization of
content and structure, but not of links, thereby eliminating this overhead.
You can enable synchronization of links later when you need to see the
links between requirements and tests.
Common attribute maps

In previous versions of the interface, for every synchronization task, you needed to
specify an attribute mapping to indicate which of the attributes of the data endpoints
should have their data synchronized and what the pairings between attributes should
be. We received feedback from some users who said that they tend to have a
standard set of attributes for all of their data, so they would prefer a standard
attribute map that they could reuse, rather than having to enter the same information
for each new task that they create.

To respond to this request, the new version introduces the concept of a common
attribute map. The process now is to:

1. Create a named attribute map by using a representational IBM Rational
DOORS module and HP Quality Center project as data endpoints, and
containing the standard sets of attributes to be mapped.

2. Perform the mapping between the attributes, and save the attribute map,
as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Create a common attribute map




3. Create a task under this attribute map so that it will use the attribute
mappings that it contains, but specify the actual data endpoints to use for
this task, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Create a synchronization task




Another advantage of common attribute maps is that a change can be made to the
map (to add another attribute, for example), and that change gets applied to all of
the tasks that use the attribute map, rather than having to update each task
individually.

To make the best use of this feature, it would be a good idea to create Rational
DOORS modules as templates for each data type that you are synchronizing, such
as requirements, tests, or defects. These template modules need to contain all of the
attributes that you want to synchronize in your synchronization tasks. Create an
attribute mapping using these modules as endpoints and, as the other endpoint,
specify an HP Quality Center project that also contains all of the attributes that you
want to synchronize. Now you can create synchronization tasks by using these
attribute maps and specify the actual endpoints that you want to use.

Summary
Version 3.5 of Rational DOORS for HP Quality Center Interface introduces
significant features that greatly increase performance and scalability, both for
handling larger synchronizations and for handling large numbers of small
synchronizes. The Administration user interface has been improved and reworked to
accommodate additional control over how synchronizations are performed. It also



introduces common attribute maps, which simplify handling multiple synchronization
tasks that use the same mappings.



Resources
Learn
• Browse the Rational DOORS developerWorks page for links to technical articles
and many related resources, and explore the instructions in the Rational
DOORS Information Center.
• Get detailed instructions for Using the Rational DOORS for HP Quality Center
Interface.
• Visit the Rational software area on developerWorks for technical resources and
best practices for Rational Software Delivery Platform products.
• Stay current with developerWorks technical events and webcasts focused on a
variety of IBM products and IT industry topics.
• Attend a free developerWorks Live! briefing to get up-to-speed quickly on
IBM products and tools, as well as IT industry trends.
• Watch developerWorks on-demand demos, ranging from product
installation and setup demos for beginners to advanced functionality for
experienced developers.

• Improve your skills. Check the Rational training and certification catalog, which
includes many types of courses on a wide range of topics. You can take some
of them anywhere, any time, and many of the “Getting Started” ones are free.
Get products and technologies
• Get the free trial download for Rational DOORS Web Access.
• Download the HP Quality Center Interface.
• Evaluate IBM software in the way that suits you best: Download it for a trial, try
it online, use it in a cloud environment, or spend a few hours in the SOA
Sandbox learning how to implement service-oriented architecture efficiently.
Discuss
• Join the Rational DOORS forum to ask questions and participate in discussions.
• Share your knowledge and help others who use Rational software by writing a
developerWorks article. You’ll get worldwide exposure, RSS syndication, a
byline and a bio, and the benefit of professional editing and production on the
developerWorks Rational website. Start by finding out what makes a good
developerWorks Rational article.
• Follow Rational software on Facebook and Twitter (@ibmrational), and add your
comments and requests.



• Ask and answer questions and increase your expertise when you get involved
in the Rational forums, cafés, and wikis.
• Connect with others who share your interests by joining the developerWorks
community and responding to the developer-driven blogs.

About the author
Ian J. Compton
Ian Compton is the senior test architect for the Rational DOORS
development group, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has worked for this
group for the last 11 years. He has expertise in test management and
automation tools and their integration with DOORS.


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