Visual Studio Team Services - NEW FEATURES: Test like you've never tested before!!! (6 Big Test Case Improvements)

The March release includes a cacophony of testing features...

Exploratory testing directly from a work item

You can now launch an exploratory testing session for a specific work item, directly from within the product. We’ve added entry points on all cards, grids, and in the Test hub. This lets you associate the selected work item to your testing session and view the acceptance criteria and description from within the extension. It also creates end-to-end traceability between any bugs or tasks you file and the selected work item. The Exploratory Testing extension can be found in the Visual Studio Marketplace.

Exploratory testing directly from a work item 

Data collection: Image action log

The Exploratory Testing extension also gives you a new option to add the steps that led to the bug automatically with just one click. Select the Include image action log option to capture the mouse, keyboard, and touch actions, and add the corresponding text and images directly into the bug or task.

The include-image-action-log option 

Create test cases based on Image action log data

You can also now create test cases during your exploratory session, wherein the test steps with images are automatically filled in for you. Simultaneous test design and test execution is the basis of true exploratory testing, and this new capability makes this a reality. You can edit the text captured, add the expected result, uncheck rows not relevant, and save it for upcoming test passes/runs.

Creating a test case based on image action log data 

Assigning configurations to test plans, test suites and test cases

Assigning configurations just got easier as we turned on a new feature that allow you to assign test configurations to a test plan, test suite or test case(s) directly from within the Test hub. Right-click an item, select Assign configurations to … , and you’re off and running. The ability to create and manage test configurations and test configuration variables from within the Test Hub is coming next.

Assigning configurations to a test suite 

Automated testing on Azure environments

Using the “Azure Resource Group Deployment” task, users can provision Azure resources (such as virtual machines) using a template file, and then deploy the latest build into those resources using resource extensions (for example,, the DSC resource extension). The same Azure resources can be used in the "Visual Studio Test Agent Deployment" and "Run Functional Tests" tasks to run tests in a fast, efficient and distributed way. 

View test results for each release environment

We’ve enabled a feature that lets you view test quality and test results in context of release. The Tests tab in the Release summary page will show you test status of each environment in which tests have run. The status includes count of passed and failed tests, pass percentage, and test duration, for a particular environment or for the entire release, across all environments. You can drill down into the error message, stack trace and test attachments for failed tests without having to navigate away from the Release summary page. From here you can create bugs for failed tests and auto-populate the bug with related information (error messages, stack traces, etc.).

Viewing test results  

  

 

Check out all the March 3 features in detail for Visual Studio Team Services:

https://www.visualstudio.com/news/2016-mar-3-vso

       

Remember to keep your head in the clouds!

   - Ninja Ed