Manual Testing

In the Manual Testing view, you can manage the test step descriptions of manual tests and execute the tests to analyze the results in the other views.

First, you need to select or create a project. If you already manage automated test results in Squish Test Center, you can use the same project you use for your automated test results. Otherwise, create a new project.

To open the view, select Manual Testing.

Manual Testing view

Test Management

In the Test Management view, you can create and maintain manual test steps and descriptions. In the Manual Tests pane on the left, you can create and maintain the test hierarchy: test suites, test cases, features, and scenarios. In the details pane on the right, you can edit the description and preconditions of test cases and scenarios, as well as create and manage individual test steps.

Create test suites

Select + Test Suite to add a new test suite. In the New Suite dialog, specify a name for the test suite. Select Use BDD Test Structure (Behaviour Driven Testing) to create the following hierarchy: Suite > Feature > Scenario > Step. If you don't choose BDD, the hierarchy will be: Suite > Test Case > Step.

New Suite dialog

Click Create Suite to create the test suite and make it appear in the Manual Tests pane.

Create tests

To create tests within a test suite, click + next to the test suite entry in the Manual Tests pane or select a test suite, and then select + Test Case in the details pane.

Creation of test case structures

Adjust test names

To change the name of a test suite, test case, feature, or scenario, select it and click its name to edit it.

Adjust test hierarchy

You can adjust the test hierarchy by removing or relocating tests. To relocate tests, enable the edit mode by clicking the button.

Test hierarchy edit mode

Move or reorder tests

To move test suites, test cases, features, and scenarios in the edit mode, select them in the Manual Tests pane, and then select the button. Select the test suite or feature to which the selected test items should be moved. You cannot move different types of tests simultaneously.

You can reorder test cases, features, and scenarios within the test hierarchy in the details pane. Click the Move Up and Move Down buttons next to the test items.

In the Manual Tests pane, you can also drag and drop items to new places.

Remove tests

To remove test suites, test cases, features, and scenarios, select them in the edit mode in the Manual Tests pane, and then click the button.

You can remove individual test items also in the details pane, by clicking the button next to them.

Import manual tests

Squish Test Center supports importing manual tests from Zephyr and Xray, as well as importing feature files. To import tests, create a test suite. Then click the button to open the import wizard.

Search test cases and scenarios

Click to find test cases and scenarios.

Manage test details

When you select a test case or scenario, the right-hand side pane shows the details of the selected item.

Manual Tests details pane

Edit test description and precondition

You can edit the contents of the Description and Precondition fields. You can format the text by using markdown notation. The text editing options enable you to undo and redo changes, cancel editing, or save the changes. The changes you make are also saved automatically once the field loses focus. The undo controls prevent unwanted changes and accidental progress loss.

Test Description edit field

Use the markdown button to open Markdown Help.

Upload attachments

Click the Upload Attachments button to upload attachments for the selected test. To show attached images in the Description and Precondition fields, use the markdown notation ![](filename.jpg), where filename.jpg is the full name of the attachment.

Manage steps

You can add steps to a test in test cases and scenarios by clicking the the + Step button in the test details pane. The new step is appended to the end of the list of steps.

Reuse existing steps

Like Squish tries to make it easy to reuse existing automated steps in automated BDD tests, Squish Test Center also tries to make it very easy to reuse existing manual test steps. You can reuse steps for procedures and actions that are similar between different test cases.

Click the + Existing Steps button to view all the previously created steps.

Existing Steps dialog

Search for steps you want to reuse and select them. Then click Confirm to append the selected steps to the end of the list of steps.

Change step details

Each step consists of a Title, Description, Expected Result, and Attachments.

The Title should be a short summary of what should be tested or done as part of the test step, as it will become part of the test hierarchy. The title will later be shown within the Explore and History views that are optimized to show short test hierarchy names.

The Description field contains a more detailed description of what needs to be tested and done as part of the test step. You can use markdown notation in the description to create lists, show links, highlight important details, or to display inline images.

The Expected Result field should describe the expected outcome of the described actions. It should contain all the information required for the tester to determine whether the step result should be considered a pass and whether it was executed successfully.

To add attachments to a step, select the button in the step menu. Once you have added at least one attachment, you can use the Drag & Drop or browse button to add more attachments.

You can use markdown notation to include uploaded images in the Description or Expected Result fields. In addition to step attachments, you can reference the attachments of the test case or scenario.

Other step actions

Hover over a step with your mouse to reveal the step menu.

Step menu options

The step menu allows you to perform the following actions:

• Remove Steps - remove a step
• Move Up - move a step up
• Move Down - move a step down
• Add Step Above - insert a step above this one
• Add Step Below - insert a step below this one
• Replace Step - replace this step with another existing step. This removes the current step and inserts the selected existing step.
• Upload Attachments - upload attachments to a step

Execution Configuration

In the Execution Configuration view, you can create executions of your manual tests. That means adding manual test executions to a manual test cycle (batch), as well as selecting the configurations the tests need to be executed on and the users who should execute the test.

Configure execution details

In the Configure Execution section, specify the Batch name, which identifies the test cycle. Usually, all manual test executions that belong to the same test cycle should have the same batch name.

Execution details

In the Assignee dropdown menu, select the Squish Test Center user who should perform the manual test. The selected user will be notified by email. You can also select the user later in the Execution Overview or Execution view.

In the Labels dropdown menu, select the configuration a manual test should be executed on. Select existing label value combinations or create new ones. Typically, you would specify the operating system, browser, or device that a manual test should be executed on. This mechanism works exactly like it does for automated test results. It is important to assign meaningful labels to be able to later analyze the results in the Explore and History views.

Selecting manual tests for execution

In the Manual Tests section, select the test suites, test cases, or scenarios you want to include in the test cycle you are preparing. The right-hand side test details pane displays more information about the selected test and its steps.

Select to find the relevant manual tests.

Click the Create Execution button in the Configure Execution section to create the manual test run.

A manual test execution is like a work item, and therefore it does not make sense to include every manual test in a single manual test execution. Tests that are not directly related and could be worked on by multiple people should ideally become part of individual test executions.

Execution Overview

In the Execution Overview view, you can start manual test executions, get an overview of the current status of a test cycle, or assign users to specific test executions.

Executions Overview

The Executions section shows all manual test executions that are currently in progress and already finished manual test executions. The view can either show all executions that belong to a specific batch or that fall within a specific time frame.

In the dropdown menu in the top-right corner of the section, select Batch to show all executions that match the batch name next to the dropdown menu. Select Range in the dropdown menu to pick the start and end dates for the range.

Finished manual test executions are marked with a flag icon in the Completion column. For manual test executions that you can still work on, a completion percentage is displayed.

The Result column shows the current state of the manual test execution, so as soon as any kind of failure is encountered it will show the failed icon. The skipped icon will be shown as long as no step has been finished or as soon as a step has been marked as skipped. The passed icon will be shown as long as at least one step is marked as passed and all other steps are either also marked as passed or not marked at all.

The Test column shows the test suites, test cases, and scenarios that are part of the test execution.

The Created column shows the date and time when a manual test execution was created.

The Batch column shows the name of the test cycle a manual test execution belongs to, while the Label column shows the configurations that should be applied during the manual test execution.

The Assignee column shows the user who is assigned to a manual test execution. You can select another user in the list until the test run is finished.

The last column contains a link to the manual execution for all unfinished executions, which is visualized by the play icon. For finished executions, the last column contains a link to the Explore view, which is visualized by the compass icon.

Working on manual test executions

To start working on a manual test execution, check the Assignee to see which executions are already assigned to you or currently do not have any assignee. Next, check which test cycle or batch currently needs to be worked on and which tests are to be executed on which configurations. By clicking the play button, you can switch to the Execution view for the selected manual test execution and start working on the test steps.

To only show executions that are assigned to you, select yourself in the Filter by user field.

To get an overview of the overall progress for the current test cycle, select the Show Completed checkbox, which shows both completed and unfinished manual test executions.

Removing and copying executions

To remove or copy manual test executions, enable the edit mode by clicking .

Remove executions

In the edit mode, select all executions that you want to remove and click . You are prompted to confirm the deletion.

Copy executions

To make it easy to repeat a test cycle, the Execution Overview enables you to copy manual test executions. For all copied executions, the assigned user is initially set to Unassigned.

In the edit mode, select the executions to copy, and then select . In the Copy dialog, specify the name of the batch (test cycle) to which the executions should be copied. Confirming the copy dialog completes the copy operation.

Execution

The Execution view lets you work through the individual steps of a manual test execution.

Manual test execution

The Test Execution pane shows only the test cases and scenarios that are part of the currently selected manual test execution. Use it to navigate between test cases and scenarios.

The test details pane on the right-hand side shows the test case or scenario descriptions and preconditions, as well as the list of steps that need to be worked through as part of the manual test execution. For each step, you should follow the instructions given in the Title and Description of a test and compare the outcome to what is described in the Expected Result section and possibly to the references provided as Attachments.

Manual test step

Manual test steps need to be performed in the correct order, and therefore they are rendered inactive and faded out until the previous step changes to the test status assigned.

Use the buttons below each active manual test step to track the outcome of a step execution. Select PASS if you could follow the instructions and the outcome matches the described Expected Result, FAIL if you could not follow the instructions or the described expected result deviates from what you observed, and SKIP if a previous step already failed. There might be additional cases where skipping a step might be necessary, so you should carefully decide on a case-by-case basis whether to skip a step.

Once you have passed, failed or skipped a step, select Actions > Add Details to describe your observations in the Details field.

Select Actions > Upload Attachment to upload files related to the execution and show the Result Attachments section. There are no set rules for how to use the result details. Two typical use cases are providing reproductions for failures that occurred and archiving results produced by the AUT during the manual test step execution.

Create JIRA issues

When you have configured Squish Test Center's JIRA integration (see Integration for Atlassian JIRA), the Actions dropdown menu contains the Create Jira Issue option. Select it to create JIRA issues for problems you have encountered during the manual test execution.

Create Jira Issue dialog

In the Create Jira Issue dialog, specify values for the mandatory fields.

After the JIRA issue has been created, it is linked to the manual test and the test results. You can view the JIRA issues linked to a manual test in Jira Associations. The listed associations are linked to your JIRA instance, so that you can easily jump back and forth between Squish Test Center and JIRA.

Linked JIRA issue

Click the x button to remove issue associations.

Once a manual test is finished, the issue associations are transferred to the manual test results. The next time the manual test is executed, you can use the Traceability view to update the associated JIRA issues with the most recent test results.

Skip all following steps

If you encounter a failure or need to skip a step for some other reason, click the Skip All Following button below the step you just skipped or failed. The status of all following steps in the test case or scenario is set to skipped.

Jump to the next test case or scenario

If you have worked through all steps of a test case or scenario, but other test cases or scenarios still need to be completed, you can jump to them. Select the jump button at the bottom of the Execution Overview view or below the last step you changed the status of to move to the next scenario that still has open steps.

Alternatively, select the next scenario in the Test Management pane.

Finish an execution

Once all steps of all test cases and scenarios of the current manual test execution have been completed or assigned a status, select the finish button.

After you finish a manual test execution, you can no longer change step status or any descriptions. The result is written into the result database and listed in the Explore and History views.

Click Back to Overview to return to the Execution Overview view. Click Go to Report to open the Single report view.

Assign execution

If you are looking at a manual test execution that is not assigned to you, you cannot change the step results and the PASS, FAIL, and SKIP buttons are disabled. However, you should see an info toast that contains a link for assigning the execution to yourself.

Self-assign toast

Import wizard

Squish Test Center currently supports importing manual tests from Zephyr and Xray, as well as importing feature files. To import tests, you have to first create a test suite. Then click the button to open the import wizard.

In the Format dropdown menu, select the import format. The Feature file option is only available for BDD Test Suites, while the Zephyr Api and Xray Api options are only available for non-BDD Test Suites.

Import wizard format selection

Feature file import

When you select Feature file, the wizard prompts you to select the feature file from your locally available files using your operating system's file selection dialog. The file you select is automatically uploaded and imported. Any features, scenarios, and steps contained in the feature file are turned into a manual test hierarchy. The feature file import expects the same gherkin syntax that is supported by Squish.

Import wizard feature file selection

Zephyr & Xray import

The Zephyr and Xray imports make use of Squish Test Center's traceability features, and therefore you should make sure that you have configured the corresponding integrations within the global settings, as instructed in Integration for Zephyr or Integration for Xray Test Management for Jira.

When you select the Zephyr Api or Xray Api option, the wizard prompts you to select the project to import manual tests from. The import wizard displays a list of tests that are available for import.

Import wizard test selection

Select the tests that you want to import, and then select the Import tests button to start the import process. Use the Select Tests field to filter the list of tests and quickly find the tests you are looking for.