The specifications
The specifications tree gathers all the functional (or technical) specifications of the products/SUTs.Specifications are detailed and unitary description of a specific behavior which is part of a business requirement.
Hence, one requirement will have to be covered by one or several specifications.
Here is a typical specification tree. It immediately shows a number of useful information:
- the total number of specifications
- the number of specifications in each folder
- the status of each specification (indicated by the color of the icon)
- the priority of each specification (indicated by the
column)

You can add in the specification tree the complete description of each specification or you can decide to just point to the external requirements document(s).
Coverage Metrics
In order to have a quantifiable follow-up of the coverage, the specifications tree includes a coverage column showing at a glance the coverage of each specification in the tree. Coverage is also consolidated at the folder level.The coverage indicator provides the estimation of completeness in terms of tests.
By tests
The coverage of each specification in the tree is directly taken from the value in its Details tab.
By default, when a specification is being created, a 0% value will be assigned to it. As soon as one test is linked to the current specification, the coverage indicator of the current specification will switch automatically to 100%. However, you can edit it manually refining the coverage value between 0% and 100%. For instance, if you think that you will need approximately 10 tests to cover the specification and that you already have linked 2 of them, just set the coverage to 20%.
NOTE: This feature is what will allow you to get truely reliable coverage metrics.
NOTE: If no test is linked to the current specification, you cannot edit manually the coverage indicator. If you try to edit it anyway, the following message will popup:

To edit the coverage indicator
- select a specification
- click on Details menu
- set the value of Coverage by tests (%) field
- click on submit
- the specification coverage is modified in the tree

The coverage of each specification in the tree is directly taken from the value in its Details tab.
Coverage aggregation
For each folder the coverage is calculated by aggregation, based on the coverage of its underlying objects.For instance, the coverage by tests of a folder will be calculated using the formula:

Searching
By name
All the trees in XStudio include an indexing system allowing to search real-time an entity in the tree by his name. To experiment it by yourself just start entering some text in the Search field

To automatically select a searched item in the tree, you can move using the arrows keys within the suggestion list and validate by pressing Enter or just click on the item in the list.
By Id
The data model gives unique identifier for each entity managed by XStudio. The Ids are on the form:template | Represents |
S_<id> | Specification |
Ids are also available from XStudio’s GUI (in the Details tab you have an Identifier field that corresponds to <id> in the template.
To search for an entity from its Id, just type the Id in the Search Id field

Advanced and plain text search
Searching items such as specifications based on a combination of some very specific criteria can be not only very useful but extremely important to control/guarantee the quality of the products.Procedure:
- select the root node in the specifications tree
- click on the Search specifications button
- the Search specifications window is displayed
- check all the checkboxes (Status and Priority) that match your search criteria
- (opt.) type some text in the Text to search field and press Enter

Note: The results list is updated real-time and you can reach one particular bug by just clicking on it. The results table can be ordered by clicking on the column headers.
Importing data From XML
The XML format used is the same as the one used to export specification in XML.To import specification from XML:
- from the menu, select Tools > Import from XML
- a dialog box is displayed
- pick the Specification option
- click on the Open button and select the file you wish to import
- the raw data area displays the content of the file
- click on Submit


Here is an example of specification XML import file.
If you already have some specifications described in an Excel file, it will be very likely time-saving to use our Excel to XML macro. Just copy-paste your data in it and run the macro to generate the right XML format.
The root node
Tabs
Traceability Matrix
One of the major interests in using test management tool is the ability to trace what is covered and what is notTo get global specifications traceability matrix:
- switch to the Specifications tab on the left panel
- select the root folder in the tree
- on the right panel, select the Traceability Matrix tab
- the specifications tree appears including in the right column, all the tests covering each specification.

This traceability matrix is also present in the specification book (that can be generated from XStudio).
Coverage
To get specifications coverage metrics:- switch to the Specifications tab on the left panel
- in the tree, select the root folder
- on the right panel, select the Coverage tab
- some useful information is displayed:
- percentage of the coverage
- the list of specifications covered (at least partly) and not covered by some tests

Custom fields
You can customize the specification by creating some new custom fields that will appear in the Details tab of the specification.Custom fields can have different types: text fields, drop-down menu, checkbox, formatted text field. They can also be marked as mandatory or not and are positionned at the index you specify.
The Custom fields tab allows you to create, edit and delete custom fields.

Create custom field
Here is the process to create a custom field for a specification:- select the root folder in the tree
- on the right panel, click on the create custom field button
- enter the name, the type, the position, if it's mandatory or not and the default value of the custom field and submit
- the custom field will immediately appears in the panel
- the new custom field is added to all the specifications assigned with its default value


Edit custom field
Here is the process to edit a custom field for a specification:- in the tree, select a root folder
- on the right panel, select the custom field. For example: Additional info
- click on the edit custom field button
- change the name, the type, the position, if it's mandatory or not and/or the default value of the custom field and submit
- the custom field immediately appears in the panel with new values
- the custom field is updated on all the specifications (except its position)


Delete custom field
Here is the process to delete a custom field for a specification:- select the root folder in the tree
- on the right panel, select the custom field
- click on the delete custom field button
- confirm and submit
- the custom field immediately disappears from the panel
- the custom field is removed from all the specifications
Toolbar
Create a folder
A folder can be created only under the root node of the tree or another folder nodeHere is the process to create a new folder:
- select the root folder in the tree
- on the right panel, click on the create folder button
- enter the name of the folder and submit
- the folder immediately appears in the tree
Create a report
It may be interesting to export or to print a global report on all the specifications you have.To do so:
- select the root folder in the tree
- click on the Create report button
- select the destination folder for the report
- select the extension of the report (HTML or XML).
If you choose to generate the report in HTML you can select one report template (Type drop-down menu).
To each template corresponds one specific XSLT transform (one physical .xslt file).
By default, one XSLT is provided along with XStudio:
Complete_With_stats
- provide the file name for the report (Save as text field)
- submit
- the report is automatically opened:

TIP: Custom reports
You can customize the specification reports.
To do that, just edit the following .xslt files located in
You can customize the specification reports.
To do that, just edit the following .xslt files located in
<XStudio install dir>/export/xsl/
folder (or if you use the web package in /export/xsl/
of the export.zip
archive on the server):
specificationHTML_Lib.xslt
: specification XSLT libraryspecificationHTML_Complete_with_stats.xslt
: Complete report on the specifications with statisticsspecificationHTML_Traceability_matrix.xslt
: Only the traceability matrix
The folder nodes
Tabs
Details
The folder details tab allows you to specify the name and the description of the folder
Attachments
Attachments are handled the same way than any documents in the documents tree.Toolbar
Create a folder
A folder can be created only under the root folder node or another folder node.Here is the process to create a new folder:
- select a folder node in the tree
- on the right panel, click on the create folder button
- enter the name of the folder and submit
- the folder immediately appears in the tree
Delete a folder
You can delete a folder by just clicking this button and confirming the deletion.
WARNING: deleting a folder will delete all objects linked to this folder (i.e. underlying folders and specifications etc.)
Empty a folder
You can empty a folder by just clicking this button and confirming the emptying (all child nodes will be deleted).
WARNING: emptying a folder will delete all objects linked to its childs (i.e. underlying folders and specifications etc.)
Copy a folder
You can copy a folder by just clicking this button, selecting the destination folder and submitting.Move a folder
You can move a folder by just clicking this button, selecting the destination folder and submitting.Create a specification
A specification can be created only under a folder node.Here is the process to create a new specification:
- select a folder in the tree (create one if necessary)
- on the right panel, click on the create specification button
- a dialog box is displayed
- pick a specification type
- if required, check the formal checkbox (this field is used only for the documentation purposes and is useful only when it's important to differenciate formal specifications - i.e. for certifications bodies)
- enter the name of the specification
- enter the description of the specification. You can use the formatting tools (wiki-style) to format the text. Later, in reports this text will appear correctly formatted.
- select the status of the specification (at creation time, you can only choose New or Ack)
- select the priority of the specification
- click on submit
- the requirement immediately appears in the tree
Generate tests
You can generate tests from all the specifications included in the current folder by just clicking this button, selecting the destination folder, the default values, the options, the teams and submitting.Create a report
It may be interesting to export or to print a report on all the specifications under a specific folder.For more information check the process to generate a report chapter from the root node section.
The specifications nodes
Tabs
Details
The specifications Details tab allows you to specify the formal, the name, the description, the status, and the priority of the specificationIf some custom fields have been configured, they will appear here as well (positionned as specified).

Coverage
The Coverage tab will display the coverage details of the selected specification in terms of SUT, requirements and tests.In addition, some advises are given to improve the coverage of the specification:



Bugs
This tab shows all the bugs that have been found on the selected specification.Bugs may have been found on this specification from two different ways:
- either they have been submitted independently and manually from the bugs tree,
- or they may have been found through a failed test and link to this test execution.

Attachments
Attachments on specification are handled similarly to the attachments on the folders.Revisions (versioning)
This tab shows all the revisions of the selected specification.You can open a specific revision of the specification by selecting a revision in the list and clicking on the open button.

Changes (audit log)
XStudio allows tracking any changes on a particular object.To check the history of a specification:
- select the specification in the tree
- open the Changes tab on the right panel
- the panel shows a table gathering all the dated changes.
On a specification you will get a panel similar to this one:

TIP: You can edit directly the details of a user by clicking on his name in the changes table.