This question appears in Mumbai University > Software Testing & Quality Assurance Subject

Marks: 10 M

Year: Dec 2013,

System Test Plan:

• A good system test plan for performing system testing is the cornerstone of a successful software project.

• The purpose of system test planning is to get ready and organized for test execution.

• A system test plan should include the following essential items:

Outline of System Test Plan

1. Introduction
2. Feature description
3. Assumptions
4. Test Approach
5. Test suite structure
6. Test environment
7. Test execution strategy
8. Test effort estimation
9. Scheduling and test milestones

1. Introduction

• The introduction section of the system test plan describes the structure and the objective of the test plan.

• This section includes (i) test project name, (ii) revision history, (iii) terminology and definitions, (iv) names of the approvers and the date of approval, (v) references,

2. Feature description

• The feature description section summarizes the system features that will be tested during the execution of this test plan.

• In other words, a high level description of the functionalities of the system is presented in this section.

3. Assumptions

• The assumptions section describes the areas for which test cases will not be designed in the plan due to several reasons. The necessary equipment to carry out scalability testing may not be available.

• It may also not be possible to procure third party equipment in time to conduct interoperability testing or to conduct compliance test for regulatory bodies and environment test in the laboratory.

4. Test Approach

• The overall test approach is an important aspect of a testing project which consists of the following :

  • Lessons learned from past test projects are useful in focusing on problematic areas in testing process.

  • Any outstanding issues that need to be tested differently, for example specific hardware and software configuration need to be included.

  • Test cases should be identified in the test factory that can be reused in the test plan.

5 Test Suite Structure

• Detail test groups and subgroups are outlined in the test suite structure section based on the test categories identified in the test approach section.

• Test objectives are created for each test group and subgroup based on the system requirements and functional specification.

• If some existing test cases, automated or manual, need to be run as regression tests, those test cases must be included in the test suite.

6.Test environment

• It is necessary to plan for and design the test environment, also called a test bed or a test laboratory, to make the execution of system level test cases effective.

• The objective here is to achieve effective testing whereby most of the defects in the system are revealed by utilizing a limited quantity of resources.

• Efforts must be made to create a deployment environment by using simulators, emulators and third party traffic generation tools. Such tools are found to be useful in conducting scalability, performance, load and stress testing.

7. Test execution strategy

• The test execution strategy addresses the following concerns by putting a game plan in place before initiating system testing :

• How many times are the test cases executed and when ?

  • What does one do with the failed test cases ?
  • In what order are the test cases executed ?
  • Which test cases are to be run just before ending the system testing phase ?

• In the absence of a good system test execution strategy, it is highly unlikely that the desired system-level test is performed within the given time and without overusing resources.

8. Test Effort Estimation

• The system test group needs to estimate testing effort to produce a schedule of test execution. Testing effort defines the amount of work that needs to be done. This work has two major components :

  • The number of test cases created by one person in one day.

  • The number of test case executed by one person in one day.

• The above components are also referred to as test productivity.

• The three key factors in estimating test effort are as follows :

  • Number of test cases to be designed for the software project.

  • Effort required to create a detailed test case.

9. Scheduling and test milestones

• It is essential to understand and consider the following steps in order to schedule a test project effectively:

  • Develop a detailed list of tasks.

  • List all the major milestones needed to be achieved during the test project.

  • Identify the interdependence among the test tasks.

  • Identify the different kinds of resources and expertise needed to fulfil each task on the list.

  • Estimate the quality of resources needed for each task.

  • Schedule the start and end of each task.

  • Identify the conditions required to be satisfied for the schedule.