Tool Mentor: Planning the Test Effort using IBM Rational Quality Manager |
This tool mentor describes how to use RQM's main artifact, the test plan, when planning the test effort.
Tool: IBM Rational Quality Manager
Relationships
Related Elements | Plan Test Effort
Main Description
### Overview The test plan is a central artifact in RQM and special attention should be given to how you map the specific instances of these test plans to the many testing efforts which need to be managed, controlled, and monitored during the life of a project. The main influencing factors in this decision are: the process lifecycle (iterative versus waterfall), test team organization (one test team versus specialized test teams), test levels, test types. Choosing the right level of granularity for your test plans is also based on your personal and your organization's development culture and history; one advantage of using RQM is the provided flexibility of refactoring your test plans, adapting them quickly to the changes in your project environment and improving the overall agility of your team. You can start with one test plan per iteration and test team, and if there is a need to better monitor and control specific test areas, spin off test plans based on the test type (performance, security and so on). Other important considerations: Use a naming convention for your test plans, driven by the test effort coverage. The name should include the iteration identifier (number, phase, type), the test level and the test type. Assign each test plan to a test team. Choose a Test Plan template that fits your testing context: Planning > Manage Templates. Add/remove sections as needed. ### Tool Steps #### 1. Align Test Approach with Test Mission and Objectives Open the current test plan and review the Business Objectives and Test Objectives sections. Capture the test approach in a special section of the test plan: if not in the Table of Contents, use the Manage Sections button to create a new one, fill in the required information and click Save. See the RQM online topic: Testing > Planning the test effort > Creating test plans for more information. #### 2. Define Testing Risks and Contingencies Add a new Risk section to the test plan if not already present, by clicking on the Manage Sections button. Maintain the list of risks and associated information (priorities, action items, and so on) within this section or if your risk planning is part of a larger risk management effort, attach a link to the external sources. RQM related online topics: To create a new section in a test plan, refer to: Testing > Planning the test effort > Creating test plans. To attach an external document to a test plan, refer to: Testing > Planning test effort > Attaching documents. #### 3. Define Test Scope and Goals Associate the requirements which will be addressed within the test effort covered by the current test plan, by using the features of the Requirements section. For more info, refer to the RQM online topic: Testing > Planning the test effort > Managing requirements in your test plan. Capture the quality goals in the section with the same name. #### 4. Outline Test Cases and Define Priorities and Dependencies Associate existent test cases or create new ones if needed. Use the Test Cases section of the current test plan; see the RQM online topic: Testing > Developing test cases, test suites, and test execution records > Creating new Test Cases for more tool-related information. Maintain a list of priorities either in a special section or in an external document; use the risks and scope as the main drivers for this list which will have to be reviewed with all the stakeholders. As an alternative, you can create a category called Priority for Test Cases and use it in your decision and trade-off process. Go to the Test Cases section and click on the Manage Test Case Categories icon. Add a new category type called Priority and then create priority levels, for example high, medium, low. #### 5. Define Test Configurations Define the required test configurations by selecting the environments which will be tested within this test plan. Go to the Test Environments section and choose from the pre-built list of browsers, databases, operating systems and other platforms. This list will be used to generate test configurations. See the RQM online topic: Testing > Planning the test effort > Planning test environments > Planning your platform coverage for more tool-related information. For automatically generating the correspondent test execution records, use the provided wizard: go to the Test Cases section of the test case and click on the Generate Test Execution Records icon. For more details, refer to the RQM online topic: Testing > Developing test cases, test suites, and test execution records > Generating test execution records automatically. #### 6. Define Schedule and Entry and Exit Criteria Capture the entry and exit criteria in the correspondent sections. Each item has a description, current status and met state fields. Use the Test Estimation section to capture any estimates for the planning and execution effort. For more tool-related information, refer to the following RQM online topic: Testing > Planning the test effort > Estimating the size of the test effort. Make sure that a test team has been assigned to the plan in the Test Team section. You can maintain the schedule within the Test Iteration section or in an external document associated to the test plan, within the Attachments section. To attach an external document to a test plan, refer to the following RQM online topic: Testing > Planning test effort > Attaching documents. #### 7. Create and Integrate Plans If the initial scope needs to be managed at a finer granularity level, create new Test Plans driven by test levels and test types, by going to Planning > Create Test Plan. Use a naming convention to facilitate maintaining dependencies between different test plans. #### 8. Review Test Plan with Stakeholders Follow the agreed upon authorization process and keep the State of each test plan or section up to date. Make sure that each reviewer has access to the test plan. RQM online topics: Testing > Planning the test effort > Setting up a review process > Assigning reviewers and approvers Testing > Planning the test effort > Setting up a review process > Reviewing a test plan or another test artifact
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