Chapter 1 - Test Process

Question 1

Test Planning

Answer 1

Test planning involves activities that define the objectives of testing and the approach for meeting test
objectives within constraints imposed by the context (e.g., specifying suitable test techniques and tasks,
and formulating a test schedule for meeting a deadline). Test plans may be revisited based on feedback
from monitoring and control activities.

Question 2

Test monitoring and control

Answer 2

Checking test results and logs against specified coverage criteria
• Assessing the level of component or system quality based on test results and logs
• Determining if more tests are needed (e.g., if tests originally intended to achieve a certain level of
product risk coverage failed to do so, requiring additional tests to be written and executed)

Exit criteria

Question 3

Test analysis

Answer 3

o Requirement specifications, such as business requirements, functional requirements,
system requirements, user stories, epics, use cases, or similar work products that specify
desired functional and non-functional component or system behavior

o Design and implementation information, such as system or software architecture
diagrams or documents, design specifications, call flow graphs, modelling diagrams (e.g.,
UML or entity-relationship diagrams), interface specifications, or similar work products
that specify component or system structure

o The implementation of the component or system itself, including code, database
metadata and queries, and interfaces

o Risk analysis reports, which may consider functional, non-functional, and structural
aspects of the component or system

Identifying features and sets of features to be tested

• Defining and prioritizing test conditions for each feature based on analysis of the test basis, and
considering functional, non-functional, and structural characteristics, other business and technical
factors, and levels of risks

• Capturing bi-directional traceability between each element of the test basis and the associated
test conditions

Question 4

Test Design

Answer 4

• Designing and prioritizing test cases and sets of test cases
• Identifying necessary test data to support test conditions and test cases
• Designing the test environment and identifying any required infrastructure and tools
• Capturing bi-directional traceability between the test basis, test conditions, and test cases (see
section 1.4.4)

Question 5

Test Implementation

Answer 5

• Developing and prioritizing test procedures, and, potentially, creating automated test scripts
• Creating test suites from the test procedures and (if any) automated test scripts
• Arranging the test suites within a test execution schedule in a way that results in efficient test
execution (see section 5.2.4)
• Building the test environment (including, potentially, test harnesses, service virtualization,
simulators, and other infrastructure items) and verifying that everything needed has been set up
correctly
• Preparing test data and ensuring it is properly loaded in the test environment
• Verifying and updating bi-directional traceability between the test basis, test conditions, test
cases, test procedures, and test suites (see section 1.4.4)

Question 6

Test Execution

Answer 6

Recording the IDs and versions of the test item(s) or test object, test tool(s), and testware
• Executing tests either manually or by using test execution tools
• Comparing actual results with expected results
• Analyzing anomalies to establish their likely causes (e.g., failures may occur due to defects in the
code, but false positives also may occur (see section 1.2.3)
• Reporting defects based on the failures observed (see section 5.6)
• Logging the outcome of test execution (e.g., pass, fail, blocked)
• Repeating test activities either as a result of action taken for an anomaly, or as part of the
planned testing (e.g., execution of a corrected test, confirmation testing, and/or regression
testing)
• Verifying and updating bi-directional traceability between the test basis, test conditions, test
cases, test procedures, and test results.