Meliora Testlab Test Management Tool Review

This comprehensive review of Meliora Testlab Test Management will prove extremely beneficial. Let’s get started.

Meliora Testlab has a steady flow of updates. Hence, once every quarter, it includes plenty of new features that can make the life of a quality professional much easier. One interesting area of Meliora Testlab is its powerful integration with Jenkins. We will learn more about it later in this article.

Projects that either do not have a test management tool or have a tool that does not meet its users’ expectations often end up working inefficiently.

Meliora Testlab Test Management Tool

Several things affect efficiency: what people should test, how to find the right test cases or specifications, what should be tested after the issue is fixed, how to show what has been tested and where the problems are, etc.

For these things, a test management tool helps by giving an interface that helps in doing the daily work successfully.

As they say, the Meliora Testlab tool we will review today is either a test management tool or an application lifecycle management tool that overcomes those problems. The core of Meliora’s product is managing the testing. It has a requirements management module, issue management module, and team collaboration features to support testing.

The approach that Testlab has on test management is familiar to the users with experience in other test management tools like HP QC / Microfocus ALM:

• The testing is based on executing test cases.
• Test runs group test executions.
• Tests can be linked to requirements/use cases to track what features have been tested
• You are tracking the issues found during the testing.

Then again, the implementation is fresh here. For example, the tool supports tags, drag & drop for files and has a responsive user interface that is easy to use.

The tool also shows relevant information to the user simply, and the user does not need to navigate the tool to see, for example, requirements that are linked to a test case. What takes many clicks on other tools can be done here just by hovering the mouse cursor over the requirement/user story ID.

Simple Workflow

If a project wants to go straight to testing, Meliora Testlab allows a user to get into the business using a “simple” workflow. This means that the project requirements and test cases do not need to be reviewed. Just enter the test cases and the requirements into the tool and start testing right away.

You can edit the test cases during testing if required. This seems to be a sensible approach for projects using a more agile approach. However, they still want to track the testing.

If the company already has a more defined process for development and QA, the workflow, user role access and module visibility can be configured to match the ways of working. Both ways can be used on different projects and at the same time, if required.

Meliora Testlab Important Modules

Testlab uses different modules to allow users to perform certain tasks. This seems to be an easy approach, as the user has visibility to those functions he or she needs.

(Note: Click on any image to view full size)

#1) Dashboard

A dashboard is configurable, but the users can see what is going on in the project. The pearl of the dashboard is the assignments list of what QA-related tasks the user should be doing. The list can contain example tasks for designing or running tests, updating requirements, or fixing the issues.

#2) Milestones

Milestones module is used to wrap up development and testing into manageable chunks. Project sprints or releases are natural milestones. By using milestones, one can compare different milestones and easily identify the remaining tasks for a specific milestone.

The best part about this implementation is how effortlessly you can utilize it. No elaborate preparation or explanation is required.

#3) Requirements

The requirement management module is a pretty standard implementation of the requirements management tool. Business requirements, user stories, etc., can be maintained easily here, and they are used as a basis for development and test design.

Integrations to tools such as Jira and Pivotal Tracker seem to be an interesting option. If the user stories are maintained in another tool, the testers can set them up to be visible, ensuring they always have access to the latest agreed version and know what they should be testing.

#4) Test Case Design

Test case design is again, a quite straightforward implementation. Test cases can be stored in a tree structure using filters and tags so that the relevant test cases can be found even if there are a lot of test cases. A test case can be written in a rich text description using test steps.

Meliora Testlab automatically creates revisions of test cases if the ready test case is re-designed again, so there is no need for any extra effort to maintain versions.

#5) Test Coverage

The test coverage view is very powerful in seeing how the testing is going; what has been tested since the last update, and what are the test results. Coverage can be viewed from the requirements/user stories and the test case point of view.

Test coverage will probably require more for bigger projects. Anyway, as it is interactive, it is one easy place to look at how certain areas of a program have been tested.

#6) Execution Planning

To make the test set reusable, this module makes sense. It is also used for assigning test cases to be run by the testers. Testlab has a great feature that shows failed or non-run test cases to be picked up that is to be executed. From a large list of test cases, it is good to find the test cases that will most probably find the bugs.

#7) Test Execution

The test execution module focuses on what is relevant. It shows the test case and other information that the user is interested in without being required to stop the testing and navigate to other areas of the application. One can see the connected requirement information just by hovering the mouse over the requirement, see connected issues completely, and concentrate on testing.

One interesting thing about the tool is the integration with Monosnap, a free screen recording software. While the idea is old, the implementation is for once done in a usable way. The tester can record a video and send it to the issue in one click.

This creates a standard mp4 video that a developer can open without installing anything extra so they will see the video!

#8) Issues

These are the most standard modules. The list of issues simply works fine. Enables easy filtering and a one-button solution to re-run a fixed defect.

#9) Reports

The reporting module allows storing reports with certain filters that can be used later on. It is quite a straightforward one to use: Pick a basis for the report, add filters if you want, and save it to be used by only you or a group of people. After making it, an updated report is always only one click away.

The expert mode of the report offers the possibility of making complex rules for those who need them.

Test automation is the global way of doing things, but it is not efficient to automate 100% of testing. This leads to a combination of test results from automated and manual testing techniques.

Taking both the results into account and showing the big picture is the strong point of this tool. It allows any test results to be imported from Jenkins and shows those along with manual results.

Meliora Testlab Pros and Cons

Pros:

• The user interface is well thought out. Only fewer clicks are required to accomplish things.
• Quite easy to use straight away with default options.
• Customizations and integrations allow for managing even complex projects.
• For a tool with this set of features, it is very affordable. Has features to import automated results.
• Searching for anything in the tool is very simple and effective.
• Assignments and real-time notifications of what is happening with the tool help in team collaboration.
• Choosing what to test next for failed runs or fixed issues is easy.

Cons:

• Some setups, like dashboard configuration, are not based on roles. Every user has to set them up manually on their own.
• Users can only save reports as PDF, excel, or open office documents and not in .doc format.
• Some field values are fixed. If a user wants to, for example, use their values for issue severity, they need to create a new custom severity field.
• Assignments, like who handles the issue, are not always personal, so the issue cannot be assigned to a group of people.
• While for some organizations this might be a merit, for some this is a demerit: The tool has so many features under its hood that mastering them all takes a lot of time.

Conclusion

To wrap up, the tool is modern and rich in features but easy enough to start using with reading the online material. It is suitable for small agile projects as well as big enterprise projects. With the Jenkins integration, the tool can also be leveraged to manage automated testing as well.

Meliora Testlab is offered both as a SaaS and as an installed version. They offer a trial in the cloud and it can be tried by registering on the following page.

Feel free to reach out with any questions, tips, or suggestions about the Meliora Testlab Test Management Tool. Leave your feedback in the comments section below. We look forward to hearing from you.