Test case management tools

Test management involves a lot of coordination, communication and documentation. Test case management tools help to track software testing efforts. Free test case management tools could become a great alternative to using a traditional spreadsheet for managing tests. However it’s hard to find a good one: either tool became deprecated, either it’s not supported anymore. So I’ve decided to do small research which tools are still ok to use in 2019.

Test management tools are used to store information on how testing is to be done, plan testing activities and report the status of quality assurance activities. The tools have different approaches to testing and thus have different sets of features. Generally, they are used to maintain and plan manual testing, run or gather execution data from automated tests, manage multiple environments and to enter information about found defects. 

Here are some free tools that could be really helpful:

1.Qase.io

Qase is a web-based application which makes it easy to manage test cases, compose test plans and perform test runs as an individual or in a team. Also, it has a great free plan – you can create projects, test cases, collaborate with your team members, start test runs and get reports – and all of it in their free web-application. I found it really useful to use it in a small QA team to organize all our work.

Pros:

  • Free web-app interface with the ability to manage unlimited test cases, test plans, and test runs
  • Built-in integrations with the most popular bug tracking systems and services like JIRA, Trello, GitHub and many others
  • Team management: role-based access control, teamwork log, assigned test runs, collaborative work with test documentation and test plans

Cons:

  • Can’t integrate your automated tests and send test results to Qase on a free plan
  • Qase is a new project, so there could be some imperfections. But they’ve got really helpful support, which will help you out in no time

2. Test Collab

Test Collab is another web test management tool. Free plan includes 200 test cases, 400 executed test cases and unlimited projects.

Pros:

  • Single repository to maintain and manage all test cases, executions, test plans, requirements and milestones
  • Test cases have extensive history, changelog and versions. Plus Reusable steps feature.
  • No user limit in free plan

Cons:

  • Limited number of test cases execution in the free plan

3. QA touch

QA touch is a user-friendly test management tool which helps in requirements mapping, writing test cases and monitoring team’s activities. It has a good free plan which includes 5 users, 300 test cases, 50 test runs(this information is current as of April 2019) – not bad for a small QA team.

Pros:

  • Single repository to maintain and manage all test suites, test cases, test runs, issues and reports
  • In-built Bug tracking and Slack, Jira, Github integration

Cons:

  • Limited number of Test Runs in the free plan
  • Other useful features are also unavailable in the free plan:  JIRA Requirements Integration(which builds Requirements Traceability Matrix),  Activity Log, Stepwise Execution, etc.

Bonus

Kiwi TCMS

Kiwi TCMS is an open source test case management system. But to be able to use it you should install it on your server. Kiwi is developed in Python and Django and allows to manage test plans, test runs and test cases. It features Bugzilla, GitHub, GitLab and JIRA integration, fast test plan and runs search, powerful access control for each plan, run and case, and XML-RPC APIs.

Pros:

  • Free open source software
  • Test management: create test plans and cases, track progress, reports and assign work across multiple teams
  • Integrated bug reporting with Bugzilla, JIRA, GitHub and GitLab
  • External API is available via JSON and XML RPC with API client in Python

Cons:

  • To use it, you should host it on your server

Summary

Weighing the pros and cons, which test management tool to choose depends on the specific requirements and projects. If you know other free test management tools, please let me know, I’d love to check them out 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *