In the left part of the figure, those components are shown that are particularly often used in major projects for test management. At first, all requirements that are to be tested are captured and assigned to a test plan.

A test plan is used to define which test cases are needed for testing a requirement.  The rest cases are then executed by calling a script. The results from the test case execution (passed or failed) are then reported back to the test plan. In case of a deviation between calculated and expected results, an entry is created in the defect manager containing details allowing business analysts and developers to determine the root cause of the failure and to fix it.

The right part of the figure shows the most important but also most difficult part of the test cycle - the actual test execution. At this place, the question is answered whether the calculated results are consistent with expected results and if a migration has been performed successful or not.

Test management and test implementation perform different tasks. The two market leaders for the components on the left side are the HP Quality Center and the IBM Rational Quality Manager. Both only offer basic support for test execution.

RapidRep sets standards in test execution and can be seamlessly integrated into the entire testing process.