Test case are the building blocks of any testing project. However, without proper Test Case Management processes in place, these test cases end up not getting organized, tracked, and optimized.
Test case management is the backbone of testing. In this article, we'll show you how to do good Test Case Management with best practices to follow and pitfalls to avoid.
Test case management is the systematic process of creating, organizing, executing, documenting, and monitoring test cases in a project.
Put more simply, test case management is all of the activities you do to keep track of your test cases’ status.
At the very moment a test case is created, it is categorized into definitive groups along with a unique Test Case ID. That is exactly where TCM begins. From that point onwards, testers have to continuously update the status of that test case.
These are the questions that TCM provides answers to:
Test case management is essential for QA teams of all sizes, even for solo developers who want to ensure their code's quality.
A test case is a detailed procedure or set of steps to be followed to verify if a particular feature of the system behaves as expected.
But what is a test case, really?
We can think of test cases as a description of what testers are supposed to do for that specific test. For example, here is a sample test case for the Login page:
Valid username and password combination successfully logs the user in.
That is a well-written test case. A tester looking at that test case would immediately know that they should execute it in the following steps:
The test above is only a simple one. You totally have the choice to go granular and include even more information in the test case, providing additional context such as:
Here is the test case above, but written in more detail:
Test Case ID: TC-001
Test Case Description: Verify the login functionality with valid credentials.
Test Steps:
Preconditions:
Postconditions:
Expected Result:
There are 4 stages in the test case management process, aligning with the stages of the standard software testing life cycle:
TCM starts right from test planning, where QA teams analyze test requirements and outline the key action items in the test plan document. At this stage, testers think about what area they want to focus on, and what test cases are needed for those areas
Read More: 100+ Test Cases For Login Page (With Template)
Some important questions to ask yourself when crafting the test plan:
Answering these questions helps shape your test project and build detailed test cases. Make sure to include essential components we mentioned above (test case IDs, steps, descriptions, etc.) to track your progress. This is especially useful for manual testing.
Once your test cases are ready, organize them into folders and update results as you go. Tools like Google Sheets, Notion, or Jira can help you manage tasks. For more advanced features, use dedicated test management tools like TestRail, Zephyr, or qTest.
For example, in Jira, a "Log Out" test case can be tracked with a custom status field like "Unexecuted," which updates after the test is completed.
However, manually updating test results can quickly become inefficient as your workload grows.
Specialized TCM tools solve this with a centralized test repository, allowing you to organize test cases in structured folders for a clearer overview. These tools often include custom fields like dropdown menus or text boxes to capture specific details, such as notes from exploratory testing.
Investing time in the planning phase will save you effort in later stages.
You can roughly classify test cases with 7 key approaches:
Many test case management tools have Custom Field features to help you create unique tags that suit your specific needs. For example, in Katalon TestOps you can navigate to Configurations > Custom Fields and create a new field with unique key and values. You can then assign new test cases with these tags during test creation in Katalon Studio.
During and after test execution, the role of TCM is to keep track of the test status, as this is when a lot of updating is needed.
A test case typically goes through the following statuses during execution:
As you can see here, Katalon TestOps automatically updates the test results upon successful execution, then generates detailed reports with rich analytics about your test runs, taking historical data into account.
Test maintenance is usually the most feared part of test automation management.
With manual testing, each time you perform a test is a new one. That means you can dynamically adapt your test steps in accordance with any code changes. However, you don't get that luxury with automation testing. A test script remains the same; it must be updated if the code changes.
If not handled well, the cost of test maintenance can snowball, derailing both budgets and timelines. A recent Gartner report mentions that 16% of the respondents feel high maintenance costs is one of the significant challenges to automated software testing.
Here are some strategies for you to better maintain your tests:
Katalon is an all-in-one automation testing solution for any AUTs: web, desktop, mobile, or API, with test case management best practices built into all of its features. In other words, you get an automation testing tool for all AUTs with a test case management tool, a reporting tool, and a cross-browser execution tool in one single platform.