The master test plan is a document that describes in detail how the testing is being planned and how it will be managed across different test levels. It gives a bird’s eye view of the key decisions taken, the strategies to be implemented and the testing effort involved in the project.

Details provided by Master Test Plan

In simple terms, the master test plan for software testing provides the following details:

• List of tests to be performed
• Testing levels to be covered
• Relationship among different test levels and related coding activity
• Test implementation strategy
• Explain testing effort which is a component of the project
• Master test plan should align with test policy and test strategy. It should list any exceptions or deviations and their possible impact

Example – If regression testing is always carried out in an organization prior to the release of a product but the project at hand will have no regression testing, the master plan must point this out with justification for skipping regression testing as well as impact, if any. It should also list steps taken to mitigate any risks that arise from skipping regression testing, like releasing a maintenance patch after two weeks.

The exact structure of the master test plan and its content depends on the following factors:

• Type of organization
• Documentation standards followed by the organization
• Level of project formality

Content of Master Test Plan

All master test plans for testing must include these:

• List of things to be tested
• List of items that will not be tested
• List of quality characteristics that will be tested
• List of product quality characteristics that will not be tested
• Test execution cycles
• Test budgets according to project or overall operational budget
• Testing schedule
• Correlation between testing cycles and release plan
• Interrelation between other departments and testing team
• Scope of each test item
• Predefined entry, continuation and exit conditions for each test level
• Risks associated with test project
• Management and control of testing
• Team members responsible for each test level
• Inputs and outputs for each test level

For small projects, only one or two formal test levels exist. Most of the other testing is informal and may be done even as beta testing process. In such a case the master plan may include the test plan for the formal test levels.

Let us consider a situation where the only formal level is system testing, developers are performing integration testing and customers are informally performing acceptance testing for a beta release. In such cases the elements described here can be included in the system test plan.

Testing is never an isolated process. It always functions in correlation to other activities of the whole project. If those activities of the project are not documented properly, the testing master plan may include details around those activities as well.

To understand the above, let us consider a scenario where the process for test object delivery is not formally documented due to undocumented configuration management process. The testing master plan will then specify how the test team will receive the test objects.

Level Test Plans

As the name suggests, level test plan explains in detail the testing activities that must be performed for every test level or sometimes, test type. Normally, the test levels listed in the master testing plan is expanded in the level test plan.

They would provide the testing schedule, milestones, test activities, test templates etc., which are not given in the master plan.

Informal test plans usually have only one test plan that covers both master and level testing plans.

Agile projects can have iteration testing plans for each iteration rather than plan for each test level.

You can review the purpose and importance of test plans as it was explained in the Foundation Level exam.

In the next topic we will delve into test estimation and estimation techniques

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