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. 

Some best practices that contribute to improved software testing Part II

There is always a search for best practices going on. Some are well known and some hidden. Testing does not stand alone. It is intimately dependant on the development practices. These practices have come from many sources. These practices can be divided in three parts:
- Basic Practices
- Foundation Practices
- Incremental Practices

The foundational practices include:
- User Scenarios
User scenarios are developed to test the functionality of applications when multiple software products are integrated. User scenarios test the product in a way that it reflects customer usage. It also reduces complexity of writing test cases. This practice should capture methods of recording user scenarios and developing test cases based on them.

- Usability Testing
Usability testing not only tests how usable a product is but also provide feedback on methods to improve user experience. A good user experience is very necessary. The best practice for usability testing is that it should have knowledge in area of human computer interface.

- In-process ODC feedback loops
Orthogonal defect classification or ODC uses deect stream for precise measurability into product and process. The advantage of ODC is that it has the ability to close feedback loops which has proved to be cost effective and process improvement.

- Multi release ODC/Butterfly profiles
This technology or practice allows to make strategic decisions to optimize development costs, time and quality issues by recognizing customer trends, patterns and performance of the product.

- Test Planning Requirements
Requirements management and preparing test plans out of it is an important step to check whether they are meeting the customer needs or not. This practice is understood and executed with a holistic view.

- Automated test generation
There are many automated tools to generate test cases which help in software testing.this practice needs to understand which of the methods are successful and in what environments they are viable. A good amount of learning is needed to learn these tools.

What is the outline of test plan? What are test specification items?

There is an outline that should be followed while writing a test plan. It consists of the following:
- The Background
- The Introduction
- The Assumptions
- The Test Items to be tested.
- The Features to be tested.
- The Features not to be tested.
- The Approach that is to be followed.
- Item Pass/Fail Criteria which is an itemized list of expected output and tolerances.
- The Suspension or Resumption Criteria.
- Test Deliverable which includes beside software, what else would be delivered?
- Testing Tasks which consists of functional and administrative tasks.
- Environmental needs like security clearance, office space and equipment, hardware and software requirements.
- Responsibilities.
- Staffing and Training
- Schedule
- Resources
- Risks and Contingencies
- Approvals

Test specifications are developed from test plan and are a part of second phase of test development life cycle. How to implement the test cases is explained through test specifications. It consists of following:
- Case Number
- Title of Test
- ProgName which consists of program name containing test.
- Author
- Date
- Background which consists of Objectives, Assumptions, References, Success Criteria.
- Expected Errors
- References
- Data that flows between the implementation under test and test engine.
- Script

Why is documentation necessary in QA? What steps are needed to develop and run software tests?

Documentation is very necessary in quality assurance. Everything should be documented. User manuals, test plans, bug reports, business reports, code changes, specifications, design and all other reports should be documented. Any changes in the process should be documented.
A properly documented requirement specification is very necessary. Requirements are the details of what is to be done. Requirements should be clear, complete, detailed, testable. Details should be determined and organized in an efficient way but it can be difficult to handle. Some type of documentation with detailed requirements is very important to properly plan and execute tests.

There are some steps that are needed to develop and run software tests:
- The requirements, design specifications are necessary.
- Budget and cost should be known.
- What people will be responsible, responsibilities, standards and processes should be listed.
- Risk aspects should be determined.
- Test approaches should be defined.
- Test environment should be defined.
- Tasks should be identified.
- Inputs should be determined.
- Test plan document should be prepared.
- Test cases should be written.
- Test environment and test ware should be prepared.
- Tests are performed and results are evaluated.
- Problems are tracked, re-testing is done and test plans are maintained and updated.