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 Waterfall | V-Model | Agile | Hybrid
Zephyr as applied to Agile
The Agile approach to software development has the following salient aspects to it:
  • It boasts an adaptive, fast process
  • Consists of multiple iterations (1-4 weeks) with each iteration being a software project in itself, producing fully functional software components
  • Continuous communication, re-usability and a final release

For its part, the Testing function almost needs to be recast as testing cycles are now compressed into shorter iterations and traditional processes are not applicable anymore. Using Zephyr as a Test Management Tool in such an environment is very beneficial and the following diagram shows the correlation between the various stages and the appropriate applications within Zephyr.


Zephyr is contextual based on the organization of projects and the iterations that it contains. A loose process can be applied and all test cases, documents, schedules, execution, reports, metrics and dashboards are kept contextual to a particular iteration as part of a larger release and accessed appropriately.

How Zephyr integrates with this process

For departments employing Agile, Zephyr is set up to have multiple iterations within each release. Stories are set up in each Iteration via the Repository Setup and any additional documentation if available is uploaded or linked via the Documents application. The ability to write quick mini test cases within Testcase Creation, copy/move/link throughout the iteration and leverage previous iterations makes it very convenient to work in a mode where there isn't much time to write detailed testcases.

Execution Scheduling and Testcase Execution are applications that may or may not be used based on the length of each iteration and whether test execution is structured or ad-hoc/exploratory. Defect Tracking can be employed more as a place to track open issues/defects that are falling out of the immediate find-fix cycle.

The Collaboration application is leveraged very heavily in this model as it ties all the testers together making information sharing and instant communication very easy

Major Advantages of Zephyr in Agile:

1. All testing easily organized by Iterations and tracked
2. Ability to maintain flexibility in the testing process
3. Ability to handle multiple iterations at once (i.e. bleed over into next one)
4. Leverage constant collaboration and communication within team