Test management software for complex test plans

🗄️ Archive
1

This seems like a vibrant community I stumbled across, so figure I could repost a thread I’ve posted in another QA forum long time back for additional input:

I’ve never used any test (case/plan) management solutions before, so was wondering if there is any commercial, free, or open source solution out there that would meet our particular needs:

Our product is so feature rich with interactions between various features that there is too many features and its interactions such that it is difficult to effectively define the breakdowns of particular test plans or sets of test cases for the various feature categories along with how to scope the priority of the tests.

We have 3 test scopes for executing tests based on priority - BATs (or basic acceptance tests) that constitute our first pass testing, extended BATs, and finally regression testing. Each scope builds upon a previous scope. Extended BATs include BATs and regression includes all.

The problem is we may have tests broken down by feature sets along with subfeatures or feature interaction for a particular high level feature group. We do our test cases in Excel, so we break down the feature category for a particular high level feature group by worksheets. Each worksheet tab has a test case spreadsheet template format that has columns to further break down the features into subfeatures. Within each of these worksheets, we have rows of test cases, some of which are scoped for BATs, some extended BATs, and some regression. This seemed most intuitive for test case management and development.

However, when we do test executions and in terms of company management/leadership review of the test results, they like to see everything for a high level feature group lumped into a single spreadsheet (best if no individual worksheets) with all BAT test cases executed, or regression test cases, etc.

This is a pain to manage and would require copy & pasting between spreadsheet formats if we don’t stick with one format specifically.

So I was wondering if there are test management software that is flexible enough with a nice GUI frontend for us to enter or import test cases in one format, then export or publish the test cases for execution (and/or reporting) in a different final format. By format I don’t really mean import CSV, export HTML/PDF, both input/output would be in Excel or CSV, but the way the data is presented would be different. The final output is a merge of more than one input dataset.

Anybody out there with test plans as complicated as ours? What’s the best test management software you’ve used?

2

Hi David,
Over the past year, my company has gone from 100% manual testing to getting into the automated testing world. As part of this process, we also needed to look into test management. We’ve been using TestRail (https://www.gurock.com/) to write up and organize our test cases. Overall we’ve been quite pleased. You can check them out and get a free trial to experiment.

Good Luck!
:slight_smile: Fran

3

I’ve used a number of test case management tools, and I like TestRail the best. qTest was alright too, although I like the TestRail UI a little more. Pretty much any test management tool will include the ability of some sort to run reports, which you can share outside of your team to communicate progress on certain tasks.

I feel like generally, documenting test cases hasn’t developed nearly as much as the other aspects of our field. I’ve been thinking of ways to redo this that are more visual in nature that still allow for reporting. Still haven’t noodled through a complete solution though. :slight_smile:

Best,

Elysia

4

Hey David,

Do check-out kualitee if you have a small team and looking for a test management tool that is free.

5

Hi David,
Try Testuff (www.testuff.com). It looks like you’ll find your test structure, and execution, can fit in.
Good luck.

6

A bit late, but: Don’t move your problem, eliminate it. Deformalise your test process. Move your rigid, explicit test cases into checklists, scenarios or charters. Only formalise very important requirements (like very specific safety requirements or certification requirements) whilst staying as vague as you can. This is faster, more flexible, more powerful (less formality means looking in more areas in different ways for more hidden problems), more scalable and your testers will be more engaged with it.

3 Likes
7

Since 4 months have passed since the original question, I’d love to get your feedback on what did you choose in the end?

Too bad there was not many replies. Here’s a webpage that gives a list of 20 Test Management Tools:

Personally, I had experience with TestRail, Xray, Testpad and JIRA in general (kinda stupid list tho, since JIRA is NOT a Test Management Tool.

I very much like Xray, TestRail is kinda golden standard and most people are used to it to the point they don’t go looking for better solutions. I would avoid Testpad if possible - it has rudimentary features, although it might be good for (very) small testing operations.

Bottom line, it very much depends what your needs are as a team, as a project and as a QA. Brainstorm what your requirements for such tool would be, what’s important and then TEST multiple solutions until you find the right tool for the job.

8

You mean 5 years? Not 4 months.

I don’t know what was the end result at my prior employer, they were using Excel as I originally posted in the question. At other employers, I’ve seen use of Jira and TestRail for the test case management.

I’ve not seen the complexity of test case since the employer I worked at that I posed the question about, other employers the test matrix or test plan was not set up to be that kind of complexity. And then again, I’m no longer actively in QA anymore as well, so I don’t see much of that stuff.

1 Like