Release Notes

Optimal Trace™Server Version 5.0

August 2007

System Requirements.. 1

Installation of Optimal Trace™Server V5.0. 2

Uninstall Optimal Trace™Server 5.0. 2

New Features For 5.0. 2

New Features For 5.0. 2

Import from Word and Text Files. 3

Providing an effective import facility from Word documents and other external formats allows fast deployment of Optimal Trace in environments where a significant body of materials already exists. This helps kick-start Optimal Trace deployment with minimal impact.. 3

The new Optimal Trace Word import feature provides the following capability:  3

Introduction of Simple Requirements and Items. 3

Support for Package Level Custom Property Definition.. 4

General. 5

Known Issues.. 5

Support.. 5

 

System Requirements

System Requirements for Optimal Trace™Server:

 

-          Pentium 3-class processor or equivalent

-          512 MB of RAM (minimum)

-          250 MB of available hard disk space

-          Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2003 Server

-          Adobe Acrobat Reader for Optimal TraceTM Server Help Files

-          MySQL Version 4.1, MySql 5.0 (5.0.37), Oracle 9i (Release 1, Release 2), Oracle 10g (Release 2), Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise 2000 (SP3), Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise 2005

 

Optimal Trace™Server has not been tested to run on Windows 95, and is not supported on this platform.

Optimal Trace™Server has not been tested to run on Windows NT 4.1, and is not supported on this platform.

For the full matrix of supported platforms and tools, please see the Optimal Trace 'Supported Environments' link here: http://frontline.compuware.com/products/ci/24625.asp.

 

Installation of Optimal Trace™Server V5.0

  

-          Ensure you have at least 250 MB of available disk space

-          Ensure you have uninstalled any previous releases of Optimal Trace™Server (See next section for details)

-          Run the Optimal Trace_Server.exe file to install.

-          Refer to Optimal Trace™Server V5.0 Help file for installation instructions and migration from Optimal Trace 4.1.

 

Uninstall Optimal Trace™Server 5.0

          -          On the Start menu select Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs

-          Select Optimal TraceTM Server and press the Add/Remove... button.

 

Never uninstall by just deleting files. This may prevent future installations of Optimal Trace™Server from working.

 

Note: Uninstalling Optimal Trace™Server will leave database files on your hard disk. This allows you to preserve any previously created project data if migrating to a new version of Optimal Trace™Server.  

New Features For 5.0

Highlights of the release include:

 

·         Support for Simple and Item list type requirements.

·         Greater flexibility in defining custom properties for different parts of a project.

·         Integrated Spell Checking

·         Import from text files, and MS Word Documents

·         Support for MySql 5.0

·         Support for Oracle 10G

 

New Features For 5.0

Version 5.0 is the latest release of Optimal Trace Enterprise/Server, the market leading Business Requirements Management solution.

The core themes of 5.0 are:

Ř       Supporting deployments where a large body of existing documentation exists in MS Word and spreadsheets etc. This is catered for by provision of a comprehensive embedded mark-up utility in word and structured text file (CSV etc.) import.

Ř       Supporting Hybrid Project approaches - Combining the benefits of ‘Structured’ Requirements with ‘Simple' Requirements. These are designed to accommodate more assertion or flat requirements styles.

Ř       Supporting infinite levels of structural customization on projects & project templates. This is facilitated by extending custom property definition from the project level down to the package (group) level.

Ř       A number of key usage and currency enhancements that ensure that Optimal Trace is best of breed for requirements capture and management.

OT 5.0 offers complete structural freedom to link all forms of requirements (simple/flat/assertion based) to 'goal-directed' requirements that reflect business intent.

 

OT 5.0 carries on in the OT tradition of emphasizing ease of use (& ease of deployment) while at the same time offering the most flexible approach to creating projects that meet your unique needs.

 

Import from Word and Text Files.

Providing an effective import facility from Word documents and other external formats allows fast deployment of Optimal Trace in environments where a significant body of materials already exists. This helps kick-start Optimal Trace deployment with minimal impact.

The new Optimal Trace Word import feature provides the following capability:

§         An embedded wizard within your word docs for explicit mark up and selection of areas for import

§         Ability to import into any project element, e.g.: Import to Glossary, Structured Requirement etc.

§         Ability to dynamically find similar areas based on selected area. This is particularly useful when dealing with tables and repeated areas of a similar format and/or style etc. where consistency of format in the word document is not guaranteed

§         Ability to preview and merge into an active project such that additions/modifications can be reviewed prior to merging into the loaded project.

 

 

5.0 also delivers a second facility for importing data from a text file into a selected project.

Text files to import should have data arranged in fields or columns, with each field delimited by a special character such as a comma.  Microsoft Excel CSV (comma separated value) files are saved in this format, and so this feature is ideal for importing spreadsheet data.

Each row in the file is imported as a new project element. Similar to word import this facility allows any element types to be populated.

Finally, 'Maps' may be created for repeated import. These hold information regarding what columns are mapped to what Optimal Trace fields.

 

Introduction of Simple Requirements and Items

Optimal Trace already emphasizes the importance of Requirements Structure fostering a Requirements Driven approach to Testing and all aspects of the software lifecycle.

Extending this, 5.0 now introduces a new construct called 'Simple Requirements'.

Simple Requirements can be used to capture a more 'flat/assertion' style of requirement augmenting the structured flow requirement style. Simple Requirements comprise lists of Requirement Items, consider these as sub-requirements. These Items can be associated through Refinement with more detailed Structured Requirements.

Some examples of usage scenarios for Simple Requirements/Items are:

§         High level marketing, product management and other 'flat' feature style requirements types where flow structure is not necessary and where a tabular structure is more suited

§         Business Rules where certain system wide rules apply to many structured requirements

§         Data oriented requirements where the need exists to specific format & validation information in a tabular fashion

 

 

Support for Package Level Custom Property Definition

Optimal Trace has always provided an extensive capability to customize project structure. This has meant that unlimited sets of additional fields were definable at project level and shared across the project.

5.0 now provides complete flexibility in project structure by extending custom property definition down to the package level. This means that Structured Requirements and Simple Requirements now can 'own' their own custom fields in the context of the current package.

For example now 'flat' style requirements categories such as performance etc. may have custom fields such as; 'Average Throughput', 'Peak Throughput', 'Concurrent Users' etc. defined, whereas other 'flat' style requirements in the same project may have different properties.

Key capabilities include:

§         An ability to apply different definitions to different packages

§         An ability to 'inherit' Custom Property definitions from the parent package

§         An ability to lock down package level definitions (for secure projects) in the administration tool.

 

General

 

Other key highlights of this release include:

q        Provision of Spell Check

q        Extensions to Test Generation covering inclusion of refinement relationships and carry over of custom property values

q        Option to Generate Clean Word Docs without hidden mark-up (non-reversible)

q        Ability to run Silent Install

q        Ability to delete log files by project (doc gen. and history files) from the admin tool

q        Ability to set permissions on Custom Property creation and structural modification from the admin tool

q        Certified Citrix Support

q        Support for Oracle 10g

q        Support for MySQL 5.0 Community Edition

q        Support for MS Word 2007

 

Known Issues

Issue 6339

Empty database doesn't get migrated: If your Optimal Trace 3.1/4.0/4.1 database doesn't contain any data, when you start Optimal Trace Server 5.0, the database schema doesn't get migrated and you will get errors.

Workaround: If your 3.1/4.0/4.1 database is empty, simply remove it and install the Optimal Trace 5.0 database directly.

 

Issue 6837

Searching the Repository on MSSQLServer seems very memory intensive: Searching data in MSSQLServer 2000 uses up a lot of memory and can cause MSSQLServer to crash.

Workaround: You can disable users searching the repository on MSSQLServer by setting the 'allowSQLServerReposSearch' to 'false' in server.properties. Stop and restart the Optimal Trace Server for this setting to take effect.

Support 

For all technical problems and support queries, please logon to frontline at http://frontline.compuware.com/products/ci/. Frontline contains the Optimal Trace forum as well as a FAQ area. Additionally, full up to date release information and contact numbers are provided. Optimal Trace Support can be contacted on 1-800-538-7822.

 

 

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Copyright© Compuware 2007. All Rights Reserved.