Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
regular test data. For example, you can create all your test data with a prefix QA
for your string data type (which is the most common data type for master data).
You can also use any other prefix or suffix with your test data, and you can have
a service level agreement with your customer regarding creating and maintain-
ing test data. Especially when you run your automated test scripts, you should be
sure that they are running against the data specifically created for them and the
data has not been tampered with or deleted. Maintaining test data is a burden-
some task. To reduce your efforts in maintaining test data, you should make sure
that test data does not get changed often. Data is changed only when absolutely
required. In test cases where you need to delete old data and always create fresh
data, the script should be made in such a way that it looks for old data and then
deletes it before inserting new data. Periodic deletion of test data is required when
test scripts create a large amount of test data. This can affect the performance of
the production environment. In such cases, you should have deletion facility in the
script itself so that at no time will a large amount of unnecessary test data go into
the production environment.
...
Testing without a Formal Test Plan
Any project needs a solid project plan so that it can be executed without hurdles.
Software test projects are no different. So you need a good software test project plan
in hand before you can proceed with execution.
A formal test plan is a document that should provide and record important
information about the test project. The project plan should include the following:
◾
Project and quality assumptions
◾
Resources
Project background information
◾
◾
Entry and exit criteria
Schedule and timeline
◾
◾
Kinds of tests to be performed (functional, performance, integration, com-
Test milestones
◾
patibility, etc.)
Use cases and/or test cases
◾
◾
Training needs
Skills required
◾
◾
Risks management
For many reasons many software development projects cannot budget enough time
for complete and comprehensive testing. This happens mostly on smaller projects or
