Tim Star

Logically organizing test cases with test suites will make managing our test plan a lot easier. The first question we ask ourselves is do we want the suite to be static or dynamic?  We have two choices for creating dynamic suites.  The first choice is requirement based suites.  To add a requirement based suite to a test plan, select the Add requirements button.  We are presented with an editable query that defaults to the team project associated with the test… Read More

I have the pleasure of working several hours a week as a Visual Studio ALM Ranger.  The official Microsoft definition of the Visual Studio ALM Rangers: ALM Rangers are a group of experts who promote collaboration among the Visual Studio product group, Microsoft Services and the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) community by addressing missing functionality, removing adoption blockers and publishing best practices and guidance based on real-world experience.  ALM Ranger content is freely available out on codeplex and we… Read More

For our first tuning tip. let’s say we have all of our Coded UI tests passing but execution time is taking too long, what do we do? If we find that we are working with a lot of controls that don’t have a name or id associated to them, we need to remind the developers that it is a best practice to set the name/id property of all controls that will be used as a part of a coded UI… Read More

If you are new to coded UI tests, troubleshooting issues can be a challenge.  My favorite tool to use when I am having problems with a Coded UI Test is the HTML Logger. To demonstrate a couple issues, I recorded a test method with the following Actions: Launch a new instance of Internet Explorer. Navigate to Bing Enter a search string. Hit the “Back” button Click on the “Search History” link Validate that my search string is in the history…. Read More

I do a fair number of talks about and trainings on Microsoft Test Manager and one of the more frequently asked questions is “how do I pause and resume a manual test?”.  When I show the feature in Microsoft Test Manger 2010, everyone is happy until I caution the group that the test run will be lost if you close MTM.  This is not an ideal implementation but the good news is that with MTM 2012 Update 1 this feature… Read More

Executing a test run will generate and store diagnostic data in the TFS Database.  This can quickly become a storage problem for the TFS Administrator.  To help mitigate this problem, we should configure multiple test settings for use in our test plan.  The default test setting should be a “lighter weight” configuration in that only the data collectors we find really useful day to day should be enabled.  This light weight configuration should NOT include capturing of video but should… Read More

Most companies I work with have a release process that involves a number of tasks that are executed right before a release.  These tasks are necessary for each general release but they aren’t traditionally considered “tests”.  The tasks might include things like notifying the release manager of the release date, assembling documentation, compiling release notes, and any other tasks you must do 1 time before you can release.  If you want to track the state of these items along with… Read More

In this series of posts I’m going to talk about improving software quality using Visual Studio 2012.  The tips will not be limited to features and functionality. In addition to looking at new features that Visual Studio 2012 provides, we will also look at things like design techniques, process improvements, time saving tips, integration features, and anything else that allows us to focus on building great high quality software. The posts will not be limited to MTM rather I will… Read More

I have to admit that when I first found out that enhanced exploratory testing was the major new feature in the 2012 release of Microsoft Test Manager, I was a little disappointed.  After listening to the Microsoft team promote the feature and trying it out for myself I am sold.  The Exploratory Testing feature really works well in an agile work flow.  The idea behind this form of testing is that we spend more time on testing and less time… Read More

Intro This is part 8 in a series of posts on creating and maintaining Coded UI tests with Multiple UI maps. My intent here is to give a little more detail to help those new to Visual Studio. Part 1: Creating a new Coded UI solution Part 2: Adding a New UI Map Part 3: Modifying an Existing Coded UI Map Part 4: Adding a UI Map to the TestRunUtility Part 5: Assembling the test Part 6: Changing Recorded Methods… Read More