Managing Test Suites

Create, review, update, clone, and safely delete test suites; manage suite membership, folders, labels, platforms, and prerequisites.

Who is this for? Testers and SDETs who organize reusable test cases into feature, smoke, or regression collections before assigning them to a test plan.

A test suite is a reusable collection of test cases. Suites organize coverage; test plans assign suites to browsers or devices and provide the executable configuration.

Before you begin

• Open Plans → Test Suites in the left navigation.
• Create test cases first if you want to populate the suite immediately. You can also create an empty suite and add cases later.
• Decide whether the suite targets Web App, Mobile, or API tests. The selected platform controls which compatible cases can be added.

Find and review suites

The Test Suites page supports List and Modular views. Search by suite ID, title, or label, or use Filter to narrow the list. Each row shows the suite ID, name, platform, case count, latest result, dates, folder, and a More actions menu.

Click a suite to open its detail page. The header shows its ID, case count, platform, folder, and latest result. Use these tabs:

Tab	Use
Test Cases	Review and change the cases in the suite.
Used in Test Plans	See which plans currently reference the suite.
History	Review changes to the suite.
Settings	Update the suite name, prerequisites, folder, platform, labels, and description.

Create a test suite

1. On the Test Suites page, click Create Test Suite.
2. Complete Suite Basics:

   • Suite Name (required): use a short name that communicates the feature and purpose.
   • Folder / Location: leave the suite unorganized or place it in an existing folder.
   • Prerequisites (optional): select prerequisite test cases that must complete before the suite.
   • Labels (optional): add searchable classification such as smoke, checkout, or release-gate.
   • Select Target Platform: choose Web App, Mobile, or API.
   • Description: explain the coverage, owner, and intended trigger.
3. Choose one of the following:

   • Add Test Cases to continue to the case-selection step.
   • Skip & create empty to save the suite now and populate it later.
4. If adding cases, search or filter the compatible cases, select them, and finish creating the suite.

After ContextQA creates the suite, it opens the new suite's detail page so you can immediately review its cases, relationships, history, and settings.

Example

Field	Example value
Suite name	Checkout smoke
Folder	Commerce / Checkout
Label	smoke
Platform	Web App
Description	Critical checkout coverage for pull-request validation. Owner: QA Platform.

The example below shows the same fields on an existing suite's Settings tab.

Test Suite Settings for a checkout smoke suite

Add or remove test cases

1. Open the suite and stay on Test Cases.
2. Click Manage Test Cases.
3. Use List or Modular view, then search by test case ID or name. The All, Added, and Not Added tabs make the current membership explicit.
4. Select cases to add, or clear selected cases that should be removed.
5. Review the to add and to remove totals in the footer.
6. Click Apply changes.

Changing suite membership does not delete a test case from the workspace library. The case can remain in other suites.

Before removing a case, check Used in Test Plans and consider the effect on plan coverage and case totals.

Update a suite

1. Open the suite.
2. Select Settings.
3. Change the name, prerequisite cases, folder, target platform, labels, or description.
4. Click Save Changes.

Use the Used in Test Plans tab after changing the platform or membership to confirm that every consuming plan still has the intended coverage.

Move suites into a folder

Folders give the Test Suites page a hierarchy. You can place a suite in a folder when you create it, from its Settings tab, or by moving one or more suites together from the selection action bar.

1. On the Test Suites page, select the checkbox next to each suite you want to move. A selection action bar appears and shows the number of selected suites.
2. Click Move to Folder.
3. In the move dialog, select the destination folder. To leave the suites unorganized, select the root location.
4. Confirm the move. ContextQA moves the selected suites, reports how many moved, and refreshes the list.

To deselect every suite without moving anything, click Clear selection (the X icon) in the selection action bar.

The selection action bar also provides Delete for the selected suites and Edit when exactly one suite is selected.

Clone a suite

Cloning is useful when a new suite should start with the same membership as an existing one.

1. On the Test Suites page, open the suite's More actions menu.
2. Select Clone suite.
3. Give the clone a distinct name, review its configuration and membership, and save it.
4. Update any test plans that should use the clone.

Delete a suite

1. Open the suite's More actions menu and select Delete suite, or open the suite's Settings tab and use the delete action.
2. Review the confirmation carefully. ContextQA warns that the suite and its associated run reports will be permanently removed.
3. Type delete to enable Yes, Delete.
4. Click Yes, Delete only after confirming that no active plan depends on the suite.

Deleting a suite cannot be undone. Test cases remain in the test case library, but the suite and its associated run reports do not.

Practical organization patterns

Pattern	Example	Use
[Feature] smoke	Checkout smoke	Small, release-blocking coverage.
[Feature] regression	Checkout regression	Broad coverage for scheduled or release runs.
[API resource] contract	Orders API contract	API coverage grouped by resource.
[Platform] [feature]	iOS onboarding	Mobile coverage with an explicit platform.

Use folders for hierarchy and labels for cross-cutting concerns. For example, put suites in Commerce / Checkout, then use smoke and regression labels to distinguish execution scope.

Troubleshooting

A case is missing from Manage Test Cases

Confirm that the suite platform matches the test case type, clear filters, and search by the test case ID.

Apply changes is disabled

The button becomes active only after at least one membership change. Select a case to add or remove.

The suite appears in a plan with zero cases

Open the suite, select Manage Test Cases, and add cases. An empty suite can be assigned to a plan but contributes no executable cases.

A suite is difficult to find

Use a distinct name, move it to the appropriate folder, and add labels that match how the team searches for coverage.

MCP automation

Use get_test_suites to discover suite IDs and create_test_suite to create a suite from test case IDs. Suite execution happens through a test plan. The current MCP suite/plan tools do not expose suite update or delete operations; use the portal for those actions.

See Test Suites & Plans Tools for parameters and examples.

Related pages

• Creating Test Cases
• Test Plans
• Running Tests
• Scheduling Tests

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