Save conflicts for test artifacts

A save conflict happens when two or more team members concurrently open and modify the same test artifact. After one person saves the artifact, if another person tries to save it, that person is prompted to cancel or merge changes with the new version of the test artifact. Before the second person can save changes to the artifact, the save conflict must be resolved.

You can resolve save conflicts for supported artifacts in the Comparison editor. When the Quality Management application detects a save conflict, you are prompted with a message and two options to proceed: Cancel or Merge. If you cancel, all local changes are removed and the test artifact is replaced with the most recently saved copy. If you merge, the Comparison editor opens and shows your local copy of the test artifact next to the remote copy that was most recently saved. You can review the changes in the local and remote test artifact versions, and edit the local copy to create a merged copy. Then, you can save or discard the merged copy.

The following artifact types support the save conflict feature:

Test plans
Test cases
Test suites

Consider an example where two testers, Monica and Tanuj, edit a test plan. Monica opens the test plan and begins editing it first. When Tanuj opens the same artifact, he is warned that someone else is editing it. Monica then saves her new version of the test plan. If Tanuj ignores the warning and edits the artifact, when he tries to save it, the save operation fails. A message states that another version of the test plan was saved while Tanuj was editing. Because he does not want to lose his edits, Tanuj clicks Merge to open the Comparison editor, where he can review and accept the changes from the remote test artifact.