Advantages of the Test Management Systems Integration

The main reasons for the integration of the different types of test management systems will be analyzed in this article. Here we will discuss the questions like the “Do we really need to integrate different systems?”, “What kinds of system are preferable for the integration?”, “When the integration can get us a real profit?” etc. Besides that, we will consider the integration for different size of the budget.

Sometimes, while reading about the test management tool, please, pay attention to its advantages. Integration with JIRA, GitHub or any other popular tool is often detected as a merit or a useful feature.

The main tasks of the test management

Let me remember you about the main stages of the software development cycle: Requirement analysis, Design, Coding, Testing, Deployment and Maintenance. We can define the main tasks the test manager has to solve for the successful passing all these stages:

• Analyze, clarify and complement requirements.
• Preparing the main testing artifacts: test plan, test suites, test cases, metrics.
• Control and manage all versions of the developing software.
• Test case execution management.
• Sharing test runs result among your QA team.
• Bug tracking.
• Analyzing testing result.
• Managing the regression testing activities.
• Tracking the time your team spent.
• Beta testing performance.

It is clear that you need more than one tool to overcome such difficulties. There are a lot of powerful multifunctional tools like JIRA, TestLodge, EasyQA or TestRail which are able to solve most of these problems. Here you find more about these and other best test management tools.

Test management tools integration with the git-based version control systems

No test management tool has its own full valued version control system (VCS). That is why you have nothing to do, but integrate your test management tools with any VCS.

There is a wide choice of the VCS. But unlike to centralized version control systems (CVS, Subversion), distributed VCS ( Git, Mercurial) have one significant advantage. All changes are stored in the local storage on the computer and synchronized with others if necessary. So, you can work with it even without a network connection.

GitHub is the most famous and powerful git-based service.

GitHub is more than just a repository of code or VCS. They called it the “social network for the developers”. The main advantages of the integration GitHub in your test management process:

• Control over all version of the code.
• Code repository.
• It is free if you code is open for other participants.
• You can create documentation and guides for each project based on a wiki principle.
• You can use experience and pieces of advice of the largest open sourced community in the world.
• You get the credibility with the development community with a presence at GitHub.

Your choice is not limited with GitHub. For example, you can use the GitLab or Bitbucket as its alternatives.

Free test management tools integration

We can create a set of tools that will allow us managing the testing activities at different stages even without great financial resources. Come back to already mentioned test management tasks. Here is the list of open sourced test management tools for our integration:

• TestLink  – popular test case management tool.
• Mantis, Bugzilla, Track – wide used issue tracking systems.
• Trello, MeisterTask, Taskify – Kanban desks.
• GitHub, GitLab – control version systems.

In my opinion, the following combinations of test management tools are supposed to be optimal

1. TestLink, Track (it is easily integrated with git-based services), and GitHub.

2. Trello and GitHub.

Such sets of the integrated test management tools give the following advantages:

• An ability to manage all projects at any time and at any stage.
• The multiplier effect. Every tool functions not only complement each other, but also ensure the unity and continuity of the testing process.
• All above mentioned GitHub integration merits.
• Effective task redistribution between the QA team.
• Optimal use of time for testing.

Multifunctional tools: to integrate or not to integrate?

Do we really need to integrate test management tools? Of course, we should do it only if the integration can get us a real profit when tools seamlessly complement each other. But, what about multifunctional tools?

Let’s consider such kind of tool – EasyQA. Due to its wide functionality and low price (monthly $5/user), EasyQA can be a good choice for different sized team and projects. Actually, using only it, you can perform almost all mentioned and required test management activities.

Apparently, EasyQA is a self-sufficient tool and there are no visible reasons to integrate it with other ones. But the integration with a wide range of testing tools (JIRA, YouTrack, GitHub, GitLab , Redmine, PivotalTracker, Trello, and Jenkins) is among its main features.

Here are some advantages, that EasyQA can get due to the integration:

• Continuous integration abilities (Jenkins)
• Other tools’ plugins.
• Git services merits (GitHub and GitLab ).
• Import/export of the task between different test management systems.
• Simultaneous changing task statuses in the integrated systems etc.

As you can see, there are a lot of advantages of the integration even multifunctional test management tools.

JIRA integration

Naturally, that JIRA enforces almost any tool. But, are there any tools which can increase JIRA efficiency? Let’s consider the combination of JIRA with Zephyr and Tempo Timesheets.

Zephyr is the special JIRA test management add-on. Tempo Timesheets is the JIRA integrated time tracker. Here are some advantages of JIRA integration with these tools:

• An ability to create multiple test iterations with multiple cycles.
• Zephyr Query Language and Execution Navigator for powerful search.
• Managing cost centers across the business.
• An internal time management tools variety etc.

So, even the tools like JIRA can be enforced after the integration.  As you can notice, test management tools integration has a lot of advantages:

• You can constantly manage your projects in the each testing stage.
• Enforcing of the every integrated test management tool.
• Cost efficiency.
• All versions control.
• Effective redistribution of the task among your team of testers.
• Time management high efficiency.
• A variety of plugins of the integrated tool.
• Tasks and issues import/export etc.

Hope, this article will help you to make a right choice and create your own set of the test management tools in accordance with your project.