Free and Open Source Test Management Software

Quality Assurance is an important part of the software development.  There are many tools available that help with a variety of problems in this domain.  At work, we have already been using quite a few of them – mostly those that deal with automated testing – PHPUnit, PHP CodeSniffer, Nightwatch.js, TravisCI, BitBucket Pipelines, and more.

But the above tools are mostly for software developers.  With the expansion of our quality assurance efforts, I am looking at some more tools and this time around, those that are aimed more towards QA engineers and testers.  One particular area that I am currently very interested in is the tool for test (and requirements) management.

My experience in this area is very limited.  I just know that such tools do exist.  Most of them are propitiatory and expensive, and are used by large organizations.  We are not a large company.  Our needs are simpler.  And our budget for this is not great yet.

So, here is what I’m looking for:

  • A web-based tool to manage test cases, test plans, test runs, and test results.
  • This tool should support git version control.
  • This tool should integrate well with GitHub and BitBucket.
  • This tool should integrate well with TravisCI and BitBucket Pipelines.
  • This tool should integrate well with Redmine.
  • This tool should integrate well with HipChat.
  • This tool must support multiple projects.
  • This tool must support both manual and automated tests.
  • Preferably, the tool should be Open Source software.
  • Preferably, the tool should be free (as in money).
  • Preferably, the tool should be written in PHP, as that’s what where we have a lot of in-house expertise.

If you know of a tool that matches all or most of the above, please let me know.

Here are some of the applications that I found.  Some I tried, some I didn’t.

TestLink

TestLink was one of the first applications that I found to match most of my requirements.  TestLink is web-based, Open Source, free software, written in PHP, with quite a bit of functionality.  The demo site is currently down, so I downloaded, installed, and played around with it.

If I won’t find anything better, that’s probably what I will end up using.  But I would prefer something with an easier user interface.  TestLink looks, feels, and behaves like a very early days web application.  Navigating around and performing actions takes quite a bit of figuring out.  Other than the UI, it seems good.

SquashTM

SquashTM seems to have similar UI issues to TestLink.  It is also implemented in Java, which is a stopper for me now.  I’ll leave the holy wars for another time.

Kiwi TCMS

Kiwi TCMS is a nice web-based Open Source test case management system, written in Python.  It is also a strong contender for my choice.  The user interface seems a lot easier than the other systems I’ve looked at, and it has an impressive list of features and integrations.

FitNesse

FitNesse is a tool with slightly different approach than the previous ones.  It strongly relies on the Wiki approach, which I’m not convinced about just yet.  It’s also written and Java, which, as I said, is not great for me.

Mozilla Testopia

Mozilla Testopia is a test management application that extends Bugzilla bug tracker with additional functionality for the QA engineers.  It’s a viable option, but I haven’t tried it myself yet, as I’m not using or planning to use Bugzilla any time soon.  When it comes to bug tracking, Bugzilla is a monster of an application.  It’s huge and powerful, but it’s not as easy to use for smaller teams.

 

There are few other applications that I still have to check.  Here’s a couple of links that list a few alternatives to the above:

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