TechAbout - Documentation

Two concepts that are often confused are SQA Plans and Acceptance Test Plans.

1. An SQA Plan defines activities associated with monitoring the project’s development from start to finish.
2. An Acceptance Test Plan contains sets of test cases to accept the newly completed, installed system.

7.1 SQA Plans

As stated earlier, part of the SQA function is to develop an SQA Plan. The contents of the SQA Plan identify the strategy and supporting activities that will be used to verify quality on the project.

There are two basic elements to any SQA Plan:

1. The requirements for SQA documentation.

2. The procedures for quality assurance.

   The plan communicates to the Project Team the expectations for quality on the project and directs the assurance activities of the SQA Team.

   Construction of the plan should recognize that more than one type of reader will use the Plan:

• Software Developers – Need to know the quality requirements so that they can incorporate them into the design.
• Test Plan Developers – Need to know the quality factors for which they should develop tests.
• Vendors – Need to know what quality factors can affect the products and services they are providing on the project.
• Managers – Need to know what resources are to be applied to the SQA activities and what level of quality can be expected from their staff.
• Clients – Need assurance that the right level of quality is defined for their project and that the appropriate steps are being taken to ensure quality.
• SQA Team Members – Need to know what SQA activities must be performed. The plan should clearly outline the expectations and responsibilities for each of these groups.

7.2 Verification/Validation Reports

The results of the reviews, audits, and acceptance tests are documented through Verification/Validation Reports.

• These reports should note any deficiencies that could inhibit the acceptance of the reviewed document or the completed software requirement.

• This provides an opportunity for deficiencies to be captured in defect reports and analyzed, so subsequent improvements can be made in the software development process.

  In general, Verification/Validation Reports are used to record the acceptance of the delivered documents and the success or failure of each requirement tested.

7.3 Acceptance Plan

The primary goal of acceptance testing is to confirm that the system fulfills the client requirements and solves the problem that originally necessitated the project.

• The Acceptance Test Team must work with the clients to create a useful set of tests that address the original objectives of the system.
• The Acceptance Test Plan describes the testing environment, start-up procedures, and specific test cases necessary to verify the adequacy of the system and to formally accept it.
• The Acceptance Test Team acts as a representative of the client organization to confirm the adequacy of the completed project by developing an Acceptance Test Plan.

• The approach of the Acceptance Test Plan is to test the external behavior of the system (black-box testing); it is not necessarily concerned with the internal workings of the system. Tests should include cases for entering both valid and invalid responses.

  Each test case and its results should be carefully tracked. Tests can fail several times before they are fully corrected and accepted by the Acceptance Test Team. Various modules can be in different states of testing, so careful tracking and documentation are essential.

  It is the responsibility of the Acceptance Test Team, after every Acceptance Test session, to compile the results and distribute them to the appropriate parties.