Walkthrough: Creating and Running a Manual Test
A manual test is a description of test steps that a tester performs. You use manual tests in situations where other test types, such as unit tests or Web tests, would be too difficult or too time consuming to create and run. You would also use a manual test when the steps cannot be automated, for example to determine a component's behavior when network connectivity is lost; this test could be performed by manually unplugging the network cable.
In this walkthrough, you will complete the following tasks:
Add a test project and a manual test to your solution.
Author the manual test.
Execute the manual test.
Create and Execute a Manual Test
To create a test project and add a manual test
Click Test and then click New Test.
The Add New Test dialog box appears. Under Templates is an icon for Manual Test (text format). If you have Microsoft Office 2003 installed, there is also an icon for Manual Test (Word format).
Click Manual Test (text format).
For Test Name, change the name of the test to MyManualTest. Do not change the extension, .mht.
A new manual test with the name MyManualTest is added to the test project. The file MyManualTest.mtx is visible in Solution Explorer.
Click Test, point to Windows, and then click Test View, to display the Test View window. The test MyManualTest is visible in the Test View window.
(Optional) Click Test, point to Windows, and then click Test Manager, to display the Test Manager window. The test MyManualTest is visible in the Test Manager window.
Note
Instead of text format, you could create your test in Microsoft Word 2003 format by clicking Manual Test (Word format) in step 2. This file, a template for your test, would open in Microsoft Word. Choosing Word format lets you embed items, such as screen shots, in your test file.
You have added the manual test and you are now ready to author it.
To author a manual test
Follow the instructions in the test template. This means typing information about the test, including a description of the test, identification of the test target (the functionality you want tested), and the steps to be performed.
Save the manual test file.
The steps of your manual test are now ready to be run by a tester.
To execute a manual test
Click MyManualTest in the Test View window and then click Run Selection.
A dialog box appears. It explains that the test run will not complete until you have completed all the manual tests in the current test run.
Note
You can suppress this dialog box by clicking Do not show this dialog box again. For information on how to change this setting, see How to: Configure the Dialog Boxes of Team Edition for Testers.
Click OK.
The Test Results window shows a row for the test in which its result is displayed as Pending.
A dialog box appears. It alerts you that the manual test is ready to run.
Note
You can suppress this dialog box by clicking Do not show this dialog box again. For information on how to change this setting, see How to: Configure the Dialog Boxes of Team Edition for Testers.
Click OK.
The test itself is displayed in the main editing pane of the Visual Studio IDE, in a page whose tab is entitled MyManualTest[Running]. The lower section of the test page displays the steps of the test, while the upper section displays an area for the tester to input results. The results area consists of a Comments field and a pair of option buttons, Pass and Fail.
Follow the steps of the test.
(Optional) While following the steps, type comments in the Comments field.
When you are finished, click either Pass or Fail to indicate the overall result of the test, and then click Apply.
The Test Results window displays the result that you chose.
See Also
Tasks
How to: Configure the Dialog Boxes of Team Edition for Testers
Walkthrough: Creating and Running Unit Tests