Testing overview

As you develop your application, testing is a critical part of the process. Testing ensures that the product meets your organization's quality standards.

Overview of test types

ALM Octane helps you manage different types of testing processes:

Type Details
Manual tests

In Manual tests, the tester uses the application to make everything works as expected. Manual tests list each step and you perform the test, step by step.

Gherkin tests are an advanced type of manual test, and contain scenarios that describe what to test and what to expect.
Automated tests

Automated tests are helpful for repetitive tasks and performing difficult tasks. Use automated tests for unit testing, regression testing, and continuous integration. You maintain automated tests in external testing tools.

The recommended methodology for working with automated testing in ALM Octane is using the BDD testing framework. For details, see BDD testing framework.

ALM Octane incorporates test run results in dashboard and quality analysis.

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Test entities

The following table lists the various test entities:

Test entity Description

Manual Test

Manual tests make sure an application works as expected by testing most of its features.

Manual test types include acceptance, end-to-end, regression, sanity, security, performance, and others.

This entity represents the test steps to perform in the application under test. For details, see Manual testing flow.

Gherkin Test

Gherkin tests are a type of manual test. They use the Gherkin syntax and scenario structure. Gherkin test subtypes also include acceptance, end-to-end, regression, sanity, security, and performance.

This entity represents the scenarios to perform on the application under test.

Test Suite

A container with a set of tests grouped in one unit. Test suites contain no independent steps of their own.

A test suite can contain:

  • Manual and Gherkin tests that run sequentially. All manual and Gherkin tests run in the ALM Octane Manual Runner.
  • Executable automation tests that are triggered to run on the CI server. When you run the test suite, the automated tests run on the CI server.

You assign test runs to people, and run each test individually. After finishing all the test runs, ALM Octane aggregates the results of each test run into a single suite run.

Automated Test

Automated tests are edited and managed in external tools such as ValueEdge Functional Test Execution, UFT One, LoadRunner, UFT Developer, and LoadRunner Enterprise. You can run the tests on automation and CI servers or on ALM and send the results to ALM Octane.

This entity represents the script (not editable) that is stored and maintained in the external tool.

Executable automated tests can run as part of a test suite in ALM Octane. For details, see Automated testing flow and Add UFT One tests from an SCM repository.

Manual Test Run

 A manual run of a test. See Manual test syntax for usage examples.

Gherkin Test Run

 An automated run of a Gherkin test.

Test Suite Run

 A run of a test suite.

Automated Test Run

 A run of an automated test, by a CI server such as Jenkins or TeamCity.

Pipeline

ALM Octane pipelines consist of pipeline steps, which represent the jobs that run on your CI server.

Pipelines enable you to interact with your CI server. For example, ALM Octane collects the results of automated tests that run on the CI server.
Pipeline Run

A run of a pipeline, by a CI server such as Jenkins or TeamCity.

Pipeline runs consist of builds, and can include information about failing automated tests, SCM commits related to this pipeline run, and more.
Build

A build is the result of a pipeline step run.

  • A pipeline run consists of builds.
  • If a pipeline step runs automated tests, its build consists of automated test runs.
Vulnerability Vulnerabilities are security issues found in your code by a security testing scan. After reviewing a vulnerability, you can create a relevant defect to fix in your code, or dismiss and close the issue.

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See also: