Create Reports for TFS2010 Test Results

Check out instructions on how to create reports for your TFS2010 Test Results. There is also an example that you can follow.

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Microsoft Test Manager–action recording bulk edit

A MSDN Blogger, Gautam Goenka is giving away the code to enable you to do bulk action recording edits. Click here

Thanks Gautam

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Microsoft Test Manager (MTM) – Test Case steps

I am seeing people talking about having a test case with up to 50 and even 100 steps. I might be mad but isn’t that a lot of steps in one test case? When I talk to test teams my recommendation is no more then 10 steps per test case.

Make usage of Shared Steps that can be used to navigate through an application. Make usage of other test cases that will get your test case to the right spot in the application. Use the MTM ordered test feature to organize test cases to run in a specific sequence when needed.

I like to tell testers about the KISS principle of design.

Keep it simple and straightforward.

Keep it simple and short.

The KISS principle states that simplicity should be a key goal in design, and that unnecessary complexity should be avoided. This applies to code design as well.

Test Cases you’ve kissed will be easy to understand, maintain and report on.

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Microsoft Test Manage MTM– test run pausing and resuming

Questions about the ability to pause a test case during execution then restart it has come up in discussions a few times. Thought I would share that it can be done and how.

In the Test Runner you click the Pause button…

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In the Test Runner next click the Return to the Testing Center icon…

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Once back in the Testing Center in the window header will be a new icon that when clicked returns you to the Test Runner ….

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Clicking the Return to Test Runner icon opens Test Runner with a Resume button that when clicked starts your test execution where you left off.

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Note:

Closing Test Manager  will close the paused test run and set it to Failed.

During a Test Run pause, if you start another Test Case Run the message below is posted. image

Save and/or Don’t Save ends the paused test run setting it to Failed. (original test run stops)

Cancel stops the newly select test case run and returns you to the Test Center with the icon displays to resume the original test.

If there are things about Test Manager you would like to see changed add a backlog item or vote on the one’s already added. Microsoft is looking for our input on what changes people want and by voting on them how important it is to you.

A backlog item already exists for allow you to pause one test run and start another then return to the paused run. If this is important to you click below find this backlog item and vote.

Visual Studio UserVoice

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Microsoft Test Manager– What is my test state at the Test Plan level?

Check out the Visual Studio Team Test blog on using Excel reports with MTM to identify test state at a test plan level. This is a step by step on how to create the report in excel using information on your test state from Test Manager.

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Microsoft Test Manager (MTM) – action recordings

MTM 2010 has opened up the world of manual testing with data-driven and fast forward capabilities. Plus, they have taken extra steps to ensure your successful here is an example of one.

Your are opening an application from a short cut on your desktop. Test Manager will capture and store the path to where you have placed the application executable and the path based on the %USERPROFILE%. In my example it looks like this:

 Launch '%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\Calculator\Calculator\bin\Debug\Calculator.exe'

In this example if I remove the executable from my desktop and pin it to my start menu the test will execute successfully. If I then remove it from my start menu and pin it to my task bar the test again executes successfully. In addition the test actions is opening the executable not following the human interaction of double-clicking. This makes your test even less subset able to failure. Note that these types of failures are not application issues and therefore we’d really like to not have to deal with them.

Thanks to Microsoft there is less chance of this slowing our testing down due to setup issues.

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Microsoft Test Manager, Coded UI (CUIT), Web Performance & Load, Bugs, using TFS2010 – 3 day course in Toronto 10% off

If you have never been to Toronto here is your chance plus while here you can learn about Microsoft Test Manager, Coded UI testing, Web & Load testing, the new Bug, Fast Forwarded Manual Testing, and all you need to know about TFS2010 the communicator. Here is your chance. Check out our 3 day course offering being held March 9th to 11th and get 10% off.

Contact: trainging@newhorizon.ca 

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Microsoft Test Manager–Preview a step during runtime

Have you every been in a situation where you have had to execute a test that you did not create or you were not involved in the project at the being. You could use a walk through or in the least more information on what this test is about, how each step will interact with the application, it might be a bug your retesting. It could even be an exploratory test that someone had not created a true test case with steps. Test Manager during run time has a handy feature that lets you preview a step or steps.

See how and examples:

Select a step – any step within the test click on the Play dropdown arrow and select Preview

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Here is an example of selecting a shared step for preview.

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Here is an example of a step with multiple lines (see blog: Microsoft Test Manager–test case multi steps tool) and a parameter.

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Last an example of a exploratory test case – you got to like this one.

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Microsoft Test Manager–Test Attachment Cleaner tool

One of my favourite Test Manager feature is the data and diagnostics that collects information during my test runs to pass on in any bugs I log or get attached to my test run. The action recording proves the test case steps were followed, they allow me to fast forward the test next time I run the test or iterations. It has eliminated the bug state “Cannot Reproduce” The time all this data collected saves me in dealing with just bugs is unlimited. Developers love it too, they can diagnose bugs in no time.

I wonder if this helps in reducing the affect of the bug fix breaking other code. Now that would be interesting to investigate. Next project I’ll have to investigate all Test Impact and track how many were due to code changes involved in a bug fix.

Now I am in year five of using Test Manager and Visual Studio data diagnostics and my test runs and bugs are adding up in quantity therefore my database is getting full of all these test attachments. Do I really need to store the test attachments from a project that is done and 9 months old. Maybe not. What can I do?

The Test Attachment Cleaner a command line power tool that accepts parameters to remove test attachments form the database. Here are some examples:

  • Identify list of attachments taking up database space of more than 1 GB per attachment
  • View/Delete IntelliTrace log files over a size of 500 MB
  • View/Delete all Video log files with Test run creation date older than specific date with no active bugs
  • View/Delete all TRX & COV log files for test runs that happened between 30 and 90 days in age & do not perform the Linked Bugs lookup query
  • View/Delete all custom/user attachments over size of 5 MB with no active or resolved bugs on test runs between 2 dates

Find out more and download Test Attachment Cleaner

If you need to keep the test attachment data it can be stored remotely which is setup in the Test Plan properties, test settings.

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