Test Management Approach

History

The first method was created in 1995 and written by Martin Pol, Ruud Teunissen en Erik van Veenendaal. At the end of 2006 a new version was published called TMap Next written by other authors (Tim Koomen, Michiel Vroon, Leo van der Aalst & Bart Broekman). The main reason for this new version was the aim to create a more process focused description of the test process and put more emphasis on the business objectives as a guidance for the testing process.

TMap was created by the Dutch division of Sogeti which is part of Capgemini.

Although TMap is a Dutch product by origin, accounts of the method have been published in French, German and English.

The importance of testing

There are risks involved in changes. Introducing new information systems is a major change for a lot of organisations and it is wise to manage these risks. This is called enterprise risk management.

The essentials of TMap

TMap Next has four pillars: test management, toolbox, structure and flexibility.

Business-driven test management

The test manager can manage the process on four aspects: time, costs, risks and results.

Toolbox

TMap has a toolbox which provide the techniques to perform the method.

Structure

TMap Next has phases that each test has to go through:

and the two extra phases:

Flexibility

TMap allows for adaptation to the environment, including agile and scrum.

Planning

In this phase a risk analysis of the product is carried out, and a test strategy is developed. The budget and test plans are made. Choices are made about the products to be delivered, the test infrastructure and the test organisation. The master test plan usually has to be signed off by the business (client).

Test management

In the master test plan the test process controls are specified.

Testing during development

Testing can be done at the end of the process where the end-product is tested against the requirements, or it can be done in an earlier phase, during development. During development, what can be tested are the available elements. What can be tested depends on the software testability. Testing during the development phase is the review of documentation, and the testing of small parts of the system as soon as they are ready for testing. It is partly static testing and white-box testing. Examples are: test-driven development, pair programming, code review, continuous integration and application integration. In Agile testing testing is carried out early in the process.

System and acceptance testing

Although system testing and acceptance testing are different phases they do have a lot of things in common.

Supporting processes

The supporting processes are test environment, test tools, and selection of test professionals.

Test environment

In the test plan the test environment is described.

Test tools

Test tools can be used.

Test professionals

The selection of test professionals is done early in the process.

Product risk analysis

A Risk analysis can be made.

Quality

The software quality control

Test results, issues, bugs, problems and show-stoppers

Test results should be documented. This can be done in a simple word document, a spreadsheet, a database or even using specialized applications to manage the findings. It should be clear at any point how many test cases or test scripts are run, how many bugs are found and how many of them are still open. In the beginning of the test process the number of discovered bugs, issues, problems and show-stoppers will grow. They are of course reported back to the developers, who will try to resolve the problems after which they have to be retested, resulting in a diminishing number of open issues and at some point a growing feeling of confidence in the new system.

Metrics

The Performance metrics are used for controlling the process.

Test design

A test design is made after the planning. Subjects are: create, read, update and delete and boundary value analysis.

Test methods

Tmap uses and describes the following test methods:

Audit or review

To speed up and improve the total test process it is good practise not to wait until everything is ready and then test the end product, but to review intermediate products (documentation) and audit the process as well. All intermediate products can be reviewed. This is called static testing. Techniques used in this phase are:

Intermediate products to test are the: requirements, system design, test strategy, test plan, test scripts, unit test results, prototype.

The results of the formal audits or reviews have to be documented, reported to the project manager and discussed (feedback) with the authors/developers. This can lead to changes, changes to the documents/products, the process or the people. More informal reviews are also possible, where colleagues or peers are involved.

Test roles

TMap has three test roles: