Effective Software Testing (Test Planning)

The cornerstone of a successful test program is effective test planning.
Proper test planning requires an understanding of the corporate culture
and its software-development processes, in order to adapt or suggest
improvements to processes as necessary.
Planning must take place as early as possible in the software life cycle,
because lead times must be considered for implementing the test
program successfully. Gaining an understanding of the task at hand early
on is essential in order to estimate required resources, as well as to get
the necessary buy-in and approval to hire personnel and acquire testing
tools, support software, and hardware. Early planning allows for testing
schedules and budgets to be estimated, approved, and then incorporated
into the overall software development plan.
Lead times for procurement and preparation of the testing environment,
and for installation of the system under test, testing tools, databases,and
other components must be considered early on.
No two testing efforts are the same. Effective test planning requires a
clear understanding of all parts that can affect the testing goal.
Additionally, experience and an understanding of the testing discipline
are necessary, including best practices, testing processes, techniques,
and tools, in order to select the test strategies that can be most
effectively applied and adapted to the task at hand.
During test-strategy design, risks, resources, time, and budget
constraints must be considered. An understanding of estimation
techniques and their implementation is needed in order to estimate the
required resources and functions, including number of personnel, types
of expertise, roles and responsibilities, schedules, and budgets.
There are several ways to estimate testing efforts, including ratio
methods and comparison to past efforts of similar scope. Proper
estimation allows an effective test team to be assembled- not an easy
task, if it must be done from scratch- and allows project delivery
schedules to most accurately reflect the work of the testing team.