I want Suggestions on Power BI & Test Management Integration

Practi-Talk Integrations
1

Hey All,

I am working with a team where we rely heavily on PractiTest for test management & reporting but we are also trying to connect it more effectively with other tools for deeper insights One tool that keeps coming up in discussions is Microsoft Power BI. I know it is quite powerful when it comes to visualizations and dashboards but I am not entirely sure what the best way would be to integrate it smoothly with PractiTest.

Has anyone here tried setting up dashboards or custom reports using both PractiTest & Power BI together. I want to hear about any challenges you faced & how you solved them Also if there are practices or approaches that worked well for you please share them It. if someone could point me towards resources or even experiences with Power BI Training since I think that could help fill some gaps for me. Also i have see this Test Automation With PractiTest Test Management Tool witch is good still need advice.

Thank you.:slight_smile:

2

Hi Valentina :waving_hand:

In short, there are several ways to integrate smoothly with PractiTest, and the question is what information you want to show in Power BI,

  • Is it information that can be presented in PractiTest Dashboards? If yes, use iFrame (Embed dashboard item)

  • Is it information that can be created in PT Reporting center? If yes, schedule the report with the required fields and use Power BI importer.

  • None of the above? Use PractiTest REST API to create a live integration.

The last option is the most flexible and robust but requires some coding knowledge and a bit more work to create and maintain.

3

Some steps and tips to build the API integration :light_bulb:

  1. Get your PractiTest API token - use either a Personal Token (per-user) or Account Token

  2. Identify the API Endpoints- refer to our full API documentation: https://www.practitest.com/api-v2/

  3. Use Power BI’s Web data source - enter the PractiTest API endpoint URL and add headers

  4. Handle pagination- there’s 100 per page limit, so you’ll need to write a function to loop through all pages and merge the data.

  5. Pay attention to API rate limit, too. You can implement a retry mechanism to retry sending requests if you get an error. The recommended method is as follows: if you get an error, retry in 1 sec, second error—2 sec, third—4 sec, and so forth. Once the call is successful, reset the retry count.

  6. Build your model in Power BI- combine tests, runs, requirements, issues via Power BI relationships. Add filters by system and custom fields (see API doc)

  7. (Optional) Schedule automatic refresh via Power BI Service.