Representation Options |
In certain testing cultures, Test Plan are considered informal, casual work products, whereas in
others they are highly formal and often require external signoff. As such, the format and content of the work product
should be varied to meet the specific needs of an organization or project. Start by considering the templates included
with the RUP and remove, add, or modify elements from the template as needed.
As an alternative to formal documentation, you might choose to record the elements of the iteration Test Plan as a set of informal planning notes, possibly maintained on
an Intranet Web site or whiteboard readily visible to, and accessible by, the test team. You could do the same with the
Master Test Plan.
Optionally, some aspects of this work product can be presented appropriately as enclosures within the Software Development Plan and the Iteration Plan, rather than as a separate work products.
We recommend that you create smaller Test Plan
focused on the scope of a single iteration. These work products should contain the information related to the specific
Test Motivators (for example, a subset of requirements, risks), the specific test ideas you will investigate,
strategies you will use, resources available and so forth, relevant to the specific Iteration.
Optionally, a "Master" Test Plan, may be created at the outset of the project to provide an
outline of the planned test effort over the life of the project, and provide some forethought into resource
requirements and other long-term logistics concerns. This master work product also provides a way to limit the
repetition of elements common to all Test
Plan such as human, hardware and software resources, management procedures, and so forth. We recommend you
avoid documenting specific detailed test information in the Test Plan, documenting that as necessary and appropriate in
other more appropriate test work products.
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