What is the difference between Zephyr and Bamboo?

[Neil]

Our team is just getting going with QA. I know Zephyr is for Test Management and Bamboo is for Continous integration, but not sure what is the real difference.

I feel like Bamboo does a lot more with builds and also has some test case management features, it just is not known for managing test cases. Is that an accurate statement?

Or am I missing it all together and they do completely different things and have no overlapping features?

Does it make sense to have both or would they conflict with each other?

Any input/experiences would be helpful.

Thanks,

Neil

[EddieW · Accepted solution]

I think you have things right Neil.

Bamboo is for continuous integration, which has a few aspects (beyond the tooling choice). It is honestly more of a cultur change then tooling selection.

• All developers check-in code to an integrated "stream" frequently. THis stream is typically trunk, head, or master depending on your SCM choice.
• Every code commit results in an AUTOMATED clean checkout, compile, and testing cycle. For java projects this "commit" stage is typically unit testing, though some teams may include integration or system tests.
• An artifact that had been tested is tagged in SCM, and pushed to some manner of guarded artifact repository. This ensures any artifacts in that repository have undergone said testing.
• A subsequent stage typically involves more integrated testing where the artifact has been deployed to a "real" environment (qa,test, etc) This may include manual user acceptance tests, automated integration/regression testing, or the use of a tool like Zephyr, HP ALM, Performance Center, etc.
• Bamboo can be used to both deploy to these environments, and call tools like Zephyr, or just email your QA folks.

Continusou Integration is not to be confused for Continuous Delivery, though is required to get there.

tl;dr - No, they are not the same, yes I could certainly see the case for using both, ideally allowing Bamboo to trigger some level of automated Zephyr test suites in a QA-like environment once it passes the developers "commit level" unit and IT tests that happen on every code commit.

[tuczap]

Sorry for refreshing such old thread but can someone please let me know if I get it right:

• Bamboo is mainly for CI where you can define automate testing that is ran every time a developer commits his/her code. This tool is more for automating tasks (not only tests) that are performed to make sure that every line of code is compliant with QA policy
• Zephyr is a tool that helps to automate testing for testers and it is able to automate any testing scenario that has to be run after code is commited by a developer. Tests created in Zephyr should be performed after application is built.