Test Tracker Professional: User Guide

Releases and Cycles Overview

The issuing of application releases is often challenging. It requires aligning your business priorities and quality expectations with your project requirements, tests, and defects. Most applications require testing on multiple hardware platforms, multiple configurations (computers, operating systems, and browsers), and multiple application versions. Managing all aspects of an application release can be time-consuming and difficult. You begin the application testing management process by defining releases. TTP enables you to organize and track your upcoming releases by defining releases and cycles. A release represents a group of changes in one or more applications that will be available for distribution at the same time. Each release can contain a number of cycles. A cycle is a set of development and quality assurance efforts performed to achieve a common goal based on the release timeline. Both releases and cycles have defined start and end dates.

Requirements Overview

After defining releases and cycles, you define and review requirements and assign them to releases and cycles. Requirements describe in detail your application needs, and are used as a basis for creating a test plan. The tests you create during the test plan phase should cover these requirements.After assigning requirements to releases and cycles, you create test groups and assign them to cycles. A test group is a group of test instances in TTP project designed to achieve specific test goals. After assigning test groups to a cycle, you run the test scenarios under these test groups. Requirements are recorded in the Requirements module by creating a requirements record. The requirement record displaying the requirement details and relationship between different requirements and other entities.

Defect

If an application flaw is detected while running a test scenario, you can submit a defect. TTP automatically creates a link between the test run, associated release and cycle, and the new defect. A defect can be submitted to a TTP project from any module at any stage of the application management process. While reviewing and deciding which new defects need to be fixed, the defects can be assigned to the appropriate release and cycle.Following test runs, you can review the test progress to determine how well it meets the release goals. You can also determine how many defects were resolved, and how many still remain open. The results can be analyzed at a release or at a cycle level. You can track the progress of the application management process in real time by analyzing the releases Analysis and ensuring that it matches the release

goals.

Test Plan Overview

Developing a clear and concise test plan is fundamental to successful application testing. A good test plan enables you to assess the quality of your application at any point in the application management process.Outline a strategy for achieving your requirements, as defined in the Requirements module. Ask yourself two basic questions:

How should you test your application?

➤ Which testing techniques will you use (stress tests, security tests,

performance and load tests, etc.)?

➤ How will you handle defects (severity classification, authorization to open

and close defects, etc.)?

The typical application is too large to test as a whole. The Test Plan module enables you to divide your application according to functionality. You divide your application into units, or subjects, by creating Test units in the test plan. After you define Test units, you decide which tests to create for each subject and add them to the test plan. At this stage, you define basic information about the test scenario, such as its name, status, and the designer. You can also attach a file, URL, application snapshot or system information to illustrate a test scenario. Afterwards, you define the test steps. Test steps contain detailed instructions on how to execute a test scenario and evaluate the results.
TTP enables you to use the same test scenario to test different use-cases, each with its own test configuration. Each test configuration uses a different set of data. You define the data by adding test parameter values for each test configuration. During the application management process, you may need to modify your test plan. You can update the test plan at any time.

Test Configuration Overview

When you create a test scenario in Test Tracker Professional(TTP), you can use test configurations to test various use-cases, each time with a different set of data. A test configuration represents a specific use-case of a test. For example, a test configuration can specify a subset of data or a run-time environment that the test scenario should use. By using test configurations, you can create more generic test scenarios and reuse them by associating a different set of data with each configuration. A test group can include any or all of the test configurations defined for a test, or it can include test configurations based on requirement coverage.

Test Execution Overview

You begin test execution by creating test groups, and choosing which tests to include in each group.
You can run tests manually in TTP using:
You can run manual and automated tests manually in TTP. When you run a test manually, you follow the test steps and perform operations on the application under test scenarios. You pass or fail each step, depending on whether the actual application results match the expected output.

Draft Runs
Setting a test scenario as a draft run instructs TTP to ignore the run results. When you set a test instance as a draft run, the outcome of the run does not impact the execution status of the test scenario, the status of the test instance, or the coverage status. TTP also ignores draft runs when calculating the remaining number of test instances to run, and when displaying results in coverage,
progress, and live analysis graphs.You can designate a test run as a draft before you perform the test. You can also mark a test run as a draft by modifying the Draft Run field at any time
after the run. When you change the Draft Run value for a run, TTP recalculates all relevant statistics, and updates relevant status fields. Graphs display updated results.

Defect Tracking Overview

Locating and repairing application defects efficiently is essential to the development process. Using the TTP Application Testing Lifecycle Management Defects module, you can report design flaws in your application and track data derived from defect records during all stages of the application management process.
You use the Defects module to:
➤ Create application defects for an TTP project.
➤ Track defects until application developers and testers determine that the
defects are resolved.
Defect records inform members of the application development and quality assurance teams of new defects discovered by other members. As you monitor the progress of defect repair, you update the information in your TTP project.

Defect Linkage
You can link a defect to the following TTP entities: requirements, tests scenarios, test
groups, requirements, test units, test runs and other defects.
Examples of when defect linkage is useful include:
➤ A new test scenario is created specifically for a defect. By creating a link between
the test and the defect, you can determine if the test should be run based on the status of the defect.
➤ During a manual test run, if you add a defect, TTP automatically creates a
link between the test run and the new defect. You can link defects directly to other defects or entities. When you add a defect link to an entity, TTP adds a direct link to the entity and indirect
links to related entities.
Indirect linkage is a one-directional flow;
TTP indirectly links higher-level related entities only.
The diagram below shows the indirect links that ALM creates if a defect is
linked to a run step.