Hi, my name is Gerhard Krüger, and today we're going to take a look at calculating your risk score using calculated field in Helix ALM (formerly TestTrack).
Now, for our risk score calculation, we'll be using two common fields, severity as well as likelihood. So, first, we need to create these fields inside of Helix ALM. To do so, we’ll need to go to the custom field menu. And, in this case, I'm going to create our fields in the requirements section of Helix ALM.
So, we're going to add a new custom field. I'm going to start off by adding the severity field as a new custom field. We're going to use a pop-up menu, which is effectively a list value, and we'll be adding a couple of common values to our severity field. I'm adding a few items in there. You can add a list of your own items in there — it does not need to be these exact items.
Now, once we've added this severity field, next we'll need to add our second field, which is the likelihood field. Again, we add a new custom field, and we'll call this one likelihood. Once we've added field, again, I'm going to make a pop-up field out of this new custom field, and I'm going to add the values into my likelihood field. Again, you can add your own values in there. It does not need to be these particular values.
Now, once we've added our values into our likelihood field, we can now start the process of creating the next field for our calculation. Next, we need to specify the formula for our risk score calculation. In this case, we'll be using severity multiplied by likelihood. So, first, I'm going to add a new field called risk score. Now, the risk score field will hold our calculated value. So, in this case, we're going to add a field type called calculated. The output type will be numeric.
Next, we select “Edit”, and we're going insert our mapped field. So, that means we'll be inserting two fields. First, the severity field (we'll be using the multiply option), and our second field called likelihood. So, now it's severity times likelihood. But now, because severity and likelihood are effectively list values, we need to add some numeric value to each of the items inside of severity, as well as our likelihood field. So, I'm going to go to the input list mapping and select the severity and start to add some numeric values to our list items.
If it's a minor severity item, then we'll give it a score of three. If it's critical, we'll give it a score value of nine. We'll do the same for likelihood. So now we have a text value with a numeric value attached to it, which means our calculation can be done, severity times likelihood. So, by selecting a value from the likelihood field and a value from the severity field, we'll use the linked numeric value to do the calculation.
Now, once we've added these values, we can select “OK” to add our new risk score field. I'm also going to set a default value, which is zero if it's unselected. So, once we've added the risk score field, we now have a starting point for our calculation. We'll now get a numeric value by selecting a value from severity as well as likelihood. So, next, I would like to convert my numeric value that I'll be generating in the risk score field to a easy-to-read value.
So, by generating a number for my risk score, I also want to create a risk level, high, medium, low, for instance. So, again, I'm going to add a new field called risk level. It's going to be a calculated field. Now, this time it's going be a List Item field, and we're going use a formula. So, next, I can select the items that I want to display in my risk level field. So, again, I'm going to add a few items. It'll be low, medium, as well as high.
Once we've added these fields into our risk level calculated field, we can now tell the system how we would like to view or interpret the risk score value into a high, medium, or low field, which is our risk level field. So, first, I need to insert my field, which is the risk score field, into my formula. So I'll go and select the field from my field value, and we simply scroll down and select our field, and we'll select the risk score. We'll insert this value into a formula.
Once we've inserted the value, I can now, right at the bottom, select “Add” to add my numeric values into the system and relate them to a text value. In this case, if the value is greater or equal to 20, we would like the risk level to show high and we’ll do the same for medium as well as low. So, again, this will interpret my risk score into a risk level, which is displayed either high, medium, or low for the user in the front end.
We'll finish off by adding our last value in there. And, once we've added our values into this calculation, we can go ahead and test our formula inside the system. Now, obviously, you can add your own values in there, this is simply an example, so you do not have to use the values that I've entered. So, I'm going to save my changes by clicking “OK” and I'll add this last field by clicking “OK”.
So, once you've added all the fields, we'll select “OK” to save our custom fields into Helix ALM, and we're going to simply select to recalculate. Right now, we have no values for the field, so there will be no calculations that'll need to be executed. So, inside of my requirements list view, I'm going to add a couple of empty columns, and I'm going to display my custom fields that I've just created, starting off with the severity field, and we'll also add our likelihood field, as well as our risk score and risk level fields. So, these are the custom fields we've just created inside the system.
And the reason why I'm adding these columns is that I can show you by selecting severity and likelihood how the risk score will be calculated and how the risk score will then be translated into a risk level. So, I'm going to do an inline edit on this requirement, select my severity and likelihood, and you'll notice the risk score is automatically calculated and translated into a risk level for the user.
So now when you select severity and likelihood, you'll automatically calculate the risk score and display the risk for this particular item inside of Helix ALM. Now, I've created this on a requirement. You can do so on issues and test cases.