It comes as no surprise that the software development industry is immensely challenging. A minute error can jeopardise your success. Customers are always in search of products that provide the wbest quality and this is why quality assurance experts are under huge pressure to not compromise on the quality of their software creations and this is done through the most promising testing procedures.
For an enhanced and enriched testing procedure, firms urge the use of numerous tools, however, they are of the understanding that generally excel sheets are sufficient for the test surveillance conditions. Although, it is true to a certain extent that excel sheets fulfil the testing conditions, but in most cases firms still struggle after only depending on the usage of excel sheets. Here’s where the test case management software falls into place.
Keeping in light the myriad complications attributed to the usage of excel sheets, firms are now taking on productive methods of supervising test cases. However, there are still so many organisations that have failed to realise the dire need to shift from excel sheets towards test management cases.
Although, without any question, test case management software, and equipment are critical when it comes to enlarging the size of your division. It is then also essential to incorporate a software that productively organises checklists, tests as well as executions. This allows the committee members of quality assurance to deliver a product with the best quality that is immune to any sort of cyber attack.
However, what’s unsettling here is that if a firm’s testing conditions were being fulfilled with the usage of excel sheets then why would a shift from excel sheets to test case management software become so famous?
Let’s decipher why this transition became so prominent within the software development industry;
Plenty of sheets are required – To be able to design the testing process, you will be needing numerous Excel worksheets. Separate excel worksheets have to be utilised to follow the requirements, test runs, glitches, test cases as well as a worksheet for tracing the processes.
There need to be 5 separate excel worksheets for different projects, no matter what the size of the project is. In case you choose to segregate the worksheets with respect to modules, releases or testers, it would be challenging for your team to handle the amount of excel worksheets.
With a substantially large volume of documents, there is a greater chance of negligence. Hence, the test case management software is there to save the firm from the hassle of a lengthy testing procedure through the usage of excel sheets.
Challenge of updating test cases –
If you are working with a huge amount of excel worksheets, and if the expectations for each of the versions differ from each other, then following the test cases that need to be altered will be extremely challenging.
Hence, if all the test cases are not up to the latest version, then there is a high chance of encountering discrepancies within data. Apart from this, following changes is also very problematic. Your company will invest extra time working on the updates and following changes instead of testing it.
Collaboration challenges – A primary obstacle that is faced while using excel sheets is essentially coordination and collaboration. The excel sheets will have to be shared via emails or other additional online tools. If there is a fair distance between the virtual teams, in that case collaboration, coordination and communication can become cumbersome and so your committee members are likely to resort to using distinct versions of the excel worksheets.
Absence of Agile Support Missing– Excel is not able to change itself according to the brand new procedures while test case management software on the other hand, upholds the altering essential needs of the business procedures inclusive of agile methods.
In comparison to excel sheets, test management tools and software are considered as being more adaptable. When talking about excel sheets, they are considered to be reliable and accurate not for someone new to a specific sheet, but for the creator. An addition or new resource welcomed to your team most likely will have to begin from scratch.
Incapable of providing perfect insights – It is quite tricky to envision test data with various diverse excel sheets. It will require you to undergo an extremely lengthy process, commencing from recruiting data from various excel sheets and then combining all of them.
Additionally, formulating a condensed version of the data is going to be a very tedious task itself and can lead to a number of complications such as glitches. Moreover, in order to avoid complicated testing decisions based on unreliable data, you need to incorporate a special test management software.
Scalability challenges – An additional reason for switching from spreadsheets to test case management software is that as the company grows, the data on the spreadsheet will become more distributed.
Increasing the number of team members on the test project necessitates the addition of more and more excel sheets. As the team size grows, you may need to make changes to the data in the excel worksheet. Human error is more likely to occur with Excel worksheets, making test case management more challenging.
Reporting issues – At times, the test manager may have to inquire each tester for the latest updates with regards to the test execution position, often after every hour moving towards the release version.
Additionally, formulating rest reports for the purpose of releases is also a duty by itself as it requires data to be overseen from different excel sheets, defect IDS, halted because of several reasons, tests passed and failed, etc. Employing impressive excel formulas or macros might not produce incredibly complicated reports, and any additional data required will have to be gained by going back to each excel sheet and classifying it one more time.
Final Thoughts
Testing is critical for many firms, and reducing it for fear of incurring significant expenses and effort is not a wise choice an organisation should make, merely due to the fact that using test case management systems does not come at a high cost or necessitates a significant amount of effort.
All that is required of an organisation is to carefully select test management software that best corresponds with its business and testing needs. If test management software is used to its maximum extent, the tool’s fortunes are unpredictable.