Introduction To TestRail: A tool for writing and managing test cases

Test Rail is a modern test management tool, which has been designed for ease of use, high efficiency and productivity for writing and managing test cases.

Login to TestRail :

An email id and password will be provided to the user once a testrail account is being created.
The user needs to login to the testrail account using the login credentials.

Adding a project :

After login, there is an option for adding project in the ‘dashboard’ page (which is opened by default after login), by clicking on which the user can add the project. Projects are the main organizational unit in TestRail.

After clicking on the above option ‘Add Project’, following page should appear for adding project :

The user should add the project name (which is a mandatory field). User can also add the announcement in the announcement field.  If this announcement text needs to be displayed in the project overview page, then user should tick the checkbox ‘Show the announcement’ on the overview page.

After adding the project, the user will be directed to the dashboard page showing a success message for the project being added and will also list all the projects that has been added so far.  Projects can be edited or deleted from that page.

Clicking on the ‘Dashboard’ tab from the above page will display the following page :

Clicking on each of the project name links (from the project list getting displayed), will take to the corresponding project overview page.

Following is the sample view for the ‘Overview’ page displaying a project name with the announcement text (added while creating the project) :

 

Adding a Milestone :

After adding a project, the next step is to add a milestone for the project. A milestone can be any project related milestone such as any planned public software release or any test release.

 Steps to create a milestone for a project :

1. Click on any of the project links created from the dashboard page.
2. Click on the ‘Add Milestone’ button from that page.

3. Will take to the ‘Add milestone’ page inside ‘Milestones’ tab.

Adding the required fields, ticking the checkbox ‘This milestone is completed’ and clicking on ‘Add Milestone’ button will successfully add the milestone. Once the milestone is successfully created, a message “Successfully added the new milestone”, will be displayed. Also, the “Milestones” page will show the list of milestones already added to the project, if any.

On clicking the milestone link created, following page will get displayed :

Please note: While creating a milestone, if the checkbox near to the text: ‘This milestone is not completed’ is unchecked, then inside that project it will no longer be possible to add any more milestone (as the current one is not completed).

Adding sections to a project :

1. Click on the project from the ‘Dashboard’ tab where section needs to be created.
2. Click on the ‘Test Cases’ tab.
3. Click on ‘Add Section’ button.

Following popup will appear :

After entering the Name (mandatory field) and Description (optional), click on “Add Section” button to create the section.

The added section will be displayed as shown below :

Adding test cases :

Test cases can be added in two different ways :

a) Test cases under a section.
b) Directly adding a test case without creating any section.

Steps to add test case :

1. Create a section as described above
2. Under the “Test Cases” tab, click on ‘Add Test Case’ link.
3. Add the case title.
4. Click on the ‘Edit’ option near to the right side of the case title, for adding the test cases under the test case title created.

5. Add all the required fields like Preconditions, Steps, and Expected Result (Also, notice that there is an option to insert image (near to each of the fields) and an option to add screenshot ‘Add attachment’ to the test case (on the right side).

6. Click on ‘Save test case’ button.
7. Now, click on the case title link, the test case added (along with the images and screenshots) will appear.

Test cases can also be added directly by clicking on ‘Add Case’ button (without creating a section) by following the above procedure.

Following is the option for adding test case directly without creating a section :

Adding Test Runs :

1. Select the ‘Test Runs and Results’ tab.
2. Click on the ‘Add Test Run’ button,following page will appear:

3. Add the required fields.
4. Click on ‘Add Test Run’ button-The test run will get created and will display in the list in the following page.

5. Now, click on the the ‘Test Runs and Results’ tab, it will show the test run created for all the active tests.

Adding test results for a particular test case :

1. Select the Test Run created inside the ‘Test Runs & Results’ tab.
2. Select the ‘Add Test Result’ option (from the right hand side or the one appearing down to the test cases).
The following pop up will appear:

3. Add all the required fields and click the ‘Add Test Result’ button (after making the status: Passed/Failed/Blocked/Retested-depending upon the conditions)
The following page will appear after adding the test results :

Conclusion :

TestRail is bestowed with all the required functionalities in a much simplified manner.

It is really a kind of boon to the testers, it keeps all the information necessary for future use in much secure form, and it’s really a very lucid, convenient and useful tool through which the testers can also analyse the QA process in much better way.