Data Validation Overview - Reporting Issues
Purpose: Oracle Test Manager is how we track what issues have been encountered during validation or testing and what the status is on the resolution of those issues.
Oracle Test Manager (OTM) accounts are provided to each college upon request of their PM. User names are in the format of Business Unit Number _ First Initial Last Name (example 230_jdoe). If access is needed, or account information has been misplaced, contact the college PM or the ctcLink Testing Team OTM Contact - Anna Rankin - [email protected].
The OTM URL is https://oats.ctclink.sbctc.edu:8089/otm/
When you access the OTM Log In page, the first thing you are likely to notice is a red warning that says "This is a non-supported browser, you might witness unfriendly behaviour." This is shown in every browser. It is recommended that you not use IE or Edge as those browsers have shown unexpected behavior.
Every time you log in to OTM, you will first want to verify that you are in the correct Project. OTM should log you in to the project you were most recently working in, but that may not always be the project you want to be working in now. When you need to switch to a different Project. select the Project drop down and then select Open.
Select the correct Project and either double click on the project name or single click and select OK.
To enter an issue found during validation, first navigate to the Issues tab and then select the 'exploding triangle' icon in the upper left. This will bring up the Add Issue screen as shown below.
When entering an issue, there are a number of fields that must be filled out.
- Summary - A very short description that functions as the title
- Assigned To - This may be the most important field. This field defaults to the name of the person who created it and must be changed manually or else the issue ticket will remain in the queue of the person who created it and may have the resolution delayed.
- Status - When creating a New issue, the status will be set to New. Other options (with definitions) are
- Assigned (has been assigned to the analyst in charge of the module or area)
- Open (issue is being triaged to determine next steps)
- Resolved (resolution has been found and issue creator has agreed issue is resolved)
- Duplicate (issue entered was similar enough to another issue that only one will be updated. Both tickets will be tied together)
- Closed/Cancelled (issue is no longer an issue, often used when an issue is entered in to the wrong OTM project and has been moved to the correct project. Original issue will be marked Closed/Cancelled)
- Deferred (issue will be resolved at a later date, either in a future conversion cycle or through an expected code update)
- Pending Customer Response (more information is needed from the customer, or the analyst feels the issue has been resolved and is awaiting confirmation of such from end user)
- Pending Vendor Response (issue is tied to a defect in provided code and resolution is pending a response from the vendor)
- Description - enter a detailed description of what the issue is, how to replictae the issue and any other information that the analyst may need to see what you are seeing.
- Resolution - Once a resolution is found, the analyst will enter the details in this field and assign the ticket back to the end user for confirmation.
- College or Location - This field is important for multiple reasons. Each college has slightly different configurations and so the key to understanding a submitted issue may be that it is being submitted by X college instead of Y college. Also, knowing which college submitted each issue allows us to track metrics and discover things like "all colleges are having trouble with this area" or "College Y has not submitted a single issue at all. We should reach out to them and make sure everything is ok"
- Attachment - This area allows you to attach a file or a link to the ticket.
After all of that, don't forget to press the Save button!
After the issue has been submitted, you can verify that it was submitted correctly by looking in the left navigation panel. It will now be listed with any other issues that have been submitted.
Once an issue has been successfully created, there will be times when an end user will need to find, edit, or update that issue ticket. Perhaps they selected save and then realized they had forgotten to add some information. Perhaps the analyst has entered a resolution and the end user now needs to affirm that the issue is resolved.
With this many colleges entering issues, there are bound to be quite a few to sort through. This is made manageable by creating filters. After navigating to the Issues Tab, select the funnel image next to the word Filter as shown above
The Filter Issues screen will display. We recommend setting up two different filters - one to show issues submitted by and one to show issues assigned to.
To create the Issues Created By filter, under Field select Created By. Set the Operator to equals. Under Value, select the end user's name. Then, select Save and save the filter.
To create the Issues Assigned To filter, do the same, but under Field select Assigned To rather than Created By.
After a filter has been created, the Issues Tab will default to the most recent setting so if you filter the issues and then navigate away from the issues tab, the filter will still be applied when you navigate back.
When an issue is assigned to a person through OTM, a system generated email is sent. Every few days, an email is also sent by the testing team as a reminder to everyone that has an issue in their queue. When you receive an email notifying you that an issue is assigned to you, you'll want to
- Navigate to the Issue
- Review the Issue
- Update or Edit the Issue
In order to navigate back to an issue that needs to be edited, after logging in to OTM, select the Issues Tab. Once on the Issues Tab, there are multiple ways to locate the issue you are looking for. If you know the Issue Number, enter it in the Go To field. If the issue is assigned to you, or created by you, you can select one of the filters created in the previous section and then find the issue in the left navigation column. Or, you can select the magnifying glass search icon above the left navigation column and create a search based on what you know about the issue.
Once you have found the correct issue, take a look at the Description and Resolution fields. If the analyst needs additional information, they will have updated the Description field. If they have found a fix for your issue, they will have updated the Resolution field.
To start updating your issue, select the issue in the left navigation column and then select the edit icon (pencil) above. This will bring up a screen that looks an awful lot like the Add Issue screen except it will say Edit Issue: XXXX. The first thing you will probably notice is that the Description Field is empty. Don't Panic! Your original description is not lost. The system adds the new description entry to the field with a time stamp as well as the name of the user that entered the information. The field appearing blank can make it a little difficult sometimes to update, so we recommend working with two monitors, or resizing the Issue screen so you are able to see the base page as well.
If the issue was resolved? Great! Update the status to Resolved and select save, You don't need to do anything else to this issue.
If the issue was not resolved or there was a request for more information, update the description with the new details, assign the issue back to the pillar lead and update the status to Open.
Wondering who to assign that data validation ticket to in OTM? This Project Analyst Specific Matrix for Assigning Tickets in OTM should help.
Once an issue has been resolved to the satisfaction of the end user, it will be assigned back to the end user for resolution. We always want to make sure that the person who reporting the problem verifies that the problem is fixed. I think we have all felt the frustration of submitting a trouble ticket in a system, waiting to hear back for what seems to be an absurd amount of time and then following up, only to discover that your ticket was closed by someone that never even reached out to you to let you know they were working on it. We don't want that to happen here. It may sometimes get frustrating to have to retest and recheck things you have reported, but that is preferable to having issues tickets closed without the underlying issues actually being resolved and without the end user being made aware of what is going on.
After an issue has been set to resolved, there may be circumstances that occur that warrant revisiting an issue. If an issue is found in a later conversion cycle that is substantially similar to a previously resolved issue, rather than reopening the previous issue, add a note in the description letting the analyst know that this may be a repeat of a similar issue found in cycle X. If an issue is returned to you with a status of Pending Customer Response and a resolution entered in the resolution field, but the stated resolution does not actually fix your issue (as addressed in the previous section), update the issue as required. This would not count as 'reopening' an issue as the issue had not actually been closed or resolved. If, during the same conversion cycle, an issue that was previously tested and confirmed as resolved becomes an issue again, this is when an issue would need to be reopened. If an issue is reopened because it has re-occurred, there are two ways that this can be addressed. Either way is acceptable.
Method 1 - Reopen the Original Ticket
Navigate to and locate the original issue ticket using methods described in previous sections.
Edit the description to include that this issue previously appeared resolved but is not occurring again.
Update the Status to Open and update the Assign To field to the pillar lead.
Method 2 - Creating a New Issue and Tying it to the Original Issue
Navigate to the Issues Tab and create an issue following the directions in the previous sections. After saving the issue ticket, select Add/Edit next to Associated Issues in the right side. Set the Search Parameters to find the Issued of the previous issue ticket. Select the correct issue ticket in the results field and select OK.
Once a module has been fully validated, you will report this completion through the OTM Test tab. This will only be done once you are ready to say "This area is cleared and passed".
After logging in to OTM and verifying your project, navigate to the Test tab. Select your college or location. Select the module or area you are ready to pass. You'll know you have gotten to the test that can be passed because you will see a green triangle next to the words Run Test at the top of the page. Select this green arrow.
Leave the Run Name as the default. Depending on the Cycle or Sprint and Project, there may be other fields on this page in future iterations. Examples will be Location or Cycle #. I will try not to ever put a question in this page that you have to think about to answer. Only easy questions here, I promise. It’s for tracking and reporting purposes.
Enter the answers to any required questions and select Run.
Select Make All: Passed and then select Complete Test Run
Verify that the result says Passed, enter any summary notes that may be helpful and select OK.
That’s really all there is to it. You have successfully reported a section or module has passed cycle validation.
Mary Ellen Neff
very few of our contact hours are correct. CHEM&121 says 6.67 contact hours when it should be 50, CARTS155 contact hours 2.5 when it should be 30...
Tanjagay Martin
Hi Mary, Hi Frank! Thank you for your question. Have a wonderful day! I would recommend contacting your college's PM; they can assist you with the correct information. ~Tanjagay Martin | CS Core Trainer