The Quick Guide to Evaluating Test Management Tools

by René Ceelen, on June 8, 2020

Your IT department faces more choices than ever when it comes to test management tools. Although software testing accounts for roughly 30 percent of a given project’s total endeavor, the success of a testing program stands as the most vital aspect when it comes to guaranteeing overall success.Whether a project involves Agile development or a more traditional phased build, the issues raised as you venture into testing new software only grow more complex, especially as new “trendy” questions are raised surrounding AI, DevOPs, and open source.

As you review your options in choosing the perfect kit of test management tools, keep in mind that you must first begin “from within.” Ensure you understand the direction of the project, the team involved, and what success “looks like” at the end of the journey. A few milestones to watch for along the way include:

Test Runs: Customizable or Bust

Test runs must allow a user to include correct cases from a given test vault while also avoiding unnecessary tests that only waste time. A proper tool kit leverages a myriad of milestones to mark important project events for the entire team. 

Your management tool set should give you a bird’s eye view of all test runs across all timelines and should account for regression testing in addition to other legacy test cases. Test runs should also be scalable across any relevant devices, Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. Finally, test runs must be able to be customized so a user can duplicate any runs with a single click.

Reporting Should Never Be a Chore

Legendary management guru Peter Drucker once noted: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” To hit rock-star levels, testing management tools must deliver real-time insight into testing status and progress. That includes tracking the team-wide workloads with instant status and progress reports for test runs, test cases, and arising issues.

When reviewing a potential test management tool, ask the questions: Can we view traceability, progress, and coverage reports? Can we view issue reports per status, impact, category, priority, or organization?

Free Checklist for Finding the Best Test Management Tool for Your Business >>

The Power of Filtering

Beyond powerhouse reporting, the next level your test management tools must scale is “the filter test.” What kind of metrics can the tool filter around? Active user, milestone, defined requirements, and other types of filters provide instant, actionable insights and must not be ignored. In the end, any complicated process can be distilled to an understandable report with the magic of filtering.

Seamless Integration

Some test management tools seem to exist in a vacuum—they may work well within the company’s proprietary system, but what happens “out in the wild?” It may seem like a no-brainer, but the tool must—and we mean must—work with well-known bug tracking tools, such as Bugzilla, FogBugz, and Jira. That kind of functionality then allows users to provide an overall view of test cases with all issue status notifications available in an easy-to-read format. By integrating with several bug-tracking tools, your team can harness constant feedback functions for better end-to-end tests. 

Simple Import/Export

Your next testing management tool must play well with its software playmates, and that means simple import/export functionality. When importing from spreadsheets, the tool must account for field mapping from columns or risk a total data disaster.

Import and export options must be optimized for all components so the user can rapidly set up the existing data. The tool should always give the user the option to view a list of all imports and exports in the environment. Do the export options allow for flexibility in case testing tools must be changed? Do the exported data work for other different tools used by colleagues? It’s all in these tiny, but important details that make or break your tool set.

Stay Safe Out There

Security should never be a foregone conclusion when it comes to test management tools. Your provider must show a high-level dedication to identifying, addressing, and mitigating emerging threats. Communication between provider and customer should be encrypted with an RSA 2048-bit encryption (Thawte SSL). A quality test management tool provider will equip each customer with their own domain name and database with an encrypted backup executed every few hours.

Advantage: TestMonitor

As you probably guessed, TestMonitor checks all those boxes and more. We're the rock stars of test management tools! TestMonitor sports a simple, yet powerful, interface built with the needs of testers in mind. Crazy, right? Simplicity, combined with functionality. Execute your test runs—any place, at any time—with no experience required. Our platform scales across all devices. We put your team in the driver’s seat with personal to-do lists of all planned test runs assigned to each team member. And, we give you a detailed overview of results for every test run. You can zoom into detail with results for each test case.

Ready to ascend the peak of test management tool magic? Register for a free trial, and let’s launch your next amazing project.

Happy Testing!

Download test management tool checklist

Want the latest news, tips and advice in next-level software testing? Subscribe to our blog!