Testing

[Dave in Switzerland]

Hello,

I am using EA 7.1. I do not use EA everywhere I work but I am trying very hard to introduce it here in Baden, Switzerland. I am a Business Analyst and in  this assignment I work as a Requirements and Testing Manager, very much at the business end of the lifecycle.
No matter how I try, I cannot get the testing aspect to work. I cannot download tests, associate scenarios, constraints, requirements or tests to the testing panel and the testing report just returns nothing at all.

I wanted to use EA as the prime tool for managing the tests for a number of very large projects but I am having no luck at all.

Any help of a genuine kind would be very useful

Dave

[Geert Bellekens]

Dave,

Do you really think EA is the best tools for your (obviously pretty advanced) testing requirements?

I think EA is primarily a modelling tool, with some small testing features added, but as prime tool for managing the tests. :-? I think there are more suitable software packages on the market.

Geert

[Graham_Moir]

Dave - Geert may be right that you need a dedicated more heavyweight tool to support your testing.    However before you go down that route can you check the following as it shoudl be possible to get EA to support at least some of what you need:

1)  The testing panel only shows "internal" tests that have been set up for an element,  not test cases that are elements in their own right (usually called external).   You'll only get things displayed on this panel if you click on an element that has had some internal tests defined.  The panel changes dynamically as you click on different elements on a diagram

2)  The testing report shows these "internal" tests for a branch of the project browser.   You have to select the start package in the browser before  bringing up the testing report panel - if you've got the wrong package selected you'll get the wrong output.   If you haven't defined any internal tests then the report will always be empty

3)  It is likely to be worth abandoning the "testing report" anyway as it's not that flexible.   If you use the RTF generator for reporting you have specific control over what should be included.   It's quirky and not that easy to become familiar with,  but it can produce some nice results.    I have produced re-usable test plans this way.

4)  With internal tests it is definitely possible to import tests/scenarios etc.. from other elements - I have done that taking scenarios directly from use cases to create tests.   Not sure why you can't do this.

5)  Finally Dermot from Sparx usually points people towards the Testing White Paper which might help further

http://www.sparxsystems.com/downloads/whitepapers/test_management_enterprise_architect.pdf

Hope this helps

[Paul Lotz]

You might also consider looking at the Enterprise Tester plug-in (http://www.enterprisetester.com.