Create a Child Test Plan under a Master Test Plan

Question

I am using Visual Studio 2016 with the latest updates. Though I am not the administrator of the project that I am working on, but I have access to creating as many number of Test Plans as required (though i can't delete them once created). I have already created a Master Test Plan, which has like 1000+ test cases, but then we do not need to run all of them everytime. So I was curious if I could create a child test plan under the Master one and include the test cases that are necessary. I only get the green '+'when trying to create a test plan , but nothing to create the child ones.I didn't find any online guide either. Is it actually possible to create one in VSTS?

Answer 1

No, you cannot create the child test plan, it's not supported.

However you can create Test Suites under the test plan, then you can manage the test cases within the specific test suite.

Please see Create a test plan and test suite for detials.

And this article for your reference: Test Planning and Management with Visual Studio Team Services

Answer 2

Test Plan is the highest group level for tests. What I often do is create a Test Plan for each sprint for example. So Test Plan Sprint 1 contains all the test cases that are applicable to this sprint. At the end of a sprint/start of a new sprint, you clone your current test plan and then modify it for the new sprint.

A Test Plan does not contain test cases directly (it's possible, just not recommended). Instead you use Test Suites to group the Test Cases. You have different types of Test Suites:

• Static: you manually add Test Cases to a static suite
• Requirement based: this allows you to create a suite that's linked to a Work Item. For example, you can define test cases that map to a Product Backlog Item that you're working on
• Query based suite: select test cases based on a query. For example, all high priority tests or all tests having a specific tag.

A Test Case can belong to multiple suites. You can nest other suites in a Static Suite.

So in your scenario, you have 1000 test cases that you want to group in suites. If this is a manual process, you can use a static test suite and just add existing test cases one by one until the suite meets your needs. If you can create a query that selects the test cases you want to work with you can use a query based suite.

I would recommend tagging your Test Cases with something like 'Ready For Test' (or another label that makes sense in your scenario) and then use a Query based suite. This is easier to maintain and probably less work. Especially if you use the Bulk Edit options to quickly add the tags.