5 Reasons Why Test Management Is Better Than Excel Sheets

We can commonly observe that organizations use Excel sheets for test management. QA teams need test case management software for managing test cases. Excel sheets are not meant for test management. We know that software testing is a crucial part of the software development process. The increasing pressure to release quality software products makes it more challenging for testers to use the right test management tools. Software testing teams have less room for errors and to increase their efficiency and meet stringent deadlines, they need to stay ahead of time.

To achieve the desired results, QA teams need the right tools. Previously, testers were in a habit of using Excel sheets for streamlining their test case management process. However, these sheets are no longer useful, instead, the test case management software is available in the market to simplify the process.

Multiple Sheets Required

Since planning a testing process is a lengthy task, testers will require multiple excel sheets. In order to keep a track record of each testing process, they will need to maintain a separate sheet for requirements, test cases, test runs, issues, and traceability. Testers would need at least 5 sheets per project, depending on the size. It will be difficult for teams to segregate and manage a large number of sheets as per modules, releases, or testers. The chances of error increase due to a higher number of documents.

Difficulty in Updating Test Cases

When teams have a large number of sheets to manage, it will be a nightmare for testers to trace test cases that need modification. This is where teams may face challenges of data inconsistency as the test cases are not updated. It would also be difficult for teams to track any changes, thus spending more time on updating and tracking them, instead of testing rigorously.

Ineffective Communication

One of the biggest drawbacks of using Excel sheets is the lack of proper communication. These sheets can only be shared with the team members via emails. For virtual teams, it is difficult for them to coordinate, communicate, and collaborate. In this way, team members may end up working with different versions of these sheets.

Inconsistent Data

Since testers lack a systematic approach while making changes to the sheets, there will be cases where these sheets will not contain accurate information. This inconsistency in data will have a huge impact on the test results. For instance, when a step is added to a test case due to the changes in the requirement but the test manager does not remember to update in the Excel sheet. Testers may get the test result as it is passed without running the additional test step. Thus, it will not achieve the desired results due to an inconsistency in the data.

Inaccurate Insights

There are multiple excel sheets that teams have to manage, so here visualizing test data can be a daunting task. Testers will have to extract data from multiple sheets, and consolidate it, which is a time-consuming process. This will only provide inaccurate data and insights which will not be helpful in making critical testing decisions.

Ray Parker is a Senior Marketing Consultant with a knack for writing the latest news in tech, quality assurance, software development and testing.