Test Plan Contents

Contents of test plan: Introduction: This section contains the purpose and objectives of the test plan. Scope (A)Items to be tested :Refer to the functional requirements that specify the features and functions to be tested. (B)Items not to be Tested:List the features and functions that will not be covered in this test plan. Identify briefly the reasons for leaving them out.

Test Strategy :Testing is the process of analyzing a software item to detect the differencesbetween existing and required conditions and to evaluate the features of thesoftware item. This may appear as a specific document (such as a TestSpecification), or it may be part of the organization's standard test approach. Foreach level of testing, there should be a test plan and an appropriate set ofdeliverables. The test strategy should be clearly defined and the Software TestPlan acts as the high-level test plan.

Environment Requirements:

(a) System Requirements This section should be filled out in detail for new projects. For existing maintenance tasks, a simple cross-reference to the document describing existing system requirements is fine.

(B)Hardware/ software requirements : This section contains the details of system/server required to install the application or perform the testing, specific s/w that needs to be installed on the system to get the application running or to connect to the database, connectivity related issues etc.

Test Schedule: Identify the estimated effort required to execute the test plan. Include a both a range and a confidence level. Identify the resources available to carry out the test plan.Identify time or resource constraints that will lead to a risk of the test project falling behind schedule, below expected scope, or below expected quality.

Resources and Responsibilities: This section will explain the roles and responsibilites of the management team, testing team, Business team, testing support team and external support team.

Deliverables: This section contains various deliverables that are due to the client at various points of time. i.e. daily, weekly, start of project, end of project etc. these could include test plans, test procedures, test matrices, status reports, test scripts etc. templates for all these also be attached.

Suspension / Exit Criteria : This is a particular risk clause to define under what circumstances testing would stop and restart If any defects are found which seriously impact the test progress, the QA manager may choose to Suspend testing.

Criteria that will justify test suspension are:

(I) Hardware/software is not available at the times indicated in the project schedule.

(II) Source code contains one or more critical defects, which seriously prevents or limits testing progress.

(III)Assigned test resources are not available when needed by the test team.

Risks : Define in advance what could go wrong with a plan and the measures that will be taken to deal with these problems.

(A) The event causing the risk.

(B) The likelihood of the event happening.

(C) The impact on the plan if the event occurs.

ToolsApart from manual testing list the tools used for automating the unit testing, functional testing, performance testing and user interface testing.

Documentation:This section contains the embedded documents or links to document which have been/will be used in the course of testing. E.g. Templates used for reports, test cases etc. reference documents can also be attached here.

Approvals: This section contains the mutual agreement between the client and QA team with both leads/ managers signing off their agreement on the test plan.