Integrating SAP Business Process Change Analyzer

With SAP’s Business Process Change Analyzer (BPCA), users can identify which nodes of a blueprint are affected when changes to the blueprint are made. A list of these impacted nodes can then be sent to the Rational® Connector to determine which test cases to run and to confirm that changes do not introduce problems. If wanted, a test plan can be created containing references to recommended test cases for planning purposes.

About this task

SAP provides detailed documentation for setting up the BPCA integration with the Rational Connector. You can find documentation by going to the BPCA area after you enter the SOLMAN_SETUP transaction code. Step 4 and its substeps describe the procedure for configuring and registering the Rational Connector as a third-party test management tool. While you do the steps, you can access the documentation by clicking the link under the documentation column for the wanted step. During step 4.4, you can use the following path to obtain the WSDL from the Rational Connector server:
http://<hostname>:<port>/SAPConnector/services/AGS_BPCA_3PTM_API?wsdl

Procedure

Start BPCA

  1. For the BPCA integration to be useful, a blueprint push must take place before you attempt to retrieve test cases from the Rational Connector. If a blueprint push has not taken place, then no test cases are transferred back to BPCA for further evaluation.

    For general information about how to use BPCA consult SAP’s documentation that is located under step 4 of the SOLMAN_SETUP transaction code. This documentation describes how to start BPCA and explains the steps to do the analysis. If you want to start BPCA from inside the Rational Connector’s user interface you can open the project details page, go to the Solution Manager tab, and click Launch BPCA. Starting BPCA from inside the Rational Connector has the added benefit of already setting the appropriate Solution Manager project and Rational Connector server in the BPCA form.

Exchange details

  1. When the Rational Connector receives a BPCA request that contains a list of impacted blueprint nodes, it begins searching for test cases that are associated with these nodes. Associated test cases are defined as test cases that are created:
    • By the Rational Connector from artifacts that exist on the impacted node’s transfer to IBM® Rational tab. If the blueprint mapping specifies that test cases are to be created for nodes themselves, test cases corresponding to the impacted node will also be transferred.
    • Outside of the Rational Connector and are associated with impacted Rational Requirements Composer requirements created by the Rational Connector. For example, if a test case created by a user is associated with a requirement created by the Rational Connector from an impacted blueprint node, then that test case is transferred to BPCA.
    For each test case transferred to BPCA various information is also transferred. For Rational Quality Manager 3.x this information includes the test case’s weight, risk, and community risk. For Rational Quality Manager 4.x priority is also transferred and estimation data is transferred instead of weight.
    Tip: BPCA provides mechanisms for comparing test cases by using a unit of minutes. Therefore, when you use BPCA with Rational Quality Manager 3.x, it makes sense to record Rational Quality Manager test case weight in terms of minutes to help in these comparisons.

    When all test case data is collected, this information can aid the user in deciding which test cases to include in future test plans. By clicking Create test plan in BPCA, the user can create a test plan in Rational Quality Manager. If test plans are created, the user can click Test plan and then Extend test plan to add new test cases to an already existing test plan.


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