Why is A Test Plan Often Ignored By Testers?

Everybody agrees that test plan is the most important document for a testing process. It contains all the significant and useful information and it is meant to guide and to consult all the project members.

But many software testers and developers do not read and do not use the test plan working on the software product or executing web site testing, desktop testing and mobile application testing.

The reasons of test plan ignoring are its content and execution. As a rule, such a test plan is a formal and cumbersome document containing no practically useful information. Very often basis of such a plan is a similar useless test plan of a similar testing process. Only names, dates and some other details are changed.

Working on such a plan is wasting of precious time and resources. But really good and useful plan significantly simplifies work of the test team and the development team.

That is why many quality assurance experts work on proper creation of a test plan. Some of elaborated methods and approaches appear to be successful and allow to develop appropriate and helpful plans.

Most of Software Testing Experts Agree That a Plan Must Be:

- unique, specially elaborated for each project;

- base on compactly documented researches of the most significant aspects of the application;

- be brief and readable.

All the quality assurance experts believe that testing strategy is a key element of each test plan. The plan also should include some other researches and calculations of the project. For example, James Bach, who is a famous specialist in software testing and software testing planning, considers that a test plan should include 4 elements.

The 4 Elements Are:

- Study of the Application. Here it is necessary to determine what the software under test is, for what people it is created, what tasks it is meant to perform and so on.

- Logistics Issues. It is necessary to determine what testers and when will work on the program, what equipment will be needed, what equipment is available and what should be acquired, and so on.

- Determining and Evaluation of the Projects Risks. One should ask different project members what they think may go wrong with the project and the product and how it is possible to avoid or minimize the negative consequences.

- Test Strategy. One should set clear test goals and describe ways, methods and techniques of their achieving.

Any software testing company would find such a test plan fruitful. It will be really helpful during mobile testing, desktop testing or web site testing.

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