How to Efficiently Kickoff and Manage Your Testing Project

Project planning is one of the crucial elements in the project management method.

How each individual team defines the goals to be accomplished, is a direct representation of the level of clarity included in the project plan. Particularly when it comes to a test project, incorrect project planning can have a severe implication on the test execution of the system below test and on the overall quality of the product as a whole.

What is a Test Plan?

See a test plan as a roadmap to your testing project.

Test Plan is a precise guide that entails information on the various stages of your testing method— including objectives, the scope of testing, test methodology, resources, test strategy, entry and exit criteria, to name a few.  

Why is it Important? 

Having a test plan document for your project can help you in several ways. 

• It provides direction to your project, and you don’t have to push around to collect relevant data halfway through if you already have a test plan at hand.  
• It clearly describes the roles and responsibilities of various team members involved in the project, so you wouldn’t have to worry about having allotted new, unanticipated responsibilities in the middle of your project which you know do not fall below your role.  
• It helps maintain track of your progress, through a well-developed schedule that everyone is to follow.  

We can go on and on about the various advantages of this ever-helpful document, but hopefully, you get the picture.  

How to Build and Implement Your Testing Activity 

Putting together and sending out a testing project is no small feat. It is a complete, step-by-step process and each stage requires to be addressed carefully. 

Step 1: Examine the Product and Create a Test Plan 

Before you progress with your testing activity, the first and foremost thing you require to do is to really know your product inside-out. Learn it from various perspectives and angles—in terms of its purpose, design, function, usability, target audience, and so on.  

Thoroughly go all through the conditions and business documents that your client has shared with you. Clear out all your questions and uncertainties with them. Ensure you have full know-how of what they are really looking for. 

Once this has been done, then you can begin developing your test project and writing everything down. 

Step 2: Develop Test Strategy 

A test strategy provides insight into the testing process. Two very important aspects of this are describing the scope of testing and using different test methodologies.  

2.1. Scope of Testing 

One of the earliest things you require to do is to define your scope of testing; this involves categorizing items that will be tested, and those that will not be tested. Of course, it is not even possible (or fit) to test every single thing or characteristic, which is why you have to rationally determine what you will be testing and what you will be leaving out. In addition to cleaning out aspects that you want to test, also give a reason behind why you want to test it so that your consumer and other stakeholders are clear on the reason behind testing this feature. You should adhere to best industry practices and standards while making these decisions. Also, incorporate what software or devices you will be testing on (coverage); and what type of testing you will be doing, and why.  

2.2. Using Different Methodologies 

Recognize the testing methodologies you have adopted. Explain why you have chosen those and why they are the best suitable for your project.  

Testing kinds can be either functional or non-functional. 

Functional tests are based on functions and characteristics, and their integration with specific systems.  Functional testing types incorporate unit testing, smoke testing, regression testing, integration testing, system testing, amongst others.

Non-functional tests a system for its quality and tests the characteristics of a system that can be quantified on a different scale. Non-functional testing types are inclusive of scalability testing, mutation testing, conformance testing, recovery testing, etc.

Step 3: Define Test Criteria 

3.1. Entry and Exit Criteria 

The Software Testing Lifecycle includes the entry and exit criteria.  

Entry Criteria 

The Entry Criteria for STLC phases apply to those metrics that require to be fulfilled in order to proceed to a new phase. This collection of conditions are essential as they allow the relevant task to be performed—something that wouldn’t be attainable if the condition doesn’t exist. The entry criteria also incorporate the time frame during which the entry criteria item will be available to start the process. 

Exit Criteria 

The Exit Criteria for STLC phases refer to the criteria that define that a phase has been concluded before the next one can start. It, thus, confirms that a process or set of processes have been completed and comply with the set expectations. 

3.2. Pass/Fail Criteria 

When describing test methods, you should be including all the steps. These should mention the conditions of each step, as well as the condition needed to carry out or conclude the next step, and the expected consequences. This expected consequence or response is the pass/fail criteria for that level. The test step is considered as ‘passed’ if it was carried out and the anticipated response was examined and verified. On the other hand, if the step was not carried out or was taken and the expected response did not unfold or could not be verified, then the test step is considered as ‘failed’.  

3.3. No. of Cycles 

A testing cycle is a time period that describes when a project is to start and stopped. It also includes a list of manual testers who will be working on the project. The number of cycles differs from project to project, depending on portions like duration of the sprint (in the case of agile), the number of testers included in that sprint, the expertise of the testing team and developers, and so on.  

3.4. Defining Test Data 

Test Data is the input supplied into a software program. This is performed during test execution and concerns data that is a section of software execution during testing.  

In positive testing, test data is used to verify that functions are supporting the anticipated responses for the inputs that have been encouraged into it. In negative testing, test data is used to decide if the software can manage to deal with unfamiliar cases of input. 

Step 4: Test Metrics 

Test Metrics can be regarded as a set of KPIs to take note of during testing. They are considered as a tool of measurement that measures the testing based on several factors, like quality, value, progress, efficiency, etc. This, in turn, serves to pinpoint areas that can be improved or worked on further, thus helping towards more efficient testing. It also develops a solid collection of data obtained from the testing process, which helps decide future processes in terms of how they can be carried out better.  

Step 5: Identify Resource Plan 

5.1. Technical Resources 

In this section, you have to consider all the technical resources, including system resources, that you require for the project. These involve computing tools (software and hardware), test management tools, other testing tools, and technical expertise needed for the project.  

5.2. Human Resources 

It is necessary to delegate roles and duties for your testing team, in terms of who will be carrying out what activity. This helps determine the roles for each team, which thus provides clarity, also pointing to less possibility of dispute later on as everyone will be informed of what they have to do. The primary requirement for planning human resources is to assess how many people do you require to get the job done; it also helps you estimate the project.  

Step 6: Construct a Test Environment 

Producing a test environment will help you run your test cases. You require both hardware and software configurations to facilitate this setup. The benefit of constructing a test environment is that it will help you produce the exact same environment every time you have to test your product—this assures both accuracy and quality of the product being tested, in the presence of the appropriate setup. This is also a crucial tool to discover that the application is working the exact same way in the test environment as it will in the actual, or production, environment.  

Step 7: Test Deliverables 

These deliverables are an in-depth set of test artifacts (particularly documents) that are made ready to a software tester, or other stakeholders, through the Software Development Lifecycle. The deliverables are broken up into several phases; some are given before the onset of the testing cycle, some are given during it, and come after it. 

Step 8: Test Management Tools 

Modern, agile testing is also about fast-paced collaboration in short sprints. Lengthy documents that save your test plans and procedures are becoming a thing of the past. This is where great test management comes in handy. Test management tools assist you to keep test plans associated with your needs at a granular level. So, rather than one lengthy document that quickly becomes outdated, you have mini test plans linked with your requirements and everyone remains in the loop of the changes along the way. 

Also Read: All You Need To Know About Localization Testing

Conclusion

The above steps will prove very useful if you want to kick off and manage your testing process with both ease and effectiveness.  

When it comes to QA, nothing is better than having the correct people in charge. That’s why we make sure that everyone in our team is qualified and accredited on some of the industry’s best practices. 

At TestUnity we have an expert team of QA Engineers. This enables us to give our clients the support they require to make sure that their software hits the market in the right circumstances. Contact us for a free consultation and see for yourself why TestUnity’s QA approach is the best choice for your software.

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