Three Ways To Get the Whole Team Involved in Selecting a Testing Tool

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So we finally did, and so I’m going to share a few plusses and minuses as well as what worked for us in our first 3 weeks of Zephyr.

  • We were supposed to get the tool in October, but it’s not cheap so it meant we got the license just before Christmas break using up the last of the dept budget. I’m chuffed that I pushed so hard for this tool, because what we had before was pretty dire, but:

No matter which tool you settle on, I can recommend pushing for budget harder than you feel you should.

Plusses

  1. I can see at a glance how many tests are still not run
  2. I no longer need to switch between tools when running manual tests
  3. It’s in the cloud, so upgrades are not your responsibility anymore
  4. You now have a final resting place for properly documented tests, so it’s easier to commit the effort to capturing notes

Minuses

  1. My release manage can see at a glance how many tests I have not yet run
  2. It’s cloud based, so it’s not fast and if Jira has a hiccough, you are a bit stuck

Discoveries

  1. You have to be disciplined and not just import all of your tests at once. Run part of a release using the tool and learn how to re-arrange things so that labelling and filtering make sense. Then add more tests for the next release activity
  2. Do not go and customise like mad until you know how things will look once you have loads of tests and loads of iterations.
  3. Make small tweaks to how you put tests into folders, also don’t have loads of folders, fewer is better as it will reduce repetition when it comes time to create a new itteration/release cycle.
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