background

Due to the increasing number of project members and concurrent projects, how to control the progress of testing and the implementation of use cases has become a difficult problem for project managers. In this case, the traditional local use-case files can not help us to have a visual sense of the project’s testing progress, and the online use-case platform has emerged in this case.

Why MeterSphere

When choosing an online use case management platform, I followed the following principles:

  1. Good visualization of test progress
  2. Use case templates fit current writing conventions
  3. Low cost of extra time caused by use
  4. Easy to manage the use case library

The mainstream use-case management platforms in the market include Zephyr and SynapseRT on Jira. PingCode and MeterSphere, etc. Among them, The function of Zephyr is relatively single, and many scenarios cannot be met. PingCode is more inclined to research and development, rather than focusing on use case management. So the trade-off comes down to SynapseRT versus Metersphere.

SynapseRT

SynapseRT’s advantage is that JIRA is the project management platform the company is currently using. Therefore, we use SynapseRT to manage our test cases, which is a good fit for our release cycle. Its advantages include:

  1. No additional system administration is required
  2. Test cases can closely match requirements
  3. Excellent visual progress
  4. It is convenient for all members of the project team to pay attention in real time

SynapseRT does a good job of associating use cases with requirements. Since every requirement in our current project is maintained in Jira, using SynapseRT to manage use cases can promote standardized project management and eliminate missed testing. Its components include:

  • Requirements (JIRA issues)



    This component associates requirements with use cases and problems and is presented in three modules.
  • The test case



    This component is the editing and presentation of a single use case, along with the set of use cases, test plans, and requirements associated with that use case.
  • Set of test cases



    The test case set is similar to the concept of a use case library, where all version use cases can be archived by system and module.
  • The test plan



    Test plan is a core module in management, in which you can view the execution rate and results of current use cases in real time. During the testing process, managers can control the current testing progress and determine whether the project is risky.
  • The test cycle



    The cycle module is like a kanban for the project plan, where the specific problem distribution of the project can be visualized as a kanban and a list
  • The test execution



    The execution module is the responsibility of the tester to record the execution results of the use case
  • The test report



    The report module is the report kanban generation module of the plug-in, which is used to visually analyze the test quality and project quality of the version.

SynapseRT shortcoming is also very obvious for us, it doesn’t support Xmind format of test cases to import, he used for we will need to discard the current case writing habit, or spend extra time to put our mind mapping use case into EXCEL cases, it is not for release cycle nervous we usually friendly.

MeterSphere



MeterSphere is a one-stop open source continuous testing platform, covering test tracking, interface testing, performance testing, team collaboration and other functions. It is fully compatible with JMeter, Postman, Swagger and other open source and mainstream standards. Effectively enabling development and test teams to take full advantage of cloud resilience for highly scalable automated testing.

Compared to SynapseRT, MeterSphere is definitely more powerful. In addition to traditional functional testing, interface testing and even performance testing can be managed on this platform. For traditional functional testing, SynapseRT is no worse than SynapseRT for test tracking and use case management. It also supports use case import in Xmind format. The only downside is that it is a separate platform from Jira, so there is an additional cost to manage the platform, and the use cases on the platform are not as closely related to the actual requirements as the plug-ins on Jira. But compared to its actual powerful functionality and scalability, these are acceptable.

conclusion

SynapseRT MeterSphere
Test progress visualization ✔ ✔
The concept of a useful case library ✔ ✔
Support Xmind mind mapping use cases x ✔
Low time cost caused by use x ✔
Support for interface testing x ✔
Requirements are closely related to use cases ✔ x

To sum up, considering the extra time cost caused by the most critical use, MeterSphere platform is still chosen to fit the current use-case writing habits.

The use of MeterSphere

System management



First add the test item to the system administration



And create a user



A user group is similar to a role. It is a set of permissions and can be set in user groups and permissions. An organization is a collection of users.



The user space is used for interface testing and test environment configuration. The default workspace is used for functional testing.

The test track

The test Tracking module is the main module we use to manage use cases and track test progress. Next, I’ll show you how to complete a test plan addition.

Test plan creation



First of all, select the test project that we want to add Jiahua, pay attention to select the correct workspace, otherwise it may not be able to select the project.



Under the test Plan page, click more actions next to the list search bar on the left, and click the Import button



Select the Mind mapping use case and click Download Template



The template basically conforms to our usual use-case writing habits. Based on the trial of these versions, the following will give some reference suggestions and points to pay attention to when writing:

  • The original basic framework of use cases does not need to be changed. The superior nodes of specific use cases are still modules, and the names of each module are recommended to be unified to facilitate the collection of use case libraries
  • Specific operation steps and expected results can be detailed for easy review
  • Tag Indicates the JIRA number corresponding to the use case.
  • If an import error occurs, try splitting the import into several pieces.

Attached is a recent use case in a project for your reference



After uploading, you can see the specific use cases in the right list, and the left list shows the modules of the system, that is, each superior node in the map.

Use cases in the test case module are not used for execution; the execution is done in the test plan module.

Create the test plan in the project plan module



Associate our imported test cases on the plan page



According to the search conditions, select the test cases needed by our current version of the test plan and import them into the list. At this time, the imported use cases can be seen in the list, and the current test progress can be seen by returning the test plan list. A complete plan creation is completed.

Case execution



Click on the use case in the plan to mark the test results for each step, as well as the overall test results for that use case.

It is recommended to block use cases that cannot be executed temporarily due to problems with the front function.

Project managers can follow up in real time on the use case execution in the report.

Associated with jIRA issues



First, you need to add the JIRA account configuration in System Settings → Organization → Service Integration.



Then in workspace → Template Management → Custom Fields, create fields that correspond to our JIRA project failure template



Specific option values need to be captured in jIRA.



Then in the defect template, create a new template, add custom fields that you have already edited, or set directly on the page. The API field name must be captured in jIRA. Defect platforms need to select JIRA.



Finally, add a good defect template in the project management, and fill in the project key, key can be viewed in JIRA! []

Finally, in the use case execution, in the case of associated Defect – Adding defect below, it can be associated with JIRA platform after the completion of adding defect

Interface testing and extension



MeterSphere supports Jmeter script imports and can do the same for individual interface tests as Postman.

In the future, some interface test scripts can be synchronized to the platform, which can be jointly maintained and used by developers.