The test scripts are created in MS Excel and saved as XML. Then a provided tool is used by Mates administrator to merge a selected subset of tests into a single XML file, which is uploaded into Mates. Mates parses the file, extracts the included test scripts and creates corresponding records in its database.
The testers then login into Mates and fill in the test scripts during the testing. When finished, the testers mark the scripts as passed or failed.
The testers can also raise issues encountered during testing. The issues reported by testers are consolidated and confirmed by Mates administrator. All the confirmed issues are then resolved by the programmers. Finally, the resolved issues are subject to re-test by the administrator to verify that they were fixed.
In any moment, anyone can review the current, up-to-the-second status of the testing – numbers of test scripts that are passed, failed, or being worked on, number of issues that are reported, confirmed, or resolved, etc.
Mates also implements issue discussion, support request management, a standard, role-based user access system, and logging of user actions including scheduled purge of old log entries.