Tricentis Tosca Reviews

For me there are three outstanding features:

The first one is the test case design feature. When using the feature in your project - I definitely recommend using it – it forces you to think about your test approach, and your overall test strategy. Using this feature you have to define valid and invalid states and conditions of your SUT from a business perspective (e.g. defining a valid age or a valid combination of two business properties). The tool helps you here by generating all necessary combinations automatically out of your prior definitions. You link them to a test case template and all the necessary combinations of your test cases are generated automatically. In most cases you need to adapt the generated test cases for the specific test case, but the fundamental work is done by the tool.

The second one is the simplicity of creating test cases and the underlying model based approach. The process of creating a test case is pretty straightforward. In case of a GUI application you “scan” the current screen of the SUT first. Afterwards all UI controls are displayed and you can choose the relevant one for your test. A representation of the screen – a module – is created and stored in a module folder. You can then simply drag and drop this module into your test case. In the test case, you select, for each UI control, an action e.g. “click” or a specific value. Afterwards, you can arrange the test cases in different execution lists, which are the representations of a test run from a business perspective (e.g. smoke test, regression test, etc.).

Overall, everything is reusable simply via drag and drop, and you will always have a single point of maintenance (e.g. in a future release of your SUT a button was added, you just need adapt the module. Linked test cases and execution lists are updated automatically).

The third one is the support of multiple UI technologies as well as non-UI technologies. In addition, there are (extra payable) features like mobile testing support and service virtualization capabilities.

The tool is meant to be an enterprise solution for automating software tests. The vendor has its own test philosophy and wants you to follow it. It tries to hide all technical information of the SUT and forces you to always look at your SUT from a business perspective.

The target audience are business domain experts and software testers without technical knowledge. This can be confusing for testers with a technical background who are used to scripting their way through the SUT.

Introducing the Tricentis Tosca Testsuite in a company goes ideally along with changing the whole business process of software test. I would say the company needs to adapt to the tool, and not the other way round, which is not always bad.

Though the tool claims to be an enterprise solution, it lacks some enterprise features. I would like to see a central management capability for admins, where you define initial workspaces, parametrize settings or update all clients centrally. Furthermore, the tool needs a real versioning functionality.

The out-of-the-box support for third party ALM tools must be improved. Embedding it in an existing application landscape often goes along with developing an adapter for third party components. In terms of extending the product from a technical viewpoint, the documentation for APIs is rare and incomplete. It definitely needs more code examples and a platform for developers.

The tool always gives the user one specific view where you create your test cases. This works perfectly for GUI applications, but not always for non-GUI applications. For instance, when defining test cases for web services, you have exactly the same layout as creating a test case for a Java application. Technology specific characteristics are somehow mapped into the existing view, which increases the complexity. Furthermore, the abstraction at non-GUI tests is not given as in GUI tests. You really need to have the technical understanding of web services or XML to create test cases, this runs counter to the target audience.

The test case design functionality is really complex, and tends to be rocket science, so this needs to be simplified. It goes along with the reporting functionality, when you want to create your own layout and customize the report. I didn’t really get it to work.

It would be nice to distribute test cases to different machines for parallel execution. Especially when it comes to mobile test or multi-browser test where the test case keeps the same but the underlying technical base changes.

I ‘ve been working with the Tricentis Tosca Testsuite for more than four years in the context of software test consultancy. I have a decent overview how the tool is used in different companies over several projects. I have gained experience in all functional areas of the tool. Furthermore, I have developed a lot of technical extensions to enhance the tools capabilities.

Overall I would rate the customer service as excellent. The support is available via email and phone 24/5 and is located in the headquarters of Tricentis. This means that the support staff is sitting next to the technical experts which, nowadays, is rare. You get a quick response that is often the solution for your problem. In case it is a more difficult inquiry, and is not solvable with first level support, you’ll be informed that your inquiry will be passed to an expert. Depending on the complexity, you can count on having a solution within one or two working days, which is pretty fair.

Furthermore the support team offers remote sessions, together with technical experts, to find a solution directly on your machine. The support is available in German and English.

On the downside, the community outside the Tosca support portal seems to be pretty small, or is nearly nonexistent. You hardly find solutions, or best practices, for a specific problem on the web. Other vendors have a more active community, and you can often simply Google a solution to the problem. In most cases with Tricentis, you need the support team or you have to contract on-site consultancy.

It depends on your environment and your company policy. Basically, you have three components: a license server, a database and the desktop application which needs to be installed on the same machine where the SUTis located. If you want to use the mobile and/or service virtualization feature you need additional components and preparations.

You will not find an official pricing list. You have to contact the local sales team.

The tool is a desktop application and comes with all advantages and disadvantages of a desktop application in terms of deployment and scalability.

There is a cloud version (TaaS), but this version is only suitable for manual tests and web tests. Web applications need to be publicly accessible within the cloud environment (so it is not suitable for internal testing environments). It would be a nice feature if the cloud version of Tricentis Tosca Testsuite is able to drive your locally installed application.

Do not buy this tool if you simply need a driver for your automation, as open source solutions (e.g. Selenium), or technology specific solutions are more suitable here. Also, if you are looking for a complete ALM solution, there are more capable tools out there. If you have a testing department full of techies, they will feel too restricted with the tool. It’s also not suitable for manual testing only, as there are better solutions for this purpose out there. But, if you have the plan to test multiple technologies, and your testing departments consists mainly of business domain experts or software tester with few technical background, and you are planning to introduce this tool as an enterprise solution and/or want to replace existing fragmented solutions, then it is worth evaluating it.

You definitely want to have a product training first prior to implementation, and you definitely want to have on-site consultancy while making your first steps with the tool. In most cases, you also need technical consultancy in cases the tool does not recognize UI controls.
Focus on a small prototype project first together with on-site consultancy. Take the learnings from that project, and do the next one on your own.

The company is a lot smaller than the top dogs, but they are compensating it with passion and a lot of new features in every release.

The features we've found most valuable are--

• It’s a modular structure, so changes in a module are automatically updated in all relevant test cases.
• It uses a risk-based approached via a weighted requirement set.

• Not all functions are logical without certain know-how.
• Context menu in the newer versions is not ideal.

I've used it for about one year.

During an upgrade there were issues, but this was due to certain security settings on our end, and the Tosca support team was very useful in helping us with those setting and resolving the issues.

We're discussing internally with fully integrate this tool within our business.

Customer Service:

10/10. The customer service is top-notch.

Technical Support:

10/10. The technical support is top-notch.

In our department there was not a different solution in place.

The initial setup was relatively straightforward with support from our network department for the setting up of a common repository.

We implemented it via our in-house team in combination with Tricentis consultants.

We also looked at Worksoft.

Try it out and do a Proof of Concept.

I think the most valuable features are:

• Scriptless testing
• Modules (object repository)
• Test data management
• It can be used by non-technical users, such as business analysts

The product helps us to create very accurate test cases. The goal was not to create plenty of test cases, but only those that cover the most critical parts of our applications.

Some areas have already been improved such as loops and conditions, but there is still one major issues. If you need to improve one of the Tosca engines, you have to develop it in the same language, such as C# and Java. So you need more technical experts to help you. QTP is more flexible on that point. Tosca must recognize more controls than it does currently.

I've used it for two years, and I spent only a few months in a project for a large insurance company.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

10/10 - it's one of the most efficient support teams I use.

Tosca was chosen by the customer before we started the project.

Everything was already done before we started the project.

It was done through a in-house team, but they worked very closely with the vendor.

You should be very careful if you have to customize Tosca because it could be very expensive, so take your time to evaluate it. Test it with many applications, many objects, and many controls.

We've found TBox to be valuable for scanning applications and automating test cases. In newest version, time of scanning the application has been reduced immensely. Also, there is a lot of ways to identify controls that doesn't have unique IDs, and that process is more stable than before.

TOSCA is quite organized by itself, so it helps us do our job more efficient and quicker.

The ability to create more complex TestCases with "If" and "While" loops (now it provides IF, DO and WHILE statements, but they can't really be implemented the way we are used to use those loops).

I've used the latest version for about three to four months, though TOSCA in general for more than a year-and-a-half.

N/A

Some issues with stability, but those are minor errors. Some errors happen without obvious reasons, or they're not obvious to me yet.

N/A

Customer Service:

N/A

Technical Support:

Generally, the support is good, but they give too many generic answers. Sometimes the problem is more direct and it requires deeper and longer thinking. That could be a bit improved.

Something in the middle. It's not really for somebody who is not passionate about testing. It's great for somebody who thinks about all the aspects of the TestCase.

Great tool for testing, but only when used by an educated tester or by somebody who's gone through the whole course and had at least a little bit of practice. It's worth it.

Testcase design is most valuable, as it has helped in 2 different aspects. Storing the test data in one place, and deciding how many test cases are needed for a given scenario using one of the inbuilt algorithms, thereby ensuring the test coverage.

We used the TCD (red folder to design the test flow), and it was easy to get the tests reviewed by the subject-matter experts as it allowed systematic review of Testcases. Once it was OKd by the SME, we could confidently run the tests for regression.

Most of us have had the complaint that loop statements are missing, without which testing in reality was difficult, as many times Test scenarios needed to be run in iteration and version 8.4 has included this feature.

When I did work with v7.4, I often noticed that the Tosca executor abruptly hung and only way out was to kill the process. But this has been drastically improved in the later versions.

I would rate 3/5 as there is not much knowledge base available on the internet for one to independently solve the issues encountered, which is easily available and in abundance for other tools like QTP.

We previously (for six years) used QTP, and the client chose to have only Tosca for test automation as the license costs were lower compared to the HP tools.

The initial set up was complex as we had always used keywords and integrated Excel, pdf and word documents for storing Test evidence, it was difficult to achieve the same standard of Test evidence with Tosca. Not having the flexibility to code was posing a problem in the initial days.

The tool was always installed by a dedicated team from the vendor as we had not had an opportunity to know in detail how the installation worked.

ROI has been pretty high, but only in comparison to the tools we had from HP earlier. However, maintenance costs, and not having Tosca experts available, are the factors that have adversely affected the ROI in some cases.

I would advise that, if one needs to install Tosca for test automation, always go for the latest version, as Tricentis is implemeting all the user feedbacks genuinely in their tools and it is evolving and has a great potential.

• Test cases design
• Model based test automation

From a services perspective, it allows us to scale up test automation teams very quickly, because test analysts can contribute to the test automation effort without the need for scripting/coding skills.

From our clients perspective (e.g. large banks, government organisations etc.), it has allowed them to decrease their total execution effort, improve their time to market, and increase their total risk coverage.

I've used it for three years.

Customer Service:

Customer service is very good. The online chat has extremely quick response times (average of 10s wait), and the staff are knowledgeable.

Technical Support:

Technical support, is very good. The online chat has extremely quick response times (average of 10s wait), and the staff are knowledgeable.

The Test Automation team at TTC use many other test automation tools/solutions, and have chosen Tosca as our preferred tool because of it's unique model based approach to test automation. We have found this approach to have many benefits including; ease of use, extendability, robustness, maintainability and scalability.

The initial set up and install for Tosca is very straightforward. The client install takes less than an hour, and the only other components required are a license server, and a database. If the right people are available (e.g. System Administrator and DataBase Administrator) then the full infrastructure can be set up on day one.

Generally we see our clients achieve positive ROI within one to three years. This is along with other non-financial benefits which can be achieved immediately e.g. decreased execution time.

We would always advise customers to have experts involved during a test automation implementation. Generally, we recommend conducting a POC to prove that the solution works technically for your systems, then we recommend a pilot project, to prove that the business benefits can be realized, and to provide experience about the product. Along with the POC and the pilot, a portfolio analysis should also be conducted to determine which test suites should be automated.

Expert consultants, like our test automation specialists, should conduct the POC and be heavily involved in the pilot. With an ongoing involvement during subsequent projects, and can also be brought in to supplement the team.

Try the Tosca Udemy course and download a trial to get a feel for Tosca as a product. Then, reach out to the local Tricentis Partner or the Tricentis Services Team for help with a POC and ongoing Tosca implementation. Ask for case studies and reference sites from any consultancy company when implementing any test automation tool. These case studies/references should ideally be local and tool specific. Expertise in other tools doesn't always translate to successful implementation in another.

• Complete or partial test automation
• Methodology for reducing the number of test cases needed along with high risk coverage
• Easy way to prioritize requirements
• Ease of test case maintenance
• It can be used by people with no previous programming knowledge
• Agile

Test case automation and ease of test case maintenance through Tosca has reduced the manpower needed for testing, reducing the time needed for testing, and has thus saved money. Management of projects also got a lot easier.

• They could improve scanning of the applications under test
• Useful tips could be improved
• Better and graeter number of examples in manuals
• Reduced cost of licenses

I've used it since March 2014.

Sometimes it is a bit slow when the project is too big and too complex. If there are custom controls being used, sometimes a scanning of the system under test lasts longer than it should.

Customer Service:

Medium to high. (always quick to response, but sometimes not that helpful).

Technical Support:

Medium to high. (always quick to response, but sometimes not that helpful).

We previously used HP Application Lifecycle Management for manual testing. We chose to switch to Tosca because of the test case automation and it offers easier management.

Initial setup is pretty much straightforward, but the licenses need to be managed separately the after setup.

We implement it through an in-house team.

ROI is high because of the market that is switching more and more to agile, automated testing, and our company also develops add-on for Tosca.

There are four types of licenses available, and you should use one that best suits your resources and preconditions. Because of expensive licenses, if your company is new to the market, do not start a business using Tosca if you expect slow growth - use cheaper solutions instead, and switch to Tosca once you are overwhelmed with projects and work.

The test automation function is independent of the technology used by the drag & drop functionality.

The project that I used this product on did not have a professional test management approach within the test activities they had for their IT systems. That's why they implemented automated testing with Tosca Testsuite, and the manual effort got reduced. At the same time, the replication of test processes was raised by up to 100%. This made the bug analysis for their software development much easier.

There's not much. The release cycles of the vendor are much faster than what companies can implement. Sometimes, out of the box functionalities are reduced to reduce the tools complexity, but then customers do miss some functionalities they had in the past.

I've used it for two years.

Not part of my job, but during the upgrade our IT departmend faced several issues in the installation process of the new version.

Similar issues within the execution of automated tests occurred, but they were solved within the configuration settings and/or with the help of the vendor.

No issues encountered.

Customer Service:

Best I have ever seen.

Technical Support:

Best I have ever seen.

Not as part of this project, but I used HP Quality Center as a test tool before. I found it much easier to learn as Tosca Testsuite has been devleoped for users with a very good and intuitive user interface.

The main installation was already done when I started. The setup of work areas, and multi-user workspaces is very easy and straightforward. Different options are described very well in the user manual.

Not sure, but I think the basic installation was done by a vendor team.

It's hard to calculate because there is no base available to compare with. However, test automation and management setup can be done very fast, and it has lower real costs when compared to doing a manual test execution for three or four times.

The department did an evaluation between HP Quality Center and TOSCA before my assignment started. The main reasons for choosing Tosca Testsuite was its easier usability as well as lower costs.

Check the efforts of your manual testing per application every year, and then decide on what, and how, to automate. Usually there should be an ROI at the latest, after using Tosca Testsuite for two years.