How To: Give alternate path for picking test dlls?

Microsoft Test Manager always uses the associated build information to find and load test dlls for running automation.  However, one user came up with the scenario where their test code is not build with the application (dev) code.  They are associating MTM properly with the application (dev) build because that is the build they are testing but this also means that the MTM is not able to find the test dlls because it is not there in the associated build.

The alternative here is to tcm.exe command line to run. Below is how you can achieve this -

tcm run /create /title:<run title> /planid:<plan’s ID> /collection:<collection name> /teamproject:<project name> /configid:<config’s ID> /suiteid:<suite’s id> /testenvironment:<environment name> /builddir:<path from where test dll is to be picked>

The tcm.exe has lot of other functionalities.  To know more about it, check the MSDN doc of tcm.exe.

This post is courtesy "Nivedita Bawa" in my team.