Products


 

Testing in the Applause platform is organized by test cycles. A test cycle is focused on an individual build of a product. Given this, your first step in setting up testing in the platform is to create entries for the products you want to test.

 

How to View Your Products

To view your product list log in to the Applause platform and navigate to Products. The Products page will be displayed. The table shows an overview of already-set products. Let’s take a look at some of the columns and features that might need some clarification:

You can view basic information on the product in the Product Setup -> Settings page.

To view all the activity on a product, click on the name of the relevant product and from the left navigation menu click Activity.

 

How to Create a New Product

  1. Open the Products list from the product picker on the left navigation bar, and then click “Add Product”.
  2. The new product wizard will open consisting of three simple steps: Basic, Integrations and Components.

 

Basic

Provide some initial details to set up the product in the platform.

Product Name

Set a name that is specific enough to avoid confusion later.

Product Description

Enter an optional description about the product.

Primary Product Environment

Select the main environment you will be using to test the product.

Additional Product Environment

After selecting the Primary Product Environment, the Additional Product Environment field will appear. Select additional environments you will be using along with the primary environment if there are any. For example, you might use Desktop, Mobile and Tablet as the primary environment, and Smart TV as the additional environment.

Audience and Industry

Select an appropriate Audience and Industry for the product.

Access to Product

The Product will be visible to all of your company’s users by default. In order to limit access to the product, select a different team. We already discussed this in the User Management course.

Product Versioning

Define the format in which your development team manages the product’s versions. You can set up to five levels and set the separators between them. Proper versioning will help you to measure and manage quality improvements over time. Whenever a new build is created in the Applause platform, it will require you to name the build according to this format.

Note: If your development team does not “number” their builds, you may want to consider setting the format as “YYYY / MM / DD” to represent the testing date in a sortable manner.

Development Stages

Define the stages in your product development life cycle where you may be utilizing Applause for testing. For each Development Stage, select the appropriate values for:

Once set, every time testing will be initiated for the product, you’ll be asked to select the Development Stage. Such contextual information allows us to better understand the severity and value of the issues, learn your patterns for fixing found issues and to tell you how your product is doing compared to other products.

Once done, click “Next” to continue.

 

Integrations

In the Integrations section, you can assign already-set integrations between the Applause platform and your Bug Tracking System (BTS) as well as Test Case Management (TCM) systems. We will learn about how to integrate with Bug Tracking Systems later.

The integration will allow you to streamline your process with Applause by exporting the issues found during testing to your BTS, and syncing changes made to those issues in your BTS. Learn more about how to integrate with Bug Tracking Systems here.

To complete the Integrations step, select all integration connectors already set under your company that would be used by the product. If multiple connectors are selected, define one of them as default. The default connector will be used for automatic export (after bug approval), and will be pre-selected for the users doing the export.

Once done, click Next to continue.

Screenshot showing New Product - Integrations page

 

Components

Components is a feature in the Applause platform that allows you to set a custom list of different product components that testers can then select when they submit bugs. Components will help you identify the portions of your application that are giving testers the most trouble and require extra attention from developers.

How to Set Components for Your Product

  1. Click the “Add an App Component +” button.
  2. Click “Finish” when you have completed your entries.
Examples of Components

Add the components that correspond to an area of your application, such as:

Screenshot showing New Product - Components page

Components in Test Cycles

When setting up a test cycle, app components can be listed as focus areas in the cycle scope. This helps testers to concentrate their testing efforts on the appropriate areas of your application.

Components and Bugs

When submitting a bug, testers will select the most appropriate app component. For example, if they encounter a crash when attempting to checkout, they would select the “Checkout” component. The component associated with each bug is visible in issues.

 

How to Edit a Product

Once your product is set up, you may edit it to apply updates. You can do this from the Products page or from the Product Details page itself.

How to Edit a Product from the Products Page

  1. While on the Product list page, locate the product you want to edit.
  2. Click the Actions dropdown menu and select “Edit”.

How to Edit a Product from the Product Details Page

  1. Select a product from the products list.
  2. From the left navigation bar open Product Setup -> Settings.
  3. Click the Pencil icon in the top right corner.