Merging configurations in the QM application

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In the Quality Management (QM) application, you can merge test artifacts from baselines to streams. Streams are configurations that can change, whereas baselines are configurations that do not. You can merge content from a static baseline to a stream to incorporate changes that were made in another version or variant of your test assets.

Before you begin

The project must be enabled for configuration management capabilities.
To merge artifacts from a baseline into a stream, you must have permission to merge configurations. When you merge, you choose which changes to merge into the stream.
To replace all changed artifacts in a stream with those from a baseline, you must have permission to restore from a baseline. For more information, see Allowing a team member to restore from a baseline during a merge operation.
To exclude test case and test suite results when you merge into a stream, Selecting a configuration to work in set the corresponding configuration management preference. You might exclude them when the test results from one project do not matter to another project.

About this task

When you merge test artifacts from a baseline into a stream, some sections of test artifact editors do not support the Accept section and Merge section operations. The following tables show the support for each test artifact type.

Table 1. Test plan
Section	Accept	Merge
Summary	Yes	No
Business Objectives	Yes	No
Test Objectives	Yes	No
Formal Review	No	No
Requirement Collection Links	Yes	Yes
Development Plan Links	Yes	Yes
Risk Assessment	No	No
Test Schedule	No	No
Test Estimation	Yes	No
Test Environments	Yes	No
Quality Objectives	Yes	No
Entry Criteria	Yes	No
Exit Criteria	Yes	No
Test Suites	Yes	Yes
Test Cases	Yes	Yes
Test Case Execution Records	Yes	No
Test Suite Execution Records	Yes	No
Resources	No	No
Attachments	No	No
Application Security	No	No
Associated E-Signature	No	No
Child Test Plans	Yes	Yes
Instruments and Test Equipment	No	No
Normative and Informative Documents	Yes	No
Sampling Strategy	Yes	No
Software Test Environment Details	No	No
Test Bed	Yes	No
Test Case Results	No	No
Test Suite Results	No	No
Test Conditions	Yes	No
Test Data	Yes	No
Test Identification	Yes	No
Test Plan Scope	Yes	No
Test Scripts	No	No
Test Strategy	Yes	No
Test Team	No	No

Table 2. Test case
Section	Accept	Merge
Summary	Yes	No
Test Case Design	Yes	No
Formal Review	No	No
Development Items	Yes	Yes
Requirement Links	Yes	Yes
Risk Assessment	No	No
Pre-Condition	Yes	No
Post-Condition	Yes	No
Expected Results	Yes	No
Test Scripts	Yes	Yes
Test Case Execution Records	No	Yes
Attachments	No	No
Execution Variables	No	No
Associated E-Signature	No	No
Normative and Informative Documents	Yes	No
Notes	Yes	No
Test Case Scope	Yes	No
Test Description	Yes	No
Test Preparation	Yes	No

Table 3. Test script
Section	Accept	Merge
Summary	No	No
Formal Review	No	No
Manual Steps	Yes	No
Execution Variables	No	No
Associated E-Signature	No	No
Keyword Coverage	No	No
Remote Script	No	No

Table 4. Test suite
Section	Accept	Merge
Summary	Yes	No
Test Suite Design	Yes	No
Formal Review	No	No
Risk Assessment	No	No
Pre-Condition	Yes	No
Post-Condition	Yes	No
Expected Results	Yes	No
Test Cases	Yes	No
Test Suite Execution Records	No	Yes
Attachments	No	No
Execution Variables	No	No
Associated E-Signature	No	No
Normative and Informative Documents	Yes	No

Table 5. Keyword
Section	Accept	Merge
Summary	Yes	No
Detailed Description	Yes	No
Test Scripts	No	No

Table 6. Test environment
Section	Accept	Merge
Description	No	No
Coverage	No	No
Lab Resource Description	No	No

Table 7. Test case execution record
Section	Accept	Merge
Summary	Yes	No
Blocking Defects	No	No
Previous Result Details	No	No

Table 8. Test suite execution record
Section	Accept	Merge
Summary	Yes	No
Test Case Execution Records	No	No
Previous Result Details	No	No

Table 9. Test case result
Section	Accept	Merge
Weight Distribution	No	No
Test Environment	No	No
Defects	No	No
Notes	Yes	No
Categories	No	No
Execution Variables	No	No
Custom Properties	No	No
Previous Results	No	No
Result Details	No	No
Formal Review	No	No
State of Test Artifacts	No	No
Associated E-Signature	No	No

Table 10. Test suite result
Section	Accept	Merge
Summary	No	No
Test Environment	No	No
Categories	No	No
Weight Distribution	No	No
Result Details	No	No
Associated E-Signature	No	No
Execution Variables	No	No
State of Test Artifacts	No	No
Formal Review	No	No

Procedure

Open a stream that you want to be the target of any merged differences. You cannot select a baseline as the target of a merge.
For information about how to switch configurations, see Selecting a configuration to work in.
On the menu bar, click the current configuration.
The current configuration is the target of any changes that result from a merge operation.
Under Local Configuration, click Merge Configuration.
If your role has the permissions to restore from a baseline, select your merge option and then click OK.
- Custom merge: Select this option to control the changes to accept from the source configuration, and manually merge any conflicting changes. This merge option is the preferred option, and is useful if you want to skip a merge or merge conflicting changes manually.
- Restore from baseline: Select this option to automatically accept all the changes and additions from the source configuration and apply them to the target configuration. You can review the changes before you commit them. This option is useful if you want to replace the shared content in the target configuration with changes and new content from a baseline configuration.
Note: Artifacts that exist only in the target configuration are not altered or removed.
Users without the permissions to restore from a baseline proceed automatically to a custom merge operation. For more information about the required permissions for restoring from a baseline, see Allowing a team member to restore from a baseline during a merge operation.
If you selected Restore from baseline, complete the following steps to restore the target configuration:
1. To review the results from the restore operation, select the artifact types with differences. You can then select one or more individual artifacts, click the Action menu, and select Show Details of <Test Artifact> Comparison.
2. To save the changes to your target configuration, click Commit.
3. To cancel the merge operation, click Close.
After you click Commit, the artifact changes are saved to the target configuration and the merge operation is complete.
If your role does not have the Restore From Baseline permission, or if you selected the custom merge option, a comparison editor opens that shows a summary of each test artifact in that type. To complete a merge operation, in the summary, select a type of artifact with changes and complete any of the following steps:
1. Optional: To accept all non-conflicting changes for the artifacts listed, click the Accept all non-conflicting <arifact types> icon ().
  The center column displays an arrow decoration, which indicates that these artifacts are pending to be merged when you click the icon. Artifacts that display an exclamation icon in the center column will not be automatically merged.
2. Select one or more artifacts, click the Action menu, and then select a merge option:
  - Replace with source: Select this option to capture history entries or events from last update or modification from baseline, which was originally done by user who actually modified the artifact and not the user who is merging the configuration. Since, this entry talks about source artifact from baseline, entry details are exactly similar to baseline artifact.
  - Manually Merge: Select this option to open a detailed comparison between the source and target configurations of an individual artifact. It captures username and time from the user who is doing manual merge and actually changing the record in merge session. Entries are for artifact which is manually merged. You can review and accept differences or make manual edits. When you are finished, save your changes.
    For more information about the actions you can perform on target artifacts during a manual merge, see Manual merges.
  - Keep target version: Select this option to reject changes from the source configuration. It captures history entries/events from last update of that artifact in current stream who has done the actual changes and not the user who is merging the records. For example: If changes to artifact is done by "User1", however "User2" has done the merge, then the entry will talk about artifact modifications done by "User1" and not about merge done by "User2".

Results

As the merge operation proceeds, the merge status, the number of items to merge, and the success merging individual artifacts is indicated.