Chapter 5: Test Management

Chapter 5: Test Management

In this chapter we will discuss the following topics:

• 5.1 Test Organization (U)
• 5.2 Test planning and Estimation (Y)
• 5.3 Test Progress Monitoring and Control (U)
• 5.4 Configuration Management (U)
• 5.5 Risk and Testing (U)
• 5.6 Incident Management (U)

5.1 Test Organization

5.1.1 Test Organization and Independence

The effectiveness of finding defects by testing and reviews can be improved by using independent testers. Options for independence include the following:

• Independent testers outsourced or external to the organization
• Independent test specialists for specific test types such as usability testers, security testers or certification testers (who certify a software product against standards and regulations)
• Independent testers from the business organization or user community
• Independent testers within the organization, reporting to project management or executive management
• No independent testers; developers test their own code

For large, complex or safety critical projects, it is usually best to have multiple levels of testing, with some or all of the levels done by independent testers. Development staff may participate in testing, especially at the lower levels, but their lack of objectivity often limits their effectiveness.

The benefits of independence are:

• An independent tester can verify assumptions people made during specification and implementation of the system
• Independent testers see other and different defects, and are unbiased

Drawbacks of independence are:

• Independent testers may seen as a bottleneck or blamed for delays in release
• Developers may lose a sense of responsibility for quality
• Isolation from the development team

Testing tasks may be done by people in a specific testing role, or may be done by someone in another role, such as business and domain expert, infrastructure or IT operations, project manager, quality manager, developer.

5.1.2 Tasks of the Test Leader and Tester

Here we will discuss on the role of test leader and tester. The activities and tasks performed by people in these two roles depend on the project and product context, the people in the roles, and the organization.

Sometimes the test leader is called a test manager or test coordinator. The role of the test leader may be performed by a project manager, a development manager, a quality assurance manager or the manager of a test group. In larger projects two positions may exist: test leader and test manager. Typically the test leader plans, monitors and controls the testing activities.

Typical tasks performed by test leader are:

• Adapt planning based on test results and progress and take any action necessary to compensate for problems
• Coordinate the test strategy and plan with project managers and others
• Contribute the testing perspective to other project activities, such as integration planning
• Decide about the implementation of the test environment
• Decide what should be automated, to what degree, and how
• Initiate the specification, preparation, implementation and execution of tests, monitor the test results and check the exit criteria
• Introduce suitable metrics for measuring test progress and evaluating the quality of the testing and the product
• Plan the tests-considering the context and understanding the test objectives and risks-including selecting test approaches, estimating the time, effort and cost of testing, acquiring resources, defining test levels, cycles, and planning incident management
• Select tools to support testing and organize any training in tool use for testers
• Set up adequate configuration management of testware for traceability
• Write or review a test strategy for the project, and test policy for the organization
• Write test summary reports based on the information gathered during testing

Typical tasks performed by tester may include:

• Analyze, review and assess user requirements, specifications and modules for testability
• Automate tests
• Create test specification
• Implement tests on all test levels. execute and log the tests, evaluate the results and document the deviations from excepted results
• Measure performance of components and systems
• Prepare and acquire test data
• Review and contribute to test plans
• Review tests developed by others
• Set up the test environment
• Use test administration or management tools and test monitoring tools as required

People who work on test analysis, test design, specific test types or test automation may be specialists in these roles. Depending on the test level and the risks related to the product and the project, different people may take over the role of tester, keeping some degree of independence. Typically testers at the component and integration level would be developers, testers at the acceptance test level would be business experts and users, and testers for operational acceptance testing would be operators.

5.2 Test Planning and Estimation

5.2.1 Test Planning

In this section we discuss the purpose of test planning within development and implementation projects, and for maintenance activities. Planning may be documented in a master test plan and in separate test plans for test levels such as system testing and acceptance testing.

Planning is influenced by the test policy of the organization, the scope of testing, objectives, risks, constraints, criticality, testability, and the availability of resources. As the project and test planning progress, more information becomes available and more detail can be included in the plan.

Test planning is a continuous activity and is performed in a all life cycle processes and activities. Feedback from test activities is used to recognize changing risks so that planning can be adjusted.

5.2.2 Test Planning Activities

Test planning activities for an entire system or part of system include:

• Assigning resources for the different activities defined
• Defining the amount, level of detail, structure and templates for the test documentation
• Defining the overall approach of testing, including the definition of the test levels and entry and exit criteria
• Determining the scope and risks and identifying the objectives of testing
• Integrating and coordinating the testing activities into the software life cycle activities (acquisition, supply, development, operation, and maintenance)
• Making decisions about what to test, what roles will perform the test activities, how the test activities should be done, and how the test results will be evaluated
• Scheduling test analysis and design activities
• Scheduling test implementation, execution and evaluation
• Selecting metrics for monitoring and controlling test preparation and execution, defect resolution and risk issues
• Setting the level of detail for test procedures in order to provide enough information to support reproducible test preparation and execution

5.2.3 Entry Criteria

Entry criteria define when to start testing such as at the beginning of a test level or when set of tests is ready for execution.

Typically entry criteria may cover the following:

• Test environment availability and readiness
• Testable code availability
• Test data availability
• Test tool readiness in the test environment

5.2.4 Exit Criteria

Exit criteria define when to stop testing such as at the end of the test level or when a set of tests has achieved specific goal.

Typically exit criteria may cover the following:

• Cost
• Estimates of defect density or reliability measures
• Residual risks, such as defects not fixed or lack of test coverage in certain areas
• Schedules such as those based on time to market
• Thoroughness measures, such as coverage of code, functionality or risk

5.2.5 Test Estimation

Two approaches for the estimation of test effort are:

• The metrics-based approach: estimating the testing effort based on metrics of former or similar projects or based on typical values
• The expert-based approach : estimating the tasks based on estimates made by the owner of the tasks or by experts

Once the test effort is estimated, resources can be identified and a schedule can be drawn up.

The testing effort may depend on a number of factors, such as:

• Characteristics of the product: the quality of the specification and other information used for test models , the size of the product, the complexity of the problem domain, the requirements for reliability and security, and the requirements for documentation
• Characteristics of the development process: the stability of the organization, tools used, test process, skills of the people involved, and time pressure
• The outcome of testing: the number of defects and the amount of rework required

5.2.6 Test strategy, Test Approach

The test approach is the implementation of the test strategy for a specific project. The test approach is defined and refined in the test plans and test designs. It typically includes the decisions made based on the project’s goal and risk assessment. It is the starting point for planning the test process, for selecting the test design techniques and test types to be applied, and for defining the entry and exit criteria.

The selected approach depends on the context and may consider risks, hazards and safety, available resources and skills, the technology, the nature of the system , test objectives, and regulations.

Typical approaches includes:

• Analytical approaches, such as risk-based testing where testing is directed to areas of greatest risk
• Consultative approaches, such as those in which test coverage is driven primarily by the advice and guidance of technology and/or business domain experts outside the test team
• Dynamic and heuristic approaches, such as exploratory testing where testing is more reactive to events then pre-planned, and where execution and evaluation are concurrent tasks
• Methodical approaches, such as failure-based (including error guessing and fault attacks), experience- based, checklist-based, and quality characteristics-based
• Model-based approaches, such as stochastic testing using statistical information about failure rats ( such as reliability growth models) or usage (such as operational profiles)
• Process-or standard-compliant approaches, such as those specified by industry-specific standards or the various agile methodologies
• Regression-averse approaches, such as those that include reuse of existing test material, extensive automation of functional regression tests, and standard test suites

Different approaches may be combined, for example, a risk-based dynamic approach.

5.3 Test Progress Monitoring and Control

5.3.1 Test Progress Monitoring

The purpose of test monitoring is to provide feedback and visibility about test activities. Information to be monitored may be collected manually or automatically and may be used to measure exit criteria, such as coverage. Metrics may also be used to assess progress against the planned schedule and budget. Common test metrics are:

• Dates of test milestones
• Defect information (e.g., defect density, defects found and fixed, failure rate, and re-test results)
• Percentage of work done in test case preparation (or percentage of planned test cases prepared)
• Percentage of work done in test environment preparation
• Subjective confidence of testers in the product
• Test case execution (e.g., number of test cases run/not run, and test cases passed/failed)
• Testing costs, including the cost compared to the benefit of finding the next defect or to run the next test
• Test coverage of requirements, risks or code

5.3.2 Test Reporting

Test reporting is concerned with summarizing information about the testing endeavor, which includes:

• Analyzed information and metrics to support recommendations and decisions about future actions, such as an assessment of defects remaining, the economic benefit of continued testing, outstanding risks, and the level of confidence in the tested software
• What happened during a period of testing, such as dates when exit criteria were met

Metrics should be collected during and at the end of a test level in order to assess:

• The adequacy of the test objectives for that test level
• The adequacy of the test approaches taken
• The effectiveness of the testing with respect to the objectives

5.3.3 Test Control

Test control describes any guiding or corrective actions taken as a result of information and metrics gathered and reported. Actions may cover any test activity and may affect any other software life cycle activity or task.

Examples of test control actions include:

• Changing the test schedule due to availability or unavailability of a test environment
• Making decisions based on information from test monitoring
• Re-prioritizing tests when an identified risk occurs (e.g., software delivered late)
• Setting an entry criterion requiring fixes to have been re-tested (conformation tested) by a developer before accepting them into a build

5.4 Configuration Management

The purpose of configuration management is to establish and maintain the integrity of the products (components, data and documentation) of the software or system throughout the project and product life cycle.

For testing, configuration management may involve the following:

• All identified documents and software items are referenced unambiguously in test documentation
• All items of testware are identified, version controlled, tracked for changes, related to each other and related to development items (test objects) so that traceability can be maintained throughout the test process

For the tester, configuration management helps to uniquely identify ( and to reproduce ) the tested item, test documents, the tests and the test harness(es).

During test planning, the configuration management procedures and infrastructure (tools) should be chosen, documented and implemented.

5.5 Risk and Testing

Risk can be defined as the chance of an event, hazard, threat or situation occurring and resulting in undesirable consequences or a potential problem. The level of risk will be determined by the likelihood of an adverse event happening and the impact (the harm resulting from that event).

5.5.1 Project Risks

Project risks are the risks that surround the project’s capability to deliver its objectives, such as:

Organizational factors:

• Personnel issues
• Skill, training and staff shortages
• Improper attitude toward or expectations of testing (e.g., not appreciating the value of finding defects during testing)
• Political issues, such as:
• Problems with testers communicating their needs and test results
• Failure by the team to follow up on information found in testing and reviews (e.g., not improving development and testing practices)

Supplier issues:

• Contractual issues
• Failure of a third party

Technical issues:

• Late date conversion, migration planning and development and testing data conversion/migration tools
• Low quality of the design, code, configuration data, test data and tests
• Problems in defining the right requirements
• Test environment not ready on time
• The extent to which requirement cannot be met given existing constraints

5.5.2 Product Risks

Potential failure areas (adverse failure events or hazards) in the software or system are known as product risks, as they are a risk to the quality of the product. These include:

• Failure-prone software delivered
• Poor data integrity and quality (e.g., data migration issues, data conversion problems, data transport problems, violation of data standards)
• Poor software characteristics (e.g., functionality, reliability, usability, and performance )
• Software that does not perform its intended functions
• The potential that the software/hardware could cause harm to an individual or company

Risks are used to decide where to start testing and where to test more; testing is used to reduce the risk of an adverse effect occurring, or to reduce the impact of an adverse effect.

Product risks are a special type of risk to the success of the project. Testing as a risk-control activity provides feedback about the residual risk by measuring the effectiveness of critical defect removal and of contingency plans.

A risk-based approach to testing provides proactive opportunities to reduce the levels of a product risk, starting in the initial stages of a project. It involves the identification of product risks and their use in guiding test planning and control, specification, preparation and execution of tests. In a risk-based approach the risks identified may be used to:

• Determine the test techniques to be employed
• Determine the extent of testing to be carried out
• Determine whether any non-testing activities could be employed to reduce risk(e.g., providing training to inexperienced designers)
• Prioritize testing in an attempt to find the critical defects as early as possible

5.6 Incident Management

Since one of the objectives of testing is to find defects, the discrepancies between actual and excepted outcomes need to be logged as incidents. An incident must be investigated and may turn out to be a defect. Appropriate actions to dispose incidents and defects should be defined. Incidents and defects should be tracked from discovery and classification to correction and confirmation of the solution. In order to manage all incidents to completion, an organization should establish an incident management process and rules for classification.

Incidents may be raised during development, review, testing or use of a software product. They may be raised for issues in code or the working system, or in any type of documentation including requirements, development documents, test documents, and user information such as “Help” or installation guides.

Incidents reports have the following objectives:

• Provide developers and other parties with feedback about the problem to enable identification, isolation and correction as necessary
• Provide ideas for test process improvement
• Provide test leaders a means of tracking the quality of the system under test and the progress of the testing

Details of the incident report may include:

• Change history, such as the sequence of actions taken by project team members with respect to the incident to isolate, repair, and conform it as fixed
• Conclusions, recommendations and approvals
• Date of issue, issuing organization, and author
• Description of the incident to enable reproduction and resolution, including logs, database dumps or screenshots
• Excepted and actual results
• Global issues, such as other areas that may be affected by a change resulting from the incident
• Identification of the test item (configuration item) and environment
• References, including the identity of the test case specification that revealed the problem
• Software or system life cycle process in which the incident was observed
• Scope or degree of impact on stakeholder(s) interests
• Severity of the impact on the system
• Status of the incident (e.g., open, deferred, duplicate, waiting to be fixed, fixed awaiting re-test, closed)
• Urgency/priority to fix

Practice Test on Chapter 5: Test Management

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