A test plan is a crucial document in software testing that outlines the strategy, scope, resources, and schedule for testing a software product, ensuring a structured and comprehensive approach to quality assurance.
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hello everyone welcome again in this
software testing tutorial
we are going to learn about what is test plan
plan
now before we understand what exactly is
test plan
i'll explain in general why
planning is important and what a plan is
now i'll take an example of say
you know you are building your house so
you have bought the land
and you are building the house before
building the house
there are a lot of planning activities
that in general happen
right so you have the you know floor
plan made
and then based on that floor plan
there are other planning that needs to
happen before you actually start putting
the slab
and then putting bricks and building the
walls right
so why does it happen that when you are
building the house you plan it first
the reason is say for example you
are you know having a piece of land and
say for example you start building the slab
slab
altogether okay so you have laid down
the fla
slab on the overall area and
after that you realize that you forgot
the plumbing work
okay so plumbing needs to go beneath
your house
and it needs to be planned properly so
these are some of the issues that happen
if you do not plan your work properly so planning
planning
in general is very important so
when we build the house we build the
plan and plan covers
all the you know small things and it
helps you to basically
give a bit of you know thought what all
needs to go there there needs to be
plumbing there needs to be electrical work
work
how electrical work will happen where
based on you know like the floor plan
where the bathroom will be where the
kitchen will be what all plumbing and electrical
electrical
you know connections need to go in each
of those rooms
that all is defined in your normal
house plan right now when we talk about
the test plan
it is no different with any other planning
planning
activity so when you are building the
house you build a plan
to build the house when you are doing
software testing
you build or you create a plan to
basically mention or identify
what and how you are going to test a
particular software
right so planning gives you a
predefined or gives you a guidance to
basically analyze what you are going to test
test
and how you are going to test okay so there
there
are a lot of you know templates
available and the
you know organizations customize these
templates accordingly
so as per their needs but in general
test plan template this is ieee template
sections these are the key sections that
need to be included in the test
plan so we haven't we have understood
about the general plan
um and planning so planning is important
without planning if you start
you know actually um doing some work
you are you know going to end up in some
sort of trouble
or you know you might be forgetting
something but if you have you know
proper plan in place then you
give it a thought about the software
testing module that you are going to
test or the overall software that you
are going to test
and based on that you know testing or
the thought that you have given in that
particular plan you define all the
activities that need to go in that plan
step by step right so if you talk about
the test plan
uh you know what all needs to go into
the test plan so test plan is specific
to software testing
and in the test plan we have the first
thing is test plan identifier now when
we talk about test plan identifier
it is something you know a document
identifier say for example
you write something you know uh tp underscore
underscore
and then say for example your project
name or initials are
abc and then you start you know zero one
or something so this is something you
know you
you you basically provide the name of the
the
plan so that anybody who is seeing
uh can easily understand that this is
test plan of this particular project in the
the
organization right so test plan
identifier is identifier of that
particular document that you'll be creating
creating
as part of the project then in the introduction
introduction
section as the name suggests you will
introduce what
this plan is all about right so which
particular module or which particular
application this particular test plan that
that
the document that you'll be writing will
be uh you know
handling or will be testing for so
introduction about the project
and some of the details about the
project so couple of you know statements there
there
in the introduction section so that if
anybody reads that introduction section he
he
can or he or she can understand what
exactly the plan is all about
okay then you have the test items so
this is another
important thing so what this will guide
you is when you
identify the items or the testing items
what this means is all the features that
you are going to test right so high
are the requirements right so if if you
have the requirements or the features
so there will be you know like high
level features say for example if i'm testing
testing
uh e-commerce website then
what all features need to be built as
part of the release one or release two
and then you include those features so
for example login functionality so you
mention login with some of the details
then you
mentioned registration so high level you know
know
functionalities that you are going to
test as part of the application you provide
provide
those details in the test item section
of the plan
then you have the features to be tested
and features not to be tested these two
are also very important sections of the plan
plan
and in features to be tested you mention
or you
uh you know write down all the features
that need to be tested so for example
here we have already
included the test items as such now
we have to basically elaborate what all features
features
um of these items right so in this case
say for example
you know test items are login or
registration or any of the details so
what all features among those items need
to be tested
okay so whatever items you are
mentioning here at the test item level
then you elaborate what all features
within those items
or high level modules that you have
mentioned here in the test items
need to be tested here right so those
all details will go into features to be
tested then features not to be tested
is also very important because you need
to upfront analyze what you are going to
test and what you are not
not going to test right so this gives
you a clarity that
when you are starting to execution phase
then you know what you are going to
execute and what is basically required
as part of the
test execution right so you mentioned
whatever features need to be tested in
the features to be tested features not
to be tested in the features not to be
tested section then the approach is another
another
very important section and you will
spend a lot of time on
approach because approach changes
based on the type of you know
application or
project that you're working in right so
for example you are testing a banking
application the approach will be different
different
and if you are testing an e-commerce
application approach will be different
and in
approach what mainly goes is how you are
going to
test a particular application what all
interfaces are there
what techniques you are going to apply
what will be the test levels etc so all
those details
go into approach right so you have to
think about the particular you know
product or
application and then based on that
particular application or product you
define the approach
or test approach for that particular application
application
then you have item pass and fail
criteria so
when an item will be considered or the
or a particular module or you know
feature will be considered
as pass or fail say for example
i have a module or a feature which has
15 test cases and when all those 15 test
cases are executed there are two test
cases failing
which have low priority defects still
attached to it right or still open then
in the item pass and fail criteria
define where what are the criterias
which mark the item as pass or fail
so in the past criteria you can you know mention
mention
that and this is all you know this as
per discussion with the stakeholders or the
the
members of the team so in the item pass
criteria you can mention that
you know no severity one and two defects
open even if there are you know low
priority or
low severity defects still open if they
are accepted we can still
mark the item as pass right so these are
some of the
statements that need to go into item
pass and fail criteria
when we say item fail you can say if
there is any
you know severity one defect or severity
2 defect that
is you know identified for a particular
feature then that
is failed or that this case is failed so
any pass or fail criterias that can be defined
defined
need to go into item pass and fail criteria
criteria
then you have sub suspension and
resumption criteria so suspension as the
name suggests when will you suspend the
testing right so for example you got a
blocker defect and the testing cannot
progress further
or you got a defect which needs to be
fixed because unless and until that
defect is fixed
all the testing that is done in future
or further
it doesn't make any sense so in that
case you will suspend
the testing so any criterias that need
to be you know
identified and discussed with the team uh
uh
which will block the testing need to go
into the suspension section and
resumption is when you are going to
resume say for example testing got blocked
blocked
because of these and these defects once
those defects will be fixed
and verified successfully we will resume
our testing as per plan right so all
those things
will go into suspension and resumption criteria
criteria
okay so these are the eight sections now
coming to the ninth one so this is test
deliverable so what
you will deliver as part of the testing
so you'll deliver test cases scripts plan
plan
um if there are any automation scripts
that you are doing
all those deliverables whatever
deliverable has been agreed
you deliver or you mention that as the test
test
deliverables okay then you have
the testing tasks what all tasks will be
required to perform all the activities so
so
what all testing tasks will be involved
in the overall testing life cycle
then in the environmental needs what is
the environment so
you know windows server is required you
need to install something what
software version what hardware version
how many os is required
if there is any tool specific a specific
tool required any automation tool
required what test management
you know tools so any any specific you
know test environment
related needs that need to be
available before you can actually start
you know testing needs to go into
environmental needs section then in the
responsibility section
who is responsible for what within the
team right so what test manager will do
what test lead will do
what a person within a particular
testing team say for example i am the
you know api tester or person who
has expertise in the api testing so i'll
be focusing more on the api
related story so any responsibilities or
specific responsibilities that need to
be defined
will go into the responsibility section
so test manager
test lead any team member what all
responsibilities are there
for each of the team member will go into
the responsibilities section
then if there are any staffing and
training needs required then you will basically
basically
mention that into the staffing and
training needs so how many people are
required to basically
achieve this particular project or
finish the testing
if there are any training needs for
example i am going to
use the new tool or new test management
tool for which
the team is not a team is fairly new for it
it
then we'll have a brief training session
for it
if there is any automation tool that is
required we can have training session
for that how many people will be
required to
perform that overall testing will go
into the staffing section
schedule is basically you know like the
timeline of
the overall test activity will go into
the schedule
then any risk and contingencies will go
into the risk and contingency
section in risks you mentioned say for example
example
what will happen if something goes wrong
wrong within
the test life cycle so for example you
know team members get sick
is there any contingency plan for that if
if
there is a blocker defect that has you know
know
stopped or you know suspended our
testing for
three days what all risks
are possible in the overall testing life
cycle will go into the risk and contingency
contingency
section right and then approvals will have
have
the name of the approvers who will
be approving this overall plan
okay so project manager test manager
um mostly this plan test plan is you
know written by either by test manager
or test lead
with the input from the overall team if
the team is there
otherwise from the experience of that
you know a particular person who server
is test lead and test manager
and then they will be providing the
details of all the people who are going
to approve
this plan right so whatever has been
documented in this plan
like this is what we are going to test
these are the features this is
how we are going to test who is going to test
test
this is the schedule how it looks like
and these are the dates when we'll finish
finish
our work right so this is
these are the key sections or ski 16
16 sections as per ieee
you know test plan template which will
be found in any test plan that you pick
so it will be you know it doesn't matter
which organization you go
you will find these sections
um in every place
there might be you know a difference in
you know naming convention or
the terminology that they use but these
sections will definitely be there
along with some more sections if it is
relevant for that particular project or
specific to that project
right so these are some of the you know
uh these are you know key sections of a
test plan that
will be there and should be there in any
of the test plan
and this plan once you write this
it will guide your thought process how
you are going to approach the testing
for a particular project
or application right same analogy as
building the house if you do not have
the plan
and you haven't thought about how you
are going to perform plumbing or
electrical work
prior to building the rooms and roofs
then you know um it in in
software testing term it's similar so
you have to you know
give a thought up front to basically
how you are going to lay your
foundations how you are going to approach
approach
testing to that particular application
what all is required how many people are required
required
what will be the timeline to deliver
that particular
you know testing for that particular
application or software
okay so that is all about you know
a test plan and what exactly is a test plan
plan
now going through you know any of the
you know google templates you can find
there are few things here and there
are you know few sections renamed differently
differently
that doesn't make difference these are
the key sections
that you can correlate with any of the
plans test plans available out there and
you can also
you know you you might also find some
new sections so you you
if new sections are available there they
might be specific to the projects
okay so this is all about
the test plan why you need a test plan
and how it helps you to basically
perform the software testing with proper
approach and
confidence now this is this was more relevant
relevant
with the waterfall approach and
still even with agile approach these
you know or quick test planning is done
and required
but it is not as detailed or
it it is not a phased approach anymore
in agile approach so
because agile is you know sprint by
sprint work which is too weak so you
don't write a test plan in each and
every sprint or you do not write the
detailed test plan
in each every every sprint you write a
plan for
you know a particular release for
example six months or so
and then in each and every sprint what
you do is you basically
write a quick one pager of the approach
or the test approach that you are going
to apply
for that particular sprint to test those stories
stories
right because you don't want to you know waste
waste
too much of your time just documenting
the stuff this
plan or the detailed test plan is required
required
for the upfront analysis or basically for
for
the longer period of duration so this
was very popular in the waterfall or v
model approach but in agile you still
write it but you
write it for six months or you know for
at least you know like six months
release which might have you know like
20 sprints within
it okay so that's all for this tutorial
on test plan i hope i was able to clarify
clarify
um the test plan and this
is helpful for you for your actual
project work and
for the interviews as well so
thank you very much for watching please
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