Test Activities

Determining the scope, objectives, and risks of testing

Defining the overall approach of testing

Integrating and coordinating the test activities into the software lifecycle activities

Making decisions about what to test, the people and other resources required to perform the various test activities, and how test activities will be carried out

Scheduling of test analysis, design, implementation, execution, and evaluation activities, either on particular dates (e.g., in sequential development) or in the context of each iteration (e.g., in iterative development)

Selecting metrics for test monitoring and control

Budgeting for the test activities

Determining the level of detail and structure for test documentation (e.g., by providing templates or example documents)

Checking test results and logs against specified coverage criteria

Assessing the level of component or system quality based on test results and logs

Determining if more tests are needed (e.g., if tests originally intended to achieve a certain level of product risk coverage failed to do so, requiring additional tests to be written and executed)

Analyzing the test basis appropriate to the test level being considered

Requirement specifications, such as business requirements, functional requirements, system requirements, user stories, epics, use cases, or similar work products that specify desired functional and non-functional component or system behavior

Design and implementation information, such as system or software architecture diagrams or documents, design specifications, call flow graphs, modelling diagrams (e.g., UML or entity-relationship diagrams), interface specifications, or similar work products that specify component or system structure

The implementation of the component or system itself, including code, database metadata and queries, and interfaces

Risk analysis reports, which may consider functional, non-functional, and structural aspects of the component or system

Evaluating the test basis and test items to identify defects of various types

Identifying features and sets of features to be tested

Defining and prioritizing test conditions for each feature based on analysis of the test basis, and considering functional, non-functional, and structural characteristics, other business and technical factors, and levels of risks

Capturing bi-directional traceability between each element of the test basis and the associated test conditions

Designing and prioritizing test cases and sets of test cases

Identifying necessary test data to support test conditions and test cases

Designing the test environment and identifying any required infrastructure and tools

Capturing bi-directional traceability between the test basis, test conditions, and test cases

Developing and prioritizing test procedures, and, potentially, creating automated test scripts

Creating test suites from the test procedures and (if any) automated test scripts

Arranging the test suites within a test execution schedule in a way that results in efficient test execution

Building the test environment (including, potentially, test harnesses, service virtualization, simulators, and other infrastructure items) and verifying that everything needed has been set up correctly

Preparing test data and ensuring it is properly loaded in the test environment

Verifying and updating bi-directional traceability between the test basis, test conditions, test cases, test procedures, and test suites

Recording the IDs and versions of the test item(s) or test object, test tool(s), and testware

Executing tests either manually or by using test execution tools

Comparing actual results with expected results

Analyzing anomalies to establish their likely causes (e.g., failures may occur due to defects in the code, but false positives also may occur

Reporting defects based on the failures observed

Logging the outcome of test execution

Repeating test activities either as a result of action taken for an anomaly, or as part of the planned testing (e.g., execution of a corrected test, confirmation testing, and/or regression testing

Verifying and updating bi-directional traceability between the test basis, test conditions, test cases, test procedures, and test results.

Checking whether all defect reports are closed, entering change requests or product backlog items for any defects that remain unresolved at the end of test execution

Creating a test summary report to be communicated to stakeholders

Finalizing and archiving the test environment, the test data, the test infrastructure, and other testware for later reuse

Handing over the testware to the maintenance teams, other project teams, and/or other stakeholders who could benefit from its use

Analyzing lessons learned from the completed test activities to determine changes needed for future iterations, releases, and projects

Using the information gathered to improve test process maturity