At a major network operator, testers ran hundreds of test cases per day automatically in Tosca, but had nowhere to share the results. Anyone who wanted to see the progress was sent a manually cobbled-together report full of screenshots via email.
At a major retailer, an initial market assessment for integrating Tosca and Testersuite resulted in a proposal that was very costly and could only be implemented for a single client. What SUPERP ultimately delivered cost a fraction of that and was operational elsewhere.
A need that grows along with testing maturity
For years, I’ve seen Testersuite customers repeatedly ask about the integration between the Testersuite test management platform and Tricentis’s Tosca test automation solution. The larger an organization is, the higher (usually) its test maturity, and the sooner it takes the step toward test automation. Testersuite brings order to what you test and how often; once Tosca is added to the mix, you’ll want to see those automated test results alongside the manual ones. Without this integration, two separate realities emerge: automated test results in Tosca and manual results in Testersuite, with no unified view of coverage and progress. With one of our first major clients, this need became concrete enough to prompt us to address this lack of insight.
We explored several routes before the solution turned out to be right under our noses
The large retailer’s first step was to approach Tricentis itself, the creators of Tosca. The proposal that resulted was costly and was intended for use by exactly one customer. A second exploratory discussion, with a former Tricentis employee, yielded a similar outcome. Ultimately, it turned out that SUPERP had already facilitated this integration for a major network operator. From that point on, things moved quickly.
Why Customers Want More Than Just Individual Test Results
The bottom line is simple: customers want to manage the testing process based on a single, comprehensive view of test coverage and progress, rather than maintaining two separate sets of records. This was a major concern for the network operator: people without access to Tosca had no insight into the results of the nightly run, and that felt like a significant shortcoming. A solution had to be found quickly.
Diagram of the TesterSuite Tosca integration between test automation and test management.
What it brings, even beyond the euros
The biggest savings come mainly from the time saved: no more manually creating reports, no more collecting screenshots for a morning email. What matters just as much to me is that eliminating the repetitive, error-prone process of retyping results noticeably boosts the testers’ motivation. Testersuite has developed a feature that further enhances this benefit. It’s now possible to share test reports with stakeholders at the click of a button, without them needing a Testersuite account themselves. This feature makes it easier to widely distribute test results, even independently of this Tosca integration.
How the coupling works technically
There are two options, depending on which technology a customer is already using. The first option sends the test results directly from Tosca to TesterSuite and is the most recently implemented option, including for the retailer that operates a single environment.
The second runs through a GitLab or GitHub pipeline from launching test cases to writing back results—and is hosted by the network operator, who works with about forty decentralized TesterSuite environments.
In both cases, the integration retrieves test scripts and test run information from TesterSuite, Tosca prepares a test run, and the result is that each step in the test run is reported as either passed or failed in one variant, in real time and continuously for each test case; in the other, only at the end of the entire run.
Control Panel for the integration between TesterSuite and Tosca.
In terms of performance, the impact remains negligible: the connector issues a series of API calls that are processed in milliseconds, even with multiple parallel runs, because each run receives its own isolated call with a specific run ID.
Tosca live test results have been sent to TesterSuite.
The vulnerability inherent in every integration process
There is one real point of concern: the integration relies on Testersuite’s (internal) APIs. If the underlying layer or architecture in Tosca changes, the integration will need to be reconfigured accordingly. This is a fairly generic drawback of any integration; even with Testersuite’s own Tosca or Azure integrations, if one side changes without the other adapting accordingly, something will go wrong somewhere. However, Testersuite’s core framework rarely changes; new functionality is almost always built alongside it, not on top of it.
Maintenance remains minimal
Once set up, the integration requires no further attention. In theory, a customer fills in five configuration fields, including login credentials that are masked within their own Tosca environment. New configuration is required only when setting up a new environment—that is, a new workspace within Testersuite. For the network operator, which manages about forty decentralized Testersuite environments, this is a recurring concern; for the retailer, which has exactly one environment, there is simply no maintenance required after the initial setup.
No SLA, but direct lines of communication
The connector is intentionally not marketed as a high-tech product with warranties and SLAs: SUPERP ensures it is delivered in working order and provides support as needed. Neither the grid operator nor the retailer has received any reports since delivery that the interface is not working. Interested customers can contact either TesterSuite or SUPERP; the lines of communication between the two parties are close enough that it doesn’t matter which one they contact.
Conclusion
- The TesterSuite Tosca integration combines manual and automated test results into a single overview of coverage and progress.
- There are two technical options: real-time updates or via a GitLab/GitHub pipeline, depending on the customer’s infrastructure.
- Maintenance is limited to configuring new environments; the core structure of the integration rarely changes.
- This integration also opens up opportunities for customers who do not yet have the TesterSuite and Tosca combination: TesterSuite customers who want to start automating tests and Tosca customers who are looking for a test management solution.
What started as a few isolated exploratory projects has evolved into an integration at SUPERP that is now in use by several clients.
Is your Testersuite or Tosca environment not yet integrated? It doesn’t have to stay that way. Contact Bob and find out what this integration means for your testing process.
