Software Test Management is a 1-day course that is a subset of our Software Testing course and is designed to provide an excellent knowledge base and practical skills for anyone interested in improving Software Test Management techniques and practices in their organization. This course starts with an overview of software testing basics, including discussions of the importance of software testing, the different levels of testing and basic testing principles.  Basic testing terminology is defined.  Techniques for ensure test coverage of requirements, different types of testing documentation and various test activities are discussed.

The overview of test planning and management includes a discussion of how basic project management techniques apply to testing.  Methods for performing test planning and risk management are explored.  The discussion on test management includes an overview of reviews and metrics for monitoring the testing activities and product quality.  This course ends with an overview of the elements involved in documenting the testing process and metrics to measure the success of those processes. 

Method of Instruction: This course is taught through lecture and interactive discussion.  Actual examples from the software industry are utilized to make the information relevant.  Throughout this course, learned skills are practiced using team exercises.  The emphasis of this course is on techniques that allow the attendees to transition the skills learned in this course to their own work environments.  

Target Audience: Software testers, quality engineering, developer, project managers, functional managers and other software project stakeholders involved in test planning and management, and who are interested in improving software test planning and management practices in their organization.

Course Objectives: Upon successful completion of this course attendees will be able to:

• Understand the basic concepts of software testing

• Plan, track and control the software testing effort

Course Materials: Student notebooks are designed to provide reference materials that can be utilized by the attendees long after the completion of the course.  These materials include:

•  Copies of all presentation materials with annotated descriptive notes

• A bibliography of reference materials

• An index and glossary of Software Auditing Terms

Detailed Outline:

I: Software Testing – The Basics

1. Why, What, When & How of Testing

  a.  Why Test?

·  Testing Defined

·  Testing Software Products

·  Why is Testing Important?

·  Defect Prevention & Process Improvement

·  Common-Defect Checklists

  b.  When to Test?

·  Levels of Testing

·  Testing Activities

·  Increasing Cost of Fixing Issues

  c.  What to Test?

  d.  How to Test?

·  Testing Principles

·  Factors Affecting Quality of Testing

2. Testing Terminology

a.  Standardizing Testing Terminology

b.  Mistakes, Faults & Failures

c.  Testing, Debugging & Root Cause Analysis

d.  Software Items, Component & Units

e.  Verification & Validation

f.  Types of Testing

g.  Test Bed

3. Test Coverage of Requirements

a.  Where to Find Requirements

b.  Traceability

c.  Testability

d.  Attributes of Testable Requirements

e.  Test Matrix

4. Test Documentation

a.  Benefits of Formal Test Documentation

b.  Types of Testing Documentation

5. Test Activities

a.  Test Activities

b.  Participate in Peer Reviews

c.  Test Planning & Design

d.  Test Case Specification

e.  Test Procedure Specification

f.  Test Execution

g.  Test Log

h.  Test Incident Report

i.  Test Summary Report

6. Standards & Models Related to Testing

a.  Why Standards are Important

b.  IEEE Standards Related to Testing

c.  ISO 12207 & IEEE/EIA 12207on Testing

d.  ISO 9000:2000 on Testing

e.  SEI CMMI^SM on Testing

II: Test Planning & Management

1. Project Management – The Basics

a.  Project Defined

b.  Software Project Management Process

c.  Goals of Software Project Planning

d.  Goals of Software Project Management

e.  Cost/Schedule/Product Trilogy

f.  Successful Projects

g.  Test Planning & Management

h.  Test Manager

2. Test Planning

a.  Test Planning Documents – V&V Plan

b.  Test Planning Documents – Test Plans

c.  Test Planning Documents – Test Design Specification

d.  Work Breakdown Structure

·  Product Type Work Breakdown Structure

·  Process Type Work Breakdown Structure

·  Hybrid Type Work Breakdown Structure

·  Long-term & Near-term Planning

·  Exercise – Testing WBS

e.  Test Deliverables

f.  Test Estimation

·  Estimating Size

·  Estimating Effort & Cost

·  Test Productivity Metrics

·  Include Everything

·  Test Schedule & Resources

·  Activity Network

·  Schedule Duration

g.  Test Staffing & Training

·  Approaches to Organizing the Test Function

·  Staff & Resource Allocation

·  Qualities Beneficial to a Tester

·  Skill Gap Analysis

h.  Test Environment

3. Risk Management

a.  Risk Defined

b.  Risk/Reward Balance

c.  Types of Risk

d.  Risk Management Process

e.  Risk Identification Techniques

f.  Techniques for Handling Risks

g.  Exercise – Risk Management

h.  Risk Based Testing

4. Test Management

a.  Test Implementation

b.  Freezing Baselines

c.  Test Tracking

·  Evaluating the Testing Effort

·  Technical Peer Reviews

·  Managerial Reviews

·  Managerial Reviews - Test Team Status Reviews

·  Managerial Reviews - Senior Management Reviews

·  Managerial Reviews - Phase Transition/Milestone Reviews

·  Post Project Reviews

·  Audits

·  Test Management Metrics

·  Test Management Metrics – Schedule Tracking

·  Test Management Metrics – Staff & Resource Tracking

·  Test Management Metrics – Requirements Churn Metric

·  Test Completeness Metrics

·  Defect Tracking Metrics

·  Defect Tracking Metrics – Defect Arrival Rare

·  Defect Tracking Metrics – Cumulative Defects by Status

·  Defect Tracking Metrics – Defect Closure Rate

·  Defect Tracking Metrics – Defect Backlog by Severity

·  Defect Tracking Metrics – Reliability Predictions

·  Cost of Quality Metrics

d.  Test Control

·  Corrective Action

·  Minimizing Testing Costs

·  Ship Still Happens – More Tradeoffs

·  Test Sufficiency

5. Test Processes

a.  Test Process Definition

·  Process Architecture

·  Test Process Definition

·  Example – System Test Process

b.  Test Process Metrics

·  Test Optimization Metrics – Test Effectiveness

·  Test Optimization Metrics - Escapes

·  Test Optimization Metrics – Phase Containment

·  Test Optimization Metrics – Defect Detection Efficiency

·  Test Process Effectiveness Metrics

·  Test Process Effectiveness Metrics – Defect Arrival Rate

·  Test Process Effectiveness Metrics – Defect Density

·  Test Process Effectiveness Metrics – Reliability Actuals

Other Software Testing Courses Include:

Software Testing: is a 5-day course designed to provide an excellent knowledge base and practical skills for anyone interested in improving Software Testing and Test Management techniques and practices in their organization.

Software Structural Testing: is a 2-day course designed to provide an excellent knowledge base and practical skills for anyone interested in improving Software Structural Testing techniques and practices in their organization.  This course consists of chapters 1-3 from our standard Software Testing course.

Software Functional Testing: is a 2-day course designed to provide an excellent knowledge base and practical skills for anyone interested in improving Software Functional Testing techniques and practices in their organization. This course consists of chapters 1 and 4-5 from our standard Software Testing course.

Software Functional Testing & Test Management: is a 3-day course designed to provide an excellent knowledge base and practical skills for anyone interested in improving Software Functional Testing and Test Management techniques and practices in their organization. This course consists of chapters 1 and 4-6 from our standard Software Testing course.

Customized Courses:  Our Software Testing courses are modularized so that they can be easily customized for in-house course offerings that focus on the specific content and topics needed to meet your organization’s exact training requirements. 

The Westfall Team can also customize this course or any of our other standard courses or develop unique software engineering, quality and project management courses to meet your exact in-house training needs and specifications.  For example, class exercises can be tailored to include actual examples from your organization in order to make the training more relevant to your environment.