Every project or startup begins with a necessity, genuine idea or a solution to a stiff problem. Most likely the resolution in today’s time is use of technology based on millions lines of code. Botsplash has a similar story, as they started out with focus to provide an omnichannel conversation platform that was attractive for customers(buyers/shoppers) and convenient for sellers(agents/business). And, as with any other platform, what started with a line of code transformed into a ginormous platform for realtime conversations and automated bots. In this article I write about my recommendation to introduce TestLink and how we use it.
Life before TestLink
When I joined the Team, at the very beginning we managed checklist for listing features and functionality. In a year or so this list was changed, mutated enhanced and deprecated. All of this was being documented on Google Doc. Tones of code now paired with several tones of test cases.
Google Doc is convenient but not structured or categorized. We took a moment to think if OneNote would be next to explore. Then the dreaded pain to transfer all data and also knew OneNote would have its limitations as while it allows for some structure, it is not best suited. So what more is out there?
Research, look up and forum reference, it was clear — we needed a professional tool for saving all this information. The list of the best free Tools for writing and managing Test Cases was not too long:
And TestLink was the choice. One of the most popular Tool and the one I did have experience working with several years ago.
Here are just some of the reasons why I like TestLink
- It is FREE
- It is open source Management Tool
- It can be customized to the project if required
- Several projects can be supported at once
- It is easy to create test reports and test plans in different formats
- A lot of tools for management can be integrated with
- As well as with defect management tools (like JIRA, BUGZILLA, MANTIS, TRAC, Redmine, etc)
- Import/Export processes of test cases are also easy here
- Attachments can be added to test cases
- Requirement coverage
- Test Plans and Reports can be saved in XLS, .Doc formats
- there is a Test Execution Summary in the Dashboard
- Automated execution of test cases
- You can filter cases with ID, keywords and version
- Metrics are available here not only for the whole project but also for active Test Plans
- It is possible to assign roles for multiple users with their credentials
- And assign test cases to them
- Admin can be responsible for managing assignment of test cases
- It is possible here to synchronize both test specifications and requirements
- If your project has different offices in different part of the world, it is easy to keep tracking of the project in real time.
Anything I do not like or see limits? Yes of course, but for all the advantages listed above, these are okay to live with and I did not find any too restrictive that needed a mention.
Getting started with TestLink is easy..
- Simple test case creation here is a real quest to go through (Requirements — Project — Test plan — Test suite — Build — link Test Case to Test Plan)
- It is not easy to integrate Defect Tracking Tools as well as to link defects with failed test cases
- Tracking changes in test cases (version history) is also a bit difficult
But hold-on, this is just the beginning on my series on TestLink. I will have more articles coming soon. So follow me on this journey as we explore and deep dive TestLink.
To learn more about Botsplash click the button below to schedule a demo with our team.
