All test management tools provide reporting to some degree. Most also support exporting of test results and test data. That data may include testcases, run status information, configuration settings, etc. Whatever the information you need to export the key question will be does the test management tool support the export format you need? Typically you can expect a tool to support CSV, Excel, Pdf, Word (or Rich Text Format) and XML. The following video shows how to export in these various formats from QAComplete.
You’ll see in this video that there are two core approaches to exporting. The first is to export directly from within the GUI to CSV format. This involves selecting the data you wish to export (usually by defining filters to select the test cases you need) and then selecting one of the two following options…
1. Export visible: using the ‘select fields’ feature you first select the fields you want to display on the listings page. It’s this data that is then exported when you select export visible data
2. Export all: regardless of the fields displayed or selected all data associated with the test case is exported.
Note that in QAComplete this export option only supports CSV format. If you need this in excel then just open the CSV file in Excel and then save again in Excel format.
The second option involves creating a test management report and then exporting the report data. QAComplete comes with various test management reports from which you can then export the underlying data. Note that you can only export the information that the reports suck out of QAComplete. If you don’t have a report format that covers the information you need then you can’t export the information you need. Having said that you can create your own reports with exactly the data you require. Once the information is displayed in a report you can then send this to CSV, Excel, Pdf, Word or XML formatted files. See the video to understand how this is achieved.
In short every QA team has differing requirements for exporting data. The key part is to make sure the test management tool you select supports an extensive range of formats so that you have the flexibility long term to produce the exported data your team is likely to need.
