Chapter 2. Introduction

Klaros-Test­management is a web-based test management solution for organizing, executing and evaluating all test activities. The functional scope covers all areas of the test process: test planning, test creation, test execution, assignment and evaluation of test tasks as well as test evaluation and report generation.

In this introduction the internal structure and function of the individual components, the objects, described. The following elements are defined as Objects in Klaros-Test­management: Project, Test Case, Test Step, Test Segment, Test Step Result, Test Case Result, Test Suite, Test Suite Result, Test Environment, Test System, Test Run, Requirement, Iteration and Job.

The top-level object is the Project. It contains all other objects required to define, plan, execute, and evaluate a particular test project.

Projects are typically self-contained units, but there are however also ways to reference objects in other projects. For more details on defining projects see Section 6.1.

Test Cases are the central objects of a project and may contain any number of test steps. They can be executed manually or automatically.

Figure 2.1. Test Case Structure

Test cases can be provided with attributes and include more detailed information:

Additional fields can be defined for special requirements.

The test cases consist of individual test steps in which the test activities are defined and described.

The Test Steps describe the test execution procedure. Each test step contains an instruction to the tester as to which action to perform. If desired, images and documents can be attached to each test step.

Figure 2.2. Test Step

The description of the test step includes the following components:

A Test Segment is a predefined sequence of test steps that is created as a separate object that can be inserted into any test case.

Figure 2.3. Test Segment

Often, certain test steps or sequences of test steps occur exactly the same in several test cases. To ensure that they are identical, these steps can be encapsulated in test segments and centrally managed, edited and stored.

The test steps of a test segment have exactly the same attributes as the test steps of a test case.

Test cases can be grouped into Test Suites to be executed together one after the other in one test run.

Figure 2.4. Test Suite

A test case can occur in multiple test suites. It is merely referenced, so that changes to the test case automatically affect all test suites that contain this test case.

The System under Test is the component or system that is to be tested. Usually this is a software version, but can also be a specific device or other hardware. A test case can only be executed once a test system has been defined.

A Test Environment represents external conditions that may affect the test result. This can consist of hardware or software, such as a browser version used or the operating system in which the test system software was installed. A test case cannot be executed until a test environment has been defined.

A Test Run is automatically created when the tester starts to execute a test case or test suite. It is assigned to the test environment and system under test in use and collects all results that occur during the execution of the test case or test suite. The test runs thus document the entire test activities.

Figure 2.5. Test Run with Test Results

Test runs can be paused and continued later. The result (Passed, Failed, Error, Inconclusive, Skipped) appears in the evaluation only after all test cases of the test run have been completely executed. Until then, the test run with its collected results is not displayed.

A Requirement is a predefined condition to be fulfilled that describes the desired properties of the system under test. To ensure that the system under test satisfies these properties, test cases are defined and these are assigned to the requirement that check the test cases. In this way, it can be verified which requirements are covered by tests ( coverage) and which of them were executed with the result passed ( conformity).

From this set of information Klaros-Test­management is able to automatically determine coverage and compliance information for the whole project or selected objects once the first test results are available.

An Iteration represents a selected phase of a project. It encapsulates a subset of objects including all tasks and test results executed during that phase. Grouping objects in this way makes it easier to identify different test cycles in a project and enables better integration of the testing process, especially with agile software development practices.

In an iteration, the test systems, test environments and requirements under consideration are defined within a project for a specific period of time.

Test activities are planned and coordinated by means of a Job. For this purpose, the execution of a test case or a test suite is specified in the job.

After a job is created, it can be assigned to a user and executed and evaluated by him. Jobs can be repeated and executed multiple times, so that they can be assigned to multiple test runs. Jobs can be arranged hierarchically and dependencies between jobs can be specified.

Figure 2.6. Job

In addition to test execution, other job types are supported. These are used for checking test cases, planning requirements and formulating any other jobs in text form.

Jobs can be nested and individually assigned to users. Therefore, it is possible to track progress of larger, distributed test activities.

Klaros-Test­management offers four different user roles, which are assigned when the user is created and can be changed later if necessary: Administrator, Manager, Tester and Guest.

The global user roles apply to all existing projects. However, if necessary, the role of a user can be assigned individually in each project.

Detailed information about the role permissions can be found in Appendix A.

Klaros-Test­management integrates with issue tracking systems like Jira, Redmine, GitLab and many others (see Section 12.5). If a defect is found in a test step, it can be passed directly from Klaros to the connected issue management system without leaving the application.

The entry is automatically linked in both systems. Changes in the issue tracker are regularly synchronized with test management in the background. An automatically generated backlink in the issue management system leads back to the test case in Klaros-Test­management with one click.