Azure Test Plans

Visit Website

Introduction

Azure Test Plans is the test management part of Azure DevOps. It supports planned manual testing, user acceptance testing, and exploratory testing, and links test plans and results to work items, builds and pipelines for end-to-end traceability.

Testers create test plans and suites (static, requirement-based or query-based), write test cases with steps and shared parameters, and run them in the web-based Test Runner, recording outcomes, screenshots and bugs. The Test & Feedback browser extension supports exploratory testing and stakeholder feedback. Automated test results from Azure Pipelines appear alongside manual results, and progress reports and charts show readiness.

Access comes through the Basic + Test Plans access level. Microsoft’s pricing page lists it at $52 per user per month with a 30-day free trial, and shows that exploratory testing is available to Stakeholder and Basic users while creating and managing test plans needs Basic + Test Plans.

In the quality loop it supports release gates for teams standardised on Azure DevOps.

Features

1. Test plans and suites: Static, requirement-based and query-based.
2. Test Runner: Web-based manual execution.
3. Exploratory testing: Test & Feedback extension.
4. Traceability: Links to work items and builds.
5. Pipeline results: Automated results alongside manual ones.

Pros

1. Integrated with Azure DevOps: Boards, Repos and Pipelines together.

Cons

1. Expensive per user: $52 per user per month.
2. Azure DevOps lock-in: Best only within that ecosystem.

Usage and Links (Example)

1. Assign Basic + Test Plans access to testers.
2. Create a test plan with a requirement-based suite.
3. Run tests in Test Runner and file bugs from failed steps.

Resources:

• Azure Test Plans website

Pricing

Basic + Test Plans: $52 per user/month with a 30-day free trial. See site.

Recommended for?

1. Teams using Azure DevOps.
2. Not a fit for GitHub- or Jira-centred teams.

Conclusion

Azure Test Plans is the natural choice for test management inside Azure DevOps, at a premium price.

On CheckOps, Azure Test Plans is filed under the Release & CI gates stage. Related tools listed here include Xray, Zephyr, TestRail, SpiraTest, Testmo and BrowserStack Test Management. Before choosing, compare them on licence, supported languages and platforms, hosting model, and how well each fits your existing CI pipeline. Facts on this page were checked against the official website, documentation and repository on 11 November 2026; statements the vendor makes about its own product are marked as vendor claims.