TeamForge test management using TestLink

1. Test Management in TeamForge
By Janardhanam Venkat
CollabNetTeamForgeALMcovers all phases of the life cycle from plan, code, build and test to deploy.
With the recent addition of TestLink, a widely adopted open source product for test management,
TeamForge now has the added capability to create test case trackers and associate them with
requirements. With TeamForge, users have the ability to execute test cases and store test results.
TestLink utilizesatrackerto store test casesand also tie TestPlansintobuild. By integrating TeamForge
with TestLink the test management features are available in TeamForge as part of end-to-end ALM
solution.
The main ideabehind thisintegrationis to associate Test Suite to the TeamForge requirements tracker
epics, stories and tasks. The execution of Test Plan creates defects in TeamForge with associations to
other TeamForge tools and data as shown in the following illustration.

2. ImplementingEnterprise Agility
TeamForge’s open architecture allows customers to integrate their favorite open source tools,
commercial and home grown tools into the software lifecycle. TestLink leverages the ‘Open ALM
Platform’ nature of TeamForge to provide a seamless, fully packaged and fully supported set of test
capabilities for all users who want to participate in collaborative test management for local and
distributed teams alike. This integration ensures complete traceability of all artifacts in the software
lifecycle from requirements to test plan through test execution and reporting.
TeamForge-TestLink integration results in extended capabilities both at a project level and at a
company-wide community level – i.e., the organizational “Community Architecture”. The TestLink
integration letsmanagersandstakeholders access continuous Test Management reports in TeamForge
project pages. These real time reports bring a consolidated view of the TestLink within TeamForge,
which is seamlessly viewed by the company wide stakeholders who have appropriate permissions. In
addition, the workflow between TeamForge and TestLink can be rolled out to all projects and have a
dramatic impact on improving overall release cycle velocity, software quality and reducing costs.

3. Integration Details
The TeamForge-TestLink integration is based on CollabNet’s Integrated Application Framework (IAF)
similartohow Review Board was integrated with TeamForge. Using the IAF framework, single sign-on
between TeamForgeand TestLink is managed, with TeamForge project and user creation replicated to
TestLink. In addition, the TestLink permissions are displayed in TeamForge during user creation.
Assumptions
 TestLink hasa requirementmanagementtrackerthat can be linked to multiple bug trackers. As
part of thisintegration, itisassumedthatrequirementsanddefectsare managedinTeamForge.

4.  The TeamForge-TestLink integrationwascreatedwith multiple use cases gatheredviainterviews
with current and potential customers. Enhancements and feature request will evolve as user
experiences evolve.
Basic Terminology
Here’sa listof some of the basicCollabNetTeamForge-TestLinkterminologies:
 Test Case:A setof inputs,executionpreconditions,andexpectedresults(outcomes) developed
for a particular objective, such as to exercise a particular program path or to verify compliance
with a specific requirement.
 Test Suite: Organizes Test Cases to units and structures Test Specification into logical parts.
 Test Plan: Created to execute Test Cases. Test Plans can be made up of Test Cases from the
current Test Project. Test Plan includes Builds, Milestones, user assignment and Test Results.
 Builds: A specificrelease of software.Each project in an organization is most likely made up of
manyBuilds.If there are no Buildscreatedfora project thenthe execution of test cases will not
allowed.
The above capabilitiesare hierarchical,facilitatingcomplex testcase management. Forinstance,the
TestSuite isa containerthatcan holdmultiple testcases. Testcasescanbe usedinmultiple TestPlans.
The same TestPlancan be executedagainstmultiple builds.

5. IntegrationFlow
While creatingrequirements inTeamForge userscancreate TestSuitesas a placeholder in TestLink. For
everyrequirement,the usercancreate a TestSuite in TestLink.Later, the user can get into TestLink and
create test cases for the requirements. Once test cases are created, a Test Plan that bundles the test
casesto be executed is created. Test Cases are reused in multiple Test Plans. For example, one would
like to run all tests of a feature ‘A’ that has four test cases in Sprint 1. Later, a test plan, for example
TestPlan1,canbe createdandall the four test cases can be associated to this Test Plan1. The same test
casescan be reusedinTestPlan2asshownabove.Once the Test Plan is established, it can be executed
and the user can update the test result as Pass/Failed/Blocked. For failed test cases a defect is
automatically created in TeamForge defect tracker and association is created between the defect and
the test case to maintain traceability.
IntegrationOut of boxfeatures
TestLink has the following features that can be leveraged by users:
 Import/Export - Test Suites and Test cases can be imported and exported between projects in
XML format.
 Email notification –Notificationabouttestcase assignmentsandtestreports(once the report is
generated in TestLink) can be sent to users via email.
 Assignkeyword tags- Keywords are tagged to a group of test cases and these keywords can be
used to categorize test case groups.

6.  Customfields –Userscan extendthe mostimportantobjects(Testcases, Testsuites, Testplans)
in TestLink with customized fields.
 Support for Chinese, Japanese & Korean languages.
 Version Test Case – There is an option to version every test case and the user can visually
identify changes between Test Case versions using TestLink.
CollabNetTestLinkIntegrationsto otherTools
The Test Case execution is done manually, wherein users, after testing a case, will manually update
PASS/FAILineachtestcase.There isan optionfor userstouse Seleniumtorunall test cases and update
the TestLink withPASS/FAIL. Seleniumintegrationisavailable for functional testing and there is a JAVA
API to update the test results in TestLink.
Similarly, the Build artifact created in TestLink is a placeholder and the user has to create the build
artifact manually to assign Test Plan to a build. Using TestLink Jenkins plug-in, the build job in Jenkins
will create build artifact automatically in TestLink when a build is successful. In addition, few test
management reports from TestLink will be displayed in TeamForge project page.

7. Reports & Dashboard
The CollabNetTestLinkintegrationprovides awide arrayof out-of-the-boxreportsthatcan be usedto
generate the following forall permissionedusersinthe TeamForge system
 TestReporton build
• TestCase AssignmentOverview
• Failed,Blocked,NotrunTestCases
• TestCase notassignedto Test Plan
• TestresultMatrix
The CollabNetTestLinkintegrationalsoprovidescharts thatshow executionresultsbyTestSuite and
overall testmetrics.
Additional dashboardsindicate progress byproject:

8. CustomerMigration Path
The CollabNet customers have two migration paths. The first one is an existing TeamForge customer
who is interested in using TestLink. In this case, a migration script has to be run to synchronize
TeamForge userstoTestLink.Once the usersare migratedto TestLink,the permissiontoaccess TestLink
for migrated users has to be manually created in TeamForge. The following illustration shows the
migration path.
The second migration path (casually called as glue) is for customers who are using TeamForge and
TestLink as two separate systems that are not integrated. In this case there will be bi-directional
migration,inwhich the TeamForge users are migrated to TestLink and the permission for the migrated
usersto accessTestLink are createdmanuallyinTeamForge.The migration also moves selected project
and its users, roles and permissions from TestLink to TeamForge. In addition, it will also auto-migrate
requirementsfromTestLinktoTeamForge andthenassociate the migratedrequirements to Test Cases.

9. Summary
The CollabNetTeamForge-TestLink integration builds on top of TeamForge’ s capability to support the
software development life cycle from plan, code, build and test to deploy. With TestLink integration,
TeamForge now has the extended capability to create test case trackers and associate them with
requirements andprovide traceabilityand test management right from requirements through release.
Initial user feedback has been encouraging. You can attend my webinar on November 18th
2014 and
signup now.I’dlike to hear what you think and what features you would like to see added. Please let
me know venkatj@collab.net .