Question

When developing new systems, teams tend to focus on understanding the requirements of the system at the start of the project. Until requirements are known, it’s hard to understand design and development components. Beyond this, testing is an essential part of any systems project, no matter what SDLC is applied.

When do you think a project team should plan for testing? Provide a justification behind your position. Who do you think is the best resource(s) to conduct testing activities, and why?

Answer 1

For the better performance of an information system,always involve the testing team from the beginning of the requirement analysis phase.it gives the clear vision of the functionality of the system which give the better quality and error free product.

when the development team analyzes the requirement then it schedule a meeting with testing team.The development team will explain regarding the project, total schedule of modules and versions.Testing team will prepare the test strategy and test plan which is the scheduler for entire testing process.testing may involve Unit testing, Integration testing,System testing and many more.

When testing plan is prepared,the work is distributed to the individual testers either black box testing or white box testing. Testing is a process rather than a single activity.it should be planned and requires discipline to act upon it.

The various activities of testing involved in the following steps:
1.Review and analyze the requirements:The test team has to identify what items has to be tested.these items are based on how the end user will consume the system to be measurable,detailed and meaningful.Risk analysis is the first step which Test Manager should consider before starting any project. Because all projects may contain risks, early risk detection and identification of its solution will help Test Manager to avoid potential loss in the future & save on project cost.
2.Scope of testing: This activity involves to determine what areas of testing are covered by what teams.once the requirement analysis phase is done, the test team determine what item has to be tested or what not.

3.Test Estimation:Test estimation is approximately determining how long a task would take to complete.It provides the various benefits of correct estimation such as accurate test estimates lead to better planning, execution and monitoring of tasks under a test manager attention and
allow for more accurate scheduling and help realize results more confidently.
4.Test Planning:A test plan can be defined as a document describing the approach,scope,resources and schedule of testing activites.The content of the test strategy document will have the scope and objective of the testing, the approach, roles and responsibilities of individual test teams, tools identified for testing, the metrics identified, risks and mitigation plans, reporting and tracking mechanisms, etc.
5.Identify the required tools needed for testing:There are many tools which identified for test management which will help in creating and assigning tasks,tracking the test progress, generting reports indicating progress.
6.Define test schedule:Once you have the testable items that have been broken down into logical line items, the sizing estimate complete for the specified piece of work, a measurable test schedule has to be defined based on all these and the assigned testers.
7.Evaluating Exit criteria and reporting:Evaluating exit criteria is a process defining when to stop testing. It depends on coverage of code, functionality or risk. Basically it also depends on business risk, cost and time and vary from project to project.Evaluating exit criteria has the following major tasks:

• To assess if more test are needed or if exit criteria should be changed.
• To write a test summary report for stakeholders.

8.Test closure activities:Test closure activities are done when software is ready to be delivered. The testing can be closed for the other reasons also like:

• when a project is cancelled .
• when the some target is achieved.
• when a maintenance release or update is done.