Test Planning of a new project before coding starts

Question

I have some experience (less than two years) as a Java developer but relatively new in Testing (experience of 3-4 months in Manual Testing). I have been assigned role of a Test Manager for a new project for which the actual coding will start in approximately three months. Now, as I have some free time I would like to utilize it properly. Please note, it will be an Agile Test Development and will involve automation testing with Fitnesse Tool.

My questions are:

1. What preparation can I do as of now for Testing in order to utilize this time ? I am currently going through the Use cases in order to understand the software to be tested. Also Test Plan is already in my mind.
2. Any other things ? Any other Documents which will be certainly required in future and I can start preparing it?
3. Can one start writing Test cases already from Use cases ? Does it make sense ?

Answer 1

Here are some test-specific activities for the startup phase of an Agile project.

Test management

Think about managing the test efforts and results in the Agile process. Will you write many test cases (in detail) - which might demand a lot of effort to maintain as requirements are changed during the project. Personally I would recommend something like session based test management which is very lightweight in documentation but perfect for a hands-on testing approach in Agile. With a proper dashboard it's quite easy to follow up key metrics as test manager.

Prepare your test automation framework

As you have already decided on the tool, a proof of concept is no longer necessary. You should, however, consider setting up a framework, that will allow for swift test creation and decent reporting (which isn't always easy). Try to decide on key factors such as the format of your test data (in case you would need a database, now's the time to get it arranged).

Make agreements about test automation

I don't know FitNesse, but here we use Selenium. So an important agreement with the developers is that they provide ID attributes to elements where possible, to make the automation process much quicker.

Make agreements about testing in the Agile process

Sit together with your team and decide on how you will deal with testing in sprints. For example:

• Definition of done
  • do automated tests have to be written to complete a story?
  • what amount/level of open bugs is acceptable to complete a story?
  • acceptance criteria are a must: why not have developers check them together with the analyst before handing a story over to the testers?
• What are the bug fixing priorities for developers (fixed time slot every day, zero-bug policy, ...).
• Continuous integration: if possible, you as tester should be able to decide when to pull checked-in functionalities into your testing environment.

Other

You might want to provide some training or exercises for the testers, e.g. to get familiar with FitNesse, SQL or exploratory testing.

Answer 2

Here are some practical things you may do during the project planning phase.

Manual/Exploratory Testing Strategies

This is a good time to brush up your and your teammates manual testing skills, go over common manual testing techniques, here are some related topics to get you started:

• Software testing cheat sheet
• Strategies and Techniques for Exploratory Testing (How to find new bugs?)
• Test Heuristics Cheat Sheet

Test Automation Design Considerations

Decide on a language/framework that will be used for test automation. Explore test automation patterns like Page Objects and Screen Play. Explore BDD style test automation and decide if this is something you want to use. Think of where are you going to store and maintain test automation code, project structure.

Issue Tracker Workflow

This is also a good time to meet with developers and decide on your Issue Tracker Workflow - how are you going to move issues around the project - how an issue will get to testing, back to development or mark as something you want to have an automated test for.

Answer 3

1) What preparation can I do as of now for Testing in order to utilize this time? I am currently going through the Use cases in order to understand the software to be tested. Also Test Plan is already in my mind.

• You can start from getting to know your team member better, maybe build a skill matrix. Who is the best candidate to perform manual test, who can do test automation and etc.
• Getting to know the developers can be helpful as well.
• Identify stakeholders.
• If you have access to design documents, start reading them through.

2) Any other things? Any other Documents which will be cretainly required in future and I can start preparing it?

• You can start thinking about (or actually doing) what management tools you are going to use, e.g. bug reporting, bug tracking, communication tool and etc.
• Set up some guidelines can be of help too, e.g. in which format a bug should be reported.

3) Can one start writing Test cases already from Use cases? Does it make sense?

• Definitely make sense, ideally, there is no better time to start writing test case as soon as design requirement is conceived. You will be surprised how many test cases you can get from design documents.
• If there are previous test cases, you can surely use them as references or even re-use them right away.