Test management is the practice of managing, running and recording the results of a potentially complicated suite of automated and manual tests. Test management also provides visibility, traceability and control of the testing process to deliver high quality software, quickly.
Tools for test management are generally used to plan and manage tests, test runs and gather execution data from automated tests. Additionally, they can typically manage multiple environments and provide a simple way to enter information about defects discovered during the process.
When we explore how organizations manage their software testing, it becomes clear how an integrated software toolchain greatly improves test management. This benefit becomes particularly clear when we consider how a connected workflow supports the stakeholders and the flow of assets and artifacts in the process and the common integration examples you encounter.
Stakeholders
There are several stakeholders involved in Test Management process:
- Testers: consume requirements to create and execute test cases.
- QA Managers: contribute to prioritization and high level planning of tests.
- Developers: contribute to building the software and fixing defects found by testers.
- Product Managers: define the requirements to be tested and determine release readiness.
Assets and Artifacts
Common assets used by Test Management tools are test plans, automated test scripts (code) and automated test frameworks (set up, tear down and result files). The most common artifacts used and produced by Test Management tools are test executions, test cases, test configurations, test sets, test instances, requirements and defects.
Integration Scenarios
Some common integration patterns used in Test Management process: Developer-Tester Alignment, Requirements Management-Test Planning Alignment, and Test Alignment.
- Developer-Tester Alignment: defects generated by developers are synchronized into a Test Management tool so tests can be written against them to prevent regressions, and defects generated by testers are synchronized into development tools so that defects can be resolved.
- Requirements Management-Test Planning Alignment: requirements generated by a Business Analyst in an Agile tool are synchronized into Test Management tool so that tests can be written against them in parallel to any development efforts.
- Test Alignment: tests are generated by Agile team members to validate user stories during the Sprint. Tests are synchronized to Test Management tool so centralized testing organization can add additional details and automate the test as needed.
Integration Example
One popular test automation suite is Selenium. Selenium allows the organization to develop an extensive test suite for web-based products. One integration opportunity that is particular interesting is to capture the failures of test cases that have been run by Selenium in the test management tool (e.g. HPE ALM) and appropriately kick off development work for the issues. Therefore, the process is to inform the development and QA teams of issues that need to be attended to.
- A QA team uses Selenium for automated testing of their web application and HPE ALM for test management, while the development team uses HPE ALM to resolve any defects found by Selenium.
- When Selenium detects a failure in its testing, failures should be recorded and submitted as defects. Test case results should also be linked to their original test cases in the test management tool (HPE ALM in this case).
This integration that can extend the automation across the lifecycle using Tasktop Integration Hub, which automatically creates a new defect in HPE ALM for prioritization and resolution, extending the automation benefits to take advantage of automated tests, as well as the enterprise tool of choice for test management effectively.
To learn more about how Tasktop integrates your software value stream and improves your test management capability, visit our website and contact us today.
