The creation of as reliable as possible a planning for the test level, so that the client can make allowance for this and can manage accordingly. The principle of the planning is to find the most significant defects (the finding of which belongs within the scope of the test level) first.

Method of operation

Based on the planning of the system development process and on the master test plan, a planning for the test level is created. The test manager indicates the start and end date per phase and the products to be delivered. The planning should cover at least:

• Activities to be carried out (at activity level per phase)
• Correlations with and dependencies on other activities (within or beyond the test level and between the various phases and other test levels)
• Time to be spent per phase
• Required and available resources (people and infrastructure)
• Required and available turnaround time
• Products to be delivered.

Depending on the client’s requirements, the financial consequences of the choices made should be made visible in a financial planning. This means, for example, the setting out of the costs in terms of time for the (internal and external) personnel, training, workstations, test environment and test tools.

The planning is reflected in, for example, a network planning or a bar chart, depending on the method used within the organisation. This method does not deal with planning techniques, because for the test process the test manager employs standard planning techniques that are not specific to testing.

An aspect of planning related to quality is when a test level is ready and the test object can be transferred to the following test level or to production. In other words, what can the ‘next’ test level expect after the ‘previous’ test level is completed. In order to make these expectations explicit, requirements are set according to the result of the test level. In practice, these requirements are also known as exit criteria. With increasing outsourcing, it becomes more and more important to establish clear exit criteria to prevent the supplier from delivering inadequate quality.

Feedback

When the test manager has created a planning, this is the time to agree matters with the client. If the test strategy setup and subsequent estimate of required effort and planning are not acceptable, then these steps are repeated. With this, the client and test manager consider whether to test certain aspects in lesser depth, so that time and/or money is spared, but a higher level of risk is accepted, or the other way. To facilitate communication, the test manager refers here to the original test goals. Where a master test plan exists, the coordinating test manager is involved here, but the client makes the final choice.

An amended strategy is illustrated below, with less test depth indicated by ○ instead of ● and more test depth by .

ST example



UAT example

The amended strategy leads to another estimated effort and planning, and also to an indication of bigger (or even smaller) product risks, translated into terms that are comprehensible to the client (referring back to the product risk analysis with test goals, characteristics and object parts).

In addition to the feedback on strategy, budget and planning, the test manager discusses with the client the use of tolerances in the execution of the test process. These are boundaries within which the test manager is not required to ask the client’s permission. For example, a tolerance of 5% is often agreed for the budget. For the planning, it may be agreed that only deviations from project milestones will require discussion. With strategy tolerances, for example, the client’s advance permission is not required for testing a characteristic/object part in one greater or lesser degree of depth.

• Planning for the test process
• Exit criteria
• Optional: tolerances for strategy, budget and planning
• Optional: suspend and resume criteria
  (above products are established in the test plan)
• Strategy, budget and planning feedback to/from the client.

• Workflow tool
• Planning and progress monitoring tool