TFS 2010: Test Manager Web Access

TFS 2010 has introduced many new features, and one of them is the Team System Web Access (TSWA) that is installed by default when you install TFS 2010 and is accessible through the URL: “http://servername:8080/tfs/web”. (This was available in previous versions of TFS, but you have to install it explicitly.)

Also Visual Studio 2010 offers an excellent tool for the testers for carrying out the testing activities: Microsoft Test Manager. It offers complete end to end testing of the application and managing the testing artifacts in Team Foundation Server. With Team Foundation Web Access (TSWA) all the data that is present in TFS can be viewed within the browser and there is no need to install Visual Studio Team Access or any other client in the machine. Thus, management people or people at remote locations can easily access the information related to project.

However, Team System Web Access provides feature to view the various artifacts, but it doesn’t provide the feature to view the artifacts created by using Microsoft Test Manager i.e. Test Plan and Test Suite. So, there is a gap between Team System Web Access and Test Manager, and again we are landed at the same point, if people want to view how testing is going-on or what approach is being followed, they have to get this data using Microsoft Test Manager and they will end up installing the client in their machines.

Solution to this problem is Test Manager Web Access. Test manager Web Access is a plugin to Team System Web Access that enables the users to view the artifacts created within Microsoft Test Manager. It gives exactly the same view of the Test Plan and Test Suite hierarchy as displayed in Microsoft Test Manager.

After adding this plugin to the Team System Web Access a new tab “Test Manager” (as shown in figure below) is displayed in the Team System Web Access site.

Clicking on the Test Manager tab, user is able to view the same Test Plan and Test Suite hierarchy as visible in Microsoft Test Manger. Here, if user clicks any node in the tree structure he/she will be able to view the test cases present under that particular Test Suite or Test Plan.

However, currently there are few limitations to this plugin. Users can only view the Test Plan or Test Suites and the test cases present in them but they cannot edit or modify it. This plugin is completely for viewing purpose.
It might help people who don’t have Microsoft Test Management client installed but interested in data present in it.

"Export Test Cases from TFS to Excel".... now available for DOWNLOAD

Thanks all for having look on my blog and appreciating my effort.
All these days I was getting emails from people asking about where they can download this tool.
As I mentioned before also that I was working on few modifications in the tool and also I was bit busy, so got bit delayed... :)

But now the wait is over. "Test Case Export to Excel 1.0" is now available for download along with few enhancements.

As mentioned in the previous post, user has to first connect to the Team Foundation Server and then to the Team Project. After connecting to the Team Project, the Test Plans were populated in the dropdown box; and based on the selection of the Test Plan the Test Suites at the root level were being populated in the next dropdown box. Thus, the user has the limitation to select only the Test Suite present directly under Test Plan, also all the test cases that were present under the selected Test Suite and Sub Suites will be exported.

But now in the enhanced version i.e. "Test Case Export to Excel 1.0" user gets the complete view of the Test Plans and all the Test Suite in the form of tree structure, similar to the way it is displayed in MS Test Manager. Also, user is now having the flexibility select the test cases he/she wants to export. He/She can either choose to export the test cases present under the selected Test Suite or to export test cases present under selected Test Suite and its Sub Suites. Below is the screenshot of the enhanced version of the tool.


If you want to download the tool you can download it from the following codeplex site:
http://exporttfs2excel.codeplex.com/

Please post your comments or suggestions on this tool. Also, if you face any issues in the tool, please let me know.