Report and track product defects

This topic describes how to submit and manage defects in ALM Octane.

Report defects

You can submit defects at all stages of your work.

Work area	How
Backlog module	In any of the backlog grids, select + > Defect. The new defect is associated with the feature selected in the tree.
Quality module	In the Defects tab, create a new defect. The new defect is associated with the application module selected in the tree.
Inside a story or test (after the test ran)	In the Details tab of a user story, quality story, or test, click the Report Defect button . ALM Octane associates the defect with the current item's feature.
During a manual test run	Click Test Defects and then Add new defect . If there are no defects assigned to this run, clicking Test Defects opens the Add Run Defect dialog box. For details, see Report defects during a run.
In the Tests tab of a pipeline's latest run	In the Pipelines module, open the pipeline run and select the Tests tab. Select one or more automated test runs. Click Report Defect. ALM Octane links the new defect to the selected runs and contains a link to the Tests page of the relevant pipeline run.

Track and analyze defects

Watch defects like any Backlog item:

Follow defects.
Track defect progress using widgets in the Dashboard module or the Overview tab.
In the Relations tab, link defects to user stories, requirements, test runs or other defects.
Also in the Relations tab, link defects to their covering tests. The defects are then listed in the tests' Backlog Coverage field.

Assign test coverage to defects

You can track the quality of your fixed defects by analyzing the status of the tests covering the defects.

One test can cover many defects, and one defect can be covered by many tests.

To define test coverage of a defect, do one of the following:

In the Relations tab of a defect, link the defect to its covering test.
In the Relations tab of a test, link the test to its covered defect.

The covered defect is listed in the test's Backlog Coverage field.

The covering tests are listed in the defect's Test Coverage field. The field represents the tests that cover a defect, grouped by their various statuses.

Tip: You can filter defects according to whether or not they have covering tests:

Copy a defect to a different workspace

You can copy defects from one workspace to another.

Copying a defect to another workspace is useful, for example, if you are dependent on users in other workspaces to handle parts of your defect. You can create a defect for the other users in their workspace, and then verify the fixes before closing the defect in your workspace.

You can only copy to a different workspace if:

You have access to it.
It is associated with the same shared space as the workspace with the original defect.

How to copy a defect to another workspace:

For the defect, click Copy to Different Workspace.
Choose the target workspace and click Copy.
Click the link in the message to open the new defect in the other workspace.

The new defect created with the same name as the original defect, in the New phase. The Detected By is the user who copied the original defect.

A comment is automatically added that contains a link to the workspace of the original defect. If you have access, click the link to open the original defect.

What is copied?

Common fields.

This varies depending on the entities that the workspaces share.

Example: If the release of the original defect is defined at the shared space level, the value is copied. If the release of the original defect is defined at the workspace level, the release is not available in the other workspace and is not copied.
User-defined fields (UDFs) that are defined at the shared space level and are common to both workspaces
Attachments
Tasks

What is not copied?

Comments
History
Test runs and old versions

Move a defect to a different workspace

You can move defects from one workspace to another.

You can only move to a different workspace if:

You have the Move defect permission on both workspaces.
It is associated with the same shared space. You cannot move defects between workspaces in isolated spaces.

You can only move one defect at a time.

What is moved?

Common fields.

This varies depending on the entities that the workspaces share.

Examples:
- The owner field is saved only if the user is part of the new workspace. Otherwise, it is left blank.
- The author field is saved only if the user is part of the new workspace. Otherwise, the user who is moving the defect is the author.
- Phases that exist in the original workspace but do not exist in the new workspace are replaced with the master phase. For details, see Master phase.
- Releases associated with the shared space are moved, while releases associated with the workspace are not.
User-defined fields (UDFs) that are defined at the shared space level and are common to both workspaces.
Attachments
Comments
History

What is not moved?

Associations with features and backlog items cannot be moved to the new workspace. Any and all associations are removed.

Note: The defect in the target workspace might not be valid due to the removal of fields that are irrelevant in the target workspace. In such a case, any user attempting to modify the defect will be required to adjust it to make it valid.

To move a defect to another workspace:

In the defect Details tab, click Move to Different Workspace.
In the Move to Different Workspace dialog box, select the target workspace, and then click Move.

Refresh the grid in the target workspace to view the change.