Downward spiral

[Mich the Tester]

Any experience with OATS? Am evaluating a proposal for this now.

No, but I'm not really a fan of proprietary test tools; there are open source tools that can do most things very well, and sometimes if you want to join them up then hire a dev who can help with that.

Remember this; once you buy an expensive test tool, you'll have to find (or train) testers who can use it; that means putting the tool in job specs, cutting out potentially excellent testers who are used to other tools. If you use open source/freeware stuff like Fitnesse, Selenium, Xebium, JIRA and so on you can select people from a much bigger pool including the really good testers who know their way around the open source stuff; there are also companies who'll provide support on those tools, so I really cannot think of a good reason for spending money on big corporate test tooling, except if you're doing the management 'cover my arse' nonsense.

[oracleslave]

except if you're doing the management 'cover my arse' nonsense.

rumbled

[original PM]

I think I may have to put on a test manager hat soon...

as the company is to tight to get a specialist in

so which tool is best? need it for mainly tracking test plans/test case and then bug management.

[DimPrawn]

I think I may have to put on a test manager hat soon...

as the company is to tight to get a specialist in

so which tool is best? need it for mainly tracking test plans/test case and then bug management.

Excel spreadsheet.

[original PM]

Excel spreadsheet.

well that was plan a!!!!

was just wondering if a plan b is a good idea

[Mich the Tester]

Excel spreadsheet.

WHS if it's a simple one project jobby, but if it's more complex then JIRA is cheap and good for bug tracking, bugnet is free

Otherwise, look here. Bugzilla combined with testopia might be a good one.-->

Open source test management tools

But don't buy some overpriced tulipe through the typical corporate procurement process, just look at some freeware or open source tools, ask your testers which tools they know and if they don't know of any open source stuff, then fire them and replace them with people who do.

[Dallas]

I am being audited is the reason for the tool

Pool was empty though, all happy, now food

[Benny]

Any experience with OATS? Am evaluating a proposal for this now.

The Test Manager module is usable without all the bells n whistles of the HP product ( which may or may not be such a bad thing)
Performance tool is flaky but once you know the wobbly bits you can get it running
Functional Testing bit is OK but somewhat limited

Really depends on what you can get the licence costs down to - also as it's so new there isn't a great deal of real world experience to fall back on - forums to post on etc (the Oracle one is about the best and frequented by Oracle chaps)