Test Plan
What is a Test Plan?
Test planning, the most important activity to ensure that there is initially a list of tasks and milestones in a baseline plan to track the progress of the project. It also defines the size of the test effort.
It is the main document often called as master test plan or a project test plan and usually developed during the early phase of the project.
Test Plan Identifiers:
| S.No. | Parameter | Description |
|---|
| 1. | Test plan identifier | Unique identifying reference. |
| 2. | Introduction | A brief introduction about the project and to the document. |
| 3. | Test items | A test item is a software item that is the application under test. |
| 4. | Features to be tested | A feature that needs to tested on the testware. |
| 5. | Features not to be tested | Identify the features and the reasons for not including as part of testing. |
| 6. | Approach | Details about the overall approach to testing. |
| 7. | Item pass/fail criteria | Documented whether a software item has passed or failed its test. |
| 8. | Test deliverables | The deliverables that are delivered as part of the testing process,such as test plans, test specifications and test summary reports. |
| 9. | Testing tasks | All tasks for planning and executing the testing. |
| 10. | Environmental needs | Defining the environmental requirements such as hardware, software, OS, network configurations, tools required. |
| 11. | Responsibilities | Lists the roles and responsibilities of the team members. |
| 12. | Staffing and training needs | Captures the actual staffing requirements and any specific skills and training requirements. |
| 13. | Schedule | States the important project delivery dates and key milestones. |
| 14. | Risks and Mitigation | High-level project risks and assumptions and a mitigating plan for each identified risk. |
| 15. | Approvals | Captures all approvers of the document, their titles and the sign off date. |
Test Planning Activities:
To determine the scope and the risks that need to be tested and that are NOT to be tested.
Documenting Test Strategy.
Making sure that the testing activities have been included.
Deciding Entry and Exit criteria.
Evaluating the test estimate.
Planning when and how to test and deciding how the test results will be evaluated, and defining test exit criterion.
The Test artefacts delivered as part of test execution.
Defining the management information, including the metrics required and defect resolution and risk issues.
Ensuring that the test documentation generates repeatable test assets.
