Scaling up your test cases effectively usually involves the practice of parametrization. That is, the concept of having one testcase and then feeding in parameter values to create variations of the test case at run time. So essentially you have the same testcase which you execute repeatedly with different data values.
Defining parameters in Quality Center is done at the step level where each step is fed parameter values from a grid of values. Each value having a default value, a description and order information associated with it.
In this session we look at defining, adding and assigning values to params that are used when executing a run.
As with other test management tools there are a number of key points worth highlighting.
1. parameters are defined within a test case itself. The set of params defined for the testcase have a one-to-one relationship. That is one set of params only belongs to that specific test case. Having said that you can call template test cases from other test cases thus utalising the parameters of the template.
2. The parameters for a test case can be defined both when the testcase is included in a set (e.g. the default values) and when a set is executed. You can define the parameters at run time when you execute the testcase as part of a run.
3. Using template test cases means you can call tests with different parameters from within different sets. This allows you to have parameter settings that are shared between many different tests.
The ability to use parameters within Quality Center is a powerful test management feature. It carries with it some complexities that you need to be careful with (for example when you call a template test with parameters). However, these complexities are far outweighed by the benefits of a well structured repository of testcases that are parametrized.
