The specifications

Coverage Metrics
- By tests
- Coverage aggregation
Searching
Importing data
The root node
- Tabs
- Toolbar
  - Create a folder
  - Create a report

The folder nodes
- Tabs
- Toolbar

The specifications nodes
- Tabs
- Toolbar

The specifications tree gathers all the functional (or technical) specifications of the products/SUTs.
Specifications are detailed descriptions of a specific behavior which is part of a business requirement.
Hence, one requirement will have to be covered by one or several specifications.
Here is a typical specification tree. It immediately shows a number of useful pieces of information:

the total number of specifications
the number of specifications in each folder
the status of each specification (indicated by the icon color)
the priority of each specification (indicated by the column)

You can add in the specification tree the complete description of each specification or you can decide to just point to the external requirements document(s).

Coverage Metrics

In order to have a quantifiable follow-up of the coverage, the specifications tree includes a coverage column showing at a glance the coverage of each specification in the tree. Coverage is also consolidated at the folder level.
The coverage indicator provides the estimation of completeness in terms of tests.

By tests

The coverage of each specification in the tree is directly taken from the value in its Details tab.

By default, when a specification is being created, a 0% value will be assigned to it. As soon as one test is linked to the current specification, the coverage indicator of the current specification will switch automatically to 100%. However, you can edit it manually refining the coverage value between 0% and 100%. For instance, if you think that you will need approximately 10 tests to cover the specification and that you already have linked 2 of them, just set the coverage to 20%.

NOTE: This feature is what will allow you to get truely reliable coverage metrics.

NOTE: If no test is linked to the current specification, you cannot edit manually the coverage indicator. If you try to edit it anyway, the following message will popup:

To edit the coverage indicator

select a specification
click on Details menu
set the value of Coverage by tests (%) field
click on submit
the specification coverage is modified in the tree

The coverage of each specification in the tree is directly taken from the value in its Details tab.

Coverage aggregation

For each folder the coverage is calculated by aggregation, based on the coverage of its underlying objects.

For instance, the coverage by tests of a folder will be calculated using the formula:

Searching

For more details, please refer to the Searching objects chapter.

Importing data

If you are migrating from manual test management - using for instance a basic spreadsheet application - or another test management system to XStudio you may want to import all your tests and test cases from Excel, CSV (semi-column ';' delimited) or XML.
For more details, please refer to the thoroughly Import data tutorial.

The root node

Tabs

Traceability Matrix

One of the major interests in using test management tool is the ability to trace what is covered and what is not
To get the global specifications traceability matrix:

switch to the Specifications module on the side bar
select the root folder in the tree
on the right panel, select the Traceability Matrix tab
the specifications tree appears including in the right column, all the tests covering each specification.

This traceability matrix is also present in the specification book (that can be generated from XStudio).

Coverage

The Coverage tab will display the coverage details of the root folder in terms of SUTs, specifications (if enabled) and tests.
In addition, some advises are given to improve the coverage of the root folder:

Statistics

The Statistics tab will display some metrics based on all the specifications in the tree:

A status breakout pie chart showing how many specifications exist for each status
A priority breakout pie chart showing how many specifications exist for each priority

You can customize the specification by creating some new custom fields that will appear in the Details tab of the specification.
Custom fields can have different types: text fields, drop-down menu, checkbox, formatted text field. They can also be marked as mandatory or not and are positionned at the index you specify.
The Custom fields tab allows one to create, edit and delete custom fields.

Create custom field

Here is the process to create a custom field for a specification:

select the root folder in the tree
on the right panel, click on the create custom field button
enter the name, the type, the position, if it's mandatory or not and the default value of the custom field and submit
the custom field will immediately appears in the panel
the new custom field is added to all the specifications assigned with its default value

Edit custom field

Here is the process to edit a custom field for a specification:

in the tree, select a root folder
on the right panel, select the custom field. For example: Additional info
click on the edit custom field button
change the name, the type, the position, if it's mandatory or not and/or the default value of the custom field and submit
the custom field immediately appears in the panel with new values
the custom field is updated on all the specifications (except its position)

Delete custom field

Here is the process to delete a custom field for a specification:

select the root folder in the tree
on the right panel, select the custom field
click on the delete custom field button
confirm and submit
the custom field immediately disappears from the panel
the custom field is removed from all the specifications

Toolbar

Create a folder

A folder can be created only under the root node of the tree or another folder node

Here is the process to create a new folder:

select the root folder in the tree
on the right panel, click on the create folder button
enter the name of the folder and submit
the folder immediately appears in the tree

Create a report

It may be interesting to export or to print a global report on all the specifications you have.
For more details, refer to the Specifications report chapter.

The folder nodes