How to generate reports for analyzing the testing process in test director?

Reports and graphs in the test director testing process help you assess up to what extent have your requirements, test runs, test plans, defect tracking etc have progressed.

Generating Reports in Test Director

- In test director you have the facility of generating reports as well as graphs at any point of time in the testing process and from each of the test director modules. 

- You have the choice of working with the default settings as well as the customized ones. 

- While you customize the reports or the graphs you have the right to apply sort conditions as well as filters. 

- Also the information can be displayed according to your specifications if you wish so. 

- The settings you make can be saved as the favorite views and they can be reloaded whenever required. 

- A report can be generated from any of the modules of the test director. 

- Each module of the test director provides you with a variety of report generation options. 

- Once you have generated the report, you can customize various properties of the report as per your wish. 

- The information can be displayed according to your specifications by altering or customizing various properties of that report. 

In this article we shall provide you with the steps for generating a standard requirements report, customizing it for a specific user name and adding it to the favorites list.

Steps for generating reports in Test Director

Follow the steps mentioned below:

1. First step is to open your project and login. If the project is not open, log on to it.
2. To view the requirements tree you need to turn on the requirements module. To do so clicking on the requirements tab will display the requirements module.
3. Next step is to choose a report. To do so go to the analysis option, then reports, and then finally click on the standard requirements report. A report will open up containing the default data.
4. Next if you need to customize the report as per your needs and specifications.  Clicking on the configure report and sub reports button will launch a report customization page with all the default options already selected.
5. Here you will get various options for displaying the number of items per display page. Set the option to ‘all items in one page’ if you want them to be displayed all in one page.
6. If you want to define a filter to view the requirements that were created by a specific user name clicking on the set filter/ sort button will certainly help. A filter dialog box will open up where you will see a filed titled ‘author’. For this click the filter condition box and click on the browse button. This will again open up the select filter condition dialog box. For the users field select the test director log-in user name and click OK. This will close the select the filter condition dialog box. Once again click OK to close the filter dialog box.
7. Under fields specify the fields and order in which you want them to be displayed. Select the custom field layout and next click on the select fields button to open the select fields dialog box. You will observe the following two fields:

a) Available fields: fields that are not currently displayed.

b) Visible fields: fields that are currently displayed.

You need to select the attachment option in the visible fields box and click the left arrow in order to move it to the available fields. Move the required fields to the available fields box.

8. Clear the history.
9. You can add the report as a favorite view by clicking on the add to favorites button.
10. Close the report. 

How to generate graphs for analyzing the testing process in test director?

The graphs that are created during the test director testing process let you keep a track of the progress of the test plan, test runs, defect tracking, requirements and so on. Such graphs can be generated at any point of time during the process and also from any of the test director modules. The graphs created by the test director are based up on the default setting however they can be customized by the user.

A project consists of data of different types. The graphs that you create using the test director can help you a big deal in analyzing the relationships between these different types of data. Each of the modules of the test director comes with a number of graph generating options. After you are done with generating the graph, you can customize its various properties so it comes out exactly as per your specifications and displays the information you want and in the way you want. 

Now we shall mention the steps following which you can generate a defects graph which will show the summary of the defects by status as well as priority levels. 

Steps for generating Defects Graph

Follow the steps:

1. Click on the defects tab to turn on the defects module of the test director. The defects module will be displayed in the defects grid.
2. Now for choosing a graph go to analysis menu, then graphs, then summary, then group by status option. This will open up a defects summary graph. This graph is grouped by status by default.
3. Next you need to clear the default filter. Clicking on the filter button will do the task for you. The filter dialog box will open up. You will see that the detected by field is set to the current user name by default. Here, click the clear button and the applied filter will be removed by the test director.
4. If you want to define a filter for viewing the defects with high to urgent priority then click the filter condition box for the priority field in the filter dialog box. Clicking on the browse button will open up the select filter condition dialog box’. Then select the required logical expression in the right pane and in the left pan select the level. Click OK to save the settings and close this dialog box.
5. Next for defining a filter for viewing the defects that are not closed click the filter condition box for the status field. Again open the select filter condition dialog box by clicking on the browse button. Select the ‘not’ logical expression and select closed in the left pane. Click OK to close this box and once again click OK to close the filter dialog box.
6. For setting the X axis of the graph select priority on the right side of the window for viewing the number of defects according to priority.
7. Clicking on the refresh button will refresh the graph i.e., a new graph will be displayed.
8. For displaying additional defect details click on a bar segment of the graph. A drill down results dialog box will display the defects related to that bar segment. Close this dialog box by clicking on the close button.
9. There are various graph views available such as the data grid view and pie chart. Clicking on the corresponding options will display the graph as a pie chart, grid and so on.
10. Close the graph and click on the back button to go back to the defects module. 

What issues should be considered when deciding whether to automate a test? How to generate an automated test script?est Scripts, Scripts

Execution of the test sets lies at the center of any testing process. As the software system or application encounters changes, the defects are located by running both manual as well as automated tests in the project. Also, the quality of the tests is assessed by running the tests itself. 

Issues considered when deciding to go for automation?

- Deciding which all tests have to be automated is a part of the test planning process. 

- Two options namely manual and automated are available for the execution of the tests. 

- If you go with the manual execution of the tests, you can begin with the execution just after you finish defining the test steps. 

- If you go for automating the tests, the test scripts need to be generated and completed. 

- Below we state the issues that should be considered when deciding to go for automation:

1. Do Automate: Only the tests which are data driven or which make use of multiple data values for the same operation, which run with every new version of the application as a measure to check its functionality i.e., regression testing, which are for stress testing i.e., run many times and tests that facilitate the checking of a server system or multi-user client system (load testing) must always be automated.
2. Do not automate: The tests which are meant for a single execution, need to be executed immediately, check for the usability of the tests and whose result cannot be predicted should not be automated.

Steps for generating Automated Test Scripts

Below mentioned steps can be followed for the generation of the automated test scripts:

1. First, click on the test plan tab in order to enable the display of the test plan module.
2. Locate the manual test that you want to automate by selecting the subject folder available at the root of the test plan tree. There click on the find button and the find folder/ test dialog box will open up.
3. Type the name of the test to be searched for in the ‘value to find’ field of the box. Check the ‘include tests’ check box so that the test director can be instructed to look for folders and tests. Finally click on find option. ‘Search results’ dialog box will pop up thus displaying all the possible matches. Click on go to button and the test will be highlighted in the test plan tree. Close this dialog box.
4. Click on the design steps tab in order to display the design steps tab.
5. For generating a test script click on the generate script button. You can choose either of the following options:

a) QUICKTEST_ TEST: For generating an astra quicktest test or quick test professional test.

b)   WR – AUTOMATED: For generating a winrunner test.

The above two options will be available if the corresponding add ins have been installed. Once the test has been automated, the manual test symbol ‘M’ will be replaced by automated test icon.

6. For viewing the test script click on the test script lab. Click on the launch button for displaying and modifying the test script in the testing tool where it was created.

Whenever an automated test is run, the testing tool selected by the tester is opened by the test director automatically and the test is run on either the remote hosts or local machines. The tests can be run either from the execution flow tab or the execution grid tab.

What do we mean by automated test data generation?

First let us clear up what is meant by Test automation? Test automation can be defined as the use of software system, program or application to carry out the following tasks:

- control the process of execution of tests
- to compare the actual outcomes with the predicted outcomes
- to set up the preconditions for test cases
- to keep test control and
- to implement the function of reporting tests.

WHY TEST AUTOMATION IS USED?
Test automation as the term itself suggests involves automation of a manual testing process which is already in progress.

- It is used for automating manual testing processes which use a formal approach for testing.

- Although manual testing also holds good for finding defects in a software program or application, it is a very laborious and time consuming testing process and also it is not so effective in finding certain kinds of defects.

- To overcome these drawbacks of manual testing, automated Testing is employed.

- It involves a process of writing a computer program or software to carry out testing that would otherwise requires to be done manually.

- Once the tests have been automated, they can be run, easily, quickly and repeatedly.

- All these plus points make the automated testing a very cost effective method for software applications.

- Even minor bugs or discrepancies can cause the program to break or crash over the lifetime of the application.

Two general approaches to test automation have been discovered so far:

- Code driven testing
Elements like classes, public interfaces, libraries and modules are tested under code driven testing with a assorted data arguments in order to validate the results for their correctness.

- Graphical user interface testing
As the name suggests this testing approach creates user interface events such as mouse clicks, key strokes etc. the changes that occur in the user interface are observed and that observable behavior is validated for its correctness.

TOOLS FOR TEST AUTOMATION
Unlike tools required for manual testing, test automation tools are quite expensive, and are usually employed or used in combination with the tools of manual testing.

- Nevertheless, the tools can be cost-effective in the longer term if used repeatedly in regression testing.

WAYS TO GENERATE DATA
Now coming to the automated test data generation, there are several ways for generating data and test cases.

- One of the ways to generate test cases automatically is model- based testing and it generates test cases through use of a model of the system.

- Data is the most important thing needed to execute any test.

- Generating data again and again for repeating tests becomes a time consuming task.

- You need to design the test data again and again to execute your test cases.

- You need to design the test data at the current instant if you are running tests in an exploratory manner.

- Generating test data on your own takes a lot of your valuable time.

- Automated tests need a large amount of distinct test data.

- Another alternative can be copying and pasting data for running tests if the production data is available.

- However, this does not prove to be a very good approach.

- But, nowadays several tools have been developed which can be used for automated test data generation.

So the good thing is that you need not waste your precious time generating test data by hand. These tools help you by creating large quantities of test data based on the conditions and constraints specified by you.

Automated test data generation has got the below mentioned benefits:
- Fast data generation
- Accurate data
- Uses built in algorithms
- Creates both valid and invalid test data
- Data is exportable