Exploratory Testing and Other Enhancements in Microsoft Test Manager 11

In this lab, you will learn about some of the improvements being made to Microsoft Test Manager 11 that make exploratory testing easier on the software tester.

Overview

In this lab, you will learn about the improvements being made to Microsoft Test Manager 11. You will learn about how exploratory testing (also called XT, or agile testing) has become a first-class experience in the toolset. This allows a tester to more flexibly test the underlying software without relying solely on formal test cases. Meanwhile, Microsoft Test Manager will continue to capture rich diagnostics about the application being tested which can be delivered to the development team if a bug is discovered. You’ll also learn about some of the other fit-and-finish features in Microsoft Test Manager 11, such as the ability to use rich text when authoring test cases.

Prerequisites

In order to complete this lab you will need the Visual Studio 11 virtual machine provided by Microsoft. For more information on acquiring and using this virtual machine, please see this blog post.

About the Fabrikam Fiber Scenario

This set of hands-on-labs uses a fictional company, Fabrikam Fiber, as a backdrop to the scenarios you are learning about. Fabrikam Fiber provides cable television and related services to the United States. They are growing rapidly and have embraced Windows Azure to scale their customer-facing web site directly to end-users to allow them to self-service tickets and track technicians. They also use an on-premises ASP.NET MVC application for their customer service representatives to administer customer orders.

In this set of hands-on labs, you will take part in a number of scenarios that involve the development and testing team at Fabrikam Fiber. The team, which consists of 8-10 people, has decided to use Visual Studio application lifecycle management tools to manage their source code, run their builds, test their web sites, and plan and track the project.

Exercises

This hands-on lab includes the following exercises:

1. Exploratory Testing Improvements

Estimated time to complete this lab: 30 minutes.