Since the development tests form an inextricable part of the development activities, no separate test plan is created for these. The reasons for this are that a parallel plan would only lead to confusion in organisational terms and that it would wrongly create the impression that the development testing is a separate, independent, activity. However, in order to inform the parties involved concerning the approach, this can be described within the development plan and is often supplemented by the distribution of separate testing instructions.

With the description of the approach to development testing, it is advisable to give emphatic attention to the Why of testing, so that the test levels of unit test and unit integration test will be given a more obvious place within the process of software development.

The Planning phase consists of the following activities:

1. Establishing the assignment
2. Determining the test basis
3. Analysing the product risks
4. Determining the test strategy
5. Estimating the effort
6. Determining the planning
7. Allocating the test techniques
8. Defining the test products
9. Defining the organisation
10. Defining the infrastructure
11. Organising the management
12. Feedback and consolidation of the plan.