Selecting the right test management tool is critical to your business. Select the wrong tool and you’ll end up fighting and wrestling to get the benefits you know you should be gaining. Select the right tool and you’ve got a solution that will support and promote your QA process.
Your approach to selection is not one to be taken lightly. With well over 30 applications on the market you’ve got a lot of work to evaluate all of them. You can evaluate all of them in detail. Take a gamble and just select one. Or you can use an efficient evaluation process that will help you identify the right solution with the minimum of time and effort. We’d recommend the later
Before you set about looking at the different test management applications you’d be wise to spend some time working out a good evaluation approach to help you. Following a good process means being clear about the problem you’re trying to solve. If you don’t understand the problem you can’t possibly find the right solution.
It means finding out just how keen your team are to implement a solution. If you have a team that will steadfastly refuse to use a new application why bother? Why not put your effort into improving the team first? Likewise if you have a team that’s crying out for an application then why not capitalise on that from the start and get them involved now? With an enthusiastic team, well directed, you’ve got a great chance of succeeding and improving your process.
If you are determined to succeed then I would really recommend starting out with a well defined process for evaluating test management tools from the start. If you’d like guidance and a framework to help support you with this then read our
How to Evaluate Test Management Tools guide
In this guide you’ll learn:
- How to Identify the Problem
- How to Assess the appetite for change
- How to list the potential candidate for evaluation
- How to select the best candidate to focus on
- How to implement a trial phase
These aspects are all important. Make the wrong choice and you’ll find yourself paying a costly price in terms of time and effort trying to work with the wrong tool. A price that will far outweigh the initial license cost outlay over the period of 1 or 2 years. Make the right choice and you’ll improve the way your team works immeasurably.
Don’t forget though. Choosing the right tool is only one half of the problem.
Implementing a test management solution is other half.
