Linking your test management protocols with an existing test automation procedure can prove to have substantial benefits. Lots of people mistakenly imagine that in order to link the testing cycle processes to the automation system they will need to spend a lot of money and invest in what they consider to be high end software and hardware from a company like Hewlett Packard. These days however, it is easy to find low and mid range solutions to this problem. These are frequently bundled with application programming interfaces which will enable you to merge the operations with things like Selenium, and open source approach.

Rather than try to pick their way through the often confusing collection of competing high end, all in wonder solutions, many companies have decided to embrace the reduced cost of a lower tier solution. It’s nice to have the absolute top of the line, but affording that sort of equipment is often a budgeting nightmare. Mid level test management tools coupled with automation from open source code, you achieve high quality without the high costs. This approach is further recommended due to the ease with which you can set up an integrated reporting protocol and the convenience of run scheduling from a central station.

One of the best ways to get current, real time data on your running tests (both manual and automated) is through the use of integrated reporting. You won’t have to sift through and collate data in Excel anymore. And though this may not seem like a huge savings at the moment, consider what will happen when your business grows. It may be easy enough to interpret the data from five or ten sources, but what if you have hundreds? You will also be able to spot patterns and trends quite easily. The ability to quickly and accurately compare data from manual new feature testing and automated regression testing simultaneously may allow you to conclude certain things about the overall processes. If the automatic testing shows considerable failure levels while the manual tests report no change, it is possible that there are regression issues being unnecessarily introduced by the development team.

There are two basic ways in which a centralized scheduling and control system can be of great benefit. There may be times when you have left the work place for the day only to realize that you have forgotten to schedule a run for a client. Rather than having to go all the way back there, you can simply log on to the central control, if you have access, and initiate the runs from there. It won’t be a problem. In another situation, you may find yourself quite easily managing the two or three clients that you are scheduling and sending runs through, but when that client number hits twenty or fifty things get more difficult. With a fully integrated control system like this you can use the same interface to access multiple clients, and even schedule multiple runs for them all at the same time and in the same place.

The more complex and sophisticated software test procedures become, the more sophisticated and complex the tracking of both automated and manual tests. You can save considerable time and effort by bringing all of your test management systems, reporting, and control into one integrated package. You can also expect more control and higher status visibility with a single, central access point for your operations.

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