Software testing Templates

[Ronan Healy]

I know that templates are a very common thing in testing and there are hundreds available for test plans, case logs, bug tracking etc.

Many tasks in testing can be repetitive and templates come in handy. Do you use templates?

Are they a good idea to use as a shortcut or is there any negatives to using templates?

[Jesper]

Templates are best used as guidelines, but I have been in plenty of situations where the templates were fixed in stone, and no editing of the headlines appropriate. I have also written my share of templates, mostly to make writing the next documents faster. For novel solutions and new areas (Devops, agile) new “templates” needs to emerge. And for that we need to experiment a couple of times – you cannot write a template from scratch.

[Tassawer]

Yes i do and templates are always handy.

I can’t see any negative point in using templates.

[Archana]

I use templates often as a guideline and to save time. But they cannot always be used as it is. You need to customize it as per your requirements.

[Alin]

I use templates for test plans and bug tracking. They are very useful and keeping a common template makes it easier for other team members to read them. A good approach is to also add attachments to templates like screenshots, logs, technical documentation etc.

[Magnus]

This is funny. I got this thread sent to my e-mail just an hour after sending a template out to the team of one of our projects. I usually don’t use templates but for one project that has grown a lot dEuring the last 6 months. Some of the people testing and filing issues tend to write quite cluttered and information heavy issues soI sent out a template on how an issue should be structured with description and steps to reproduce to be as clear as possible.

[Michał]

Hello, I will share you my story on testing templates and how they helped my team in a Testing Competition.

We participated in TestingCup 2017 Tournament held in Gdańsk. It was our rookie attempt, the first time participating, and  we have been the best rookie team out there, taking 5th position, and being fully capable of winning. The Jury did not accept the description of an issue we’ve reported, which would gave us 1st place, because – shame on us – we only gave there half a sentence during the testing phase, and we have forgotten to input all the necessary information later on.

We stumbled upon a lot of technical problems. Our team leader has been incapacitated for almost one third of the time, as multiple Java installations on his PC made using the Software Under Test impossible for him.

Our task was to prepare a Test Plan, execute tests, and write bug reports for a piece of software prepared especially for this competition. All teams have been given three hours for that.

This is the part in where the Templates come into action. We’ve split the tasks in such a way that the Team Lead focused on Test Plan and correcting our one-sentence bug reports, and rest of us focused on bug hunting. Not much else you can do within three hours. First hour passed when TL finally managed to get the SUT working on his PC, so he had to work in very tight schedule. In all the previous editions of the tournament, the document to give at the end was a Test Report, not a Test Plan. If the other teams were prepared for a Test Report, most of them were not prepared for a Test Plan, and we’ve been told that ours was one of the best ones sent.

Having a template is not a pre-requisite for giving a valuable document. It is, however, the best way to cheaply and quickly get right into action, with a checklist of things that need to be taken care of prepared since the beginning. It is a jump-start to any kind of documentation, the one that lets you focus on the content, and not the visual presentation, as visual presentation has already been taken care of.

This year, all of us will have a broad set of templates prepared for the competition. But they will also provide us value in typical business scenarios, not only in the championships. Right set of templates can be, in my opinion, a mark of seniority when it comes to Software Testing, as I understand “seniority” as the ability to optimize the processes that we participate in.
And this right set of templates is exactly that – a way to optimize the process.

But there is one thing that is worth considering, a trap one could fall into while giving Templates too much credit. Templates should be guidelines. They shouldn’t always be strictly followed, they should be adapted for the job they should serve. In our Test Plan template during that competition, we had a point “When does the testing stop”, and a set of metrics that could be referenced as factors in ending the testing. We erased all that, and instead wrote “The tests will end at 13:00 because this is when the tournament is finished”.

[Joerg]

Hi,

we use templates for aisst in creating test planning / -strategy, test case specification, specification quality control report (agile SQC) documents. They are just assistance templates to think about the items needed in such a document. Instructions also helping to understand why you should add the different items. We do not use Excel and Word for those documents. We have “living” documents in a Wiki system that also defects can be corrected and the other authors of such templates will be informed.

I don’t see negative usages after eight years…. many people have helped to make the templates better…

Yours,
Jogi

[Arif]

Hello All,

I am partially agreed to use templates as it will be useful for Juniors & repetitive tasks. But at time its not useful for any innovative tasks and especially when it comes to new prospects & management related stuff.

Thanks

Arif Shaik

[Adrian]

Hi,

I work on a small team of 5 developers and 1 tester and use templates for day to day operations like requests, use cases, bug reports etc so that a consistent standard is maintained.

I include sections in each template for the typical data that would be required, but sometimes don’t need to use all of the sections. They function as a prompt for me in case I overlook something.

I couldn’t cope without templates!

[solema]

Hello

I am new user on this site.

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[Anna]

Hmm that is pretty interesting as for me

[Author]

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