MS Test Manager– Registering why a test is blocked

1 minute read

This week I was at a client and I have been asked if it is possible to register the reason why a test is blocked.

With test manager you can specifically mark a test as blocked. To mark you can’t test it for some reason (typically an external dependency that needs to be resolved. In Scrum wording an impediment. For example you need some special hardware for the testing and it’s not available or a server broke and it is being repaired (which normally signals you aren’t using Lab ManagementSmile )).

Below you can see one of the ways to mark a test as blocked.

My initial reaction was to say no and even dare to add  I was 99% sure. (famous last words).

The 1% has bothering me so I had to clear this one out to be 100% sure. While driving back I had an epiphany that it was Indeed possible and I was 100% wrong.Smile

Evidently I fall into the “since it’s not obvious it isn’t possible trap”.

But how can we do it?

After we mark a test has blocked, it will be clearly marked as so in the interface (the result for the last execution of the test)

The fact that the test was blocked also results in auto generation of a test result with a blocked result.  If we examine the test result we can see it is blocked (assuming you haven’t executed the test again), something that you can also see in the history of the test results:

If you want to register why a test has been blocked you can easily access the result and register a note on the blocked test result why the test is blocked.

The note will be visible on the test results history (screenshot below)

That is it. with a few quick steps we can have we can leave a trail as to why a test has been blocked.