The Top Test Management Tools

There are many ways to perform issue tracking that keeps testers in the same platform as developers. GitHub and BitBucket centralize efforts across teams.

But what happens when your testing team needs more? QA managers might want more proactive test management. With the commercial software in this test management tools list, you can:

• Plan testing activities
• Create test suites
• Monitor for coverage
• Track bugs
• Report on all QA efforts

Plus, you can integrate with Jira, or whatever development uses, and typically with automation tools and CI systems.

Here are the top 8 test management tools with a focus on managing manual efforts for coverage and tracking.

Testlio

Testlio offers the industry’s most cohesive test management software.

Do you want to create the test cases yourself and assign them to your in-house team? Or do you want your Testlio Engagement Manager to create the test cases and assign half of them to networked testers and half to your internal team? Or you can get all the resources you need to execute on testing cycles via Testlio’s expert testers.
You can use Testlio’s test management software with your in-house employees, Testlio’s freelance network of testers, or both. Having a single testing management platform allows you to better utilize your internal and external testing resources based on your needs—instead of getting locked into set costs.

The modular platform is very intuitive, guiding you effortlessly through the testing process including Builds, Tests, Plans, Teams, Runs, Issues, Integrations, and Reports.

Practitest

If you’re looking for easy integrations look no further. Practitest has two-way integrations with Jira, Pivotal Tracker, Fog Bugz and others, so if you want more test management capabilities without rewiring your organizational processes, Practitest is a great option.

In the Test Library, you create and manage test cases, while in the Test Sets & Runs Module you can execute runs for different releases and projects using scripts integrated from other tools and platforms. While this is not an automated testing platform, it integrates seamlessly with automation tools like Selenium and CI tools like Jenkins, so you get reporting that’s representative of every testing method used.

Not only can you write test runs and test cases, but you can also write user stories to help track the broader, function-driven considerations of testing.

qTest by QASymphony

qTest, the testing platform created by QASymphony, is the simplest of their four testing tool options. It provides test case management with greater functionality by grouping and regrouping specific tests into multiple scripts. You can license other versions of qTest as well: eXplorer for test recording, Insights for reporting, or Scenario for an end-to-end JIRA plugin that helps teams test fast and early in agile development.

Like Practitest, qtest supports test cases, test runs, defects, and reporting, but unlike Practitest it has an on-premise model in addition to cloud—good for teams where for whatever reason cloud development isn’t approved or when network lagging is a concern.

But of course, most users will appreciate signing up and quickly getting started with no setup required. For QA teams still in the dark ages (using Excel for test cases), you can upload your files to qTest as you start learning the ropes of test management software.

For details on the dozens of integrations available, see here.

Enterprise Tester

If you hate even a little lag, Enterprise Tester by Catch will let you run tests offline and sync them later. This platform also has some of the best integrations with automated testing, allowing you to view relationships between test cases, test scripts, user stories, and execution sets. The reporting system visualizes gaps and overlaps. With an add-on license, you can even write automated tests in-app.

There’s also the “Compiler Suite” that combines a single master test case with set parameters to generate multiple iterations, thus majorly cutting down on your test case writing time.

Enterprise Tester is aptly named. It’s a sophisticated, powerful tool with endless options that might be more than needed for medium or small teams. In case you didn’t guess this already, the JIRA integration is two-way.

Zephyr or Zephyr for JIRA

 While the focus of this list is on test-driven platforms that are for QA and QA alone, we’d be remiss not to mention add-ons for JIRA because they let your team stay in one place while providing necessary features for QA. There are three test management add-ons in the Atlassian marketplace, and Zephyr is the most widely used.

Zephyr is known for being highly collaborative with great oversight. If you’re willing to get outside of JIRA and purchase the enterprise addition (which integrates with JIRA), you get a full resource management system that allows you to assign test leads—giving them permission to create the test cases for various projects. You can view the details of your team members and what projects they are currently assigned to. This added capability is essential for global teams.

For more in the way of helpful global comms, the department dashboard delivers relevant news and reports to the company. The software also works for waterfall development just as well as with agile, which is important for teams still transitioning.

Zephyr Enterprise has also just introduced something…dare we say…revolutionary? The ability to execute and record tests in mobile. So you can actually manage the tests where you’re doing the testing. Whoa!

TestRail

TestRail allows you to choose between cloud or server-based. One of the originals on the block, TestRail isn’t done innovating. The software has brand new JIRA add-ons to allow you to test inside JIRA. TestRail Version 5.0 makes it the only test management tool that offers universal integration with not only JIRA Cloud but JIRA Server too.

TestRail is known for being the best for agile. It’s helpful for organizing test efforts in sprint and for basing test cases off of user stories and seeing what test cases pertain to what user story. With the most integrations of any our test tools list, it’s one to consider.

HP Quality Center

The HP Quality Center takes the idea of QA to another level by bringing in business requirements and other customer-facing considerations into the testing platform for a full quality-focused suite.

Available as on-premise or SaaS, this tool is more of a quality management tool with test management built in, but considering that QA efforts become more user-focused (as opposed to purely product-focused) as time goes on, it’s a great option for companies who view testers as quality gatekeepers rather than purely bug finders.

With this collaborative, risk-based testing approach, there are automated testing integration capabilities and integrations that support stakeholder communication and project management. Of course, it works well with HP’s other products, so you kind of have to pick your pony and run with it.

Testlio’s test management platform powers all your holistic testing needs. If you’re looking for testing partners, let us know here.