In many teams, testing starts in Excel — and that's completely normal. There's no setup required, everything is at hand, and for some time it feels sufficient. That's exactly how it was for one of my clients.
Over time, it became clear that Excel works well only up to a certain point.
How things were organized in Excel
- A separate file for test cases
- A separate file for test runs
- Sheets copied before each release
- Statuses updated manually
It worked fine when there was only one QA engineer. Once the team grew, it became harder to manage.
Files were duplicated, test cases multiplied, and over time it became difficult to identify the current version. Analytics were also manual — every metric required filters, formulas, and checks.
At some point, it became obvious that time is the most valuable resource. That's when we got in touch.
I suggested migrating to our test management system — it's simple, and I expected the team to adapt to it quickly.
The migration
The migration turned out to be straightforward:
- Exported test cases from Excel
- Converted them into JSON
- Imported them into the system
- Walked the team through how to use it
With onboarding, the whole process took a couple of hours.
What the team has now
- A structured repository with clear hierarchy
- Test runs created in a few minutes
- Basic test run statistics available in the system
What about you? What do you use to manage test cases and test runs?