Test Planning After finalization of possible tests to be applied for corresponding project, test lead category people concentrate on test plan document preparation to define work allocation in terms of “ what to test?”, “Who to test ?”, “when to test ?”, and “How to test ?”. 1.Team Formation: In general, test planning starts with testing team formation. To define a testing team, test plan author depends on below factors. i.Availability of testers ii.Test duration iii.Availability of test environment Resources Test Duration: -Client / Server or Web or ERP- 3 to 5 months functional & system testing -System S/W-7 to 9 months functional & system testing -Machine critical- 12 to 15 months functional & system testing -Team Size -3 : 1 (developers: Testers)
2.Identify Tactical Risks:
After completion testing team formation, test plan author analyses possible risks and mitigations. Example: Risk 1 :Lack of knowledge of test engineers on that domain. Risk 2 :Lack of resources Risk 3 :Lack of budget ( Time ) Risk 4 :Lack of test data ( Some times test engineers are conduction Adhoc testing depends on past experiences) Risk 5 :Lack of development process rigor (Seriousness) Risk 6 :Delaysin delivery Risk 7 :Lack of communication ( In between Testing team & Test lead / developers / testing team) 3.Prepare test Plan : After completion oftesting team formation and risks analysis, test plan author concentrates on test plan documentation in “IEEE” format. Format: 1.Test plan ID: Unique Number / Name 2.Introduction: About Project 3.Test Items: Modules / Functions / Services / Features 4.Features to be Tested:Responsible modules for test design. 5.Features not to be tested: Whish ones and why not. Note: 3-5 What to test? 6.Approach: List of selected techniques to be applied on above specified modules 7.Feature pass/fail criteria: when a feature is pass and when a feature is fail. 8.Suspension Criteria: Possible abnormal situations raised during above features testing. 9.Test Environment:Require hardware& software to conduct testing on above features. 10.Test deliverables:Required testing documents to de prepared during testing. 11.Test Tasks: Necessary tasks to do before start every feature testing. Note: 6 –11 How to test ? 12.Staff & Training Need: Names of selected test engineers and training requirements to them. 13.Responsibilities: Work allocation to above selected staff members. Note : 12 & 13 Who to test? 14.Schedule: Dates & Times Note: 14 – when to test? 15.Risks & Mitigations: Possible testing level risks and solutions to overcome them. 16.Approvals: Signatures of test plan author and PM/QA.
4.Review test plan: After completion of plan document preparation test plan author conducts a review for completeness and correctness.