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The test project is the technical effort of estimating work, planning the test scope and
strategy, effectively managing test execution, and reporting on status and risk. Every
project involves tradeoffs between features, time, quality and costs. It's the test manager's
responsibility to manage the details of the test project by possibly providing information
to stakeholders in terms of project estimates for the amount of work required, actively
managing the test effort, and providing information about product quality. This tip
focuses on the documents that might help when managing the testing project.
In our webcast on "How to plan your software test project" we outline some common test
planning artifacts that one might find useful. These include the following:
As you develop the test strategy document, the creation of the document and working
through the process of gathering information can help you assess and determine the
strategy. The test strategy document can also be useful to convey the strategy to
stakeholders to gain their agreement to your testing approach.
• Preparations
• Staffing
• Test coverage
• Any testing requirements (technical or otherwise)
• Test environments
• Entry criteria
• Exit criteria
• Delegation of responsibilities
• Facility acquisition
• Task planning
• Scheduling
• Documentation on coordination and collaboration with other teams
• Risks and issues that may impact testing
• Specific deliverables of the test project
The purpose is to outline and communicate the details of the testing effort for a specific
period of time. It can be used to direct and guide the test effort. It may or may not contain
the details found in the test project plan or test estimates (described below). Whether or
not those documents are separate or contained under the plan again depends on the size of
the project and the context in which we are working.
Once we have the estimates for the work, we lay out those estimates against a high-level
schedule to understand what our resource needs are going to be. At the end of this
process we have estimates in terms of work effort (hours, days, etc.) and resources (a
number of people for a period of time).
Depending on the project, this information might be transferred into a formal project plan
(most likely using Microsoft Project). This allows us to integrate the various work
breakdown structures, consolidate the estimates, assign the resources planned and track
the changes to the plan over time as the project unfolds. Maintaining a project plan
always has the potential to be a distraction, so be sure that you need that kind of formality
or that you truly find it helpful before you make the investment.
There's really no limit to what might be helpful when planning your project. From a
documentation perspective, we suggest finding a balance between what's required, what's
helpful in driving your understanding of the work, and what's helpful in communicating
the testing to the various stakeholders on the project.