Applied Software Project Management

Test Execution

The software testers begin executing the test plan after the programmers deliver a build that they feel is feature complete. This is referred to as the alpha build . The alpha should be of high quality—the programmers should feel that it is ready for release, and as good as they can get it. This build should have been code reviewed (see Chapter 5) and should have passed unit tests (see Chapter 7); it should have already been minimally functionally tested by the development team, as well.

There are typically several iterations of test execution . The first iteration focuses on new functionality that has been added since the last round of testing. (If this is the first time this software product has been tested, then every test case is executed.) If no defects are uncovered that are considered high enough priority to fix (see below about defect triage), then the testers move on to perform a regression test .

A regression test is a test designed to make sure that a change to one area of the software has not caused any other part of the software that had previously passed its tests to stop working. Regression testing usually involves executing all test cases that have previously been executed. In other words, it's not enough to verify that the software has been altered: it's also necessary to ensure that the change did not break any other part of the software that previously worked.

It is rare for no defects to be uncovered in the first test iteration. Usually, some test ...