Test Run

For the past two years I have been Test Run has been hosted under what might have seemed like a perpetual beta. Over the course of those two years, bugs were fixed here and there, but by and large no major enhancements were made. This left customers wondering:

What is going on with Test Run? And has this product completely stalled out?

A completely fair question under the circumstances. You see, Test Run was started as a side project of mine and, and to be perfectly candid, tended to play second fiddle to my day job. Loyal customers have always understood this, and for that, I will be eternally grateful.

But my loyal customers, and indeed all of my customers deserve much, much more from an application that they depend on. So I have rededicated myself to this labor of love to bring an added level of quality, performance and feature enhancement to the platform.

For the past four weeks I have been working tirelessly on improving Test Run and here are just some of the enhancements I have made:

• Performance Boost - As a modern web application Test Run relies upon javascript for a great deal of its functionality, therefore I have re-written and optimized all of Test Run's javascript to be slimmer, less error prone, and best of all faster. Navigation is snappier, dialogs open and close more smoothly, AJAX is faster, all Javascript is more lean and faster than ever before.

• Bug Drivers - Customers have been asking for Jira support for as long as I can remember and I am happy to report that Jira support is finally coming. Now when a test case fails you will be able to create a bug in Jira from directly within Test Run. This initial implementation may have some limitations with regards to reporting, but with customer feedback I hope to resolve those issues quickly.

• Style Enhancements - All dialogs are now rendered in native Javascript and share a consistent styling, and every form in the application has been redesigned with a consistent styling in order to provide the polish Test Run customers deserve.

• Improved Support - Sometimes, God forbid, Test Run customers have questions, and when they do, they should have the best experience possible in asking them, and having them answered. Therefore I have ditched the janky support application I have been using in favor of the best-in-class Tender App support system. Now users will have access to a world class knowledge base and ticketing system so that in the event that things go wrong, customers have the most favorable experience possible under the circumstances.

• Enhanced Registration - New users will have live and inline form validation during registration to create a smooth pathway into a the free trial period.

• Better Browser Support - While redesigning the forms and porting the entire application to jQuery we paid special attention to ensure consistent styling among all popular browsers, including the most recent versions of Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

• New Pricing Option for Small Teams - Many customers have asked for a less expensive subscription offering for small teams, a request I am happy to oblige. When Test Run 1.2 is officially released, there will be three options available to customers:

  • Free 15-day trial
  • Small Team Subscription, limiting accounts to three users for just $20 per month.
  • Large Team Subscription, with unlimited users for just $50 per month.

We love all of these new enhancements and features and look forward to a steady stream of improvements to come!

Skip to the Chase: When?

Test Run 1.2 is currently in the final stages of development, which we expect to take two to three more weeks. Once complete, customers will be invited to participate in a free and final beta testing period for several weeks. Then, Test Run will officially come out of its two year beta - a milestone I am anxiously looking forward to!