Explain Telerik TeamPulse?

About Telerik TeamPulse

- Telerik TeamPulse has been developed by Telerik as an agile project management tool in the year of 2010. 

- One of the characteristic features of the TeamPulse is that it can be integrated as well as hosted as local Microsoft team foundation server 2008, 10 and 12 services. 

- However, it cannot be integrated with the Microsoft visual studio.

- This Telerik product is available under commercial license. 

- The features of TeamPulse have been mentioned below:

1. Bug tracking
2. Integration with the telerik’s web UI test studio
3. Time tracking
4. Backlog management
5. E – mail notifications
6. Cross – project dashboard known as xView and developed with html5.
7. Task board
8. Storyboard with WP limits
9. TeamPulse can be integrated with Microsoft TFS (team foundation server) 2008, 2010 and 2012.
10. Requirements manager
11. Best practices analyzer

- The extension provided with the Telerik TeamPulse is the TeamPulse ideas and feedback portal which is based on html and is compatible with html5.

- Since TeamPulse is commercial software, it is not available for a hosted solution but it is to be used only on premise. 

- When you add TeamPulse to TFS the planning, tracking and collaboration improves automatically.

- With the real time project intelligence of Telerik TeamPulse you can improve decision making power. 

- It provides you with up-to-date views of the status of the project. 

- By using TeamPulse, you bridge the boundaries between the team members and their geographical location i.e., the communication is improved. 

- This tool has been exclusively designed for scrum and kanban teams i.e., any of these either kanban or scrum or scrumban can be used.

- It has been designed to reduce the delivery time, eliminate the waste and improve the work flow. 

- It also provides you a convenient way for collecting and managing the customer feedback. 

- It lets you create products that your customer actually needs. 

- TeamPulse lets you manage project well with the following:

1. Work burn down
2. Velocity
3. Cycle time
4. Iteration delta
5. Agile best practices and a number of other reports. 

- Telerik TeamPulse favors most of the agile projects.

- It lets one plan, manage and monitor the results thus improving the overall process. 

- TeamPulse has got a rich interface with in–context guidance making the integration with TFS faster. 

- Its other features include:

1. Automatic notifications
2. Bug tracking
3. Gantt charts
4. Interactive gantt charts
5. Privacy settings
6. Project templates
7. Reporting
8. Scheduling
9. Task feedback
10. Workload
11. Dashboard
12. Email integration
13. Issue tracking
14. Messaging or IM
15. RSS feed
16. Collaborative
17. Issue tracking system
18. Risk management capabilities
19. Web application

- The tool has not got any remote capability features. It comes with the following resource management features:

1. Time sheets
2. Compare project
3. Management software

- Teampulse has been developed with the view that all the clients, scenario and environment differ from each other.

- Large enterprises require a tool that is capable of scaling their workload. 

- Teampulse fits every scenario even though if you require some time to master it. 

- Firstly, you need to set up the project info, template, iterations. 

- Then you need to create your team and lastly take a view of the summary of your project. - It is recommended by the system to start with the stories.

- Being an enterprise tool, it has got many features which might make you feel like it might be quite complex to use. 

- But it is quite user friendly. 

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 is the difference between winrunner and test director?

The winrunner is often confused with the test director. But both of them have considerable differences between them. In this article we shall explore the differences between the winrunner and the test director. We shall list all the differences below:

Difference #1:

The winrunner is an automated testing tool that was developed as a functional testing tool by the HP (hewett Packard) whereas the test director is a test management tool. The former tool tests the software system or application while the latter one manages all those tests that are to be performed.

Difference #2:

The winrunner tool only helps in carrying out the tests on the software systems and applications whereas the test director organizes the whole test process as it name says the “test director” much in the way that a film director directs the shoot of the movie. In some cases the test director has also helped in the creation of the test cases.

Difference #3:

Winrunner is a tool that serves the purpose of the automated testing and is mostly used whenever the testers have to carry out any one of them:

a)   Regression testing or

b)   GUI testing

One plus point of the winrunner is that the testing carried out with its aid is quite efficient, fast and reliable. On the other hand the test director is a web based tool for the purpose of management of the tests. In test director, the management of the following takes place with the use of a centralized data base:

    a)   Requirements documentation

    b)   Specification documentation

    c)   Test plans

    d)   Test cases

    e)   Defect managing and

    f)    Defect tracking etc.

Both are completely different tools that have been developed by the same pioneer mercury interactive.

Difference #4:

One of the fact about winrunner is that it can only create automated test scripts and does not has the ability to handle the already automated test scripts. On the contrary, the test director or TD (as you say) forms a kind of central repository for storing the information related to bugs and their management.

Difference #5:

It won’t be wrong to call the winrunner a regression testing tool or a record and play back tool whereas the test director being a test management tool can even help you in the execution of the pre- automated test scripts through a special environment called test director environment.

Difference #6:

The speciality of the winrunner lies in automation of the scripts whereas the test director excels in the field of defect tracking and management.

Difference #7:

Winrunner is used for the following:

a)   Complex Functional testing

b)   Complex Regression testing and

c)   Automating the test scripts

The test director is used for the following purposes:

         a)   Creating the test plans

         b)   Preparing the test cases

         c)   Executing the test cases

         d)   Generating the bug reports

         e)   Maintaining the test scripts and so on. 

Difference #8:

The winrunner is a testing tool that has eased the complexity which is faced by many of the testers during regression testing. On the other hand the test director is a management tool holds the responsibility for keeping a perfect and clean record of the software testing process right from the requirements phase to the end of the testing phase.

Difference #9:

With the help of winrunner the TSL scripts can be recorded and updated and replayed a number of times as and when required whereas with the aid of the test director one can even run the winrunner as well as loadrunner scripts on a remote computer system. 

Describe the concept of phase containment?

In this article we have focussed on an important concept namely phase containment.

Process of Phase Containment

- The process of phase containment deals with the removal of the defects and bugs present in a software system or application while it is still under its SDLC or software development life cycle. - The process of phase containment prefers the early removal of the bugs and defects. 

- It is named so because this process is all about containing faults in one specific phase of the software development life cycle before they get enough time to escape out and affect the software development in the successive phases of the software development life cycle. 

"There are two types of error. One type of the errors are the one which were introduced in the preceding phase of software development and now have accumulated in the current phase and the second types of error are the one which have been introduced in the current phase of software development itself. But the former kinds of errors are called defects and not probably errors". 

- The concept of the phase containment is promoted whenever this concept is related to the organization’s profitability and cost.

- But in order to relate the concept with the organization’s cost and profitability, the identification of the errors and defects that escaped from the previous phases of the software development life cycle and found their place in the successive phases of the software development. 

- Another thing that is required is the determination of the average costs of the defects and errors that were caught in the later phases of software development. 

- It becomes difficult to sort out errors and faults once the software product is out in the market as proven by some research. 

Methodologies to gain control of software product

- So many technologies and methodologies have been developed today to gain control over the quality of the software product.

- They are:

1. Static analysis: This activity involves the analyzation of the program code with the purpose of formatting the errors prevailing in the software system and specific coding.
2. Unit testing: This activity involves the developer leveraging his/ her knowledge for breaking the program code.
3. Code reviews: This activity involves taking the steps to ensure the security of the software system or application and better accountability.
4. Code complete criteria: This step involves providing consistent hand off to the development team.

Metrics used in Phase Containment Process

- The phase containment process makes use of the phase containment metrics.

- These phase containment metrics serve the purpose of making sure whether the developers are on the track or this process is on the track i.e., the process whether is working as desired for the company and organization or not.

- Commonly three types of metrics that are used in the process of phase containment namely:

1. Trailing metric: The purpose of this metric is to find out the downstream impact of the process of the phase containment.
2. Adoption metric: This phase containment metric is intended for making sure that whether or not the software systems developers are adhering the to standards of the phase containment process.
3. Effectiveness metric: This type of phase containment matrix is used to make sure that the phase containment process is working out well or not and how the developers are maintaining it.

This process of phase containment is used to make sure that the all the aspects of the quality assurance are incorporated in to all the phases of the software development life cycle process.