The software test plan is the primary means by which software testers communicate to the product development team what they intend to do. The purpose of the software test plan is to prescribe the scope, approach, resource, and schedule of the testing activities. To identify the items being tested, the features to be tested, the testing tasks to be preformed, the personnel responsible for each task, and the risks associated with the plan.
The test plan is simply a by-product of the detailed planning process that’s undertaken to create it. It’s the planning that matters, not the resulting documents. The ultimate goal of the test planning process is communicating the software test team’s intent, its expectations, and its understanding of the testing that’s to be performed.
The following are the important topics/guidelines, which helps in preparation of Test plan:

High-Level Expectations
The first topics to address in the planning process are the ones that define the test team’s high-level expectations. They are fundamental topics that must be agreed to, by everyone on the project team, but they are often overlooked. They might be
considered “too obvious” and assumed to be understood by everyone, but a good tester knows never to assume anything.

People, Places and Things
Test plan needs to identify the people working on the project, what they do, and how to contact them. The test team will likely work with all of them and knowing who they are and how to contact them is very important. Similarly, where documents are stored, where the software can be downloaded from, where the test tools are located, and so on need to be identified.

Inter-Group Responsibilities
Inter-Group responsibilities identify tasks and deliverable that potentially affect the test effort. The test team’s work is driven by many other functional groups – programmers, project manages, technical writers, and so on. If the responsibilities aren’t planned out, the project, specifically the testing, can become a worst or resulting in important tasks been forgotten.

Test phases
To plan the test phases, the test team will look at the proposed development model and decide whether unique phases, or stages, of testing should be performed over the course of the project. The test planning process should identify each proposed test phase and make each phase known to the project team. This process often helps the entire team from and understands the overall development model.

Test strategy
The test strategy describes the approach that the test team will use to test the software both overall and in each phase. Deciding on the strategy is a complex task one that needs to be made by very experienced testers because it can determine the successes or failure of the test effort.

Bug Reporting
Exactly what process will be used to manage the bugs needs to be planned so that each and every bug is tracked, from when it’s found to when it’s fixed – and never, ever forgotten.

Metrics and Statistics
Metrics and statistics are the means by which the progress and the success of the project, and the testing, are tracked. The test planning process should identify exactly what information will be gathered, what decisions will be made with them, and who will be responsible for collecting them.

Risks and Issues
A common and very useful part of test planning is to identify potential problem or risky areas of the project – ones that could have an impact on the test effort.

Reference/Source: Software Testing, Second Edition, By: Ron Patton

Read – Guidelines for effective test planning – Part 2

We received couple of queries on QTP AOM. In this post we simplified the QTP AOM, so that a newbie in QTP can also understand what is Automation Object Model and how it works.
Automation is a technology through which we can access software objects inside one application from other applications. This can be done by VB scripting, VC++, Visual Basic, Javascript etc. So automation helps in managing the functionality of an application programmatically.

Object Model – Every software system consists of some objects & classes. System works because of these objects. And Object model is nothing but an object model is a structural representation of objects and classes. An object model defines a set of classes and interfaces, together with their properties, methods and events, and their relationships.

QTP Automation Object Model – Concluding from above two definitions – We can access QTP objects and control/managing its functionality by VB script. For example –

• We can open QTP with the help of vb script.
• We can run QTP tests without opening QTP manually. By vbscript, we can invoke QTP and define the testes which need to be executed.
• We can set iterations for the execution of the test script and can also pass parameters.

All the above statements/conditions are defined in a vbscript. VBscript opens QTP and manages above functionality.

How this can be done? How VBscript controls QTP?
QTP provides an interface (object model), through which we can automate QTP itself by vbscript. By this we can automate tasks like – Run and configure QTP, Run scripts etc.
See below examples –  Run QTP – Copy the below code and pate in notepad, same file as “ABC.vbs”.
Dim qtApp
Set qtApp = CreateObject(“QuickTest.Application”) ‘ Create the application object
qtApp.Launch ‘Start QuickTest
qtApp.Visible = True ‘ Make it visible
Now Run the “ABC.vbs”. It will open QTP.

Simple way to create script for automating QTP:
QTP also provides the option to generate the automation script (which controls the automation and functionalities of QTP). For this, first you need to open QTP manually and define all the appropriate QTP settings like – test settings, results settings, Options, Action settings, iteration settings etc.
Now go to Test Settings -> In General tab and Object Identification tab, there is “Generate Script” button. Clicking on the button will generate a vbs file with the defined settings.

In Next post we will discuss when to use these QTP automation scripts.

Today employers want test professionals – not test dummies. There are unique skills of testers that are highly desired by employers to make the testing process more efficient and effective. See the checklist for a cross-section of the desirable skills of a test professional
✚ Know the best places to find bugs and defects and most effective methods for uncovering them
✚ Know how to prioritise testing based on risk exposure
✚ Develop test strategies that balance testing needs against management budget and commitment
✚ Apply testing methodologies, processes and analysis techniques
✚ Possess basic technical skills to aid testing (e.g.scripting in VB/Perl/batch files), fundamentals of SQL, MS Office tools for data collation, and report
generation
✚ Understand test automation tools and frameworks, including the advantages, disadvantages and adoption process
✚ Know inspection and review techniques
✚ Understand non-functional test issues, such as load and performance, availability, failover/recovery, compatibility, usability and security
✚ Manage and coordinate testing projects
✚ Build a test team and foster an effective test team culture
✚ Collect metrics and measurements to assess effectiveness of testing and quality of the product, and reporting mechanisms to inform management
of outcomes
✚ Know approaches to improving test processes.

Not everyone in the team needs to have all these skills – in fact, it would be quite uncommon to be experienced in all areas. However, there should be a strategy to ensure that a team can be assembled with a diverse cross-section of these skills. If you are an employer, consider including these skills in the tester’s position description. If your staff are lacking in some of these areas, ask yourself what it is costing your projects, and plan a strategy for increasing the skills of your existing team and/or seeking additional staff. If you are a tester, do a quick check to see whether you have these skills, as well as experience in these areas. If you are missing some, develop a strategy to increase your skills base – you will reap the rewards.


Other Comments: It is possible that Certified Software Testing Professionals with unique skills in test management, test automation, and load/performance testing, may increase their prospects of employment and income. Certification is required, reason is – “Clients demands that they need only certified people in their project” or “‘Companies convince their clients by saying that we have certified software test professionals, we deliver a high quality product.”

For further information on CSTP certification Contact “Dr Kelvin Ross” who is the coordinator for the CSTP program. E-mail: kelvinr@kjross.com.au
Source – K. J. Ross & Associates provides specialist services in software verification and validation, including test management, risk assessment and test strategy, test process
improvement, test outsourcing, automated testing, load and performance testing, independent test laboratory, and training and mentoring.
Visit: www.kjross.com.au