{"id":1240,"date":"2010-10-06T12:57:37","date_gmt":"2010-10-06T19:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.plm.automation.siemens.com\/t5\/Polarion-Blog\/Polarion-Quality-Camp-Managing-your-Simple-QA-project\/ba-p\/380653"},"modified":"2026-03-26T05:36:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T09:36:06","slug":"polarion-quality-camp-managing-your-simple-qa-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/polarion\/polarion-quality-camp-managing-your-simple-qa-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Polarion Quality Camp: Managing your Simple QA project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s face it: In software development, quality gains are among the hardest points to score and testing your product is as critical as developing it. Practice reveals that with the surging demand for continuous ongoing testing the costs of developing modern applications increase exponentially.<\/p>\n<p>A sound approach and an effective framework at hand for managing your test process is all you need to get things right \u2014 that is, maximize your testing efficiency, promote reusability of test artifacts, enable collaboration across your testing organization, increase end-to-end visibility of the entire process, and ultimately reduce the application lifecycle costs.&nbsp; But how can you make that work? This blog series will cover Polarion\u2019s best practices in test and quality management. You will learn about the Polarion QA concept and capabilities, as well as how to better adjust th em to your own needs and goals.<\/p>\n<p>In the first article we demonstrate steps for installing and working with<STRONG> <\/STRONG>Simple QA, one of numerous Polarion extensions available on the <A href=\"http:\/\/extensions.polarion.com\/polarion\/extensions\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Polarion POP site<\/A>. We also discuss the concept of comment-based testing introduced by Simple QA, as well as gauge its advantages and potential for improvement. Subsequent articles will take you into more advanced QA topics.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<H2>Managing your Simple QA project<\/H2><br \/>\n<H3>Concept and uses of Simple QA<\/H3><br \/>\nBuilt on Polarion platform, Simple QA can greatly assist in managing your teamwork across test planning and execution processes. In fact, it can be used as your entry point in building a fully fledged collaborative web-based QA solution to fulfill your quality goals.<\/p>\n<p>The idea behind Simple QA is to extend Polarion\u2019s core functionality with the <SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\"><STRONG>Test Lab<\/STRONG><\/SPAN> component, which empowers workflow control, automatic test counting and traceability of test results. The following features are worth-mentioning:<br \/>\n<TABLE style=\"background-color: #f0f0ff;float: right;margin: 0pt 0pt 0.5em 1.5em;padding: 1em;height: 190px\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"310px\"><br \/>\n<TBODY><br \/>\n<TR><br \/>\n<TD><br \/>\n<H3 style=\"margin-top: 0\">Installing Simple QA<\/H3><br \/>\nSimple QA, just like other Polarion extensions, comes with online instructions on how to install and use it. You can also click <a href=\"http:\/\/community.plm.automation.siemens.com\/legacyfs\/online\/siemensplm_blogs\/2010\/10\/installing.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><STRONG>here<\/STRONG><\/A> to follow the required steps for installation.<\/p>\n<p><STRONG><EM>Note:<\/EM><\/STRONG> Examples described in this article have been performed using Polarion ALM 2010 running on Windows with Firefox 3.6 or Internet Explorer 8.<\/TD><br \/>\n<\/TR><br \/>\n<\/TBODY><br \/>\n<\/TABLE><br \/>\n<UL><br \/>\n\t<LI>Built-in workflow for activating, starting and finishing the execution of test cases<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Customizable template for initiating and iterating test runs<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Additional trigger for activating post-test events, such as creation of linked defects in case of test failure<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Ability to save test results with comments, as well as search and filter them by different criteria<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Reporting functionality for measuring and displaying test execution metrics<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Greater transparency with real-time test data sharing across the project team<\/LI><br \/>\n<\/UL><br \/>\nAs a fully customizable light-weight quality management tool, Simple QA not only automates your test execution, but also enables traceability of test results to corresponding test cases, requirements and defects, thus increasing your team awareness and readiness.<br \/>\n<H3>Working with Simple QA<\/H3><br \/>\n<P style=\"clear: both\">With Simple QA installed to our Polarion system, let us follow step-by-step the entire test process, i.e. initiating test runs, executing test cases, submitting defects, and generating online test reports. The steps are described below:<\/P><\/p>\n<p><OL><br \/>\n\t<LI>Open an existing project or create a new sandbox project.<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI> Go to <STRONG><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\">Test Lab<\/SPAN><\/STRONG> home page in your wiki. By default, the page contains a welcome message from the project owner, a list of test runs, a workspace for creating new test runs, a search field and a <STRONG><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\">TRTemplate <\/SPAN><\/STRONG>link. You can also create new test cases directly from the <SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\"><STRONG>Test Lab<\/STRONG><\/SPAN> home page.<\/p>\n<p><DIV style=\"background-color: #F9F9F9;border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;padding: 3px;font: 11px\/1.4em Arial, sans-serif;margin: 0.5em 0pt 0.5em 0.8em;width:365px;\"><A href=\"http:\/\/community.plm.automation.siemens.com\/legacyfs\/online\/siemensplm_blogs\/2010\/10\/figure11.png\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><IMG class=\"size-full wp-image-1077 \" src=\"http:\/\/community.plm.automation.siemens.com\/legacyfs\/online\/siemensplm_blogs\/2010\/10\/figure11.png\" alt=\"Figure1. Test Lab wiki page in your project\" width=\"365\" height=\"210\" \/><\/A><DIV style=\"text-align:center;\">Figure1. Test Lab wiki page in your project<\/DIV> <\/DIV><\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Create a new test run by entering a test run ID and clicking the <SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\"><STRONG>Create <\/STRONG><\/SPAN>button. The test run ID is normally the number of your iteration, build, or release that will be used later for tracking your test case results. Make sure not to use dots in your ID, since that will be interpreted as a wiki space name.<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Examine the new wiki page that appears in your browser. It is equipped \u201cout-of-the-box\u201d with a <STRONG><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\">Score Board<\/SPAN><\/STRONG> as well as critical information pertaining to your test cases categorized by <STRONG><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\">Not Executed<\/SPAN><\/STRONG>, <SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\"><STRONG>Failures <\/STRONG><\/SPAN>with associated defects, <STRONG><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\">Blocked <\/SPAN><\/STRONG>and <STRONG><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\">Passed<\/SPAN><\/STRONG>. You can also drill down to get further detail on the respective test cases or defects.<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Perform test execution workflow.<br \/>\n<UL><br \/>\n\t<LI>Open a test case from the <STRONG><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\">Not Executed<\/SPAN><\/STRONG> list or create a new test case. Check if your test case status is <SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\"><STRONG>Active<\/STRONG><\/SPAN>, if not activate it.<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\"><STRONG>Perform action Start <\/STRONG><\/SPAN>and <STRONG><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\">Save<\/SPAN><\/STRONG>. With this step you set your test case status to <SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\"><STRONG>In Progress<\/STRONG><\/SPAN>, thus informing your project team that you are currently working on this test. You can also perform a bulk operation to start several test cases at once.<\/p>\n<p><DIV style=\"background-color: #F9F9F9;border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;padding: 3px;font: 11px\/1.4em Arial, sans-serif;margin: 0.5em 0pt 0.5em 0.8em;width:300px;\"><A href=\"http:\/\/community.plm.automation.siemens.com\/legacyfs\/online\/siemensplm_blogs\/2010\/10\/figure2.png\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><IMG class=\"size-medium wp-image-1080\" src=\"http:\/\/community.plm.automation.siemens.com\/legacyfs\/online\/siemensplm_blogs\/2010\/10\/figure2-300x150.png\" alt=\"Figure2. Start your test case\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" \/><\/A><DIV style=\"text-align:center;\">Figure2. Start your test case<\/DIV> <\/DIV><\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Execute your test in accordance with your test case description and requirements.<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Upon completion, go to your test case Work Item and in the Status field, select <SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\"><STRONG>Perform action Finish<\/STRONG><\/SPAN>.<\/p>\n<p><DIV style=\"background-color: #F9F9F9;border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;padding: 3px;font: 11px\/1.4em Arial, sans-serif;margin: 0.5em 0pt 0.5em 0.8em;width:300px;\"><A href=\"http:\/\/community.plm.automation.siemens.com\/legacyfs\/online\/siemensplm_blogs\/2010\/10\/figure3.png\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><IMG class=\"size-medium wp-image-1081\" src=\"http:\/\/community.plm.automation.siemens.com\/legacyfs\/online\/siemensplm_blogs\/2010\/10\/figure3-300x204.png\" alt=\"Figure3. Finish your test case\" width=\"300\" height=\"204\" \/><\/A><DIV style=\"text-align:center;\">Figure3. Finish your test case<\/DIV> <\/DIV><\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>In the <SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\"><STRONG>Custom Fields<\/STRONG><\/SPAN> area, enter your <STRONG><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\">Test Run<\/SPAN><\/STRONG> ID and select the relevant <SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\"><STRONG>Test Result<\/STRONG><\/SPAN>: <SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\"><STRONG>Passed, Failed <\/STRONG><\/SPAN>or <SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\"><STRONG>Blocked<\/STRONG><\/SPAN>. Optionally you can add your comments in the <SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\"><STRONG>Test Comment <\/STRONG><\/SPAN>input box. Upon clicking <STRONG><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\">Save<\/SPAN><\/STRONG>, the test case will be set back to the <STRONG><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\">Active <\/SPAN><\/STRONG>state.<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>In case of test failure, a <SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\"><STRONG>Defect <\/STRONG><\/SPAN>is automatically created with the title containing by default the test case title and the test run ID. Furthermore, the defect is linked to the current revision of your test case. This is an important feature, since it allows you to refer to the original version of your test case, even if it has been affected by subsequent changes.<\/p>\n<p><DIV style=\"background-color: #F9F9F9;border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;padding: 3px;font: 11px\/1.4em Arial, sans-serif;margin: 0.5em 0pt 0.5em 0.8em;width:300px;\"><A href=\"http:\/\/community.plm.automation.siemens.com\/legacyfs\/online\/siemensplm_blogs\/2010\/10\/figure4.png\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><IMG class=\"size-medium wp-image-1082\" src=\"http:\/\/community.plm.automation.siemens.com\/legacyfs\/online\/siemensplm_blogs\/2010\/10\/figure4-300x144.png\" alt=\"Figure4. Defect automatically created and linked to your test case revision\" width=\"300\" height=\"144\" \/><\/A><DIV style=\"text-align:center;\">Figure4. Defect automatically created and linked to your test case revision<\/DIV> <\/DIV><\/LI><br \/>\n<\/UL><br \/>\n<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Notice the information stored in the <STRONG><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\">Comments <\/SPAN><\/STRONG>area of your test case. You might have realized by now that comment-based testing provides for automatic registration of test results, thus alleviating the need for more complex test data structure and workflow configuration.<\/p>\n<p><DIV style=\"background-color: #F9F9F9;border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;padding: 3px;font: 11px\/1.4em Arial, sans-serif;margin: 0.5em 0pt 0.5em 0.8em;width:300px;\"><A href=\"http:\/\/community.plm.automation.siemens.com\/legacyfs\/online\/siemensplm_blogs\/2010\/10\/figure51.png\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><IMG class=\"size-medium wp-image-1084\" src=\"http:\/\/community.plm.automation.siemens.com\/legacyfs\/online\/siemensplm_blogs\/2010\/10\/figure51-300x278.png\" alt=\"Figure5. Comments area of your test case with test result\" width=\"300\" height=\"278\" \/><\/A><DIV style=\"text-align:center;\">Figure5. Comments area of your test case with test result<\/DIV> <\/DIV><\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Go to your test run ID wiki page and observe the changes. Pay attention to your <STRONG><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\">Score Board <\/SPAN><\/STRONG>for test results on a particular test run. To see the result for all test runs, check the count columns of your test case lists.<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Iterate the above workflow as needed.<\/LI><br \/>\n<\/OL><br \/>\n<H3>Areas for improving Simple QA<\/H3><br \/>\nYou have just seen your first <STRONG><SPAN style=\"color: #00aeef\">Test Lab<\/SPAN><\/STRONG> in action and how it can support your activities throughout the testing process. Project stakeholders are intensely interested in the status and results of tests at any given time. Simple QA fulfills this purpose straightforwardly and with minimal effort. As a prototype, it has been designed primarily to demonstrate how simple it is to extend Polarion and implement tailored test execution functionality. Some changes in Simple QA would be desirable. For example, on the usability level it would be nice to have a test run creation date, read-only counts in the custom field of the test case, drop-down list for setting test run targets, etc.<\/p>\n<p>As the name suggests, you can go further along the way and use Simple QA as your reference in creating an enterprise ready solution that satisfies your processes and rules on a larger scale. In the second part of this blog series we will suggest ideas for extending the Simple QA plug-in. You will find useful hints on how to improve testing workflow and data structuring, leverage test planning and capacity management, integrate tighter requirements coverage by test cases and test runs, create and use more complex reporting templates, as well as support a variety of user roles.<br \/>\n<H3>Summary<\/H3><br \/>\nThis article described the core features of the Simple QA extension, provided an overview of the test execution workflow and states, and demonstrated built-in test metrics and reporting capacities that will make your testing process smoother and more powerful. Hopefully you are by now ready to use the plug-in to your benefit and with no extra effort. We will be glad to receive your comments.<\/p>\n<p>On a higher level, the demonstrated extension is just one of many possibilities that Polarion opens for you in order to reduce test cycle costs while increasing quality of your software. You come to the right place when looking for a professional platform to tackle such challenges as:<br \/>\n<UL><br \/>\n\t<LI>Process visibility and effective collaboration among all project stakeholders<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>End-to-end traceability from requirements to test cases to defects<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Coherent and consistent approach to your testing process<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Flexible data schema and workflow that fit your software development methodology<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Reusable test artifacts and fully customized test reports<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Integration with third-party data sources and test automation tools<\/LI><br \/>\n<\/UL><br \/>\n<H3>Resources<\/H3><br \/>\n<UL><br \/>\n\t<LI>Check out <A href=\"http:\/\/extensions.polarion.com\/polarion\/extensions\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Polarion POP<\/A> for new extensions and templates<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Follow and take part in technical discussions on <A href=\"http:\/\/forums.polarion.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Polarion Forums<\/A><\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Learn from experts and hone your skills during <A href=\"http:\/\/www.polarion.com\/company\/events\/index.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Polarion workshops and industry events<\/A><\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Get involved in community and partner gatherings<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>Download <A href=\"http:\/\/www.polarion.com\/downloads\/index.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">trial versions<\/A> of Polarion software<\/LI><br \/>\n\t<LI>For more information on Polarion product line visit <A href=\"http:\/\/www.polarion.com\/products\/index.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Polarion Solutions<\/A><\/LI><br \/>\n<\/UL><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s face it: In software development, quality gains are among the hardest points to score and testing your product is as critical as developing it. Practice reveals that with the surging demand for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66784,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/polarion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/polarion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/polarion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/polarion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66784"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/polarion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/polarion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1241,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/polarion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240\/revisions\/1241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/polarion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/polarion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/polarion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/polarion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/polarion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/polarion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}