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The Test Manager's Perspective
In our tutorials we have assumed that the Test Manager will be undertaking a number common tasks. These tasks range from defining the roles in the test team to setting up the test project in QaTraq. This tutorial concentrates on those tasks that the Test Manager needs to complete if he or she is going to take control of the test management process.
As a Test Manager starting out with QaTraq you will need to concentrate on the following:
- Define the roles (and privileges) for your test team
- Define Users of QaTraq and assign them roles
- Define the Product which you will be testing (and its components / versions)
- Create the Test Plan document for the product you're going to test
- Use reports to monitor progress and status
- And finally point the rest of the Test Team in the right direction.......
In QaTraq you start off by defining roles that your team will be performing. The roles in QaTraq define the privileges within the application. For example you might want to allow a Tester role to enter test results by you might not want a Tester to have the privilege to delete a Test Plan. So we are going to align our QaTraq roles with a typical set of roles usually found in a test team:
| Test Team |
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Test manager
Test Team Lead
Test Analyst
Tester |
In many companies Test Analysts and Testers are one and the same but for the duration of these tutorials we we have decided to define them as two distinct roles. So lets start by entering the role of Test Manager.
Create a new role
- Click
 and select 'new'
- Enter 'Test Manager' as the role name
- Enter a role description
- Select the privileges for the Test Manager role
- Select 'save & view'
As a Test Manager you will probably want to have all privileges, so select all the privilege check boxes (which is a little tedious but you can copy this roll in future and save yourself the hassle of checking all the check boxes next time round). For an example of how we set up the Test Manager role in our tutorial take a look here.
All that remains now is to enter the rest of the roles for your test team. Descriptions of each of these roles and how they have been setup in our tutorial example of QaTraq can be found here.
Now that we've defined the Roles we can set about creating users and assigning roles to those users. Lets take an example where you have a tester called 'Bob'. However, Bob on regular occasions goes beyond just testing and carries out some Test Analyst tasks here and there. So as a tester Bob needs to be assigned the tester role (which allows him to enter results) and as a test analyst Bob needs to be assigned an additional role of Test Analyst which allows him to create test scripts.
Create a new user
- Click
 and select 'new'
- Enter 'Bob' as the role name
- Enter 'Bob Smith' as the user name
- Enter a password
- Select 'Tester' as the default role
- Select 'save & modify'
- Select 'Test Analyst' as the additional role
- Click 'Add'
- 'Select 'save & view'
You should now have a new user called 'Bob' who has Tester and Test Analyst privileges for the QaTraq application. You can see descriptions for the roles Bob has been assigned here.
Next we need to consider products. First of all we will need to define the product within QaTraq. Assuming we are logged in as the Test Manger, and that we have privileges to create a new product, we can:
Create a new product
- Click
 and select 'new'
- Enter 'Car' as the Product name
- Enter a product description
- Select 'save & view'
Now we've defined a product we need to build up the components and versions that describe the Car product. You will notice that now you've saved the new product and that you are viewing the product record you can add 'New Component' or add 'New Version'.
Create new components
- Create a new product
- On the products view page for the car, Click 'New Component'
- Enter the Component Name 'Engine'
- Select an owner
- Enter a component description
- Select 'save & copy' (to enter more components)
Enter the following components in the same manner as above:
Okay, with the components added we need to add the versions (or build) identifiers
Create new versions
- Click and select 'view' for the car product
- On the products view page for the car, Click 'New Version'
- Enter the Version name 'car_0_1'
- Enter the version description
- Select 'save & copy' (to enter more versions)
Enter the following versions in the same manner as above:
- car_0_2
- car_0_3
- car_0_4
- car_1_0
So, we've successfully created a new product along with the components that make up that product, and the versions (or builds) that we expect to see the development team release to us for testing. When you view the car product you should see a page similar to the one shown here.
So we have a product, and any second now that product will land on your door step for testing. We need to start planning how we're going to get that test team testing the product. We'll start by creating a new Test Plan in QaTraq.
Create a new Test Plan
- Click
 and select 'view'
- Enter the title 'Car Test Plan'
- Leave the version at 'v0.1' as this'll be the first draft
- Don't worry about Phases (we'll come onto those later)
Now, we're assuming you've prepared a comprehensive test plan well before the Development manager was due to drop the first release/build on your door step. QaTraq allows you to store this test plan so that it is visible and accessible to the whole test team. You can either enter the whole test plan as text/html in the 'content' box or attach the test plan and enter a summary in the 'content' box (I suggest the later).
Adding an attachment to a Test Plan
- Click 'Add Attachment'
- Browse and then select your test plan (probably in Word or Pdf format)
- Click 'Attach file'
- Enter an overview of the test plan in the content section (text or html)
- Click 'save & view'
When you view the newly created test plan you should now see your attachment and test plan overview, which might be similar to the one found here.
A couple of things to note about Test Plans:
1) if you write your test plans in Html then forget about the QaTraq attachments and just paste your html test plan into the content section of the QaTraq Test Plan entity.
2) if you attach a Word or Pdf test plan, and then modify the original document. Don't forget to add the new version of the test plan as another attachment within the QaTraq Test Plan entity.
Coming soon!
Now that you've set everything up from the test managers perspective you might want to point your test team in the right direction. To start with you should tell your Test Lead to get started with the test design and test scripts (he or she will need to come up with a sensible structure of test design and test scripts to fit your test project). We cover the actions of the Test Lead in the next tutorial ' The Test Leads Perspective'.
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