“I urgently need a report on the executed tests for the last 2 months. The report must include information about the reasons for the failures, the personal performance of the QA team members, as well as the time spent.” Such a task from your boss can seem like a nightmare if you do not know the main secret of reporting. What is this secret and how does it work? Find the answer in the article about automated testing reporting.
Why do you Need Automated Reporting?
This is the documentation of the test execution workflow. The test report organizes the test and results, and how they relate to the test objectives. Reporting helps all stakeholders to track the quality of a product.
Automatically generated reporting is the magic tool that within minutes completes the cumbersome task set at the very beginning of the article.
Reporting is not always a multipage document with calculations. Advanced tool Zebrunner Automation Reporting generates clearly organized information in a user-friendly format. Numerous widgets allow you to track any metrics for any period. Graphs and charts make reporting easy to understand even for people without a technical background. Thus, you can use automated reporting for the team needs, and provide it to managers, including C-level, as well as other stakeholders.
Top 3 Benefits of Test Automation Reporting
Reporting provides information not only about the quality of the product but also about the entire testing process, as well as the QA team’s work efficiency. Let’s take a look at the key benefits that test automation reporting provides:
Saving resources.
Reports are generated automatically, so you don’t have to spend hours on data preparation, processing, and formatting.
Quick defect fixes.
This is one of the key superpowers of automated reporting. With automated testing, you already have data, where the error occurred, what category of errors it belongs to, and whether there are similar errors. You immediately receive information and the necessary artifacts (logs, screenshots, videos) about where the defect is and what is its cause.
Visualization of the testing process.
Most people perceive visual information more easily. The test reporting tool automatically creates all the necessary illustrations (charts, graphs, etc.) of your test process, you only need to choose the period and parameters.
What is typically included in a test report?
The basic reports include the following information:
- Number of test scripts/test cases
- Number of passed/failed tests
- Total testing time
- The average duration of one test
- Test goals and results
- Test summary listing tests that passed, failed or were blocked
- List of defects
More advanced reports include metrics of varying complexity to monitor the quality of the product, project, and process, as well as the personal performance of team members. Each team independently selects the optimal set of metrics for itself. This allows you to track work efficiency and identify critical issues.
3 best practices for automated reporting
Use these approaches to get the most out of your automated reporting.
Practice #1. Conduct a requirements analysis
This practice aims to identify the interests of all stakeholders and include responses to their requests in the report. Reports are generated automatically, but you still have to select the necessary widgets. Try to cover such areas as test purposes, test metrics important for your product & project, team productivity, and performance indicators.
Practice #2. Plan and predict
Automated reporting provides a basis for future planning. You know better the strengths and weaknesses of your team, you know how much time it takes to complete tests. Moreover, a good automated testing tool also allows you to predict trends, so you will have an idea of what to expect next from the process.
Practice #3. Keep track of issues
The testing process does not always go smoothly. Therefore, in addition to taking into account quantitative and qualitative indicators, it makes sense to keep a record of emerging obstacles. Advanced automated reporting tools track test failures and categorize them to help identify root causes. Issue tracking improves test productivity as you strive to remove roadblocks that are hindering the process as quickly as possible.