Teams must consider many factors to successfully test software, systems, and networks. The desire to eliminate security vulnerabilities has led many organizations to take a shift-left approach to testing, which allows them to move testing earlier in the software development life cycle. To accommodate that, they often choose to set up testing plans and testing strategies to provide clarity and efficiency to the process.
What Is a Test Plan?
A test plan provides a framework for a project team’s objectives regarding testing. It lays out the overall scope of testing, the approach to take, the resources available, and the testing activities. Think of it as a blueprint a building manager uses before constructing a new skyscraper.
A test plan keeps project team members on the same page regarding the software testing methodology. Everyone understands their role and what responsibilities fall under their umbrella. Having a test plan in place prevents scope creep, communication issues, and resource misallocation from disrupting testing and threatening the overall stability of a release.
Why Is a Test Plan Important?
If a team doesn’t have a testing plan can lead to inefficiencies, disorganization, delayed releases, and lower product quality. With a test plan, you give everyone, including developers, testers, clients, and project managers, clarity that helps avoid misunderstandings regarding how to conduct testing and what outcomes to expect.
A test plan establishes the features and functionalities to test. More importantly, it identifies what will be excluded, which prevents teams from getting off-track due to scope creep and keeps everyone focused on the critical aspects of software testing.
Another critical aspect of test plans is that they specify what tools, environments, and personnel to use for testing. Planning gives software testing teams time to establish the proper resources, allowing for more effective testing throughout the software testing life cycle (SDLC). It contains the objectives teams want to accomplish, which provide criteria for judging successful testing efforts.
Test Plan Document: Key Components
Teams are free to make updates and improvements as a project progresses. Adjustments based on the feedback and lessons learned throughout the testing process allow teams to keep improving and ensure better quality in future iterations.
Below are some of the common elements found in test plans.
- Test plan ID: Acts as a unique identifier for a test plan.
- Introduction: This section briefly overviews the project and the testing purpose. It typically includes background information, touches on the testing objectives, and discusses the rationale for testing software or a specific feature.
- Scope: Outlines what items will and won’t be tested. That includes outlining the specific functionalities that will receive focus.
- Test items: Documents all the software components, systems, and features to test.
- Test objectives: This section covers what the testing should accomplish. For example, a team may want to validate that an external entity can successfully call a company API without risking the leaking of privileged information.
- Test criteria: The document covers the conditions that must be met before testing or entry criteria. It also goes over exit criteria or the conditions before a test is complete. This is a vital section of a DevOps test plan.
Best Practices for Creating Test Plans
The best way to ensure the completeness of a test plan is by engaging everyone connected to the effort. That includes stakeholders, testers, developers, and all project managers. That way, you have the best chance of the final test plan aligning with everyone’s expectations.
Make the plan as detailed as possible. If it is too vague, people can become confused, leading to critical errors. Include detailed descriptions of the testing environments, test cases to execute, and criteria to consider.
Ideally, teams should use testing automation platforms like Ranorex that integrate into a company’s technology stack. Testers can repeat tests using different inputs without recreating them, which saves time and improves coverage.
What Is a Test Strategy?
A test strategy document outlines a team’s approach to software testing. It provides a more holistic, high-level view of the goals to achieve and the testing methodologies to use. Some of the most essential elements found in a test strategy document include:
- Testing objectives: This refers to what teams want to achieve through testing.
- Types of testing: This section outlines the different testing techniques the team will employ throughout the process, including unit testing and user acceptance testing (UAT).
- Tools and resources: This section covers the tools, personnel, and other resources teams will use throughout the testing process.
- Metrics and reporting: The document covers how teams measure and report testing efforts.
- Risk management: This section discusses the potential risks that could disrupt the testing process and how the team will mitigate them.
Why Is a Test Strategy Important?
A well-defined test strategy sets a clear direction for the project team, which prevents testing efforts from fragmenting, leading to a lack of coordination, inefficiencies, and testing coverage gaps. Once you establish a test strategy, it makes it possible to standardize and repeat testing processes. That helps ensure consistency for other project teams, iterations, or projects.
You also have an easier time identifying and addressing risks early on. That means there’s less chance of one going undetected throughout the SDLC. Establishing risk strategies at the start allows teams to proactively manage different challenges and keep the testing process on track.
Best Practices for Creating Test Strategies
Start by reviewing the requirements provided by clients and other stakeholders. You need to deepen your understanding of those before mapping out test strategies. That includes learning more about functional and non-functional requirements and what’s expected from the testing efforts.
Once you understand the core objectives, you can move on to defining the goals and scope of testing. Make sure you identify any features, systems, and functionalities to cover. It’s also important to know what will not be tested to stop scope creep and understand what needs to be covered in future project phases.
Next, outline which types of testing to use. Your choices will depend on the nature of the software (desktop application, website, etc.) and the project requirements. Examples of those include:
- Unit testing: Evaluate different modules
- Integration testing: Make sure all components function together as expected
- System testing: Validates end-to-end functionality
- Performance testing: Focuses on locating any vulnerabilities that could lead to issues like data breaches
One of the biggest balancing acts in testing is figuring out when to use automation and when manual efforts might be more effective. Look for ways to automate tests that are run repeatedly or are hard to perform manually. Outline test cases best suited to automation, like smoke tests, to ensure you adopt the right toolset.
Your document should also cover elements like:
- The roles and responsibilities of team members involved in testing
- Entry and exit criteria
- How to configure the testing environment so that it closely mimics production
Make sure you keep updating your test plan for DevOps. Make the documentation accessible to all stakeholders.
Software Test Strategy vs Test Plan: Know the Differences
The details are the most significant difference between a test plan and a test strategy. A test strategy document discusses what the team wants to accomplish during testing, while the plan outlines how they will achieve their goals.
Leverage Technology and Create Robust Automated Tests
Having the right tools in place is the best way to ensure you achieve the goals of your test plan and strategy. Ranorex Studio gives test teams everything necessary to safeguard the security and integrity of their product. Give our automated GUI testing tools a look by signing up for a demo.
Test Strategy vs Test Plan FAQs
Can I Use a Test Strategy Without a Test Plan?
Not having a test plan to identify how to execute the test strategy can quickly lead to disorganization and potential risks to go undetected.
How Do Test Plans and Test Strategies Impact Agile Projects?
Test plans and strategies make aligning testing goals with different project iterations easier.
What Are Three Test Strategies?
- Analytical: Focuses on high-risk areas likely to fail and provides a detailed requirements analysis.
- Model-based: Teams create a model representing expected software behavior.
- Directed: Guided primarily by domain experts, users, and stakeholders’ input.
