Test Plan

It is a document prepared by managers or leads which consists of all the activities related to testing, once the requirements are given the managers and lead study the requirements and prepare the test plan.
The test plan is followed by all the test engineers for the further testing activities.

The Test Plan consists of following attributes:

1.Objective
2.Scope
3.Approach
4.Testing Methodologies
5.Schedule
6.Templates
7.Machine configuration and Test environment
8.Roles and Responsibilities
9.Tools
10.Assumptions
11.Risk
12.Mitigation Plan
13.Deliverables
14.Entry and Exit criteria
15.Effort Estimation

Objective

The objective defines the aim of writing the test plan.

For eg: objective - This Test Plan for Cheetah- 2.0 ICICI.

Scope

Features which need to be tested and the features which do not need to be tested are mentioned under scope.
For eg: Scope - Features need to be tested(In Scope) - Login, Compose, Inbox.
Features not to be tested(Out of scope) - facebook.com, help.

Approach

Here the flow of the application is represented or written in the form of flow charts or scenarios to understand the flow of the application.

Testing Methodologies

The types of testing activities need to be performed for the application are mentioned in testing methodologies.

For eg: smoke testing, functional testing, Integration testing, System testing, Usability testing, Compatibility testing.

Schedule

All the time schedules for the testing activities will be mentioned in this section.

Templates

The templates which are followed by the test engineers are mentioned here.

For eg: Test case template, Test case review template, Bug report template and RTM.

Machine configuration and Test environment

The configuration with respect to Test engineers machine as well as the test servers are mentioned in this section.

For eg: (i) Test Environment:
(i) QAMain1
url: http://Qamain1/ICICI/Evon-local.
S/w: OS, WS, AS, DB.
H/w: RAM, HDD, Processor.

(ii) QAMain2 - Backup server.
url: http://Qamain2/ICICI/Evon-local.
S/w: OS, WS, AS, DB.
H/w: RAM, HDD, Processor.

(iii) Staging
url: http://Staging/ICICI/Evon-local.
S/w: OS, WS, AS, DB.
H/w: RAM, HDD, Processor.

(ii)Test Engineer Machine Configuration:
Number of machines: 3
OS: Win xp, Win 7, Win 8.
Browsers: Chrome, Firefox, IE11.
H/w: RAM(4 GB), HDD(500 GB), Processor(I5).

Roles and Responsibilities

Role and responsibility of whole QA team is mentioned here, role is the designation and responsibilities is the work to be done.

For example:
(i) Role: Team Manager
Name: Girish
Responsibilities: Prepare/Review test plan, Meeting with development team/B.A, Deciding schedules, Handling escalation.

(ii) Role: Test Lead
Name: Piyush
Responsibilities: Prepare/Review test plan, assign tasks, preparing templates, approval of test cases, preparing reports, handling escalation, conducting meetings.

(ii) Role: Test Engineer
Name: Sachin
Responsibilities: Understanding requirements, writing/review test cases, executing test cases, preparing RTM with respect to their modules, defect tracking.

Tools

All the tools with respect to current release are mentioned in this section.

For eg: Defect tracking tool Bugzilla 3.0

Assumptions

All the assumed problems that may occur during testing process are mentioned in this section.

Risk

All the assumed risks that may cause some damage are mentioned in this section.

Mitigation Plan

It is a back up plan prepared to avoid assumed risk.
For eg: Assume that if one test engineer leaves the job then their is a risk that the quality of the module will not be good, so they do mitigation plan which is a back up plan in which they give primary contact and secondary contact.Primary contact is the test engineer who is working on his module and he become secondary contact for the module on which other test engineer is working.

Deliverables

The supporting documents handed over to the customers along with the application or software are called deliverables.

Following deliverables are there:
1. Test cases.
2. Test scripts.
3. Test Execution reports.
4. RTM.
5. Other reports.
6. Release notes - user manual, installation procedure, platform on which software work.
7. List of existing bugs in the current release.
8. List of fixed bugs from the previous release.

Entry and Exit criteria

It indicate the criteria for starting and stopping testing.
The entry criteria for testing would be - coding should be completed, all the test cases should be ready, build should be installed on test server and necessary resources should be ready.
Similarly the exit criteria for testing would be - All the test cases should be executed, majority of the test cases i.e, 95%-97% of the test cases should be passed and there should be no blockers or critical or major bugs where as some 3-4 minor bugs are allowed.

Effort Estimation

Here the managers derived or estimates the efforts required by the test engineers in the form of time , cost and response.
Generally it is done by using effort estimation techniques like:
1. Work breakdown approach.
2. Delphi technique.
3. Base on Functional point.
4. Base on Kilo lines of code(KLOC).
5. Use case based approach.