The Essential Components of a Successful Test Concept
von itsbusiness AG
A Test Concept describes the necessary process-related and technical information from planning to execution and reporting within the scope of testing. The resources required, both test environments and people should be stated.
Major elements of a test concept
- Test strategy, including a list of the major functionality to be covered.
- Roles and responsibilities, listing the actual staff.
- Infrastructure, including test environments and data.
- Development procedure and elements to be tested.
- Test case creation
- Test case execution
- defect handling
Key success factors for testing
A Test Concept should be created before the development process starts to derive the maximum efficiency during the project lifecycle.
Key success factors are:
- A clear definition of the Quality Acceptance goals at the start of the project.
- Identification of core business processes which are impacted by the project, to determine which parts of the software are key parts of the system.
- Good quality inputs, in the form of the requirements of the system.
- An independent Quality Assurance resource.
- Determining the scope of testing, i.e., define what is being tested and how it will be tested.
- A clear definition of defect categories.
- Determination of the resources required.
- Assigning appropriate resources, such as subject matter experts and experienced testers.
- An experienced Test Manager to monitor and control the process.
- A Work Management Tool for capturing requirements, test cases, defects, and reporting.