Guidelines for formatting

When formatting requirements, tests, or defects in your Excel worksheet, consider the following:

  • Arrange the records that you want to upload in rows.

  • For each field that you want to upload, designate a column. Make sure to include all the required fields for requirements, tests, and defects, as defined in your ALM project.

  • You can manually map ALM fields to worksheet columns, or the Microsoft Excel Add-in can automatically map them. To enable automatic mapping:

    • Include a header row with heading names that are identical to the ALM field names.

    • The automatic mapping scans the header row for matching fields until the first empty cell. Make sure not to leave empty cells in the header row.

  • Make sure that each requirement, test, or defect contains data for all the required fields, as defined in your ALM project. For details about the system and user fields defined in your project, see the information about customizing projects in the Micro Focus Application Lifecycle Management Administrator Guide.

  • To upload multiple values to ALM fields that support multiple values, separate the values with a semicolon (;) character.

  • Field data must not exceed the field size in ALM.

  • Data intended for ALM fields that have selection lists must match the entries in those selection lists exactly. For example, the Priority field can accept only one of the following values: 5-Urgent, 4-Very High, 3-High, 2-Medium, or 1-Low.

  • Only plain text and hyperlinks are uploaded to ALM. Any graphics are ignored, and formatting is removed.

  • You can upload attachments for requirements, tests, or defects. For more information, see Format attachments.

  • You can upload design steps for tests.

  • You cannot upload information indirectly related to requirements, tests, or defects. For example, if uploading tests, you cannot specify the requirements covered by each test.

    However, if you modify or add tests in Excel and upload the data again to ALM, the existing tests are updated in the test plan module, and any test coverage to requirements is preserved.

  • Each requirement, test, or design step on the same hierarchical level must have a unique name. If a name is not unique, it will be overwritten. For example, if your worksheet contains two requirements on the same hierarchical level with the same name, only one is created.

For additional guidelines on formatting requirements, tests, or defects, see Format requirements, Format tests, and Format defects.

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Format attachments

When formatting attachments for requirements, tests, or defects, consider the following:

  • Designate a separate column for attachments.

  • To include attachments for test design steps, designate a separate column for design step attachments.

  • An attachment can be either a File or a URL.

    • To upload a file, specify the file name with its full path. For example, C:\file1.txt. Alternatively, type a hyperlink in the cell that points to the file.

    • To upload a URL, save the URL in a shortcut file, and then specify the full file path. You cannot enter a URL directly in the worksheet.

  • To include multiple attachments, list the attachments in the same cell separated by semicolons (;).

    Example: Attachment1;Attachment2;Attachment3

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