Appendix C: Test Collateral Samples and Templates

The following documents are offered as an aid, and a guide, feel free to copy and paste whatever bits you can use into your own effort. You can find these and other materials online at www.testersparadise.com in electronic form.

Sample Memo to Describe the Interview Process

RE: Project [Project Name Here]

System Test Design Project and SME Interview Process

This system test effort differs from integration test and IT-conducted system tests in that it seeks to verify that critical business functions are operating properly across the entire system. The system test effort includes function, performance, and load testing. Rather than focusing on the new data flows through the system, it focuses on day-to-day business functions both before and after the system is subjected to the new data flows. In theory, very little function will change, but loads on various systems will be increased.

The test inventory is the tool used in this system test effort to identify the scope of the test effort and prioritize it based on each inventory item's risk potential. The inventory is intended to be an enumeration of the software system's testable items that have been identified in the project. The initial test inventory was prepared from the available project documentation and is included in the master test plan. Initial priority ratings were applied to each item in the inventory based on the available project documentation. The inventory also contains the reference to the systems touched by a given item. This initial test inventory serves as a starting place for the SME interview process.

The interview process is the most efficient method for reviewing, correcting, and enriching the test inventory and building the system-level process flows. The information gathered during the interviews is used to correct and refine the test inventory, and to identify data dependencies, as well as interproject/intersystem dependencies. Currently, two levels of interviews are planned for the system test planning effort. They are high-level interviews (duration 15 to 30 minutes) and mid-level interviews (duration 30 to 60 minutes). Interviewees are solicited from each of the project areas: IT, support, and system groups.

The product of the interview process is a mature prioritized test inventory that encompasses the entire system and includes the expert input of all the participants. The test inventory and its prioritized test items are used to build cost, sizing, and scheduling estimates during the planning phases. During the test effort, the test inventory becomes the test repository and test metrics database.

High-Level Interviews (Duration 15 to 30 minutes)

See the sample questionnaire at the end of this Appendix.

Goals

1. Identify (for this expert's area):

   • The project deliverables

   • Owners of deliverables (mid-level interviewees)

   • Project dependencies and run requirements

     • Interproject

     • Cross-domain

     • Database and shared files

     • Business partners' projects

   • The location of, and access to, the most recent documentation

2. Get the expert's opinion on the following:

   • Ranking priorities (at the project level)

   • Schedules:

     • Delivery

     • Testing

3. Go through the day-in-the-life scenarios to understand and document:

   • Where do the new projects fit? (If they don't fit, identify the missing scenarios.)

   • How do the systems fit together? How does the logic flow?

   • Which steps/systems have not changed and what dependencies exist?

Mid-Level Interviews (Duration 30 to 60 minutes)

Goals

1. Build and/or review:

   • The logic flows for the projects and systems

   • The test inventory

     • Enumerate and rank additional test items and test steps in the test inventory

     • Data requirements and dependencies

     • All systems touched by the project

2. Get answers to the following questions (as they apply):

   • What will you or have you tested?

   • How long did it take?

   • How many testers did you need?

   • What do you think we need to test?

3. Identify additional test sequences.

4. Identify requirements for test tools.