Test Management

Chapter 3 of Guide to Advanced Software Testing: Second Edition

Test management is the art of planning and directing a test project or a test subprocess to success. It is in many ways like project management, and yet not quite the same. The fundamental ISTQB test process is described in Section 2.2. of the book. This process includes the test management activities of test panning, monitoring, control, and test closure. These activities form the basis for the corresponding ISO 29119 test management activities described here, and they are very similar in nature.

This eBook first describes how a test project management interacts “upward” with the development or maintenance project management it belongs to. This is followed by a description of how the test project management interacts “downward” with the management of its individual test subprocess. Finally the interaction between the test subprocess management and its dynamic and/or static test processes is described. Following this introduction, the individual activities in the test management process and their outcomes in the form of documents are described.

Material covered in this test management eBook:

1. Test Management Responsibility
2. Test Stakeholder Analysis
3. Risk-based Testing
4. Test Estimation
5. Test Metrics and Measurements
6. Test Progress Monitoring and Control

Extract:

“The first activity in the test management process is the test planning. A number of considerations and choices must be made to ensure the most effective and efficient test performance. The results of these choices must be documented as the test plan to guide the test project or test subprocess.

The point is not to create the plan, but to perform the planning activities; that is,to make the necessary decisions about what, how, where, and by whom testing shall be performed.Test planning requires a firm understanding of the context in which the testing is going to be performed. Relevant material, such as the test policy and/or applicable test strategies, regulatory standards, relevant plans, project documentation, and not least the risk register(s) and the requirements specification(s), must be studied and analyzed.

Creating the testing plan takes time and it should not be “invisible” work (i.e., work that is not scheduled nor reported anywhere). It is part of the planning to include the planning activities in the plan.”