Reducing Time to Market with Better Test Case Management - rayparker56/softwaretesting GitHub Wiki

The adoption of agile and DevOps methodologies in organizations today have reduced the time between product releases by a significant margin. Gone are the days when companies launched their software products every two to three months; in the digitized and fast-paced industry today, the companies deploy typical software projects almost every other week. This means that the development cycle and the testing of the sprint must be managed within that short period of time as well. Thus, in this era where the need for speed is propelling the companies towards digital transformation, it is of utmost importance for the organization to seek measures to optimize their testing processes and improve the overall speed without making a compromise on the quality. A majority of the companies have limited human and financial resources because of which they might lag, however, test case management tools prove to be very useful in such scenarios. In order to achieve the objectives of the business and to attain fast delivery of the project, the software processes have to be changed as well. To cater to this issue, a test case management system is used not only for the smooth transition of the software processes but also to generate test cases and plans for the purpose of outlining user requirements and creating comprehensive reports. Organizations that have unique software processes or operations, they necessitate specific and sophisticated testing efforts to maintain the quality and to deliver on time. This is where the test case management tools come in handy as they offer issue tracking and management services as well, with customizable dashboards, and comprehensive reporting facilities.

The Need for Test Case Management in Organizations

The real-time feature in the test case management enables all the team members to access the problems and issues in the project in real-time which subsequently enhances the communication and collaboration in the team. Given that the team members no longer have to wait for the documentation to be mailed or passed around, there are no bottlenecks and they are able to communicate with each other effectively. The design and structure of the test case management system is such that it tracks, records, organizes and manages the test cases and all the relevant details associated with them so that they can be referred to in the future as well. With this feature, individuals can access any previous test case or their details at any point in time that are applicable in the subsequent projects.

When the teams across the organization are utilizing the test case management system, they are able to keep track of what is happening in the company and what actions are required without having to go through the time-consuming chats or emails. This tool empowers the team to generate and save test cases, plan and execute them, create detailed reports and save them as well, on one platform. Through this, the teams have an end to end view of the test cases, the plan, implementation, specifications and requirements, information related to any issue, and all other related details to the test cases. In a simpler and smaller project, a manual system might be effective, however, as the projects become more complex, there is an increasing need for a proficient test case management system that assists the project teams to communicate easily and access case requirements or track defects with ease.

One of the main advantages of the test case management system is that it allows room for multiple test cases and has the ability to support different issue types including user stories and test cases. This tool brings everyone on board and ensures that they have the same understanding of the prevailing issues, without the hassle of emails and document sharing. The gap between the quality assurance and the development team is bridged with the test case management owing to the shared knowledge.