How to Write a QA Test Plan

Testlio

August 16th, 2024

A quality assurance (QA) test plan or a software test plan is a document that outlines the steps, approaches, tools, and best practices for carrying out QA testing for your project. 

The purpose of a QA test plan is to define testing goals and objectives while considering cost, project requirements, and delivery timelines. Ultimately, this document ensures that all stakeholders are unified in their commitment to delivering a high-quality product. 

This article serves as a complete guide to creating a QA test plan, explaining its importance and the common mistakes to avoid. 

Why a QA Test Plan is Necessary

A QA test plan is integral to the software development life cycle (SDLC). It ensures the project specifications align with business needs and are met without compromising quality, cost, or speed. 

A well-developed test plan delivers not just high-quality products but also: 

• Clear Testing Objectives: It provides a clear framework for what needs to be tested, how it will be tested, and the expected outcomes. This clarity reduces ambiguity and ensures the testing team remains focused on achieving the objectives.
• Comprehensive Test Coverage: The plan ensures that software features and functionalities are thoroughly tested. It outlines the various testing types based on project needs and explains when they should be performed. For example, developers should perform unit tests before assigning the build release to the QA team for regression testing. 
• Improves Communication and Collaboration: Since a QA test plan is always a shared document, it serves as a common reference point for communication among testers, developers, project managers, and other stakeholders. This alignment fosters better communication and collaboration, leading to smoother project execution.
• Enhances Consistency and Efficiency: A thoughtfully designed plan increases the productivity of the QA team by providing them with a structured and repeatable testing process. It enhances the accuracy of testing results and optimizes resource utilization. 
• Facilitates Risk Management: A well-crafted test plan helps anticipate and mitigate risks proactively, reducing the chances of costly post-deployment fixes and enhancing overall project stability. 
• Aids in Project Planning and Resource Allocation: The test plan provides a detailed schedule and resource plan to establish milestones and ensure optimal resource allocation, avoiding unnecessary delays. 
• Supports Regulatory and Compliance Requirements: In industries with stringent regulatory and compliance standards, a detailed QA test plan ensures the software meets all necessary legal and regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of non-compliance penalties.
• Critical for Outsourcing: A well-documented QA test plan is essential for companies outsourcing SaaS development to ensure product quality. It enables outsourced teams to build and test products precisely as intended, removing any sources of confusion or errors. 

In short, a QA test plan is more than a documentation formality. It is more of a strategic tool that ensures the production of high-quality apps through a systematic and efficient process.

What Does a QA Test Plan Include? 

It’s essential to recognize that the benefits we shared above can only be achieved with a well-designed software test plan, which should include: 

1. Project Overview
   A concise summary of the application being tested, its workflow, main features, and target users helps the stakeholders, including QA members, understand the project context, testing goals, and testing approaches. 
2. Glossary
   A list of all terms, abbreviations, and acronyms used, along with their definitions. Since different people may use different terms to describe the same task, a glossary helps ensure everyone uses the same language and terms when collaborating, avoiding confusion. 
3. Test Scope
   This section outlines the software’s in-scope and out-of-scope elements. It helps set boundaries for testing efforts, prevent scope creep, and ensure optimal resource usage. 
4. Test Objectives
   Testing goals and processes are clearly stated and explained so the testing team can stay focused and ensure that the testing efforts align with the project’s requirements. 
5. Test Strategy
   This section defines the testing approach that will be adopted to meet the project requirements and is critical for ensuring consistency. Each development stage or set of requirements must clearly define the type of testing, such as functional or non-functional testing, the level of testing, such as unit, integration, system testing, etc., and the testing methodologies, such as manual or automated.
6. Test Data and Test Environment
   This section specifies the hardware and software tools required for testing, such as operating systems, databases, automation tools, and test data. The goal is to replicate the production conditions and to ensure controlled and consistent testing. 
7. Test Entry, Suspension, Resumption, and Exit criteria
   This section defines the following criteria for setting up different testing statuses: 
   a. Entry Criteria: Conditions for the build to qualify for QA testing.
   b. Suspension Criteria: Conditions when the testing should be paused until the test entrance criteria are met again. 
   c. Resumption Criteria: Conditions that determine which test activities should be repeated after testing resumes. 
   d. Exit Criteria: Conditions that should be fulfilled for the software testing to be complete.  
8. Defect Management
   A complete QA test plan also encompasses the appropriate approach for reporting, tracking, and managing defects found during software testing. It also defines the criteria for categorizing defects by severity and priority, ensuring that the most critical issues are addressed first.
9. Risk Management
   This section identifies potential risks impacting the testing process and outlines mitigation strategies to minimize disruptions, delays, and additional costs. 
10. Test Resources
    This is the list of team members assigned to the project testing, along with their roles and responsibilities. Your list should also include if your teams need any additional training. 
11. Test Schedule
    A test plan is incomplete without a test schedule section, the reference point for the team to complete their tasks before the deadline. This section outlines the timeline for each testing milestone, stating their start and end dates. 
12. Test Deliverables
    It lists the documents produced during the testing phase, such as test cases, scripts, and reports. This section is essential for keeping the stakeholders informed and maintaining a record of testing activities. 
13. Test Reporting
    It explains how the testing results and performance will be reported to the stakeholders, including the frequency and format of updates and whether a final report on the overall testing process will be shared afterward. 
14. Post-Testing Review
    An ideal QA test plan contains guidelines for documenting retrospective analysis. This section summarizes the lessons learned during the testing phase and measures for future improvements.  

Agile vs. Waterfall Models Test Planning 

Since Agile and Waterfall are different software development methodologies, their test-planning approaches also differ.

Test Planning for Waterfall Development  

The waterfall model is a rigid approach to software development often used by industries such as aerospace, manufacturing, defense, public health, etc. Requirements are fixed and finalized before development starts. The model does not allow for change requests during development; therefore, testing is done only after the complete application is built. 

The QA plan for this linear development process starts only in its later stages or when the development cycle is completed. Therefore, the QA test plan is created and implemented only before delivery. 

Test Planning for Agile Development

Agile is an iterative and incremental development methodology that releases software applications in phases. Therefore, testing is integrated early in the development to test each build release. Hence, this methodology calls for a QA test plan that evolves as the project proceeds and supports this continuous development and delivery approach, allowing for timely feedback and early fixes. 

How To Write a QA Test Plan 

Without a comprehensive plan, the QA team may lack clear direction, and stakeholders could find it challenging to monitor testing progress effectively. Some critical steps to write an effective plan include:

1. Understand the Project

Before deciding what tests or methodologies are used, you need to understand your project, its requirements, and end-user expectations. This includes gathering information from project documentation, such as business requirement documents (BRD), software requirement specifications (SRS), use case diagrams, and other important information necessary to learn about the application. 

Conducting interviews and meetings with other stakeholders is also an excellent way to gather first-hand information, clarify ambiguities, and understand functional and non-functional requirements. 

Any information you collect should also help you understand how the application behaves for different users under varying conditions and in various interfaces. For example, the proposed CRM application is supposed to have an admin interface with admin privileges and two separate login interfaces for marketing personnel and project managers. 

In short, this section is the first and the most critical part of a QA plan as it sets the foundation for the team to: 

• Learn the application workflow
• Get familiarity with the technology framework being used
• Write thorough test cases
• Set testing criteria for meeting stakeholders’ expectations 
• Create a requirement traceability matrix 
• Estimate testing time and effort 
• Assess the resources required for testing

2. Define Testing Scope 

Explicitly mention the testing scope in terms of: 

• Key features/aspects of the project/application that need to be tested, such as functional requirements. 
• Features/aspects of the project/application that don’t need to be tested. For example, if the application is hosted on a third-party hosting provider’s platform, the QA team is not responsible for any issues related to the platform. 

A clearly stated scope also helps in setting specific and achievable testing objectives. 

3. Establish Testing Objectives 

A QA test plan should define testing objectives and their success criteria. Each objective must align with your overall business needs and should be specific, measurable, achievable, and time-bound (SMART). 

Example

Test Plan Goal: Deliver a user-friendly software application that meets advanced quality standards and fulfills customers’ expectations. 

Test Plan Objective 1: Ensure that the application interface is mobile-friendly and responsive to cater to the needs of mobile device users. You can also mention the device models the application must support, such as iPhone 12 Pro and future models. In this case, testing for any previous iPhone model, such as iPhone 7 or 11, will be considered out of scope. 

The success criteria for meeting this objective can be: 

• The page size auto-adjusts to the mobile screens when the application is opened on a mobile device (in-scope). 
• Users can easily navigate across the application on their mobile. 
• It allows for easy scrolling. 
• The text is readable and appears correctly on mobile screens. 
• The logo of the application is not skewed in the mobile mode. 
• If there are any online forms embedded or other input fields, these should appear correctly on the mobile screens. 

4. Develop the Test Strategy

A test strategy tells you how you plan to achieve your testing objectives. It includes the following elements:

Testing Approach 

The test plan strategy should clearly state the testing methodologies used and why. 

• Manual Testing: This is for test cases that cannot be automated. For example, usability features such as testing if the error message popup appears in the middle of the screen. 
• Automation Testing: For repeated tests such as checking form output for pre-defined inputs. 
• Exploratory Testing: Decide if you want the team to randomly test the application before proceeding to thorough testing or if exploratory testing will be performed only by the QA leads or under tight deadlines and limited specifications. 

Testing Levels

List the different levels of testing that will be performed for the application under development. For example, unit, integration, system, and acceptance tests.  

Testing Types and Coverage

Your strategy should also define testing types, coverage requirements, and criteria for each level:

• Functional Testing: Verifies that all software functions meet the specified requirements. Coverage includes all functional requirements, with the criterion being that every function performs as expected.
• Non-Functional Testing: Assesses performance, scalability, security, and user experience. Coverage encompasses all non-functional parameters, with criteria for meeting established performance benchmarks, security standards, and usability goals.
• Regression Testing: Ensures that recent changes, such as bug fixes or new features, do not introduce new issues. Coverage focuses on the areas affected by the modifications, with the criteria being that no new defects are introduced and the software continues to function correctly. To be specific, you can mention the sub-types of regression testing that will be performed:
  • Smoke Testing:  Performed after each build release to verify the core functionalities of the software. Coverage focuses on main workflows such as login, sign up, checkout, etc.
  • Sanity Testing: Aims to determine whether the newly introduced changes or fixes are working as expected. The coverage is focused on the behavior of rendered features or newly introduced functions. 

Example Test Plan Strategy for an E-Commerce Platform

5. Decide Testing Environment, Tools, and Test Data

Choose the technology stack for testing activities and set up the testing environment to replicate production so that the testers evaluate the end-user experience.  

At this stage, you should also list how data will be generated and stored for different scenarios, such as valid and invalid user accounts, product listings, discount codes, and payment methods.

Example:

Some helpful tips: 

• Collaborate with the development team to choose tools and environments that align with their preferred technology stack and workflows.
• Validate that the test environment is isolated from production to prevent any interference.

6. Document Risks 

Identify and document potential risks that can impact the testing phase and create contingency plans to mitigate their impact on software testing and product delivery. Documenting risk is essential to maintaining credibility with stakeholders and preventing unpleasant surprises. 

Example

7. Allocate Resources

Document the roles and responsibilities of all team members, focusing on maximizing their strengths. This streamlines the process and fosters efficient communication and collaboration without ambiguities. 

Example 

8. Define Defect Reporting and Tracking Processes

Design an easy-to-implement process for reporting and tracking defects that establishes stakeholder transparency. Leverage tools like JIRA that allow tagging, field customization, priority status, easy assignment, and support workflows, scrum, and Kanban boards. 

9. Create a Test Schedule

A test schedule helps the team stick to project timelines and finish their tasks without delays. Factors to consider during this phase are: 

• Break down the testing process into smaller, achievable, and trackable tasks, such as test case development, test script writing, test execution, and reporting. 
• Estimate the time required for each task’s completion, such as the time required to explore requirements before writing test cases. 
• Consider the interdependencies of different tasks before setting a deadline. For example, test execution cannot be completed unless test cases are prepared first. 
• Allow for schedule changes due to unforeseen delays.  
• Confirm the availability and bandwidth of the resources to avoid false allocations and over-utilization. 

Example

10. Define Test Entrance, Exit, Resumption and Suspension Criteria

Your QA plan should state the conditions under which the team can start, finish, or pause its testing activities. 

Example 

11. List the Testing Deliverables

Identify and list the documents and artifacts that should be created during the testing phase and delivered with the project report. These could be test cases, test scripts, test data, defect reports, test traceability matrix, release notes, and an overall testing report. 

12. Test Reporting Method

Documenting testing results is important, and creating a proper test report is crucial to maintaining testing standards. A QA test plan must provide guidelines for creating and sharing the test report among the stakeholders. 

13. Post-Testing Analysis

This section should be left blank until the project is delivered. It should be filled out in the same QA test plan after the first retrospective meeting of the project. It should include what went wrong, what went right, and what could be improved in the future to avoid past mistakes. 

14. Review the QA Test Plan with Stakeholders

Present the test plan to the stakeholders, including the development products and operations teams, to ensure its effectiveness and alignment with the project requirements. Their feedback can help identify gaps or issues in the plan, resulting in a more reliable and effective process. 

Common Pitfalls To Avoid

Here are the common mistakes to avoid when creating a QA test plan:

1. Unclear objectives: Without well-defined testing goals, the plan may lack direction, making it difficult to determine success or failure.
2. Vaguely defined scope: Failing to define the scope clearly can lead to misunderstandings about what is being tested and what is not, resulting in gaps in testing coverage.
3. Inappropriate resource allocation: Not properly planning for the necessary resources, including personnel, tools, and time, can lead to delays and compromised testing quality.
4. Ignoring risk assessment: Overlooking the identification and prioritization of potential risks may cause critical issues to be missed or discovered too late.
5. Poor requirement traceability: Without mapping test cases to specific requirements, there’s a risk of missing critical functionality or not meeting the expected quality standards.

Once a QA test plan is in place, the next critical step is ensuring its effective execution. This often requires specialized resources that may not be available in-house. Partnering with software testing services providers, like Testlio, ensures that each test plan aspect is meticulously executed without sacrificing quality or speed.

Book a consultation to explore how our tailored testing solutions can elevate your software quality.