Software Testing with Visual Studio 2010: Planning Your Testing
- Microsoft Test Manager
- Test Plans
- Testing Configurations
- Assigning Testers
- Test Case Planning Workflow
- Common Scenarios
- Summary
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
To begin, you need a plan. The plan does not need to be 500 pages of documentation or a massive Gantt chart. This chapter covers how to create a Test Plan with Microsoft Test Manager (MTM) and the various options that the Test Plan provides to you. More important, this chapter covers what to test and how to get involved as a tester early in the development process. In addition, Microsoft provides a little-used Test Plan Word template that can help answer some questions about the testing process up front.
Another key item covered here is how to plan and test for multiple iterations. Can you reuse your Test Cases, and does it make sense to do that? Many items come into play when planning the testing for an entire release versus a single iteration. By the end of this chapter, you will know how to use the Plan tab of MTM, create new plans, and create a framework for testers to work in for a given period of time.
As mentioned in Chapter 1, "State of Testing," testers should be involved, ideally, during the requirements gathering process. In a waterfall cycle this is during the Analysis phase. In an agile cycle this is during the period of time in which the business analyst or product owner fills in the details for items on the Product Backlog but before introducing the item into an Iteration Backlog. This chapter covers what the testers' responsibilities should be and what they can do to help reduce the potential for bugs to be introduced into the software.
Microsoft Test Manager
Microsoft provides a separate tool for testers: Microsoft Test Manager (MTM) where you can create Test Plans and add and update Test Cases and where manual and automated tests are executed from. Before getting into the details of creating Test Plans, you need to understand how to navigate within MTM. Figure 3-1 shows the navigation controls.
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Figure 3-1 MTM navigation controls
MTM is organized into Centers, Tabs, and Pages, as shown in Figure 3-2.
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Figure 3-2 Microsoft Test Manager navigation layout
Table 3-1 briefly describes each section. These pages and the options they enable are described throughout the book.
Table 3-1. MTM Pages Described
|
Center |
Tab |
Page |
Description |
|
Testing |
Plan |
Contents |
Contains the settings for the given Test Plan including manual and automated test settings, test configurations, and the build in use |
|
Properties |
Contains the suites and Test Cases that need testing for the selected plan |
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|
Test |
Run Tests |
Main page for executing test runs |
|
|
Verify Bugs |
Contains bugs that have been resolved that the tester can quickly get to and verify |
||
|
Analyze Test Runs |
Shows all test runs (manual and automated) but used mainly to view an automated test run and take appropriate actions based on the outcome of the test runs |
||
|
Track |
Queries |
Same as in Team Explorer; it enables you to execute stored work item queries or create new queries |
|
|
Assign Build |
Enables a tester to assign an automated build to the Test Plan |
||
|
Recommended Tests |
Shows the list of all tests that have been impacted by a code change |
||
|
Project Portal |
Provides a quick link to the project portal (opens a web browser) |
||
|
Organize |
Test Plan Manager |
Lists all the Test Plans in the current Team Project |
|
|
Test Configuration Manager |
Lists all test configurations |
||
|
Test Case Manager |
Lists all Test Cases in the current Team Project |
||
|
Shared Steps Manager |
Lists all the shared steps (reusable test steps) in the current Team Project |
||
|
Lab |
Lab |
Environments |
Contains all the physical and virtual environments ready for testing purposes |
|
Test Settings |
Test Settings Manager |
Contains all manual and automated test settings |
|
|
Library |
Environments |
Lists all the environments prepped for use in testing, including environments that have been deployed |
|
|
Virtual Machines and Templates |
Contains all the virtual machines available to be composed into a test environment |
||
|
Controllers |
Test Controller Manager |
Contains a list of all test controllers and all agents associated with those controllers |
|
|
Tools |
Documentation |
Test Plan Summary |
Generates a document with the selected Test Plans, associated Test Suites, Test Cases, Test Steps and related work items |
|
Test Run Summary |
Generates a document with the results of the selected test runs |
When you first start MTM, you will be asked to connect to a server (Figure 3-3), select a Team Project (Figure 3-4), and then select a Test Plan (Figure 3-5).
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Figure 3-3 Connect to a Team Foundation Server
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Figure 3-4 Connect to Your Team Project
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Figure 3-5 Select or add a Test Plan
Note the Copy URL for the plan option in Figure 3-5. MTM enables you to provide URLs to specific plans, so you can send the URL to someone who can then click it and have MTM open to the right plan. Only Active plans show up in this dialog. You can view all plans (Active and Closed) from the Testing Center, Organize Tab, Test Plan Manager page.
MTM enables you to work in one Team Project and only one Plan in that Team Project at a time, although you can change plans and projects as needed. After doing this the first time, MTM remembers your last selection, so MTM can open to the last selected Plan.