Hands-On LabExploratory Testing and Other Enhancements in Microsoft Test Manager 2012Lab version: 11.0.60315.01 Update 2

Last updated: 4/9/2013

CONTENTS

OVERVIEW................................................................................................................................................. 3

EXERCISE 1: EXPLORATORY TESTING IMPROVEMENTS....................................................................4

Overview

In this lab, you will learn about some of the improvements in Microsoft Test Manager 2012. You will learn about how exploratory testing (also called XT, or agile testing) has become a first-class experience in the toolset. This allows a tester to more flexibly test the underlying software without relying solely on formal test cases. Meanwhile, Microsoft Test Manager will continue to capture rich diagnostics about the application being tested which can be delivered to the development team if a bug is discovered. You’ll also learn about some of the other fit-and-finish features in Microsoft Test Manager, such as the ability to use rich text when authoring test cases.

Prerequisites

In order to complete this lab you will need the Visual Studio 2012 virtual machine provided by Microsoft. For more information on acquiring and using this virtual machine, please see this blog post.

About the Fabrikam Fiber Scenario

This set of hands-on-labs uses a fictional company, Fabrikam Fiber, as a backdrop to the scenarios you are learning about. Fabrikam Fiber provides cable television and related services to the United States. They are growing rapidly and have embraced Windows Azure to scale their customer-facing web site directly to end-users to allow them to self-service tickets and track technicians. They also use an on-premises ASP.NET MVC application for their customer service representatives to administer customer orders.

In this set of hands-on labs, you will take part in a number of scenarios that involve the development and testing team at Fabrikam Fiber. The team, which consists of 8-10 people, has decided to use Visual Studio application lifecycle management tools to manage their source code, run their builds, test their web sites, and plan and track the project.

Lab Updates

For Update 1, the following changes were made to this lab:

Added notes and updated screenshots highlighting new action image log for exploratory test sessions

Exercises

This hands-on lab includes the following exercises:

1. Exploratory Testing Improvements

Estimated time to complete this lab: 30 minutes.

Exercise 1: Exploratory Testing Improvements

In this exercise, you will learn about some of the improvements to Microsoft Test Manager 2012 that make exploratory testing easier on the software tester.

1. Log in as Adam. All user passwords are P2ssw0rd.

2. Launch Microsoft Test Manager from Start | All Programs | Microsoft Visual Studio 2012.

Figure 1Starting Microsoft Test Manager

Note: Microsoft Test Manager allows testers to work with test plans, author and organize manual test cases, execute test cases, file bugs, and post results back to Team Foundation Server.

3. Microsoft Test Manager will connect to the team project that was last in use on startup. Select the Home button in the upper-left corner to select a different project.

Figure 2Location of home button

4. Click on the Change Project link.

Figure 3Changing the active project

5. When you are prompted to connect to a team project, select the VSALM -> FabrikamFiberCollection -> FabrikamFiber node and then select the Connect Now button. When prompted to close all open items, go ahead and do so.

Figure 4Connecting to a team project

6. In the Testing Center window, select the Add button to create a new test plan.

Figure 5Adding a new test plan

7. Enter “Exploratory Testing” as the name of the new plan and then select the Add button.

Figure 6Adding a new test plan

8. Select the Select Plan button to open it.

Figure 7Opening the new exploratory testing plan

9. You should now be in the Testing Center and connected to the Exploratory Testing test plan.

Figure 8Testing Center showing exploratory testing plan

10. Right-click on the Exploratory Testing test plan node and select the Explore option from the context menu.

Figure 9Starting exploratory testing

11. Select the Settings button in the bottom-right corner of test runner window.

Figure 10Location of test runner settings button

12. Note that we can modify screenshot settings and select an audio recording device here. Since this virtual machine does not support audio, we will not attempt to make a selection. Select the Escape key to continue.

Figure 11Viewing current settings

13. Select the green Start button to start an exploratory testing session.

Figure 12Starting the test runner for exploratory testing

14. Launch Internet Explorer and load the Fabrikam Fiber intranet portal by clicking on the FF Intranet Portal link in the favorites bar. You should now see the dashboard page.

Figure 13Launching the Fabrikam Fiber intranet portal

15. Select the Tickets menu link of the Fabrikam Fiber intranet portal site to view all the service tickets.

Figure 14Navigating to Tickets screen

16. Select one of the service ticket links to view the details.

Figure 15Selecting a service ticket to view details

17. Note that the Created By and Assigned To fields currently show appropriate values.

Figure 16Viewing service ticket details

18. Select the Edit link near the bottom of the ticket details page (you may need to scroll down).

Figure 17Editing a service ticket

19. Note that the Created By property still shows an appropriate value.

Figure 18Edit page for service ticket

20. Select the Save button. As expected, Created By and Assigned To properties are still the same as they were before.

Figure 19Saving ticket details

21. Select the Delete button to delete the ticket.

Figure 20Deleting a service ticket

22. In the Delete confirmation page, note that the Created By and Assigned To properties are now set to None, which is not what we were expecting. In the comments box of the test runner, enter the text “CreatedBy and AssignedTo are blank when viewing Delete confirmation page.” Press the Enter key twice to leave room for a screenshot.

Figure 21Delete confirmation page showing unexpected values

23. Select the Add Screenshot button to add a screenshot of the Delete confirmation page to provide some context.

Figure 22Location of screenshot button

24. By default, this will allow you to draw a rectangle to define the area that you wish to capture. Hold the left mouse button down and move the mouse until you highlight the important part of the Delete confirmation page.

Figure 23Selecting the area of the screenshot

Figure 24Test runner window showing inserted screenshot

Note: You can double-click on the screen capture to edit it in a paint program to provide additional annotation if desired. By default, MS Paint is used, but you can use your tool of choice by configuring this in the settings dialog that you saw at the beginning of this exercise.

25. Select the Create Bug button to file a new bug.

Figure 25

Creating a new bug

26. For the title, enter “CreatedBy and AssignedTo are blank when viewing Delete confirmation page” and assign the bug to Julia Ilyiana. Note that your observations, repro steps and diagnostic data are automatically included. Select the Save and Create Test button to finish filing the new bug.

Figure 26Creating a new bug as the result of exploratory testing

Note: Starting with Update 1, exploratory test sessions now automatically create an image log of all your actions. This helps to better document and reproduce test cases and bugs that are created as a result.

27. In the New Test Case window, enter a title of “Confirm that AssignedTo and CreatedBy fields appear on Delete confirmation page.”

28. In the Steps section of the New Test Case window, locate the row that starts with “Click ‘Delete’ link” and add the following text in the Expected Result column:

AssignedTo and CreatedBy fields should have appropriate values when viewing Delete confirmation page

Figure 27Adding notes to the Expected Result column for a step

29. Note that the steps section of the test case also has rich text capability. Feel free to play with this new capability.

Figure 28Test case steps now have rich text capability

30. Select the Save and Close button.

Figure 29Save and close the new test case

31. After the new test case is saved, we are automatically returned to our exploratory testing task and can continue looking for more bugs. Let’s start by clearing out the observations from the previous bug that we just saved. Press Ctrl+A and then the Delete key.

32. In the Internet Explorer window, select the Dashboard menu link.

Figure 30Navigating to the dashboard

33. Select one of the service ticket links to view the details.

Figure 31Selecting a service ticket to view details

34. Select the Escalate button (you may need to scroll to the right).

Figure 32Escalating a service ticket

35. The result of the attempt to escalate the service ticket is a HTTP 404 server error.

Figure 33Escalating the service ticket results in an error

36. Select the Create Bug button to file a new bug.

Figure 34Creating a new bug

37. For the title of the bug, enter “Escalate service ticket results in a HTTP 404” and assign it to Julia Ilyiana.

Figure 35Creating a new bug as the result of exploratory testing

38. In the Steps To Reproduce section of the new bug, note that there is a link that allows you to easily scope the repro steps. Select the Change Steps link.

Figure 36Changing the scope of the repro steps

39. In the Change Steps window, click and drag with the mouse to highlight the steps starting with the click you made on the Dashboard link all the way to the click on the Escalate link. This represents the recent actions taken to reproduce the error we just saw. Click the Select button to continue.

Figure 37Selecting the repro steps

Note: Your steps may look slightly different from those shown in the screenshots in this lab.

40. Select the Save and Create Test button.

Figure 38Creating a new bug as the result of exploratory testing

41. In the New Test Case window, enter a title of “Ensure that ticket escalation page works” and then select the Save and Close button.

Figure 39Save and close the new test case

42. Select the End Testing button in the test runner window.

Figure 40End the exploratory testing session

43. In the session summary window for the exploratory test, select the Save and Close button to return to the Plan tab of the Testing Center.

Figure 41Save and close the exploratory testing session

44. Note that there are now two formal test cases that are part of the Exploratory Testing suite. By formally capturing these test cases, we can ensure that we test for them in the future. This enables us to use a blend of approaches, both exploratory testing and formal testing, to improve our overall application quality.

Figure 42Formal test cases were created as part of the exploratory testing session

45. This lab presented a quick look at some of the improvements made to exploratory testing in Microsoft Test Manager 2012.

To give feedback please write to VSKitFdbk@Microsoft.com

Copyright © 2023 by Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.