Understanding test management

In the ever-evolving landscape of software development, delivering high-quality products and services is paramount. The high quality of a product can only be ensured with the help of thorough testing.

In the software development life cycle (SDLC), test management is the process of managing and monitoring an application’s testing, documentation, and other aspects to ensure that the application is bug-free and meets the customer’s requirements. It involves organizing and controlling the testing process, starting with defining test strategies and allocating resources to tracking progress and evaluating results.

Effective test management is required for several reasons:

1. It ensures that the software products are working as expected and meeting the specified requirements, reducing the risk of defects and failures in production.
2. Following the recent trend, different project teams are geographically located and working on various tasks for a project. Effective test management ensures the team’s collaboration to ship finished products within tighter deadlines. It also helps in maintaining transparency and accountability within development teams.
3. Managing test activities can help identify and address issues early in the development process. This ultimately leads to saving time and costs related to fixing bugs post-release.
4. Finally, a structured testing approach enables better decision-making so that teams can prioritize testing efforts based on risk and business impact.

In this post, you’ll learn about test management and its importance in developing high-quality software. You’ll see different components of test management, the process of test management, and some best practices.

Key components of test management

There are several interconnected components of the test management process that ensure the efficiency of the testing process. These components are also called phases of test management. Let’s take a look at each in detail.

Test Planning

Test planning is the foundational step in test management that sets the overall direction and purpose of the test phase. It involves setting a clear objective for what the testing process aims to achieve—for example, software functionality, performance, security, etc. It also focuses on specifying why, when, and where testing will take place; identifying resources needed such as personnel, tools, and timelines; and allocating them appropriately.

The result of this stage is a comprehensive document that contains information about the scope, objective, resources, timeline, and test deliverables.

Test Design

In the test design phase, what needs to be tested is broken down into multiple test cases that will validate the software against defined requirements. This phase aims to specify inputs, actions, and expected outcomes for each test case so that each one covers all functional and nonfunctional aspects of the software.

It’s also responsible for the preparation of test data that is required to execute tests in real-world settings. Well-designed test cases ensure that the testing process is systematic and comprehensive.

Test Execution

Once the test cases are designed, then comes the test execution stage. In this phase, the designed test cases are run against the intended software. Testers follow the steps mentioned in test cases and use the prepared dataset to check if the software piece is working as expected or not.

If there are any changes in the actual outcome compared with the expected one, these changes are logged as defects. These results can then be summarized and displayed via various test metrics tools or some dashboards.

You must also be aware that test execution is an iterative process that involves multiple cycles to test different aspects of the software to make sure that the new changes do not affect the existing functionality.

When a test case fails, you need to record comprehensive details like the steps to reproduce the issue, the severity of the defect, and its impact on the software.

Defect Management

The next stage of test management is resolving defects that were identified in the test execution phase. When a test case fails, you need to record comprehensive details like the steps to reproduce the issue, the severity of the defect, and its impact on the software.

Then, based on the severity, these detects go to developers for resolution. Once developers fix the issues, there is a need to retest to ensure the issues no longer exist.

Test Reporting

The final stage of test management is reporting. This stage involves documenting and communicating the results and findings from the testing process to other interested parties. This includes generating reports that summarize the outcomes of test execution, defects, and key metrics such as test coverage, etc.

These reports are crucial to provide insights into the overall quality of the software and highlight any areas of concern. Also, it makes sure that there’s transparency and accountability by informing all the relevant parties.

Test management process

The process of test management is broken down into two major phases: a planning phase and an execution phase. Let’s dive into each one of them in detail.

Planning

As you know, planning sets the direction and scope for the testing activities. During this phase, a test manager prepares a comprehensive plan for the entire test life cycle. This stage includes the following:

• Risk analysis—Risk analysis involves identifying the potential risks and issues that can impact the overall testing process or the overall project. These risks include technical challenges, resource constraints, or uncertainties in requirements. As test managers start working on it, they can potentially save project costs and help avoid possible losses.
• Test estimation—In this stage, test managers predict the time, effort, resources, and cost required to complete the testing activities. Accurately estimating these details helps in setting realistic timelines and ensuring that the necessary resources are available.
• Test planning—In this phase, the test manager prepares a comprehensive test strategy that outlines the testing objectives, scope, approach, resources, schedule, and deliverables. This test strategy serves as a roadmap for the entire testing life cycle, explaining how the testing should happen along with how to measure the success of the testing. Defining the test environment, identifying test cases, and selecting testing tools all come under the planning phase.
• Test organization—At this point, the test manager focuses on structuring the test team and defining roles and responsibilities. The test manager assigns tasks to team members based on their expertise, ensuring clear communication channels and establishing collaboration processes. Effective test organization ensures that all the goals of testing are clearly defined and team members are working efficiently toward common goals.

Execution

Execution is the actual implementation stage of the test management process. This stage has the following responsibilities:

• Test monitoring and control—This stage involves continuously tracking the progress of testing activities against the plan. In this process, the test manager compares actual progress with planned milestones, identifies deviations, and takes corrective actions when necessary. Monitoring also ensures that the testing process stays on track and issues are addressed as needed to avoid potential delays.
• Issue management—At this stage, the test manager needs to identify, document, and report issues that arise during testing. These issues can include defects, bugs, and any other problems that could impact the quality of the software. Effective issue management requires clear communication; prioritization of issues based on severity; and coordination between testers, developers, and other stakeholders to make sure that the issue is resolved in less time.
• Test report and evaluation—Once the testing is complete, the test manager compiles the results of the testing activities into a report that summarizes the status of test cases, defects, and overall test coverage. This report provides insights into the quality of the software, areas that still require some further attention, and a decision on where the software is ready to release. This helps stakeholders to make informed decisions about the next steps in the project.

Common challenges with test management

While test management helps in producing high-quality software, it comes with its own challenges. Some of the common ones are:

• Inadequate planning and test management—Poor planning and an inaccurate estimation of resources and time can lead to delays, high costs, and incomplete testing. This can result in missed deadlines and the release of faulty software.
• Complex test environments—When testing across multiple environments and devices, managing complex and diverse test environments can be challenging. This can typically lead to inconsistencies in test results and demand higher effort in managing the environments.
• Insufficient test coverage—When the size of the application or software is large enough, ensuring comprehensive test coverage is difficult. Incomplete test coverage can lead to some undetected defects that may surface after the release.
• Defect management issue—Some of the most common issues related to defects are poor communication or bad prioritization issues. These can result in unresolved defects, leading to software instability.
• Resource limitations—If the resources promised in the planning phase are not made available during execution, it can lead to incomplete testing and potential quality issues.

Incorporating Agile methodologies can promote continuous testing, quick feedback loops, and adaptability to changing requirements.

Best practices to avoid challenges

• Adopt Agile testing practices. Incorporating Agile methodologies can promote continuous testing, quick feedback loops, and adaptability to changing requirements. These practices help in proactively addressing challenges and maintaining a high level of software quality.
• Use metrics and KPIs. You must implement key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to monitor testing progress, detect trends, and view the overall software quality. A regular inspection of these metrics can help you identify the areas of improvement.
• Invest in test management tools. Try to leverage test management tools that offer integrated features for planning, execution, defect tracking, and reporting. Using these tools can streamline processes and improve collaboration.
• Conduct continuous learning and improvement. There should be a culture of continuous learning within the testing team. You must regularly conduct some inspections to evaluate the testing process, gather feedback, and implement improvements for future projects.

Conclusion

After reading this post, you’re now aware of test management and its importance in the software development life cycle. To create high-quality software, it must go through well-planned testing, and test management can help you with that.

You’ve learned about different components of test management and been introduced to the process of test management. Finally, you’ve seen some challenges and best practices for test management. I would recommend you invest some time in exploring different tools that can help you with test management. This can streamline your software testing process.

This post was written by Gourav Bais. Gourav is an applied machine learning engineer skilled in computer vision/deep learning pipeline development, creating machine learning models, retraining systems, and transforming data science prototypes into production-grade solutions.