Adding workflow states

Add states to a workflow to represent steps or decision points in your process. For example, issues may have states such as New, Approved, Fixed, Released to Testing, and Verified, to indicate the status in the overall process. An item's current state is displayed in the item Status field.

1. Choose Tools > Administration > Workflow.

The Configure Workflow dialog box opens.

2. Select an item Type.

3. Click Add.

The Add State dialog box opens.

4. Enter a State name and Description.

The name is displayed in the item Status field. The description is only displayed in the Add and Edit State dialog boxes, but may be helpful to explain the purpose of the state for other administrators.

5. Select an Attribute to indicate if an item is open or closed in this state.

6. Select a Style to change how the state is displayed in Helix ALM Client list windows and Helix ALM Web item lists, such as the Issues list.

The Style list includes all styles available in the project. Select <default> to display the value without formatting. You may also be able to add a new style or work with all styles. See Adding field value styles and Configuring field value styles.

7. Select a Lock setting to allow or prevent editing items in this state.

Locked items cannot be edited and actions you can perform on them are limited depending on security permissions. For example, a requirement document may be locked when it is in the Awaiting Approval state to maintain the integrity of the completed draft. Items are only unlocked when they move to a state that does not lock items. See Locking items.

Note:  If a document is locked, all requirements in the document are also locked.

8. Select any additional options based on the item type you are adding the state for.

  • Requirement state—Select Can generate test case to allow test cases to be generated from requirements in this state. See Generating test cases from requirements.
  • Test case state—Select Can generate test run to allow test runs to be generated from test cases in this state. See Generating test runs.
  • Test run state with Closed attribute—Select a Test run result to add to the closed test run when it enters this state, such as Passed, Failed, or Unclear. See Entering overall test run results.

9. Click OK to add the state.