subject: Selecting a test management tool [print this page] Selecting a test management tool Selecting a test management tool
At the heart of Test Management lie organization, planning, authoring, execution, and reporting. In the contemporary times where teams are geographically distributed, operating in different time zones and functioning collaboratively - working on multiple projects & different modules, testing in tandem with various other tools, it is totally inhuman to ask the testing team to sit and draft the statistically representable and comprehendible status summary by the end of the day, for their higher ups for their perusal.
Reporting is a very vital feature of a test management tool which enables the testing team to focus on what they are best at Testing! The gratuitous efforts spend on summarizing the status report and making them presentable can be eliminated by an efficient reporting facility provided in a test management tool.
Reporting comprises mainly of graphically summarized information as well as detailed reports which are either replicas of are Excel/word/pdf.
A good reporting system should provide:
The Dashboards: graphical summary of the statistics
Information in an easy to use/comprehend format
Should exhibit live/dynamically updated data
Should show data/stats on mouse over
Graphs/chart in relevant structure (for e.g): Pie chart for distribution
Bar charts for comparison
Line graphs for timeline comparison
Ability to view the information/metrics in the desired format graphical/tabular
Complete drill down to fetch the information/data lying behind the graph on a click of a button on the graph
Ability to remember the charts most frequently visited
Metrics that can be downloaded and distributed to the team members/managers
Base to pull out multiple charts at one time for comparison of information across parameters i.e. timelines/components/team members working on it etc.
Reports: detailed information viewed/downloaded for reference:
Should be viewable/downloadable in desired format (xls, rtf, pdf)
Should provide an interface to modify/ write commands to pull out any relevant/required information from the tool for reporting purposes
Should be easy to use and maintain
So, the bottom line is that, the reporting should be so easy that even our Managers should be able to get it and comprehend it.
