Test Plan :
A test plan is a document describes what to test, how test,
when to test and who will what to do test. It is usually prepared by test lead
or test manager. It is derived from the product description, software
requirement specification, or Use case documents. Test plan document formats
can be as varied as the products and organizations to which they apply. It is
usually developed during the early phase of the project.
Major elements in test plan:
Test coverage:
Test coverage in the test plan states what requirements will
be verified during what stages of product life. It is derived from design
specifications and other requirements.
Test methods:
Test methods in the test plan state how to test coverage
will be implemented. It is determined by standards, regulatory agencies, or
contractual agreement, or may have to be cre ated
new.
Test responsibilities:
It include what organization will perform the test methods
and at each stage of the product life. This allows test organization to plan,
acquire or develop test equipment and other resources necessary to implement
test methods for which they are responsible. It also includes, what data to be
collected, and how the data will be stored and reported.
Test plan structure:
According to the IEEE 829 (also known as 829 is standard for
software test documentation) components of test plan document are:
1.
Test plan identifier—it is a reference
2. Introduction—brief
introduction about project
3. Test
items—it is a software item that is AUT(Application under test)
4. Features
to be tested
5. Features
not to be tested—what other features that we are not going to test and the
reasons for that.
6. Approach—Details
of overall approach of testing
7. Item
pass/fail criteria—Document whether the software item has passed or failed its
test
8. Suspension
criteria and resumption requirements—to know when to pause the series of tests
9. Test
deliverables—deliverables like test specifications and test summery reports
10. Testing
tasks—All tasks to test the project
11. Environmental
needs—Requirements includes software, hardware, OS, network configurations and
tools required
12. Responsibilities—Lists
the roles and responsibilities of the team members
13. Staffing
and training needs
14. Schedule—important
delivery dates
15. Risks
and contingencies—Identifying high-level risks
16.
Approvals—Captures all approvals of the document,
their titles and sign off date
Types of test plan:
Master test plan:
A single high level test plan
for project/product that unifies all the tests
Testing level specific test
plans:
a.
Unit test plan
b. Integration
test plan
c. System
test plan
d.
Acceptance test plan
Testing type specific types:
Plans for major types of testing like Performance Test Plan and
Security Test Plan.
Uses of writing test plans:
1.
Writing a test plan forces us to confront the
challenges that await us and focus our thinking on important topics.
2. Test
plan itself serves as the mean of communication with other members of the
project team, testers, peers, managers and other stakeholders.
3.
It helps to manage change. As the project
evolves and situations changes, we adopt our plans.