Test Case Beaker

Question

How do I get the test case beaker to appear on the User Stories on the ADO Board? I copied a previously used

Answer 1

Hi @Buchholz, Barbara A ,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

It sounds like you’ve got test cases in ADO but you’re not seeing the little “beaker” icon on your User Stories in Boards. The "beaker" icon only appears once your story is actually linked to test cases (manual or automated), so let’s make sure the association step is covered.

Here are a couple of common ways to light up that beaker:

1. Manual test-case association
   • Open your User Story in ADO.
   • Click the “Associated automation” (or “Add test cases”) section on the work item form.
   • Select the existing test cases you want to link.
   • Save the story.
   At that point you should see a test-case count (beaker) on the card in your backlog or board.
2. Automated tests via pipeline
   • Add the AzureTestPlan@0 task to your YAML or classic pipeline:

          
          - task: AzureTestPlan@0
          
          inputs:
          
          testSelector: 'automatedTests'
          
          testPlanOrRunSelector: 'testPlan'
          
          testPlan: '<your test plan ID>'
          
          testSuite: '<your test suite ID>'
          
          testConfiguration: '<your test configuration ID>'
          
     

   • Run the pipeline so it publishes test results back to your Test Plan.
   • Once the run succeeds and the automated tests are associated, you’ll see the beaker icon (with the count of passing/failing tests) on the related User Story.

Hope this helps!

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Answer 2

The beaker icon on Azure Boards appears when a work item (such as a User Story) has one or more linked test cases.

To get the beaker to show on a User Story card on the board:

1. Open the User Story in Azure Boards.
2. Use Add test from the work item (inline tests) or create a requirement-based test suite that links to that User Story:
   • From the Test Plans hub, create a test plan and a requirement-based test suite for the User Story.
   • Add or create Test Case work items in that suite. When a test case is added to a requirement-based suite, it is automatically linked to the backlog item (User Story).
3. Alternatively, from the board, expand inline tests and add tests directly to the User Story:
   • Go to Boards > Boards.
   • Open the User Story card, expand the inline tests panel, and add a new or existing test case. This automatically links the test case to the User Story.

Once the User Story has at least one linked test case (via Add test or a requirement-based suite), the board shows the inline testing indicator (the beaker) and allows viewing and running tests directly from the card.

Note: Using Add test or requirement-based suites is recommended over manually adding a generic Tested By link, because the board’s inline test status is driven by these inline/requirement-based test links.

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References:

• Create and manage manual test cases
• Manage tests inline
• What is Azure Test Plans?
• Agile workflow in Azure Boards
• Latest Test Outcome in Requirements
• Test Plans FAQs