In this article, I’ll emphasize the importance of test case management tools by explaining how bad of an idea it is to use MS Excel to manage your test cases. And since there are only two options, I’ll help you pick a side. The simplest reason why you shouldn’t manage your test cases by using MS Excel is that Excel was never made for test management and while you may think investing in test case management tools is an unnecessary cost, it can actually save your business serious dollars in the long-run.
With the rise of DevOps and Agile methodologies, testing has become complex. Testers are always under pressure to meet tight deadlines and provide a high-quality product. They’re expected to do it right the first time and hence, there is very little margin for error.
So, let’s get to the point and see why you shouldn’t use MS Excel to manage your test cases.
1. You’ll need a large number of MS Excel sheets
If you plan to do testing using MS Excel, you’re going to need a lot of sheets. You’ll need a separate sheet for traceability, bugs, test cases, test runs, and one for tracking requirements. It doesn’t matter if your project is small or big, you’ll need a minimum of 5 sheets per project. It will become even harder for you to manage the number of sheets if, in case, you choose to segregate the sheets based on releases, modules, or testers. With such a great number of documents, your chances of making an error will increase exponentially.
2. Updating test cases will be much more difficult
Dealing with a large number of excel sheets can be a mess especially when there is any change in the requirement and you want to trace the test cases that need to be modified. This can cause data inconsistency as all test cases are not up to date. It would also make it very difficult to track any changes. Your team will waste a lot of time tracking and updating changes rather than spending time on testing itself.
3. Inconsistent Data
One of the consequences of making manual changes is that there will be times when the excel sheet will contain incorrect information. This inconsistency in data will impact test results. Failing to update the test the excel sheets frequently may result in, for example, testers missing important steps that were added to the test case later.
4. Lack of Collaboration
Collaboration is probably the biggest drawback of working with excel sheets. Why? You’ll have to email your excel sheets to share them with your team. It becomes even more difficult to collaborate, communicate, and coordinate when teams are separated by distance. Your team members might end up working with different versions of excel sheets.
5. No Support for Agile Business Practices
The difference between Agile methods and MS Excel is that one helps you increase adaptability to change and one is unfit to handle changes. You can guess which one’s what. The usability and accuracy of an excel sheet depend entirely on the person who created it. And people make mistakes. An excel sheet created by someone may pose a challenge for a new person who is instructed to work with it. The newcomer will have to start from scratch.