Hi felipe-munhoz,
I was referring to the page before that, where you can view multiple Test Cycles and filter by different options. But I also use the single Test Cycle pages of course and if that is being developed further, I think what I would find useful is some sort of 'health monitor' area, where we could view potential issues and gaps and pro-actively identify and resolve those issues. I guess this doesn't have to be in the single Cycle page and could be at a higher level or in a report. For example:
- Test execution results that are marked as Blocked or Fail but do not have a linked Issue. These are generally where a tester has forgotten to follow up and create an issue for the block/fail
- Where a Planned Start Date is in the past and the Cycle Status is currently Not Executed, show an alert/flag. Clearly we would be behind plan and need to do something to get back on-plan
- Similar would be Test Cycles that are approaching the Planned End Date and test cases are not yet executed. It would be useful to see some information specific to the Not Executed gap as we approach the Planned End Date.
- And in the same way as above, if the Planned End Date is in the past and there are Test Cases that are Not Executed, flagging these would show where we need to focus effort.
Another suggestion, but not related to the 'health monitor' idea, is for when a Test Cycle has Blocks. For example, when all Test Cases in a Test Cycle are executed but some of them are Blocked. What happens at the moment is that Zephyr Scale automatically sets the status of that Test Cycle to Done. I find this misleading because the Blocked Test Cases still need to be executed and they may Pass or may Fail. I prefer to see the Test Cycle Status remain as either "In Progress" (may be easier to develop), or better still and more accurately, set the Test Cycle Status to "Blocked", meaning that the Test Cycle cannot be closed (have a status of "Done") until the Block is released and the Test Cases are available to be executed.
Also, having some fields in the Test Cycle Detail tab to record and manage the Block status would be useful. Why a Test Cycle is Blocked and who is responsible for unblocking a Test Cycle is the type of information that is useful for managing the problem and can be show on reports to stakeholders. I personally used the Test Cycle Description field as a workaround for this purpose, using the naming format below partly to report to my stakeholders, but more importantly, to help highlight issues and drive actions to unblock those issues:
[Date of update] [Block update comments] [Owner of actions to release Block]
e.g. 27-May: Testing blocked due to xyz in system abc. MisterB to do 123 to fix. Expected unblock 29-May
So fields that would be useful are Update Date, Block Cause, Block Action/Solution, Block Owner, Unblock Date, and Block Status (Under Analysis, In Progress, Pending, etc.)
I could probably come up with some more ideas if this is useful?
Thanks, Andy
Hey MisterB,
This is absolutely incredible and valuable feedback, thanks for sharing first of all!
I will do my best to share these ideas with the product team, I can see great value in them.
Zephyr Scale is historically very customer-oriented, and we do our best to bring these ideas to life, but we also need to prioritize them based on how an idea gets traction from other customers, as well, so we don't end up introducing changes that are helpful for a specific use-case.
With that in mind, we have our ideas portals:
Cloud: https://zephyr-scale-cloud.ideas.aha.io/ideas
Server/DC: https://zephyr-scale-server-dc.ideas.aha.io/ideas
There you can post an idea, and so other people can vote on them, and help them get prioritized.
It would be awesome if you could share them there as well and maybe split them into different "ideas".
For example, the `health monitor` idea, which could become a new area in the app, or even a report, as you said. They could even send notifications from time to time, right? Would be awesome.
Also, the way you're using the Test Cycle description as a workaround to better report the status of each one might provide some nice insights about new features.
Feel free to share more here or in the ideas portal. Also if any of them seem like a bug to you, we can help to clarify them here, or via our support channels which have a faster SLA.
Once more, we really appreciate your time in sharing these ideas with us. Very insightful.
Thanks, Felipe.
