Test cases – it’s what QA guys and gals write when they aren’t testing. We figure some of our customers need a little boost when trying to incorporate their QA folks into the Axosoft tool, so here are a couple suggestions that might make life easier for the lovely faces at Quality Assurance.
Summon the Custom Items Tab
Surprise! You have a secret item type that you may not be using. It’s not enabled by default, so let’s first help you find this before we touch on test case management. First (assuming you’re both the admin and subscribed to our flagship product: Axosoft Scrum), go to Tools/ System Options/ General and you’ll see an unchecked box for Custom Items. Let’s check it and refresh.
Check the Custom Items tab to enable this new item type.
Then to enable the tab, just check it here. I know, I went bananas with the yellow arrows.
Be sure your new tab is enabled like above. Voila, you now have access to a new item type. Please feel free to rename this to your heart’s content by going to Tools/ System Options/ System Labels. In this example, I’m going to rename this item, ‘Test Cases.’
You can change the name here for any of your item types.
Hopefully you are starting to see some of the pieces fall into place. As its own item type, you gain access to a new array of unique workflows, field templates, and custom items for test cases. So writing these cases and organizing them into the right folders should feel pretty familiar (as if you were creating defect or feature requests).
You can create a new backlog tab for testing.
Splendid! I have my backlog of test cases, but how do I tie them to the corresponding user story, defect, or item? Ah, with another Axosoft feature you may not be using: Related Items. If you go to Tools/ System Options/ Details Panel, you can check the boxes across all the item types to enable this feature.
Check the Related Items’ boxes across the board.
Once we save, the Related Items pane will appear at the bottom of the Details Panel. Now all you need to do is select an item and create the relationship between other items, so in this example, let’s relate to test cases!
Relate items from the details panel and hit ‘Add.’
Okay, so what does all this mean? It means your QA team should now be able to create test cases at will against a particular release. When they actually begin testing, each test case can move through the workflow until it is complete. QA can create worklogs for test cases as well, but Actual Duration won’t roll up across item types. If this is important to you, then check out a much simpler alternative below.
Alternative #2: Let’s just use sub-items
Should your testing be fairly straight-forward, consider using sub-items for your test cases instead. It’s pretty easy, all you do is select the primary item in question (probably a defect or feature), and nest a sub-item to represent your test case. The added advantage is that all your estimates and actual durations will roll up to the parent item. However, things might get hairy if you have a series of test cases you need to manage (that’s where the first option might be a better fit).
Best Practice: Templates of Test Cases
Our QA team must run a standard barrage of tests for each release. It’s the same set of tests, so they’ve created a folder within Axosoft that houses every single one of these cases. From here they just duplicate the folder…
Select the project folder with all your Test Cases and do a detailed copy from the More menu…
Now, toss the items into the QA release…
Drag and drop the items over
And get to work!
We hope this illuminates your testing options with Axosoft. At the very least, you now have a new item type at your disposal and a means to relate items together.