﻿Hello and welcome to our channel. My name is Dmitri and I am a part of the
exactpro research team. At exactpro we build software to test software.
Check out our website if you wanna learn more about us. And remember to subscribe and hit the
bell button to stay up to date with our videos. We are continuing our series for those preparing
for the ISTQB exam. Today we are going to talk about the first part of chapter 5 called Test
Management. If you missed the previous videos, you can find the links in the description below.
Let's begin
Successful test management process needs to be thorough in order to avoid chaos.
Writing a plan, preparing an estimate and selecting test strategies tend to happen
at the same time, although we must be ready to make necessary adjustments as we progress.
In order to understand how the process is managed, it’s important to know the roles involved
and their typical tasks. The key roles here are of a test manager and a tester.
The test manager assembles and leads the team, defines scopes, distributes resources and makes
sure that the process runs smoothly and achieves results. He is also an advocate for his team,
responsible for feedback and motivation. The tester on the other hand designs and executes
tests guaranteeing а high quality of the final product. Both the tester and the test manager
are expected to be able to compare results, compile reports and assess the efficiency of the
testing process. In a nutshell, test managers are responsible for strategies and tactics, whereas
testers mainly focus on practical work, but in some areas their responsibilities may overlap.
Both of those roles are responsible for planning, each at their own level, of course. This activity
is crucial. Without it, testing becomes a spontaneous process, uncontrolled and impossible
to evaluate. And even though we can find some bugs this way, the lack of reliable control will
soon turn the whole process into a nightmare, especially for a large and complex project
A test plan describes activities for every step of the process and is determined by the company’s
test strategy, the development lifecycles and many other factors, including the availability
of resources. It is recurrent and performed regularly throughout the duration of the project.
In regard to documentation standards, there will be a master test plan and as well as plans for
test levels. There could also be separate plans for functional and non-functional testing.
Unlike a plan, a test strategy provides a generalized description of the process,
usually at the product or organizational level. Here is the list of the most
common test strategy approaches: * ANALYTICAL is based on a review of some factor.
Risk-based testing is an example of an analytical approach.
It is usually conducted in a form of a stakeholder meeting where everything that could potentially
go wrong gets discussed and identified. All of those risks become targets for test cases.
* MODEL-BASED here, tests are designed based on some model of a required aspect of the product.
Examples of such models include business process models, state models,
and reliability growth models. * METHODICAL relies on making systematic
use of some predefined set of tests or test conditions. In other words, our experience
dictates the basic principles of this approach * PROCESS-COMPLIANT (or STANDART-COMPLIANT)
involves analyzing, designing, and implementing tests based on external
rules and standardizations. This approach is prevalent in standard reliant industries
like aviation and medicine. * DIRECTED (or CONSULTATIVE) is
primarily driven by the advice, guidance, or instructions of stakeholders, business
domain experts, or technology experts. * REGRESSION-AVERSE is motivated by a desire to
avoid regression of existing capabilities. This test strategy focuses on extensive
automation of regression tests. Here we check the existing functionality first to make sure
that the new additions didn’t break anything. * REACTIVE focuses on the events occurring during
test execution, rather than on pre-planned ones. If the component under test is unstable,
it warrants for more immediate in-depth testing.
A project might choose one or a combination of several strategies best suited for its needs.
Next step in test management is establishing the definition of ready and the definition of done.
Entry criteria define the conditions that allow a test activity to begin.
Is there a new build to be tested? Is the environment set up? Do we have technical and human
resources ready? Do we have an approved date? Exit criteria define what conditions must be
achieved in order to declare a test activity completed. Have all the planned test cases been
executed? Are there any raised high-risk bugs that are still unresolved? Are we at the deadline?
After that we can create a test execution schedule. Ideally, test cases would be ordered to
run according to their priority levels, executing the test cases with the highest priority first.
However, this may not be wise if the test cases or the features being tested have dependencies.
If a test case with a higher priority is reliant on a test case with a lower priority,
the lower priority test case must be executed first. Also we need to allocate sufficient time
for confirmation and regression testing. Estimating the schedule happens simultaneously
with the test effort assessment which predicts the amount of test-related
work needed to meet the objectives for a particular project or iteration. Factors
influencing the test effort may include product characteristics, development process aspects,
personnel skills, and the test results. There are a number of estimation techniques
used to determine the effort required for adequate testing.
Two of the most commonly used ones are: * The metrics-based technique:
estimating the test effort based on metrics of former similar projects,
they could also be based on typical values or The expert-based technique: estimating the
test effort based on the experience of test task owners or other experts
This concludes our today’s video. if you liked it, give it a thumbs up. In the next one,
we will focus on the second part of chapter 5 and talk about test monitoring and control.
Meanwhile, we have tons of interesting content for you on our channel. So feel
free to subscribe and hit the bell button to be the first to see the new videos.
Thank you for watching and goodbye.