While the Test Management products have been used by the software testing teams globally, certain myths remain about utility of these tools. In this article, I am addressing 5 key myths that come across in multitude of conversations and need debunking.
Myth 1: Test Management tools are cumbersome and cannot scale across development processes.
Due to the large userbase of some of the legacy tools like HP QC (Microfocus ALM) or IBM Rational, this myth has become a folklore. The rigid architecture of these old tools makes them tough to scale across development methodologies. With the digital transformation, many organizations have moved from waterfall to agile to DevOps. And the test management tool that they inherited has remained the bottleneck creating this myth. While such legacy tools have added patchwork improvements to meet contemporary demands from Agile / DevOps teams, they lack openness to integrate easily with different test automation frameworks, project management, and CI/CD tools. This gives more weight to the myth.
The reality is that there are tools like QMetry Test Management that have secured, scalable, and enterprise – grade architecture that supports all development methodologies from traditional waterfall to modern Agile and DevOps practices. They are intuitive and easy to adept to.
Myth 2: It is difficult to migrate to a better test management tool from the existing one.
Yes, this myth has a merit to the extent that older test management tools with their legacy architecture have created a complex test asset database and migrating out of it, appears to be effort heavy and costly proposition. It is also driven by people, processes, and tools. Changing the mindset of users towards new test management tool is a big task. You need a well-defined process to carry out the migration efficiently. And, finally, you need right migration utility to carry out the migration that is foolproof and not error prone.
Let me bust the myth by saying that there are new age test management tools that offer easy migration through well-defined process supported by proven migration utility tool. The utility that supports migration from all major legacy test management tools like Microfocus ALM (HP QC). Today’s modern tools are future ready with scalable and open architecture to seamlessly integrate with other tools.
Myth 3: We don’t have testers, and so test management tool is not required.
With sprints shortening and releases becoming rapid, there is a prevailing practice of testing becoming integral to developer’s role in agile teams. The paired programming approach and extensive automation has added further to this belief that test projects are not separate and can be managed within the project management tools.
So, why is test management tool necessary even in such development environments? Quality remains a paramount concern irrespective of the development process followed. Having total visibility on test coverage and full traceability of bugs are some of the most important factors for successful and bug-free software releases. A modern test management tool offers this visibility and actionable insights. It also reduces the efforts by providing reusability and smart test case creation. This enables teams to create better quality software faster.
Myth 4: Test management tools are not designed to help specific compliant needs.
Compliance driven organizations from verticals like healthcare have regulatory requirements to maintain process/approval flow records with date & time stamps. These organizations have to maintain and provide records to regulatory authorities for software developed by them for their beneficiaries and customers. The myth stems from the belief that test management tools are not inherently ready to provide compliance driven functionality like e-signature.
The new age test management tools like QMetry Test Management provide compliance driven e-signature module that follows guidelines of 21 CFR part 11, benefiting customers from healthcare.
Myth 5: It is difficult to integrate test management with other software testing tools.
This is true for legacy ALM tools and so the myth has become very prevalent. Lack of out-of-the-box integrations, additional costs of using 3rd party connectors, and unpredictable data consolidation for better insights are some key reasons that software testing teams have come to believe in this myth. The reality is different now.
With modular, scalable, and open architecture of some contemporary test management tools, teams can integrate seamlessly with tools like Jira, Bamboo, Bitbucket, Git, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, Selenium, QMetry Automation Studio, device clouds, and other software testing tools. What If the integration is not available? Worry not, with REST Open API, it is easy to build. The core architecture being open, makes it easy to add more integrations to the test management and offer them to customers out of the box. This leads to a much better control on testing projects and better actionable insights to improve the software quality at speed.
Test management products with modern architecture are enablers of agile and DevOps, and also support traditional development processes. They have debunked the myths mentioned above effectively and are giving 30 % + ROI within 18 months of adopting them within software testing environments. They increase productivity and reduces inefficiencies to enable the ‘test more, test often’ paradigm.
The best part about new age tools is – you and your team can start the free trial of the tools and check out whether it is the best fit for your organization or not. Start your free trial of QMetry Test Management and see all the features in action by yourself.
