Test plans can be organized in several ways depending on the organizational policy. There is often a hierarchy of plans that includes several levels of quality assurance and test plans. At the top of the plan hierarchy is a master plan, which gives an overview of all verification and validation activities for the project, as well as details related to other quality issues such as audits, standards, and configuration control. Below the master test plan, there is individual planning for each activity in verification and validation, as shown in figure.

The test plan at each level of testing must account for information that is specific to that level; for example, risks and assumptions, resource requirements, schedule, testing strategy, and required skills. The testplans according to each level are written in an order such that the plan prepared first is executed last, that is, the acceptance test plan is the first plan to be formalized but is executed last. The reason for its early preparation is that the things required for its completion are available first.