Blog post series about testing development projects, part 2/11
Articles about planning software testing and managing it.
Point of views:
- Business critical development projects, where IT plays a strong role.
- One or more outside vendors.
- Client’s business personnel as testers. They are business professionals, not software testing professionals.
- Goals for testing:
- Make sure that the implemented solution supports the needs of the business.
- Make sure the implementation doesn’t endanger the business.
Planning resources for acceptance testing
When testing business critical software, the testers are most often business professionals, people, who test alongside their own work. They are usually not testing professionals. Resources are “bought” from the business for development project. In this post I give tips to make a resource plan that includes valid arguments for the business.
Effective testing time
Tester’s work day includes different activities:
- Status meetings
- Guidance, briefings
- Breaks, lunch
- Answering requests from the business
- Social media and conversations
- Effective testing
In Finland the average office work day is 7.5h/day. Because the other activities take a part of this time, the value I use when planning resources is 5.5h effective testing per day.
Testing time / Test case
Test cases in acceptance testing are all different, but can usually be divided into two main categories: End-to-End test cases and testing a single function.
- Testing a single function means one tester tests one function, e.g. entering a sales order
- End-to-End test case means several testers test one process. E.g. Order – Delivery – Invoicing – Accounting.
Counting resources, I usually set basic time for these, since estimating every test case is time consuming. For example:
- Testing a single function = 1h
- E2E -testing = 2.5h
The number of observations effects the need for resources
Part 1/11 I write about the work load caused by testing observations.
In this next calculation of the need of resources, I use 157 as the number of observations. From these the work load for testers is approximately 315h.
Counting resources
When we know the things listed below, we can make calculations of how much resources we need from the business.
- Effective testing time per day
- The number of test cases
- The time used for testing each test case
- An estimate of the observations
What’s important, is that you have a calculation that helps you prove the need for resources. Otherwise you might get into an argument about the necessity of the resources asked.
An Example:
- Testing single functions: 210 pcs * 1h/pcs = 210h
- E2E test cases: 120 pcs * 2.5h/pcs = 300h
- Observations found approximately: 157 pcs * 2h/pcs = 315h
- All together = 825h.
- Effective testing day = 5.5 h/day
- We need 15 testers for 10 days.
Why is this method useful?
When you make the calculations and look at the calendar, you really need to plan how the testing will go. I close my eyes and imagine the events of the testing day.
When planning new testing, you can go back to your previous plans and see how the plans were realized. Did you put too much or too little in resources the last time? Now you can specify your plan based on observations.
There are usually many projects ongoing at the same time. With good planning, you can have right resources for the strategically critical project.
Don’t make your plans too tight. Every testing day without surprises is a surprise.
The next part will tell you how to make the best use of resources.
