• Create a test project in SABin.



• Now log on to QCBin by providing your credentials and access the project that you have created.



• After you log in to the QCBin you will notice different tabs for requirement, TestPlan, TestLab and Defects.



• Click on the Requirements tab. Under this tab, you can organize your project requirements. You can also create folder hierarchy to represent various features in your project. This can be accomplished by just right-clicking and choosing appropriate options.



• After you have created new requirements its time for the Test Plan. Test Plan will have information about the test cases. These test cases can also be mapped to requirements created in the earlier steps, thus makes foundation for the traceability metrics.



• Each requirement can be mapped to one or more than one test cases. After creating new test case you will see in the left hand pane. The right hand pane will have tabs for writing the steps, mapping to requirements, description, expected result etc.



• Every test case will have steps and for every step you can specify the expected behavior. These test cases can also be linked to the QTP or Winrunner Scripts, thereby providing you better management for the automation and capability of executing automation scripts from Quality Centre itself.



• After the Test Plan preparation its time for the Test Execution. You have to create a Test Lab for managing test execution for specific release. Test Labs can be created, specific to the release and execution of test cases specific to release can be managed very easily using this concept.



• In the Test Lab you can identify the set of test cases already written under test plan to include for execution. These test cases are already linked to the requirement so after each test cycle the management will be able to trace what requirements have been tested.



• Automated Tests can be fired from Test Lab if you have integration with QTP in place. When you choose the option of manual test execution, a window will open up containing the steps to execute. These steps are executed and after every step you can specify whether it is passed or not. Quality Center also allows parameterized manual test execution, where some of the default parameters like username, password etc. can automatically be read during the manual execution. For example, suppose you have a template test which logs in a user with a specific password when you start your application, you need to call this test at the beginning of each test. In some cases, you will want to log in as a regular user while in others, you will need to log in as the administrator. You can therefore create two parameters, <<user name>> and <<password>>, and
  change the value according to which type of test is calling your template
  test.



• The defects encountered during the failure of any of the steps can automatically be logged in to the defect tracking system, already integrated with Quality Centre.



• After the Test Execution the important part is Defects :) As already mentioned, this is integrated with the Qulaity center and incase of any failure from the manual or automated tests, defects can be logged.



• One of the most important part of the test management is generating reports. After all the planning and  execution, its REPORTING time. Quality Center provides a very good reporting feature by providing certain pre-defined reports and also capability to create your own reports.

Hope information provided above would have provided you a good overview about Mercury Quality Center. In the Next Article we will cover some more information about the Mercury Quality Centre with focus on specific features.