Guideline: Tips - Define Intake Of The Test Object (AST)

The pre-test as negotiation reinforcement

With a pre-test, the test manager’s position is strengthened considerably when he wants to argue that the clock has not yet started for the main test. That is to say, if from Monday, 10 days of test execution were planned and the pre-test only succeeds on Wednesday, the 10 days only begin from Wednesday. There is room for discussion here, but the test manager will have a much stronger negotiating position.

Example 1

With the building and testing of a new registration system, time is running out. It is decided to ask the testers to sacrifice their free Saturday and Sunday and to test over the weekend. Experience shows that the delivery and installation of the test object in the test environment does not always progress smoothly. In many cases, parts of the test object are missing or do not work at all.

In order to avoid the testers turning up on Saturday for nothing because the installation of the test object has failed, it is decided on Friday evening to carry out a pre-test. This is done by the test manager and the test infrastructure coordinator. Together, they check at 18:00 hours, on the basis of a selection of test scripts, the quality of the delivered test object. If this is sufficient for testing, they contact the test team members before 20:00 hours to tell them that the test is going ahead.

Example 2

A new version of an administrative system has been developed by an external supplier on the other side of the world. It is agreed with the supplier that, before it is delivered and the FAT is carried out, a pre-test will take place. This test is carried out, via the Internet, on the supplier’s infrastructure. It provides an initial impression of the quality of the system and confirms that the FAT can actually begin. This also avoids the installation of the test object in the company’s own infrastructure causing problems through distrust of the supplier. They have witnessed it working there, after all!