MTM 2013 secrets

Introduction

As you probably know, MTM 2013 (Microsoft Test Manager) is a testing tool that can be used to organize test plans in suites and test cases, run manual and automated tests, define lab environments. 

This article will describe functionalities that you may not know and that can help you to manage your test plans much easier.

What is a test plan?


A test plan is a child of a test project. Think about having this kind of test plans for a project: 
- One test plan for each iteration that will contain suites linked to the requirements for that iteration
- One test plan for regression tests
- One test plan for smoke tests (this should be automated)
- You may also have one test plan that contains all test cases, grouped in static test suites that represent the functionalities of the application (authentication, administration, etc.)

A test plan may contain one or more Test Suites that can be
- Static
- Requirements based
- Query based
Every test suites contains one or more test cases. 

Also, a test plan contains a set of settings and configurations. The settings are used to define what data to collect during a test run (information about environment, a movie with the steps, etc.). The configurations are used to define different environments for run. For example "Windows 8.1 Chrome 64-bit CPU" is a set of configuration variable values. For a test case with different configuration with, let's say 3 configurations, 3 iterative runs will be performed when we run the manual test. 

Copying test suites and test plans

MTM offers the possibility to copy test cases by reference (meaning that there will be no new test cases, but the TC are referenced and, when you modify the test cases in one place, it will be modified also in the other place). Why would I need this? Think about having different test suites, one contains all Test cases with priority 1 and the other test suite contains Smoke tests. A test case can be part of both test suites.

This functionality is available like described below:

Cloning test suites and test plans

Cloning functionality will copy test cases by value (no reference, meaning that new test cases will be created).

Test cases shared steps

Shared steps are used for repeated sequences of steps, such as logging in, that will occur in many test cases. Avoiding entering to enter these sequences again and again, we should create shared steps. While running a test, if the shares step is already recorded, we can "play it" without being necessary to record it again.

Test steps parameters

Parameters allow a manual test case to run multiple time with different data. For example you may want to test if the format for email field is correct. In this case you want to create a negative test for not allowed values that should generate a validation message @email with values "email@", "@dot.com", "email@email@email.com" etc. When you run a recorded test, the test will automatically be repeated with a different set of parameters.

Conclusions

There are other interesting topics to be covered in MTM, like Exploratory testing, Test cases management in the Web portal etc. You have the opportunity to discover more "corners" of the MTM world during the test camp event that will take place on 13th June, in Iasi, Romania. For more information visit this page: TestCamp Iasi.

Happy testing and... make it green, becomes a dream :).