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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.
Version 3.5 introduces the following major capabilities:
- 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
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
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.
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:
- 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.
- Perform the mapping between the attributes, and save the attribute map, as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Create a common attribute map
- 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.
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.
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.
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