A Test Manager's Wish List - Top 5 Items

When we talk to a test manager, first he/she complains; after some point, their wish list starts coming out. The test manager wants something that is not there now, but can be implemented across teams; yet the test manager feels that it may not happen in near future. Looks like never-ending chase!

1. One single system for all my test assets. But branded tools are costly; my management rules those out when I give a quote. They do not understand my problem of dealing with so many spreadsheets and emails!

What is the real problem here? It takes time to get even the simplest metrics. Also it always gives doubt whether the data in the spreadsheets are 100% correct or not. The recurring pain of manually reviewing the same and making charts out of it, drains my energy at EOD; oh,,I have a con-call tonight to attend and present these metrics once again!

2. Status of test execution and bug fixes must be fully visible to all. Every day I need to collate all status reports, (btw, I have become a super user of copy-paste technique!). So many status mails and sugar-coated wordings by my test leads to protect their team members, sluggish fix updates by developers...I feel I do not have full control on the testing status. If I have a system that tells me, what tests are executed till the last minute, I will be the happiest person in this world.

3. Ready charts and reports with just 1 click. I know my boss appreciates one specific report and chart; if that reaches his/her inbox every night, I am assured of a great appraisal. The test management system that I have does not have that report; hence I export data, massage it and make the report and chart. I am good type-setter as well.

4. Automatic Alerts when something goes very bad. I do too many things. I cannot keep track of everything. But my blackberry or mobile alerts me when a new alert email comes. If build is not deployed or a show stopper happens or 2 testers do not update execution status for last 2 hours, I must be notified. Can someone do that for me?

5. Traceability of tests and requirements. Holy grail of testing. I must know coverage at any given point of time. People write 1000 test cases, but my business team says the test coverage is poor. Again I need some magic medicine.

There is a clear solution for this. Softsmith heard these lines so often from so many people and developed QAMonitor. This tool is aimed at satisfying these top 5 wish list items for FREE to micro organizations with less than 25 employees and at a throw away price to small and medium enterprises.

Please visit http://www.freeqamonitor.com.

Why do people feel it hard, to use a tool?

Many times, you may hear the words from your management "We need specific metrics before we take a decision". But, from where we will get those numbers? The simple answer is right in front of our eyes - we have those numbers; the only difference is that those numbers are in different form. Someone has to collect, collate and present. Who is that magician to do that? Can that person relentlessly do that, what are the chances of making mistakes?

Simple rule. When you cannot rely on humans, rely on tools. They do not get tired or they do not at least ask salary hikes. When one SME company wants to have a tools - they get too many options from open source. When we did survey, many people said that, even though those tools are free, we need to spend a lot of time in setting up, configuring etc. Support is not a happy part of those tools. So the first pain is getting a tool and setting it up.

Second pain comes on usability. Are those tools designed with the best usability? Some techies did that - features are great, but the UI is not good, reports are not upto the expectations... No one wants to spend more than 2 hours to train or retrain their employees on a new tool.

Third pain. When we ask a question in the forum, answer comes 1 week after. By the time, the answer comes, the problem is either solved in one or the other way or it is forgotten. Hence the support loses the gas. People can wait for max 24 hours, and not more than that.

Fourth pain. This is one of the biggest pains you can ever think of. Addiction of people to emails and spreadsheets. When they are so used to these 2, making them to enter some stuff on a neat UI is not that easy. It is like making your kid to take broccoli soup.

Fifth pain. There is a not a big community behind the tool to support from peer users. This is an important aspect. People get results from other people who already faced the problems. They trust the words of these people, more than the original author who coded the tool!

Pain will continue in further posts...