Interactive workflow: Engineering Test Management in an enterprise environment

The following diagram shows one possible workflow through Engineering Test Management in an enterprise environment that is integrated with other products. The test manager or test lead uses requirements from a requirements management product to create a test plan. The test plan can also define a review process, quality objectives, and risk mitigation. The test manager or test lead associates requirements with test cases and assigns the test cases to testers. The tester creates test suites that contain the test cases and then develops manual test scripts. The test manager or test lead approves the test scripts. The lab manager creates test environments to support the test cases and test suites by using the automation product. Then, the tester generates test case execution records and test suite execution records and checks the build status as reported by the change management product. When a build is available with the code to test, the tester requests lab resources and runs the test case execution records and test suite execution records. Finally, the tester submits and track defects in a defect-tracking product. These processes continue until the test plan quality goals and exit criteria are met:

1. Track builds
2. Request lab resources
3. Run tests
4. Submit and track defects

At any point, the test manager or test lead can generate any reports.

This diagram is provided only as an example. Your team might use a different workflow. In addition, the diagram implies that each task follows sequentially, whereas most tasks can be accomplished simultaneously.