The test planning stage represents the need to review long-lead-time test planning activities. During this phase, the test team identifies test procedure creation standards and guidelines; hardware, software, and network required to support test environment; test data requirements; a preliminary test schedule; performance measure requirements; a procedure to control test configuration and environment; as well as defect-tracking procedure(s) and associated tracking tool(s).
The test plan contains the results of Consruction Estimate Management each preliminary phase of the structured test methodology (ATLM). The test plan will define roles and responsibilities, project test schedule, test planning and design activities, test environment preparation, test risks and contingencies, and acceptable level of thoroughness ( test acceptance criteria). Test plan appendices may include test procedures, naming conventions, test procedure format standards, and a test procedure traceability matrix.
The test environment setup is part of test planning. It represents the need to plan, track, and manage test environment setup activities, where material procurements may have long lead times. The test team needs to schedule and track environment setup activities; install test environment hardware, software, and network resources; integrate and install test environment resources; obtain/refine test databases; and develop environment setup scripts and test bed scripts.
Test Design
The test design component addresses the need to define the number of tests to be performed, the ways that testing will be approached (paths, functions), and the test conditions that need to be exercised. Test design standards need to be defined and followed.
An effective test program, incorporating the automation of software testing, involves a mini-development lifecycle of its own, complete with strategy and goal planning, test requirement definition, analysis, design, and coding. Similar to software application development, test requirements must be specified before test design is constructed. Test requirements need to be clearly defined and documented, so that all project personnel will understand the basis of the test effort. Test requirements are defined within requirement statements as an outcome of test requirement analysis.