Quick Start Guide on Testing with TestFirst

In this article, you will find the end-to-end guide on how to start using TestFirst, from setting up your Test Case Library to running your first test to tracking a test plan progress.

Table of Contents

Step 0 (Optional) - Set up your Jira Integration

Step 1 - Set up a Test Case Library

Step 2 - Create a Test Plan

Step 3 - Run Tests

Step 4 - Track Testing Progress and Team Performance

Step 0 (Optional) - Set up your Jira Integration

In order to link TestFirst test cases to Jira issues and automatically create bug reports in Jira from TestFirst, you will need to set up the Jira integration. This step is optional, and only needs to be done if you are using Jira as your issue tracking system and want to easily access TestFirst entities from Jira.

In order to set up your Jira integration, you will need to do 3 things: 

1. Configure Jira integration in TestFirst. In order to do that:
   1. Click on Integrations in the left menu panel. 
   2. Click the ADD INTEGRATION button.
   3. Fill in the Name and Type fields. You can select any name you like, in the Type field select Jira from the dropdown list. Paste your Jira base URL in the Base URL field.
   4. Click the SAVE button. The integration details will be displayed in the page. 
2. Make sure every user who is going to perform testing activities logs into the Jira integration in TestFirst. In order to do that:
   1. Generate an API token in Jira using the instructions in the "Create an API token" section of this article. Copy the API token.
   2. Click on the Integrations menu item in the left menu panel in TestFirst.
   3. Click the ADD USER button.
   4. Type your email address in the Jira Email Address field.
   5. Paste the copied API token in the Jira API Token field.
   6. Click SAVE. Your user details will appear under the USER DETAILS header in the Integrations page.
3. Install and configure TestFirst app in Jira (needs to be done by your Jira admin). This article contains an exhaustive guide on how to do it. In short:
   1. Create a new TestFirst user that will be dedicated to the Jira integration.
   2. Open the TestFirst app page.
   3. Click the Get app button.
   4. Click Install.
   5. Click on Apps in your Jira instance.
   6. Click on TestFirst app. Click Allow access. 
   7. Click Accept in the newly opened tab with permission details. 
   8. Click the Admin Panel link in the welcome page.
   9. Enter the user details of the TestFirst user you created in step 1 of the installation instructions.

Step 1 - Set up a Test Case Library

You can set up your Test Case Library in one of two ways:

1. Set it up from scratch, manually creating every node of the Test Case Library and writing your test cases. You can do it in one of two ways: 
   1. The "old-school" way - by creating every test case and writing it step by step:
      1. Click on Test Case Management in the left menu panel.
      2. Click the CREATE TEST PROJECT button in the Test Case Management page.
      3. Input the name, description and, if you have set up an integration described in Step 0, the integration details.
      4. Click OK. The test project will be created.
      5. (Optional) Right-click on the test project and select Add Test Suite if you want to make your test project more structured. You can also create more nesting levels by adding sections and subsections. Read more on the Test Case Library structure here.
      6. Create test cases by right-clicking on the node under which you want it to be, click Add Test Case, and fill in all the necessary details. Click CREATE. You can refer to the Test Case Field Reference article to understand what the system test case fields stand for.
   2. Using an Exploratory Test Session (ETS):
      1. Click the RUN EXPLORATORY TEST button either in the Home page or in the Test Plan Management page.
      2. Fill in the precondition or leave it empty and set the status to the step by clicking the PASS, FAIL or BLOCK buttons. You can use markdown to format the text you are entering.
      3. Fill in the step action and expected result. Set the status to the step. 
      4. Repeat for as many steps as you need. 
      5. At the last step, click the END SESSION button in the Step result saved modal.
      6. Enter the necessary details and click OK.
2. Import any existing test cases using a .csv file. In order to do that:
   1. Fill in the import template.
   2. Click on Test Case Management and click the IMPORT TEST CASES button. Import from CSV wizard will open.
   3. Follow the steps of the wizard to upload the file, map the columns to the TestFirst fields and import the test cases. All the missing nodes will be created automatically according to the structure provided in the import file.

Step 2 - Create a Test Plan

Once you have your Test Case Library set up, you can create your first test plan. 

In order to do that,

1. Click on Test Plan Management menu item in the left menu panel.
2. Click the CREATE TEST PLAN button.
3. Enter the necessary details in the Create Test Plan dialog and select the test cases you want to include in your test plan.
4. Click CREATE. The newly created test plan will appear in the Test Plan Management page.

Once you are satisfied with the test plan execution, you can close the test plan by right-clicking on it and clicking Close in the context menu.

Read more on Test Plan Management here.

Step 3 - Run Tests

In order to start running tests,

1. Click on the test plan you want to run. In the bottom part of the window, the test plan detailed view will be displayed.
2. Pick a test you want to run and right-click on it. You can:
   • assign a test to the person you want to run it, or skip this step altogether and
   • click on Start Test Execution in the context menu. This will open a TEM (Test Execution Module) window and minimize all other TestFirst windows.
3. Execute the test using TEM:
   
   1. You can place TEM on top of the application under testing. The automatic change of opacity will allow you to see your whole screen without switching context between the applications. The opacity settings can be changed in the TEM settings. 
   2. Click on the camera icon to take screenshots of the application under testing. If you haven't taken any screenshots manually, one will be taken automatically when you set a status to a step.
   3. Click PASS, FAIL or BLOCK buttons to set a status to a test step. This will automatically open the AM (Annotation Module) window.
   4. Annotate the screenshots, add comments and attachments as needed. Click SAVE & CONTINUE to move on to the next step.
   5. Repeat this process till you finish your test. Once you submit the test result, the status of the test in the test plan will be updated accordingly. 
   6. Should your test fail at any step, you can enter the details of the failure. You can also link it to a Jira issue if you have the integration configured as described in Step 0 of this Guide. 

Read more about TEM and AM and their settings here. Similarly, you can run every test in the test plan.

Step 4 - Track Testing Progress and Team Performance

There are several ways to track the testing progress and the tester performance in TestFirst. 

1. You can take a quick look at the progress of a test plan in the Test Plan Management page. In order to do that, simply click the Test Plan Management item in the left menu panel, find the test plan in the list and hover over the bar in the TESTED column. A tooltip will show you a pie chart with the statistics on the status of the tests in the test plan. 
2. For a more detailed report, head over to the Reports section. You can create test execution reports for any test plan in your test plan library. In the report, you can find data on the progress of a test plan as long as the status of each of the tests in the test plan. Every test has a link attached to it. Clicking on it will take you to the respective test result.
3. You can obtain more generalized information in the Manager Dashboard section. Here you can find information on assignments, test plans progress, total time spent testing within a particular timeframe, and more. You can also track the tester performance using User Metrics page.