Method of operation

The infrastructure is realised during this activity. The required hardware and software are purchased or ordered as necessary. The workplaces and test environment are organised and the test tools installed and configured. During this activity the framework of the test suite is built when tools are used for the automation of the test execution (see section Types Of Test Tools for more information on the framework of a test suite). Since all of these activities requires special expertise, it is usually carried out by parties other than the testers. From within the test project (the test infrastructure coordinator) the progress of the realisation should be monitored, in case it is threatened.

This activity should be carried out in parallel with the first phases of TMap and should be ready at the latest by the end of the Specification phase (preferably before, since time is required for the next activity, “Intake of the infrastructure”). When the activity is carried out depends on the part that is being realised and on the dependencies between the various parts. For example, the workplace should be realised first, preferably in the Planning phase. The realisation of the test environment often takes a lot of time and therefore should be started quickly. But the situation can arise in which a workplace is necessary for the realisation of the test environment. In that case, it is necessary to wait until the workplace is ready. If the test tool uses the test environment, the installation and configuration can only start when the test environment is ready. Otherwise, it is best to start this as quickly as possible. When tools are used for executing the test the realisation of the infrastructure must be finished before the Specification phase starts. In the Specification phase the tools are used for creating the automated test scripts.

Both internal and external parties (e.g. the supplier of the test tool) play a part here. This makes it a difficult activity to manage, demanding good coordination. The infrastructure coordinator should check the progress and quality of the work supplied. The following sub activities should be carried out, for example:

• Check whether all the agreements are still valid
• Have bottlenecks and problems solved and adopted measures established in new agreements
• Check installations. The created checklists can be used for this (where possible) for purposes of the infrastructure intake (see the task Specify The Infrastructure Intake (AST)).

• Operational workplace
• Operational test environment
• Installed test tools