Q: How many users can I simulate using Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Testers when conducting a Load Test?
A: You may simulate as many virtual users as your hardware allows. Licensing is based per processor and not per virtual user.
Q: What is a Manual Test?
A: A manual test is a test for which there is no automation. Instead, test steps are outlined in a document for the tester to complete. The tester can then report test results and submit bugs as appropriate.
Q: Does Visual Studio Team System support automation testing (e.g., Compuware)?
A: No. However, Visual Studio Team System provides extensibility points out-of-the-box enabling third-parties to develop tools that target Visual Studio Team System.
Q: What is the Test Explorer?
A: Test Explorer is a convenient way to view all of the tests, including manual, unit, and load tests, for a given project.
Q: What is a Test Project?
A: Test projects are standard Visual Studio projects that are specifically created to contain tests. Test projects enable users to draw a clear line between shipping development code vs. code used for quality assurance. Additionally, test projects enable a general manner of organizing tests from a test development standpoint.
Q: Does the test framework manage deploying tests to machines?
A: Yes. Visual Studio 2005 Team System will include a general framework for test deployment that works in both of our supported scenarios: local and remote execution.
Q: Can I use my own tests in the framework and get individual results?
A: Yes. You can do this in two ways:
1) You can wrap an existing test as a Visual Studio Generic Test and get results for it, or
2) You can make your own test type and integrate this into Visual Studio.
Q: How do I migrate my scripts from existing testing tools from third party or Application Center Test?
A: The easiest way to migrate scripts is to re-record them using the browser recorder.
Q: What protocols do you support?
A: We support recording HTTP and HTTPS only; however, other protocols can be tested using Coded WebTests.
Q: How does Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Testers compare/differ from Application Center Test in Visual Studio 2003?
A: The load test features in Team Edition for Software Testers are a completely new product. The features provided far exceed those features provided by ACT.
Q; Can I use these tools to load test Apache/Java based Web applications?
A: Yes, but the tools provided are productivity features designed to ease testing of ASP.NET applications.
Q: Can I test Web services?
A: Yes, although there is no automatic recorder, Web services can be tested by building the SOAP payloads in the test editor.
Q: What is a Web test?
A: A Web test is a test that is used to verify functionality of a Web application. A Web test can be created by recording browser activity and contains a list of Web requests and various properties for each request such as "think time."
Q: What is a load test?
A: A load test is a test that is designed to put a server application under heavy user load to pinpoint performance and/or scalability problems. In Visual Studio, a load test can be based on a Unit Test or a Web Test.
Q: Can I use multiple load clients to generate load?
A: Yes. You can use multiple clients running simultaneously to create very heavy loads.
Q: Can I test ASP and ASP.NET applications?
A: Yes, You can easily test ASP and ASP.NET applications using Visual Studio 2005. There are features for the automatic handling of __VIEWSTATE that make ASP.NET testing easier.
Q: Can I create data driven tests?
A: Yes. Visual Studio 2005 Team System supports the ability to bind input fields and parameters to database files such as Access, SQL Server, or text files.
Q: What protocols are supported?
A: HTTP and HTTPS are supported through the recorder, editors, and test execution engine. Other protocols such as database and other RPC protocols are not directly supported; however, these protocols can be enabled through the extensibility APIs.
Q: Is SSL supported? What about NTLM and Passport?
A: Yes, all of these are supported.
Q: Can I convert my old ACT scripts?
A. There is no conversion utility for ACT scripts or scripts from third party test tool vendors.
Q: Knowing what to monitor during test execution is hard, can you help me?
A; Yes, we provide pre-defined sets of performance counters for common applications such as IIS, ASP.NET, SQL Server and .NET. These pre-defined counter sets can be easily added to a load test.
Q: What information do I receive while executing my tests?
A: During test execution, you receive real-time results that include system resource utilization, request statistics such as response time and content-length, error and overall summary statistics.
Vinay Jagtap
A hard core Technocrat with over a decade of extensive experience in heading complex test projects coupled with real time experience of project management and thought leadership. Extensive experience in Performance, Security and Automation Testing and development of automation frameworks and ability to setup and execute Global service centers and Center of Excellences for testing.
