Test Management –Test Planning

Test Plan is for us a test plan is the project plan for the testing work to
be done.
What is planning for Test activities?
Deciding answers for,
 What to test?
Is it the bottle or is it the liquid inside the bottle that is to be
tested
 How to test?
Which test type? Which technique? What levels of testing? How
many cycles?
 When to test?
Dates / Schedules / Timelines etc
 Who to test?
Mr. X / Miss Y etc

Test
Plan Test
v1.0 Plan Test
v2.0 Plan
v3.0

Test plan can also be a multiple level document

 IEEE 829 STANDARD TEST PLAN TEMPLATE
1. Test plan identifier:
2. Introduction
3. Test items
4. Features to be tested
5. Features not to be tested
6. Approach :Test Types, Techniques, levels, cycles
7. Item pass/fail criteria :
8. Suspension and resumption criteria
9. Test deliverables
10. Test tasks:-
11. Environmental needs:-
12. Responsibilities
13. Staffing and training needs
14. Schedule
15. Risks and contingencies
16. Approvals

Different test approaches

Approach : Test Types, Techniques, levels, cycles

1. If answers to the above questions are defined based on the

analysis of Requirements / Risks, such an approach is called
Analytical approach
2. Statistical information / Usage profile / Reliability growth
models define answers to the questions then such an
approach is called Model based approach. Ex – Stocastic
Testing
3. Based on systematic coverage of a list of items, such as
error guessing list, failure list, fault list a Methodical
approach is defined. Ex – Error Guessing
4. As per the Life cycle process the answers are defined then
such an approach is called as Process Compliant approach.
Ex – Agile
5. If the answers to the questions are defined in accordance
with regulatory standards then such an approach is called as
Standard Compliant approach
6. If answers are defined in consultation with experts such an
approach is called as Consultative approach
7. Exploratory testing is referring to Dynamic or Heuristic
approach (Reactive approach)
8. Regression averse approach involves automating existing
test assets and executing such automation suites for every
change. Relevant for Maintenance testing
Test Estimation - Is a process of determining the time required to
accomplish a task.
2 approaches are recognized by the syllabus.
1. Metrics based approach
2. Expert based approach (Wide Band Delphi approach)
Factors that affect the level of effort required
 Size & Quality of the test basis
 The amount of non-functional
requirements
 The security requirements
 How much documentation is required
 Complexity
 Skills of those involved in Testing and
Development
 Use of tools

 What is test independence or independent testing?

Testing by someone other than the creator is Independent
testing
 Why?
Creator / author may not be able to identify defects in his
own work
 Test Independence Levels
 Benefits of Independent Testing
- Independent Testers are unbiased
 - Independent Tester sees other and more defects than the
author
- Independent testers can verify the assumptions made by
author

 Drawbacks of Independent Testing

- Isolation from the development team
- Independent testers may be the bottleneck
- Developers may lose sense of responsibility to quality
Test leader tasks
- Plan the tests:
- Based on the risks, context & objective
- select test approach;
- estimate time, effort and cost;
- define test levels, test techniques, test cycles;
- define criteria for entry, exit, suspension & resumption
- select suitable metrics for test progress monitoring
- select suitable test environment
- select suitable configuration management
- select suitable incident management
- Initiate and monitor
o Test Analysis and design
o Implementation and execution
- Monitor test activities and act to control if necessary
- Contribute the testing perspective to other activities –
Integration planning
- Monitor test results and check for exit criteria
- Decide what should be automated and to what degree
- Select tools to support testing
 - Write test summary reports
- Write or review test strategy for the project and test
policy for the organization
- Coordinate test strategy and test plan with project
managers and others

Tester tasks
- Analyze and review requirements for testability
- Create test specifications
o Test condition specifications
o Test case specification
o Test procedure specification
- Setup test environment
- Prepare / Acquire test data
- Execute tests and record results
- Evaluate the results and document deviations from
expected result
- Prepare test metrics and report
- Automate tests
- Review tests developed by others
- Review and contribute to test plans

Test Management –Configuration Management (CM)

Configuration items; (identify what needs to be tracked for change and what
needs to be shared)
Data and documentation (development and testing), Test Object, Test
scripts, third-party Software, and Test environment.
Configuration Management????
Establish, Maintain integrity & traceability of Configuration items
Benefits of Configuration Management
1. version control
2. centralized access
3. privileged access
4. traceability

IEEE 829 STANDARD: TEST ITEM TRANSMITTAL REPORT

TEMPLATE

1. Transmittal report identifier

2. Transmitted items
3. Location
4. Status
5. Approvals

TEST PROGRESS MONITORING AND CONTROL

1. Recall common metrics used for monitoring test preparation and
execution. (K l)

2. Understand and interpret test metrics for test reporting and test
control (e.g., defects found and fixed and tests passed and failed).
(K2)

3. Summarize the purpose and content of the test summary report

document according to [IEEE 829]. (K2)

Test Monitoring
Test monitoring can serve various purposes during the project,
including the following:

i. Give the test team / test manager feedback on

how the testing work is going, allowing
opportunities to guide and improve the testing
and the project.
 ii. Provide the project team with visibility about the
test results.

iii. Measure the status of the testing, test coverage

and test items against the exit criteria to
determine whether the test work is done.

iv. Gather data for use in estimating future test

efforts.

Monitoring test progress through collection of metrics such as,

- % of work done in test case preparation
- % of work done in test environment preparation
- No of test cases run / yet to run,
- No of test cases passed / failed
- Defect density (eg: no. of defects per 1000 lines of code)
- Defect arrival rate (defects found for each day of test
execution)
- Test coverage of requirements, risks or code