Test Management
Test Plan
A document describing the scope, approach, resources, and schedule of testing activities.
Full definition
A test plan is a comprehensive document that outlines the testing strategy for a project or release. It answers: What will be tested? How? By whom? When? What are the risks?
Key sections of a test plan (IEEE 829 standard):
- Scope: What's in scope and out of scope for testing
- Approach: Testing types, techniques, and tools
- Resources: Team members, environments, tools needed
- Schedule: Milestones, deadlines, dependencies
- Entry/Exit criteria: When to start and stop testing
- Risk analysis: What could go wrong and mitigation plans
- Deliverables: What artifacts testing will produce
In agile environments, test plans are often lighter — sometimes just a test strategy document or acceptance criteria on user stories. The key is having enough documentation to align the team without creating bureaucratic overhead.