Managing the Testing Process: Practical Tools and Techniques for Managing Hardware and Software Testing

5.1. Building a Minimalist Test Tracking Spreadsheet

Let's start by building a very simple test tracking spreadsheet, and then see how we can adapt it to our case study.

5.1.1. The Basic Spreadsheet

To keep our sample worksheets relatively small, let's suppose that you have defined a simple four-suite system test phase. You intend to run these four test suites:

• Environmental

• Load, Capacity, and Volume

• Basic Functionality

• Standards

You want to track the status of each test case, the configuration against which the test was run, and who ran the test. You also want to summarize the test status numerically.

Figure 5.1 shows an example of a test case summary worksheet as it might appear halfway into the first cycle of system testing. The first column of the Excel worksheet (Test Suite/Case) contains the names of the test suites and, within each suite, the test cases. The names are short mnemonics that convey an idea of the test's purpose. In the second column (State), you can record the state of each test case. A blank entry in this column means that the test case is still queued for execution. A Pass entry signifies that the test case did not identify any bugs; Fail indicates that one or more bugs were found.

The System Config column lists an identifier for the system configuration used in each test case. A separate worksheet that serves as a lookup table, shown in Figure 5.2, allows you to record important details about each configuration, such as the mother-board revision, the BIOS ...