The Test Planning Process

The Test Planning Process
What is a Test Strategy? What are its Components?
Test Policy - A document characterizing the organization’s philosophy towards software testing.
Test Strategy - A high-level document defining the test phases to be performed and the testing within those phases for a programme. It defines the process to be followed in each project. This sets the standards for the processes, documents, activities etc. that should be followed for each project.
For example, if a product is given for testing, you should decide if it is better to use black-box testing or white-box testing and if you decide to use both, when will you apply each and to which part of the software? All these details need to be specified in the Test Strategy.
Project Test Plan - a document defining the test phases to be performed and the testing within those phases for a particular project. A Test Strategy should cover more than one project and should address the following issues: An approach to testing high risk areas first, Planning for testing, How to improve the process based on previous testing, Environments/data used, Test management - Configuration management,Problem management, What Metrics are followed, Will the tests be automated and if so which
tools will be used, What are the Testing Stages and Testing Methods, Post Testing Review process, Templates.Test planning needs to start as soon as the project requirements are known. The first document that needs to be produced then is the Test Strategy/Testing Approach that sets the high level approach for testing and covers all the other elements mentioned above.
Test Planning – Sample Structure
Once the approach is understood, a detailed test plan can be written. Usually, this test plan can be written in different styles. Test plans can completely differ from project to project in the same organization.

Major Test Planning Tasks
Like any other process in software testing, the major tasks in test planning are to – Develop Test Strategy, Critical Success Factors, Define Test Objectives, Identify Needed Test Resources, Plan Test Environment, Define Test Procedures, Identify Functions To Be Tested, Identify Interfaces With Other Systems or omponents, Write Test Scripts, Define Test Cases, Design Test Data,Build Test Matrix, Determine Test Schedules, Assemble Information, Finalize the Plan

Test Case Development
A test case is a detailed procedure that fully tests a feature or an aspect of a feature. While the test plan describes what to test, a test case describes how to perform a particular test. You need to develop test cases for each test listed in the test plan.
General Guidelines
As a tester, the best way to determine the compliance of the software to requirements is by designing effective test cases that provide a thorough test of a unit. Various test case design techniques enable the testers to develop effective test cases. Besides, implementing the design techniques, every tester needs to keep in mind general guidelines that will aid in test case design:
a. The purpose of each test case is to run the test in the simplest way possible. [Suitable
techniques - Specification derived tests, Equivalence partitioning]
b. Concentrate initially on positive testing i.e. the test case should show that the software does what it is intended to do. [Suitable techniques - Specification derived tests, Equivalence partitioning, State-transition testing]
c. Existing test cases should be enhanced and further test cases should be designed to show that the software does not do anything that it is not specified to do i.e. Negative Testing [Suitable techniques - Error guessing, Boundary value analysis, Internal boundary value testing, Statetransition testing]
d. Where appropriate, test cases should be designed to address issues such as performance,safety requirements and security requirements [Suitable techniques - Specification derived tests]
e. Further test cases can then be added to the unit test specification to achieve specific test
coverage objectives. Once coverage tests have been designed, the test procedure can be
developed and the tests executed [Suitable techniques - Branch testing, Condition testing, Data definition-use testing, State-transition testing]