Test Cases
Test cases turn your requirements into evidence. Each one describes how to verify that a requirement is actually met — and can be linked back to the requirement and to the FMEA risk it covers, so you always know what's tested and what isn't.
Overview
Test Case Management in NirmIQ gives you everything you need to plan, track, and report verification — without the overhead of a separate test-management tool:
- Structured test design — Preconditions, Steps, and Expected Result as proper fields
- Engineer assignment — assign each test to a team member, filter by owner
- Tags — label tests (smoke, regression, nightly…) and filter by tag
- Status & results — record run results (passed / failed / blocked / skipped) and keep a run history
- Version history — every edit is snapshotted, so you can see how a test changed
- Traceability — link tests to requirements and FMEA failure modes
- AI generation — draft test cases from requirements and FMEA in one step
- Import / Export — bring tests in from CSV/Excel, export to CSV, Excel, or a PDF test report
Creating a Test Case
- Open your project and click Test Cases in the sidebar.
- Click New Test Case.
- Fill in the details (see Fields).
- Optionally link the test to one or more requirements / FMEA failure modes.
- Click Create.
The Test ID (e.g. TC-000001) is assigned automatically and is unique within the project — you don't type it.
Test Case Fields
Title (required) — a short, specific name, e.g. "Verify login with valid credentials".
Type (required) — unit, integration, system, acceptance, regression, performance, functional, control, safety, or diagnostic.
Priority — Low, Medium, High, or Critical.
Status — Not Run, In Progress, Passed, Failed, or Blocked. Recording a run (below) updates this for you.
Assignee — the engineer responsible for this test.
Tags — comma-separated labels (e.g. smoke, regression) for grouping and filtering.
Preconditions — the system state or setup required before running the test.
Steps — the actions to perform, one per line.
Expected Result — the observable outcome that means the test passes.
Filling in Steps and Expected Result as separate fields (instead of one big description) makes tests easier to execute, review, and hand off.
Linking to Requirements & FMEA
Open a test case's link action to connect it to:
- Requirements — establishes verification traceability (the requirement is now "verified by" this test).
- FMEA failure modes — shows which risks have test coverage.
Linked tests appear in the Traceability Graph and count toward coverage. You can also create and link a test directly while viewing a requirement.
Assigning & Tagging
- Pick an Assignee on the test case (or use the bulk action to assign several at once).
- Filter the list by Assignee (including Unassigned) to see who owns what.
- Add Tags, then filter by tag to focus on a suite (e.g. only
smoketests before a release).
Recording Test Runs
Click the run (▶) action on a test case to open its run panel:
- Choose a Result — passed, failed, blocked, or skipped.
- Optionally add Notes and a Build / environment label (e.g.
v1.2.3 / staging). - Click Record result.
The test case's status updates to match, and every run is kept in the History list (who ran it, when, the result, and notes) — so you have an audit trail of execution over time.
Version History
Every time you edit a test case, NirmIQ snapshots the previous version. Click the history action to see each version with what it looked like and who changed it. This gives you basic change tracking without any extra setup.
Working Efficiently
- Inline status — change a test's status straight from the table without opening it.
- Bulk actions — tick several tests, then set status, assign an owner, or delete in one go.
- Duplicate — copy an existing test as a starting point for a similar one.
- Search & filters — filter by status, type, assignee, or tag, and search across ID, title, and description.
AI Test Generation
Click AI Generate to draft test cases automatically:
- Select the requirements and/or FMEA failure modes you want covered.
- (Optional) Add context — paste acceptance criteria, a standard (e.g. IEC 62304), or domain notes to steer the AI. Leave Skip duplicates on to avoid proposing tests that match ones you already have.
- NirmIQ proposes test cases. Review and edit any of them (title, type, priority, steps) right on the screen, untick the ones you don't want, then create.
- Created tests are auto-linked to their source requirement or failure mode.
AI generation requires the Advanced plan or higher.
Import & Export
Import
Click Import and upload a .csv or .xlsx file. Recognized columns include title (required), description, type, status, priority, preconditions, steps, expected result, and tags. NirmIQ shows a preview first and flags any rows whose title already exists as duplicates, so you can review before anything is added.
Export
Click Export and choose:
- CSV or Excel — the full test-case data.
- PDF test report — a sign-off-ready summary with the pass/fail breakdown and a table of all tests.
Coverage & Status at a Glance
- The dashboard at the top of the Test Cases page shows Total / Passed / Failed / Not Run and an overall Pass Rate, plus a colored bar showing the status split.
- Use the Traceability view to spot requirements or failure modes that have no test coverage yet.
Tier Requirements
| Feature | Required Plan |
|---|---|
| Create & manage test cases | All plans |
| Assignment, tags, runs, version history | All plans |
| Import / Export | All plans |
| AI test generation | Advanced+ |
Troubleshooting
My imported rows were skipped
Rows are skipped when a test case with the same title already exists in the project. Rename the row's title (or remove the existing test) and import again.
I can't edit a test case in a sample project
Sample projects are read-only. Duplicate the sample into your own project to make changes.
The "Create work item" option is disabled
Work items are created from a requirement. Link the test case to a requirement first, then create the work item for that requirement.
What's Next?
- Traceability Graph — see requirements ↔ FMEA ↔ tests in one view
- Work Items — track implementation
- Analytics Dashboard — coverage and quality metrics