Whilst I understand the sentiment of what you are saying, I do feel that it forgets or assumes certain things that I think are quite important.

Firstly, you seem to be assuming that a template is a static, immobile object that doesn’t allow fluidity of planning. That’s not strictly necessary. A test plan template can be a quick win which allows everyone to know and understand the test activity.

Which brings me onto the next point; the test plan should provide information for everyone about project test expectations and deliverables. Nobody can be under any illusions as to who is doing what, when and how. That doesn’t mean it is carved in stone and is some archaic process created by dinosaurs. Far from it.

A test plan template should be more of a checklist, ensuring that the appropriate activities are done in line with the item under test.

Almost most important is ensuring that you can show what you aren’t testing and what types of testing you aren’t doing.

This might all be semantics but the truth is that whilst as testers we are generally good at self governance and
know what we are doing, we also have to accept that generally we will be dealing with non-testers who need us to speak English (or whatever the native language may be) rather than test-talk. A clever test plan template, in my experience, is a really useful tool in aiding this.

Lynn’s Reply: Thanks for writing. I think project context is really important here in determining the kind of documentation that may be required to keep project management and the collective project team informed on the test activities. In my experience, I find many formal and informal reviews of test plans have been held with the common outcome of rubber stamping the document with approval, opposed to a meaningful understanding and appreciation of the testing mission. I have found that the level of documentation rarely translates to an increased awareness of the testing scope, complexity, etc. To achieve this awareness requires an engaged relationship with the stakeholders to inform (and often educate) on the dynamic nature of testing. I like to review the fundamentals as outlined in AST’s BBST Foundations course by Cem Kaner and James Bach:
1. Why are you testing? What are you trying to learn?
* Defining Your Mission
2. How should you organize your work to achieve your mission?
* The Strategy Problem
3. How will you know whether the test passed or failed?
* The Oracle Problem
4. What would it take to do a complete testing job?
* The Impossibility of Complete Testing
5. How much testing is enough? How do we decide when to stop?
* The Measurement Problem

Cheers,
Lynn

* Quality Software Management, Vol. 1: Systems Thinking by Gerald M. Weinberg
* Quality Software Management, Vol. 2: First-Order Measurement, by Gerald M. Weinberg
* How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff
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* Aristotle’s Ethics, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/
* Social Research Methods, http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/
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