Checklist for Test Preparation

Listed below are questions/suggestions for systematically planning and preparing software testing.

• Have you planned for an overall testing schedule and the personnel required, and associated training requirements?
• Have the test team members been given assignments?
• Have you established test plans and test procedures for
• module testing,
• integration testing,
• system testing, and
• acceptance testing?
• Have you designed at least one black-box test case for each system function?
• Have you designed test cases for verifying quality objectives/factors (e.g. reliability, maintainability, etc.)?
• Have you designed test cases for verifying resource objectives?
• Have you defined test cases for performance tests, boundary tests, and usability tests?
• Have you designed test cases for stress tests (intentional attempts to break system)?
• Have you designed test cases with special input values (e.g. empty files)?
• Have you designed test cases with default input values?
• Have you described how traceability of testing to requirements is to be demonstrated (e.g. references to the specified functions and requirements)?
• Do all test cases agree with the specification of the function or requirement to be tested?
• Have you sufficiently considered error cases? Have you designed test cases for invalid and unexpected input conditions as well as valid conditions?
• Have you defined test cases for white-box-testing (structural tests)?
• Have you stated the level of coverage to be achieved by structural tests?
• Have you unambiguously provided test input data and expected test results or expected messages for each test case?
• Have you documented the purpose of and the capability demonstrated by each test case?
• Is it possible to meet and to measure all test objectives defined (e.g. test coverage)?
• Have you defined the test environment and tools needed for executing the software test?
• Have you described the hardware configuration an resources needed to implement the designed test cases?
• Have you described the software configuration needed to implement the designed test cases?
• Have you described the way in which tests are to be recorded?
• Have you defined criteria for evaluating the test results?
• Have you determined the criteria on which the completion of the test will be judged?
• Have you considered requirements for regression testing?