This is a guest post by Carl Shaulis
Choosing the right test management tool can seem daunting, especially if decisions were made by others and undocumented. Each tool may excel in one area but fall short in others, leading to fragmented views of your software’s status. The best test management tools promise to integrate these disparate sources—but how do you know which one is right for you?
To simplify this process, we’ve prepared a comprehensive test management tool evaluation checklist designed to help you narrow down your options, uncover hidden requirements, and ultimately streamline your decision-making from numerous attributes to a select few that truly matter.
Here’s what we’ll be exploring:
- Structure: Ensuring the tool aligns with your organizational needs and supports hierarchical test management.
- Access and ease of use: Evaluating user accessibility, intuitive interface, and integration capabilities with company-wide systems like single sign-on.
- Software engineering process integration: Assessing integration with other systems such as requirements management, version control, and defect tracking.
- Continuous integration and APIs: Checking support for CI/CD workflows and the availability of APIs for automation and data integration.
- Scalability: Determining if the tool can handle large volumes of test data and support continuous deployment scenarios.
- Insights and reporting: Reviewing reporting capabilities, including dashboards, trend analysis, and visualization of testing progress and quality.
- Alignment to DevOps: Assessing support for integrating various types of tests and providing insights into performance over time.
- Simple migration paths: Considering ease of migration from existing tools or processes to the new test management solution.
- Management of test cases: Features related to managing, archiving, and transferring test cases across teams and projects.
- Cost: Evaluation of the financial implications and ROI associated with adopting the tool.
Now, let’s explore each of these aspects in detail to help you choose the best test management tool for your team.
1. Structure
Choosing the right test management tool hinges on how well it fits your organization’s structure. Whether you’re a multi-division company with various products or a smaller team focusing on a single product, the tool should adapt to your setup.
Think of it like this: each business unit might have its own set of products, and within each product, you’ll have test suites filled with test cases. These cases are executed in runs, forming a hierarchy that mirrors your business’s structure.
The tool needs to be flexible enough to accommodate your testing layers—like Acceptance, Integration, and User Interface—and handle different types of test runs, whether automated or manual. It should also support capturing human-driven exploration sessions and allow you to organize tests into suites, cases, or user journeys.
The key is finding a tool that grows with your team and business. It’s not just about finding something “amazing”; it’s about finding a tool that fits seamlessly into your workflow. A quick demo can help you see if its structure aligns well with how your team operates and adapts to changes over time.
Image: In TestRail you can organize, manage, and track your automated and manual test cases in hierarchical folders in one collaborative platform.
2. Access and ease of use
Today, most test case management tools operate on a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. This means there’s no need to install software locally, but someone still needs to handle user setup, permissions configuration, and managing user access when they leave the company. It’s crucial that the tool integrates smoothly with your company’s single sign-on solution and that its licensing supports universal access.
Consider how the tool’s licensing may affect accessibility and overall costs as you evaluate different options.
Accessibility is key. Everyone across your organization should be able to easily find, view, and contribute to test plans and cases. The user interface should be intuitive for all users, fostering quick adoption and productivity. Engineers and testers should be able to swiftly create and share test strategies as digital artifacts, ensuring efficient collaboration.
Image: TestRail enables you to create, manage, and organize test cases and suites within an optimized user interface and application structure.
3. Software engineering process integration
Modern organizations store test data across various locations. This includes setup data, test code, an overview of the tests to execute (the test cases), exploration notes, and test run results. These results might also contain defect numbers or references back to the code.
Here are five key integration points to consider:
- Requirements tracking: Tools like Jira, VersionOne, Trello, Rally, etc.
- Defect tracking: Systems such as Jira, Bugzilla, Mantis, FogBugz, etc.
- Product code management: Version control systems.
- Test code management: Tools like Ranorex, test automation code, and version control.
- Supplementary documentation: Wikis, Confluence, SharePoint.
Not every company needs all these connections, but it’s essential to determine how much traceability you require. Does the tool provide the necessary traceability between these points?
This boils down to a “fitness for needs” question. Before choosing a test management tool, define your engineering workflow, including all integration points. Identify what information needs to flow into and out of the test management system. Ensure the tool can support this workflow and that the data flows as expected.
If the test management system lacks robust reporting and insight capabilities (see simple migration paths), but can export data to another system that does, that might be sufficient.
4. Continuous integration and APIs
While this is similar to the previous point, continuous integration (CI) is so crucial that it warrants its own section. Companies adopting a CI approach need their CI system to update the test management tool, keeping both in sync. A robust API allows other programs to perform the same actions as users, and some tools might offer a command-line interface as an alternative.
This feature can be a strategic driver. The ability to import automated results mapped to the test design enhances the team’s efficiency, enabling management (see insights and reporting) to visualize all testing activities in one place.
Determine if you need CI integration or APIs and ensure the tool can meet those needs.
Image: TestRail can be integrated with almost any platform or framework: Easily integrate your automated tests and submit test results with TestRail’s flexible API and CLI tools.
5. Scalable
Scalability is different from structure. While structure maps the tool’s constructs to your business domain, scalability is about whether the software can handle large volumes of test result data. Imagine a typical product with a thousand test cases, a company with a hundred products, and continuous deployment—this scenario generates a massive number of test run records.
A quick look at the tool’s customer list and a bit of analysis should give you a good idea of how the tool can handle your business’s demands.
6. Insights and reporting
As a test manager, you’re frequently asked questions like, “How is testing going?” “Are we ready to release?” “How many critical defects do we have?” and “Do we have any constraints or high-risk areas?”
Every test management tool should generate reports, but the real question is: Are those reports detailed enough to give a clear picture of the situation? Consider if the tool can export or publish results as a web page. This way, any stakeholder—from senior management to the receptionist—can simply refresh their browser for the latest updates
Now, look for tools that can predict completion dates based on data and provide visualizations of coverage and quality. This can shift the conversation from “Why is QA taking so long?” to “Why are there so many bugs for QA to find? Why is there so much retesting?” This change in dialogue indicates a deeper understanding of the software’s status, beyond just the schedule.
Dashboards should be customizable at any organizational level. The CTO may have different expectations than a director. Each team should have a tailored view of their ecosystem, with the ability to zoom in or out as needed.
Another powerful tool is trend analysis with configurable time durations. For instance, looking at defects over a week may reveal different insights than reviewing a quarter. Executives often prefer to see trends and insights over quarters or month-by-month comparisons. You won’t want to spend time exporting data to create pivot tables and graphs in another tool.
A good Test Management solution should provide the insights teams need to quickly improve their processes or adapt their work.
Image: TestRail’s dedicated reporting section makes it easy to generate comprehensive project reports, track the coverage of your tests, references, defects, and much more.
7. Aligns to DevOps
The modern DevOps pipeline goes beyond just having humans test the user interface at the end. For a unified view, a Test Management tool should provide insights into various types of tests, including unit tests, integration tests, performance tests, security tests, accessibility tests, and end-to-end automated tests. If this data includes timestamps and shows performance changes over time, it can be invaluable to Site Reliability Engineers and other DevOps roles.
Understanding which types of tests are growing more quickly can help the team adjust their efforts to find their optimal balance or what I like to call the “sweet spot.”
Explore TestRail’s integrations with DevOps tools such as Jenkins for Continuous Integration (CI), Git for version control systems, and Jira for issue tracking.
8. Simple migration paths
So, how does your team transition from its current setup to the new tool? It should be straightforward to create spreadsheets and import them to establish the basic structure of your test plans, suites, and cases. The tool you select should support importing and exporting test cases in standard formats like .csv, .xls, and .xlsx.
Plus, if you decide to switch tools in the future, it should offer an easy export path or the ability to create read-only PDF documentation. The capability to query the database in SQL might be an added benefit if needed. Remember, this checklist is meant to help you find a tool that fits your organization’s needs, not just a collection of features.
9. Manage test cases
In fast-paced, dynamic companies, products and teams evolve continuously. You’ll need the capability to archive and restore test cases as needed. Flexibility is key—you should be able to move test cases between teams, adjust their priority and scope to align with software updates, and create various reports tailored to different views and needs.
At times, teams may face compressed timelines, leading to segments of testing being paused or adjusted based on customer risk assessments.
Image: TestRail’s intuitive interface and hierarchical structure make it easy to write, organize, and manage test cases. You can simply add preconditions, expected results, priorities, and effort estimates to your test cases.
10. Cost
Choosing the right test management solution today often hinges on its cost-effectiveness. Your company must weigh the potential productivity gains and data accuracy against the financial investment required. With numerous test management solutions available, cost can be a decisive factor when all other features are comparable.
Cost should not be the most critical attribute in the matrix, but if scores are comparable and the difference in cost will break the budget, then the choice is clear. Our suggestion here is to calculate the cost of a year and consider that when it comes to a purchase decision.
Explore TestRail’s ROI calculator to better understand the return on investment your company could experience with TestRail Enterprise!
11. Run the checklist
As you embark on finding the right Test Management Solution, download this test management tool evaluation checklist and use it to evaluate each category with the following scoring system:
| Score | Description |
| 10 | Ideal for our organization |
| 5 | Probably would work |
| 0 | Feature missing |
| -10 | Important feature missing |
| -20 | Critical feature missing |
| -90 | We should not consider this product due to missing feature |
These scores are deliberately weighted to reflect the likelihood of aligning with your success. For instance, if the tool’s scalability or structural fit is lacking, it should be scored accordingly. Without such specific scoring, a product might excel in other areas but fail where crucial.
Remember, this checklist serves as a guide to narrow down your selection of Test Case Management Tools. The next steps involve rigorous trials, demos, and putting the tool through its paces. The proof of concept is crucial and may necessitate collaboration and support from the solution provider.
Selecting the right test case management tool is challenging but achievable. We hope this report has simplified the process for you. Don’t forget to download the test management tool evaluation checklist!
