Managing test variants

Test variants are variable attributes of a tested application, such as operating systems, databases, or client types. When generating test runs, you select the test variant values to use and a test run is generated for each unique combination of the selected values.

For example, you are testing an application supported on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. You only want to test on Windows and Mac. A variant named Operating System includes values for each supported operating system. When generating test runs, select the Windows and Mac variant values so test runs are only generated for those operating systems. Each test run includes identical information except for the variant value, which indicates the operating system to perform the test on.

By default, every test variant and value configured in the project is available to be selected when you generate test runs. As a result, you could unintentionally end up with many test runs that do not apply to the test case. To prevent this, you can add included and excluded variant values in test cases to limit the variants available when generating test runs.

Note:  An administrative user usually creates test variants. See Adding test variant fields

1. Go to the Variant Values area when adding or editing a test case.

2. Make any changes to the variant values.

Make sure to work in the correct area for included or excluded variants so the appropriate values are available when generating test runs.

• To add a variant, click Add Variant. See Adding test variants to test cases.
• To change or remove a variant value, click Edit next to it. See Editing and removing test variants in test cases.

3. Save the test case.

• Click Save to save the changes.
• Click Apply to save and continue working on the test case.

Tip:  You can also add variant values when running tests to identify attributes covered during testing that were not already specified in test runs. See Adding run-time test variant values.