If you are looking foran advanced test management tool instead of Testlink, I havefound an outstanding solution from Gurock Software. Unlike TestLink, this isnot a freeware. But, it has all the features that you expect from a testmanagement tool. TestRail is a web-based test case management tool whichenables monitoring, evaluating and organising software testing efforts. In thisarticle, I would like to discuss few main features, benefits and basiccomponents of TestRail.

Main benefitsof TestRail

·        Organisetest cases and test suits

·        Mange testruns and report issues on the go

·        Trackingtest results

·        Distributetest reports

·        Boosttesting productivity

·        Trackingtest progress

·        Add testcases or import test cases via xml, csv file

·        Createmilestone and add test plans to the milestone

·        Create Testruns by including testcases

·        IssueTracker integration - TestRail can be integrated with bugzilla, GitHub, JIRA,Mantis, Pivotal, LightHouse etc. This helps to report and link issues to atestcase

·        Track progressof Test execution in every aspect

·        TestRailplugin to the JIRA – Using this plugin user can link the requirement (JIRAticket) to the test case. On the other hand, requirement (JIRA ticket) showsall the relevant testcases within the story

·        Customisable& graphical interpretation of test reports.

Dashboard

DashboardOverview

TestRail Dashboard viewenables users to have an overview of their projects. ToDos, Project milestones,Recent Activities and Graphical Interpretation of Test runs are the keyfeatures.

Note: formore information about ToDo and Milestone, see below sections"Milestone" and "ToDo"

Test Cases

Users are allowed tocreate testcases and testsuits. Key features of TestRail – Test Cases sectionare,

·        it enablesto rearrange test cases between test suits (sections)

·        move andcopy test cases between test suits or test projects

·        customisetest case templates

·        estimate thetime for each individual test case

·        attachingfiles to the test case

·        importtestcases in csv or xml formats

·        ‘Tests andresults’, ‘defects’ and ‘history’ of a particular test case can be monitored

·        markdownoptions (E.g. **Bold** - two asterisks before and after a text will bold yourtext).

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Hint: In asection (Testsuit), group testcases by application modules or functional areas,not by product version or testing types.

Test Runs andResults

Test Runs and Resultssection helps users to perform a test run prior to a software release andobtain the test result. Key features of TestRail – Test Runs and Resultssection are,

Add Test Run

·        Assign testrun to particular users

·        Attach amilestone to the test run

·        Select allor specific test cases to the test run, based on selected criteria. (E.g. highpriority test cases)

Execute TestRun and Result

·        Execute thetest and add test result (E.g. Passed, Failed, Blocked, Retest)

·        Report testexecution time

·        Report bugsrelate to a Test case into an integrated bug tracking tool (E.g. JIRA)

·        Email, Printor Export (in xml or csv format) test result

Add Test Plan

·        Add a testplan (collection of test runs) to group test runs

·        Attach amilestone to the test plan

·        Addconfigurations (E.g. browsers or OS) to a test plan

DefectIntegration

TestRail allowsadministrators to integrate an issue tracking tool (e.g. JIRA). Afterintegration is done “Test runs and Results” section allows users to,

·        push (link)details from Test result to the JIRA story and

·        add a newbug in JIRA instantly.

Also, the ‘References’section under “Test Cases” section allows users to,

·        Link JIRA stories(requirements) to the particular test case.

Milestone

·        User can usemilestone to separate releases

·        User can seta start and end date to a milestone

·        User canassign the milestone to a test run or test plan

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ToDo

ToDo represents anindividual task for each member of a test team. Administrator (Test Lead) canassign tests to members of test team.

Reports

There are a lot ofoverview charts available within the each section (Milestone, Test run andResults, Test cases, Defects, Activities). For additional reporting options,TestRail facilitates various types of customisable reports. Few examples areshown below.

·        MilestoneReport

·        WorkloadSummary

·        User canassign the milestone to a test run or test plan

·        DefectReport

·        CoverageReport

·        ActivityReport etc.

Few other features ofTestrail reports are,

·        user can setaccess permission of their customised reports

·        user canschedule a test report to generate regular basis

·        user canprint, download or email reports.

ToolComparison – TestLink Vs TestRail

Here is the list of advantagesof TestRail over TestLink.

·        TestRailinterprets real time testing progress. Also, it enables editing tests during atest run. Testlink cannot do the same

·        TestRail hasa JIRA plugin that can be used to monitor test progress within JIRA

·        TestRailsallows to Clone Tests between projects and TestLink doesn’t

·        TestRailallows batch operations (cloning, editing, deletion etc.)

·        TestRail hasa advanced reporting module over Testlink. Customisable reports, dashboardgraphs and schedule reports you can only fine in TestRail

·        TestRailprovides both cloud and on-premise access while Testlink doesn’t support cloud.

·        TestRailhelps Taskboards, which is a great help to an agile team. But, Testlink doesn’thave Taskboard facility.

·        SinceTestRail is a commercial Tool, it has wide support and service. But a freewarelike Testlink doesn’t.

Hope you learntsomething new and useful by reading this post! Stay tuned for more QA relatedblog posts.

References

www.gurock.com/testrail
www.testlink.org
www.qasrilanka.blogspot.com/2014/10/test-management-with-testlink.html
www.youtube.com/channel/UCaCU2W8q6eYOPpdxcFKfCVA

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