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In software testing, a test plan is a must-have. A well-defined and comprehensive test plan provides all stakeholders involved with necessary information of the testing roadmap. Through it all members gain a shared vision for the testing approaches, strategies, objectives, resources, and timelines.
In this article, we will deep-dive into what a test plan is, why it is so important, and how to create a good test plan that truly improves the overall efficiency of your testing activities.
What is A Test Plan?
A test plan is a formal document that serves as a comprehensive and structured description of the testing activities and strategies that will be employed to check the quality of the software system under test. This document provides detailed information on the approach, methodology, scope, objectives, resources, timelines, and risks associated with the project.
The test planning process can be different depending on the methodology the team chose. For example, in Agile development, the test plan can be developed in smaller chunks during each separate iteration instead of at the very beginning of the entire project for other testing methodologies. This allows for better revision and adjustment of the test plan in case problems arise.
Benefits of Test Planning
Everyone benefits in one way or another from a good test plan.
- For QA Managers: without a solid test plan, things can quickly get messy. QA managers might end up juggling an uncoordinated testing effort, wasting time and resources. A good test plan helps you stay organized and makes sure everyone’s on the same page. And remember, it’s not set in stone. You can always tweak timelines, metrics, and resources as you go to keep everything running smoothly and adapt to any bumps in the road.
- For team members: a clear test plan is like a roadmap for each sprint. It gives the team concrete goals to work towards, so everyone knows what’s expected. Plus, it outlines all the technical details, like which testing tools and methods to use, and sets up the test environment—everything from software and hardware to any outside services the testing depends on. This makes it easy for the team to stay on track.
- For stakeholders and developers: for stakeholders and the dev team, the test plan is the go-to guide that keeps everyone in sync. It’s a reference point for tracking progress and making sure the project stays aligned with the big picture. Plus, if something goes wrong, having this shared visibility allows for quick adjustments and problem-solving without delays or confusion.
Another aspect of the test plan that many tend to gloss over: it identifies potential risks and issues that could impact the testing effort and outlines strategies and plans for mitigating these risks. Risk management boosts testing confidence, allowing teams to better prepare for unexpected scenarios.
How long does it take to build a test plan?
Creating a test plan is a collaborative effort. The QA manager is usually the owner of the test plan, and it usually takes about 2 - 3 days to build and review a simple test plan, while complex test plans may take about 1 week or more to fully finish.
Components of a Test Plan
A test plan is essentially a project management plan built specifically for a software testing project, which should always include the major components of a normal plan for project management purposes, including an overview, scope, methodology, resources, schedule, risks, and communication plan.
Of course, a test plan should go beyond that and also include information that would be beneficial to the testing process. Here are 8 crucial items that should be included in a good test plan:
Component | Description |
Objectives | Define the testing team’s goals using the SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound). Focus on functionality, performance, usability, security, and compatibility. |
Approach | High-level overview of testing strategy, including types of tests (functional, performance, security) and testing methodology. Cover tools, techniques, and success metrics. |
Scope | Define the extent and boundaries of testing, specifying what will be tested (in scope) and what will not (out of scope). |
Test Deliverables | List the documentation and artifacts to be produced during the testing process (e.g., test cases, reports). Specify format, frequency, and distribution of deliverables. |
Dependencies | Identify any dependencies in the testing process, such as required modules or services. Include plans for mock modules if development isn't complete. |
Test Environment | Describe the hardware, software, and network configurations needed for testing. Specify if testing will be done in a local or remote environment. |
Risk Management | Outline potential risks (e.g., missing deliverables, resource changes) and mitigation strategies. Use dependency mapping to anticipate adjustments. |
Schedule | Define the testing timeline, including milestones for manual and/or automated testing phases. Highlight deadlines for each testing activity. |
Roles and Responsibilities | Assign specific roles to team members and detail their responsibilities. Include communication channels and protocols to ensure smooth collaboration. |
Having these items in a test plan makes it a "good" test plan and not just a normal test plan. It ensures that the testing effort is comprehensive, organized, focused on achieving the desired outcomes while minimizing the risks and challenges associated with testing. It also facilitates collaboration and communication among the testing team members, and it enables stakeholders to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the testing process.
Test Plan vs Test Strategy: Key Differences
Simply put, a test plan focuses on the specifics of testing for a particular project, while a test strategy sets the overarching approach and principles for testing across projects or the entire organization.
You can have a look at the table below to better understand the differences between the two
Aspect | Test Plan | Test Strategy |
Definition | A Test Plan outlines the approach, scope, objectives, resources, and schedule for testing a specific project or product. | A Test Strategy defines the high-level approach to testing for an organization or a project, guiding the overall testing process. |
Scope | Focuses on the details of how testing will be carried out for a specific project. | Encompasses a broader perspective, outlining principles, objectives, and methods to achieve consistent testing across projects. |
Purpose | Provides a detailed roadmap for the testing activities, including what, when, and how to test. | Sets the direction for testing efforts, aligning them with the organization's goals and helping in making important testing decisions. |
Audience | Primarily for the project team, including testers, developers, managers, and stakeholders. | Aimed at management, project leads, and high-level stakeholders involved in decision-making for testing strategies. |
Contents | Includes test scope, objectives, resources, schedule, test environment, test cases, entry/exit criteria, risks, and deliverables. | Covers testing approach, testing types (functional, performance, security, etc.), tools, defect management, risk assessment, and overall process. |
Level of Detail | Provides a detailed breakdown of test activities, including specific test cases, procedures, and schedules. | Offers a broader overview of the testing approach, principles, and guidelines, rather than focusing on specific details. |
Timeframe | Typically created for a specific project phase or release. | Generally applies to multiple projects or the entire organization and is less time-bound. |
Flexibility | More rigid and specific to the project, allowing less flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances. | Offers more flexibility in adapting to various project needs, as it doesn't delve into specifics. |
Dependencies | Based on the broader guidelines outlined in the Test Strategy. | Driven by the organization's policies, best practices, and project-specific requirements. |
Communication | Essential for aligning the project team and stakeholders on the testing approach and execution. | Ensures that testing efforts are aligned with the overall organizational goals and standards. |
Revision and Updates | Needs to be updated more frequently, especially with changes in project scope or requirements. | Changes less frequently and provides a stable framework for testing efforts across multiple projects. |
Example Use Case | Creating a detailed plan for testing a specific software release or product update. | Establishing guidelines for how various types of testing (functional, performance, etc.) will be conducted within the organization. |
Learn more: What is a Test Strategy and How To Create One?
How To Create a Test Plan?
Before creating a test plan, make sure that you have involved all the necessary stakeholders. The QAs should not be the only one doing this. Developers should provide technical input on the system architecture, software design, and coding standards to inform the testing approach. Similarly, the business analyst and domain-specific experts might also need to be involved to provide insights from the business side. Cross-team effort in the test planning should be encouraged.
After that, we can start test planning, which consists of 9 steps:
1. Product Analysis
This is the preliminary stage when everyone gathers to develop a deep understanding of the product under test, most importantly its underlying architecture. Along the development roadmap, when testers have gained a firm understanding of the product, this stage gradually turns from product analysis to a review session of previous testing efforts.
Testers typically begin by reviewing the product specifications, documentation, and any other relevant information that is available to identify the features and functions of the product that need to be tested. Also, make sure to identify any dependencies or external systems that the product interacts with, since bugs may arise due to miscommunication between these modules.
Ask your stakeholders:
- What are the primary objectives of the product?
- Who is the target audience for the product?
- What are the key features of the product that are most important to the customer?
- What are the potential risks or challenges associated with the product?
- What are the critical quality attributes or performance metrics that the product must meet?
2. Determine Testing Objective
Based on the information gathered from the Product Analysis session, the QA manager starts to develop a Test Strategy document, which is a higher-level plan that outlines the project objectives. Usually it details the types of testing to be conducted so teams can prepare resources as well as technology to better meet these objectives.
There are plenty of testing types, but they usually are categorized into 2 major groups: functional tests (such as API testing) and non-functional tests (such as visual testing).
Read more: 15 Types of QA Testing You Should Know
These objectives are not set in stone. Keep in mind that you can always shift your test objectives. However, at the earlier stages, a priority value should be assigned to each objective, so that teams know which objectives should be accomplished first.
Usually those would be objectives with many dependencies. Over time, in face of requirement changes and evolving needs, teams may need to deprioritize certain objectives, and the test plan will be where we keep track of those changes.
Another important aspect of defining test objectives is the entry and exit criteria. Essentially they are sets of conditions that must be met to begin and end a particular phase of software development and testing.
Several entry criteria to consider:
- The completion of development and unit testing
- Availability of necessary test data and test environment
- Signed-off requirements and test plans
- Test scripts and test cases prepared and reviewed
- Test automation infrastructure ready
- Configuration management completed
Several exit criteria to consider:
- All critical defects have been resolved and retested
- All test cases have been executed and passed
- All performance targets have been met
- Acceptance criteria have been met and signed off
- System is ready for production deployment
- Test summary report has been prepared and reviewed
At its core, defining entry and exit criteria is defining the scope of your test plan. These criteria are usually defined and agreed upon from the get-go so teams have a clear idea of where they are supposed to be heading.
Sometimes teams may even need to define a suspension criteria i.e. when should teams stop testing entirely and send the code back to the dev team to troubleshoot. This happens when there are too many bugs that it becomes counterproductive to test. To avoid this, teams usually conduct sanity checks beforehand (which are basically small-scale testing to gauge the overall quality of the code) so that they don’t waste resources doing unnecessary tests on a broken build.
3. Identify test scenarios based on the outlined testing objectives
This is when we get into the granularity and the specifics. Based on all of the information outlined before, the QA team members can now start brainstorming test scenarios. Think about how users interact with your system.
Let's say that the testing team is working on testing a new e-commerce website that allows users to purchase products online. The team has the following business logic, requirements, and test objectives:
Business Logic:
- Users can search for products by category, name, or brand.
- Users can add products to their shopping cart and checkout.
- Users can make payments using different payment methods.
Requirements:
- The search feature must be accurate and fast.
- The shopping cart and checkout must display accurate pricing information.
- The payment process must be reliable and secured
Test Objectives:
- Verify the accuracy and speed of the search feature.
- Verify the accuracy of the pricing information in the shopping cart and in checkout
- Verify the security and ease of use of the payment process.
4. Resource Planning
With all of the important items listed out, both teams have a clear idea of what will be tested. The QA manager can now work on resource planning. Usually the following resources should be available.
- Hardware
- Software
- Testing tools
- Personnel
- Training materials
- Testing environment
- Data
- Time
- Budget
- Communication and collaboration tools
5. Define Test Deliverables
Test deliverables are the artifacts that are produced during the testing process and that provide evidence of the testing activities that were performed. These deliverables may vary depending on the type of testing being conducted and the specific requirements of the project. Examples of test deliverables include:
- Test Cases
- Test Scripts
- Test Results
- Test Summary Report
- Defect Reports
- Traceability Matrix
- Test Environment
- User Acceptance Report
If you don't know which test cases to start with, here are the list of popular test cases for you. They should give you a good foundation of how to approach a system as a tester.
- Test Cases For API Testing
- Test Cases For Login Page
- Test Cases For Registration Page
- Test Cases For Banking Application
- Test Cases For E-commerce website
- Test Cases For Search Functionality
6. Define Test Schedule
After that, based on the list of deliverables, you can start thinking about the test schedule. Estimate the approximate time it takes for each stage of the testing activities based on their complexity, their dependencies, resources required, and many other factors.
Set milestones along the way. They are the signals and temporary checkpoints to tell you and your team where your team is heading. Have clear delivery dates.
If you notice, we are essentially following the SMART rules. Sticking to the 5 letters of the SMART rules and you should have a well-defined test plan.
7. Review And Finalize
This is the final QA step for your QA plan. Review the items you laid out. Ask yourself several questions to check your previous decisions:
- Have we included all the key requirements and features that need to be tested?
- What are the potential risks that could affect the testing process, and have we included strategies to mitigate them in the test plan?
- Is the test environment fully prepared and available for testing? Have we checked that it meets the requirements outlined in the test plan?
- Have we allocated the necessary resources for the testing activities, such as personnel and tools?
- Is the testing schedule feasible and does it align with the overall project timeline?
Once it’s all good, you have a clear test plan ready to be used.
Test Plan Sample Document
Here is a sample test plan for a Ride-Sharing Mobile Application (similar to an Uber/Lyft application):
Component | Details |
Objectives | The goal is to ensure the app’s core functionality (ride booking, payments, GPS tracking) performs as expected and meets performance, usability, and security standards. Specific objectives include:
|
Approach | The test strategy combines manual and automated testing.
|
Scope | In Scope:
|
Out of Scope:
| |
Test Deliverables |
These deliverables will be shared bi-weekly with stakeholders and archived for future regression testing. |
Dependencies |
Contingency plan: use mock services for APIs if live systems are unavailable for testing. |
Test Environment |
|
Risk Management | Identified Risks:
Mitigation Strategies:
|
Schedule | Timeline:
|
Roles and Responsibilities |
|
How To Make Adjustments In A Test Plan?
- Identify the reason for the adjustment: What has changed that requires an adjustment to the test plan? How will the adjustment affect the overall project goals and objectives?
- Evaluate the impact of the adjustment: What are the potential risks and challenges associated with the adjustment? How will the adjustment affect the schedule, budget, or other project resources?
- Update the affected sections of the test plan: Be aware of the dependencies in the test plan: 1 change can always influence another part.
- Review and approve the changes with relevant stakeholders: encourage transparency in your team. A team-wide email should be good enough, but for more drastic changes, you may want a meeting to communicate more thoroughly
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What is a test plan?
A test plan is a document that describes the scope, approach, resources, and schedule of intended testing activities. It identifies the items to be tested, the features to be tested, the testing tasks, who will do each task, and any risks requiring contingency planning.
Q2: What should be included in a test plan?
A test plan should include objectives, scope, approach, resources, schedule, test deliverables, dependencies, test environment, risk management, roles and responsibilities, and a communication plan.
Q3: How is test planning done in Agile development?
In Agile development, test planning is iterative and done in smaller chunks during each sprint. This allows for continuous revision and adjustment based on feedback and changing requirements.
Q4: Who is responsible for creating a test plan?
Typically, the QA manager is responsible for creating the test plan, but it should be a collaborative effort involving input from developers, business analysts, and other stakeholders to ensure comprehensive coverage and accuracy.
