ALM Management

Important Note: This article is for the Org Administrator in particular. The actions discussed in the article will not be available to general users.

Overview

We've added a new section called ALM Management to the Admin module with the release of ARM 21.6. This section contains detailed information on your ALM's active and inactive sprints. It also lists work items and allows you to establish criteria for updating work item status by mapping your ALM with your version control repository.

Registering an ALM

1. Log in to ARM as an admin.

2. Navigate to Admin > ALM Mgmt.

3. Click Register ALM on the ALM Mgmt. screen.

1. Configure the following settings:

   1. For IBMRTC, CA Agile Central, VersionOne, and Azure DevOps:

      • ALM Name: Enter a name for your ALM connection.

      • ALM Type: Select the ALM type.

      • ALM URL: Add the ALM server URL.

      • Credentials: Specify your credentials. Refer to the Credential Manager section for more info on creating and storing your credential inside ARM.

      
   2. For JIRA:

      

      • ALM Name: Enter a name for your ALM connection.

      • ALM Type: Select JIRA.

      • Access Type:Select one of the following:

        • Standard: Add the ALM URL and specify your Credentials.

        • OAuth: Select the access type as OAuth, and click on Validate & Save. You will be redirected to the ALM's website to authenticate your credentials and grant permission.

Important Notes:

• Jira OAuth access type is currently supported for Cloud versions only.

• OAuth access type will only be available while registering ALM if the credentials have been successfully registered in the ALM Settings section. For more information on registering Jira OAuth credentials, click here.

• The Access Token expires in one hour. The Refresh Token expires every 90 days.

1. Click on Test Connection to authenticate your credentials.

2. Click Save.

NOTE: An "Authentication Failed" error may occur when selecting an ALM on the EZ-Commit screen. VPN connectivity appears to be the source of intermittent ALM connectivity issues; the ALM is incorrectly configured. To correct this issue:

• On the My Account screen, look for the ALM configuration.

• To reauthenticate your ALM configuration, click the Test Connection icon to verify your credentials.

If the steps above do not work, create a new credential and link it to your ALM account.

1. Once your ALM is registered successfully, you can view it in the ALM List menu.
2. Use the AR Comments toggle button to turn off the Jira comments from AR. By default, the Jira comments are ON for newly registered and existing ALMs.

3. Use the Access Type drop-down list to switch between Standard and OAuth. Click on Re-Authenticate if your credentials have expired. This is only applicable to Jira ALMs.

Limitation: Jira OAuth access type is currently supported for Cloud versions only. This function is on-demand, so if you'd want to make it available for your organization, please contact our experts at [e-mail].

Integration Settings

By default, we do not display the work items from the inactive sprints; however, if you want to view the hidden items, you can do so from this section.

1. Select the following checkbox to view the work items from the inactive sprints: Display work items from inactive sprints (we recommend setting up global filter criteria if are enabling this)

2. Enable global filter criteria on work items: This checkbox allows you to specify filter criteria.

   • You can select which fields are displayed by selecting the necessary column/field. However, you can refine the list of work items displayed by configuring a worklist filter.

   • Repeat these steps for each field if you want to set filter criteria.

3. Click Save Settings.

Note: To remove a field's filter criteria, click on the icon to the right of the rule.

Smart Commits

In this section, you can select the pattern used to read the comment in a revision associated with your ALM story. For example, 'git commit m [project123] # add README file into the project'

If you want to configure a webhook in your repository, select the Enable auto update on webhook checkbox to reveal the URL required for the webhook settings. For more information on how to configure a webhook in different repositories, refer HERE. You can also choose to sync external smart commits.

Repository Mappings

A global setting that lets you manage work items effectively for Merge requests. You can have your work items automatically updated in your ALM system based on the chosen criteria (Source Branch, ALM Status, etc.). Whenever a new merge request is initiated with this global setting enabled, the work items are automatically moved to a different status in ALM post-successful merge.

Points to Note:

• Repository mapping must be done to use smart commits sync functionality.

• The ALM work item status is only updated when performed via merge requests.

1. Select your version control Repository.

2. Select the Source Branch. If you cannot view your branch from the dropdown list, please click on the Don't see your branch? Register here link.

3. Select your configured ALM Project.

4. When you click on the ALM Work Item Status field, a popup page appears, which allows you to select the Work Item Type, the current item status, and the item status to update.

1. Click Save.

Important Note: Only those branches and repo configurations for which the user has permissions will be visible in the respective dropdown lists. The repos or branches for which the user does not have permissions will be hidden.

1. Also, the ALM can be configured not to send e-mail notifications of work item updates to the concerned person. Type the email address(es) in the Notify exception status updates to field.