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Remoteus
(http://www.PragmaticSW.com/Remoteus.asp)
is remote desktop sharing
software used to simplify help desk support by allowing
your support team to connect to client PCs. |
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Software
Planner
(http://www.SoftwarePlanner.com)
is a web-based solution for managing the software life
cycle. Tracks customer requirements, tasks,
defects, test cases and allows document sharing. |
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Web
Information Center
(http://www.WICDirect.com)
is a web reporting
system that presents information from SQL databases in a
polished format. Pivot tables and Crystal Reports
integration. |
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Pragmatic Office
(http://www.PragmaticOffice.com)
is a web-based office management tool for tracking
contacts (sales leads, vendors, customers, and other
contacts). It also allows teams to manage project
deliverables, share files, and manage their calendar
with Microsoft Outlook™
integration. |
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Managing Workflow for
Test Case Management
For teams managing software quality, it is crucial to define solid test cases
for each customer
requirement. Just as importantly, the workflow around
the test case management process must be defined so that everyone understands
how a test case moves from definition to a point where it is ready for execution. Below are some
tips for defining test cases and the workflow.
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Define the
Workflow Statuses
- When developing test cases, it
is important to define the workflow.
For larger teams that have a test lead, the
test lead should provide oversight and
approval for all test cases, to ensure depth
and robustness of the test suite. For
smaller teams, this approval process for
test cases could be eliminated (assuming the
fewer number of testers have a high skill
level).
Workflow is normally tracked via the
"status". Let's create a simple
workflow for a larger team, where the tester
creates a test case, the test lead approves
the test case, and the tester executes the
test case once testing begins. Below
are some possible sets of statuses
(workflow) for this process.
Workflow
Statuses:
In Development
Awaiting Review
Review Rejected
Awaiting Run
Passed
Failed |
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Flowchart
the Workflow -
Flowcharting the workflow allows team
members to understand the process in full.
We created the flowchart below using
Microsoft Word.
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Advanced
Workflow - In our
example above, we used simple workflow.
However, if your team uses software to
manage customer requirements, you should be
able to implement more robust workflow.
For example, the software should allow you
to define "state transitions". This
identifies how a status can transition from
one status to another. In our example,
above, you may want to only transition from
Awaiting Review to either
Review Rejected or
Awaiting Run, because none of the other
statuses would be applicable at that point
in your workflow. Likewise, the
software should also allow you to define
what fields (or items) you wish to make
required upon different states. In the
example above, if the requirement is changed
to Awaiting Review, we may want
to require that the tester enter the Test
Case Steps and Test Case Expected
Results. Robust
test case tracking software will allow
you to define the field attributes for each
state transition. Software
Planner (http://www.SoftwarePlanner.com)
does this nicely, you can see how this is
handled from Software Planner by
viewing this movie:
http://www.pragmaticsw.com/GuidedTours/Default.asp?FileName=Workflow
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Test Case
Traceability
- As you develop your test cases, you should
ensure that you have an adequate number of
test cases for each customer requirement.
This ensures that you have adequate testing
for each customer requirement. How do you
do this?
Make a list of every
test case you have defined, and link each
test case back to the requirement. Then
meet with your project team (project
manager, developers and testers) to review
the test cases. This meeting will spawn new
test cases you may not have thought of and
will allow everyone visibility into your
test process.
Basic Approach - If you do
not have a software development lifecycle
tool, a low-cost and simple approach to this
is to create a spreadsheet that contains a
list of your functional specifications
(requirements) and lists each test case that
has been created for each requirement.
Example:
TestCase_Traceability.xls
Advanced Approach - A better
approach is to utilize an SDLC tool that
allows tracking of functional specifications
(customer requirements), and allows creating
of test cases that are linked to the
functional specification. The software
should provide a traceability report that
shows how the test cases are linked to each
requirement. Below are some example reports
that come bundled with
Software Planner, but any good SDLC tool
should provide these types of reports.
Example:
Software Planner_TestCase_Traceability
Report.pdf
Tracking Requirements
Tracking Test Cases
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Test Plan Template
- It is also wise to have a detailed test
plan so that you are sure
that your test lead and project management agrees with your approach
and test design. Here is a test plan template:
http://www.PragmaticSW.com/Pragmatic/Templates/TestDesign.rtf
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Helpful
Templates
Below are some helpful templates to aid you in
developing software solutions on-time and on-budget: |
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About the Author
Steve Miller is the President of Pragmatic Software (http://www.PragmaticSW.com). With over 20 years of experience, Steve
has extensive knowledge in project management, software architecture and test
design. Steve publishes a monthly newsletter for companies that design and
develop software. You can read other newsletters at
http://www.PragmaticSW.com/Newsletters.htm. Steve's email is
steve.miller@PragmaticSW.com.
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