Test Strategy vs Test Plan: Differences and Importance

An efficient test plan or strategy is curated before you start executing the testing process. Both of these terms look similar, but are they? Is “Test plan” the same as “test strategy”? If yes, why are they used differently? 

Or planning is somehow different from strategizing when it comes to “software testing”? 

Let’s discuss test strategy vs test plan to find out!

What is a Test Plan?

As the name suggests, it’s a plan outlining the objectives, scope, approach, resources, and schedule required to test the software. In the ‘test plan vs test strategy’ discussion, a test plan provides a roadmap of the necessary steps you need to take to test your software effectively. 

Why is a Test Plan Necessary?

A test plan is a structured approach that saves much time during testing because you’ll know exactly what needs to be done and when. It helps you maintain momentum. According to Newton’s 1st law, an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an external force. The same principle applies to testing. If you stop to decide your next step, your productivity drops without realizing it.

Apart from the productivity scenario, a test plan will keep shareholders, developers, and the entire team updated about the testing process. This will facilitate clear communication and coordination between everyone involved. 

Different Types of Test Plans

Detailing is essential. You should be extremely clear about the goal you want to achieve through testing. Keeping this in mind, test plans are differentiated according to the testing types, levels, and sizes of a plan. 

They are of 3 types: 

1. Level-specific test plan: This includes planning for unit tests, integration tests, and system tests.
2. Types-specific test plan: If you want to plan for key parameters like setting performance goals, creating test scenarios, setting up the test environment, and identifying tools for evaluation, then a type-specific test plan will suit you best. 
3. Master test plan: A master plan has all the key details and provides a complete overview of the testing process.  It’s a high-level document that rarely goes through any reviews. 

What are the Key Components of a Test Plan?

1. Objectives: Specific goals testers need to achieve within the project. 
2. Deliverables: Contains different documents, models, code, and other outputs like test cases, test scripts, and test reports from the testing process. 
3. Schedule: Provides the timeline for conducting the testing activities, including start and end dates for each phase of testing. 
4. Environment: Details about the hardware, software, network, and tools needed for testing.
5. Resource Allocation: Information about the team members involved in testing and their specific roles and responsibilities.
6. Design Techniques: Contains methods used to design test cases, like equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis, and decision table testing.
7. Execution Plan: Has a detailed plan for executing the test cases with the sequence of execution and any dependencies.
8. Entry and Exit Criteria: Describes the conditions that must be met to start and complete the testing activities.
9. Risk and Contingency Planning: Identifies potential risks and outlines strategies for mitigating them.

How To Write a Test Plan

Before writing a test plan, involve everyone who matters (shareholders, business analysts, and others). QAs don’t work alone. Developers talk about system design, software, and how they write code. People who know the business also join in. Working together makes the test plan better. 

Test planning consists of 9 steps, and we are going to discuss each one in detail. 

1. Analyze the product 

This stage understands the product and its architecture. Testers ask stakeholders about the product’s main goals, target audience, key features, risks, and critical quality metrics. Apt product analysis helps testers identify what needs to be tested and uncover potential issues due to module miscommunication. 

2. Define testing goals

Now the QA manager creates a Test Strategy document to discuss project objectives and types like functional (API testing) and non-functional (visual testing). Objectives are prioritized and can change over time. Sometimes, testing is paused if too many bugs are found, and sanity checks are done first to avoid testing broken builds. The test plan tracks these changes and objectives to guide the testing process. 

3. Define test scenarios 

The information gathered is used to brainstorm test scenarios by considering how users interact with the system. For example, when testing a new e-commerce website, they look at the business logic (search for products, add items to the cart, and make payments), requirements (accurate search, correct pricing, secure payment), and test objectives (verify search speed and accuracy, check pricing in the cart and checkout, recheck payment security options). These elements create detailed test scenarios for thorough testing.

4. Resource planning

It’s time to now focus on hardware, software, testing tools, personnel, training materials, testing environment, data, time, budget, and communication tools. Resource planning allocates all needed resources properly for testing. This way, testing runs smoothly across different project stages, keeping operations efficient and effective. 

5. Define test deliverables

Test deliverables are the outputs generated during testing to show what testing activities have been done. These can vary based on the type of testing and project needs. Some of the examples are–test cases, scripts, results, summary reports, defect reports, traceability matrices, details about the testing environment, and user acceptance reports. 

6. Define test schedules

The test schedule determines how long each testing stage will take based on factors like complexity, dependencies, and available resources. You can set milestones to track progress and know where the project stands at any given time. You can create a clear and effective test plan by following SMART rules. Just make your test schedule goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound

7. Evaluate and Finish

In the end, all you have to do is review the key requirements, potential risks, test environment readiness, resource allocation, and schedule feasibility. Once everything is up-to-date–your test plan is ready for use.

Challenges in Test Planning

Some of the common challenges in test planning are given below:

1. Time Constraints: There is limited time available for testing. Projects have tight deadlines due to which there is not enough time to thoroughly test all functionalities and scenarios.

2. Limited resources: Resources like skilled testers, testing tools, and infrastructure are essential for effective testing. But sometimes there is not enough budget and other times the resources themselves are not available. It prevents testers from testing effortlessly. 

3. Scope Creep: Unclear or expanding project scope leads to scope creep, where additional features are added during development. This impacts test planning, as test cases and timelines will now be adjusted accordingly. 

4. Technical Challenges: Testing new technologies and platforms is quite challenging. You need to check compatibility, performance, and security in different environments, which requires careful planning and testing strategies.

5. Communication Issues: Effective communication among team members is important for successful test planning. Miscommunication or lack of clarity leads to misunderstandings, delays, or incomplete testing coverage.

What is a Test Strategy? 

In the context of ‘test plan vs test strategy’, a test strategy is a document that determines the best approach to effective software testing. It answers 5 main questions. 

• The first one is– what to test? Identifies features and functions of the software that need to be checked. 
• The second is–How to test. It simply describes the methods and tools used to test the software. 
• The third is–when to test. It mentions the timelines and stages of testing. 
• The fourth is–Who will test. It contains details of all the roles and responsibilities of the people involved in testing. 

Last, but not least, this question answers why we are testing this particular software in the first place. It explains the goals and reasons for testing.

Why Do We Need a Test Strategy?

A clear test strategy provides a roadmap for testing software, defining the scope, formats, processes, tools, reports, and client communication. It outlines the techniques to specify the modules to test and address key product-centric requirements.

By setting up the priorities, allocating resources effectively, and implementing consistent testing methods, testing professionals ensure an organized approach to testing efforts.

Such an approach can help validate that all parts of the software are tested, bug-free, and progress effectively to clients.

Different Types of Testing Strategies

Just like test plans, testing strategies can also be classified into various types. Each one of them is mentioned below: 

1. Consultative Strategy: Experts, stakeholders, or users give their input to determine what and how to test.

2. Model-based strategy: Here, the testing team creates a model based on a real or expected situation. They consider inputs, outputs, processes, and potential behaviors for testing.

3. Process-oriented strategy: Here, we keep in mind the existing standards, like the IEEE standards.

4. Analytical Strategy: Analytical strategy includes types like risk-based testing and requirements-based testing. The testing team checks the risk and decides what to test based on that.

5. Reactive Strategy: This type of testing is used in dynamic environments, as it works on feedback and issues found during the testing process. 

6. Stability-focused strategy: Here, we perform regression testing to prevent bugs from being reintroduced into the software. 

7. Methodical Strategy: It has a user-based checklist and strictly asks you to maintain it (like, ISO25000) while creating an effective strategy. 

8. Continuous testing strategy: Continuous testing in DevOps and Agile integrates automated tests into CI/CD. This way, you can get quick feedback, faster releases, and early bug detection.
   
9. Risk-based strategy: Test high-risk software areas to optimize resources and prioritize important tests.

10. Crowdtesting strategy: Crowdtesting uses external testers on various devices and platforms to find defects that in-house teams sometimes miss. Helping in providing diverse insights and user perspectives.

What Does a Test Strategy Document Contains?

A test strategy document is made up of the following: 

1. Coverage/scope: Covers parts of the software will be tested.
2. Objectives: Outlines the goals and aims of testing.
3. Approach: Discusses different methods and types of testing.
4. Environment: Setup testing needs–hardware and software.
5. Tools: Lists the tools and resources that will be used for testing.
6. Schedule: Provides a timeline for different testing activities.
7. Roles and Responsibilities: Identifies who will perform each testing activity.
8. Risk Management: Points out potential risks and outlines plans to address them.
9. Deliverables: Contains documents and reports produced during and after testing.
10. Communication Plan: This has details on how progress and results will be communicated to stakeholders and other team members. 
11. Entry and Exit: Contains conditions to start and finish testing. 

Challenges While Creating an Effective Test Strategy

1. Balancing Automation and Manual Testing: Creating a balance between automated and manual testing based on project requirements, timelines, and the complexity of test scenarios is a challenge in itself. 

2. Continuous Improvement: Testing strategies evolve throughout the project lifecycle based on feedback, lessons learned, and changes in project requirements. Maintaining a mindset of continuous improvement helps in dealing with challenges so that test strategies remain relevant.

3. Unclear requirements: Unclear or changing project requirements make it difficult to define testing objectives and scope. This ambiguity leads to misunderstandings while testing. 

Difference: Test Plan vs Test Strategy

When comparing test strategy vs test plan, it’s clear they have different purposes. The reasons for creating a test plan are different from the reasons for creating a testing strategy. Both have different levels of detail.

 Let’s discuss test plan vs test strategy in detail-

Components	Test Plan	Test Strategy
Definition	It is a detailed document	It is a high-level document
Scope	Specific to a project	Much broader and covers the overall approach
Details	Includes test cases and schedules	Includes testing methods and objectives
Purpose	Guides day-to-day tasks	Provides overall direction and framework
Level of Detail	Detailed and specific	General and high-level
Responsibility	Created by test managers and testers	Created by senior management
Flexibility	Needs updates with project changes	More stable, less frequent updates
Audience	Testers, project team	Test managers, stakeholders
Timeframe	Short-term, focused on current testing	Long-term, focused on overall strategy
Content	Test cases, schedules, resources	Test types, tools, environment

A test plan focuses on the “how” of testing within a project, and a test strategy defines the “what” and “why” of testing across projects. Combining detailed execution with high-level strategic goals, testers meet both immediate project needs and long-term quality objectives.

Conclusion: Test Strategy vs Test Plan

We all have heard about how an effective test plan and test strategy will create software that users can rely on. These terms look so similar that sometimes people think they are the same. This blog aimed to clarify the key differences in the ‘test plan vs test strategy’ debate. An efficient tester should be aware of their differences, importance, and impact on the software and the testing process. 

Remember that strategy guides the overall direction, while the plan gets into the nitty-gritty details like schedules and specific tests. When these documents work together, you test much better and meet goals much faster. 

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