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Phase 6: Test Program Review and Assessment
Test program review and assessment activities need to be conducted throughout the testing lifecycle, to allow for continuous improvement activities. Throughout the testing lifecycle and following test execution activities, metrics need to be evaluated and final review and assessment activities need to be conducted to allow for process improvement. The various steps necessary for test program review and assessment are outlined below.
Following test execution, the test team needs to review the performance of the test program to determine where changes can be implemented to improve the test program performance on the next project. This test program review represents the final phase of the Automated Test Lifecycle Methodology (ATLM).
Throughout the test program, the test team collected various test metrics. The focus of the test program review includes an assessment of whether the application satisfies acceptance criteria and is ready to go into production. The review also includes an evaluation of earned value progress measurements and other metrics collected.
As part of its culture, the test team needs to adopt an ongoing iterative process of lessons learned activities. Such a program encourages test engineers to take the responsibility to raise corrective action proposals immediately, when such actions potentially have significant impact on test program performance. Throughout the entire test lifecycle, it's good practice to document and begin to evaluate lessons learned at each milestone. The metrics that are collected throughout the test lifecycle and especially during the test execution phase help pinpoint problems that need to be addressed.
Lessons learned, metrics evaluations, and corresponding improvement activity or corrective action need to be documented throughout the entire test process in a central repository that's easily accessible.
After collecting lessons learned and other metrics, and defining corrective actions, test engineers also need to assess the effectiveness of the test program to include an evaluation of the test program return on investment. Test engineers capture measures of the benefits of automation realized throughout the test lifecycle in order to support this assessment.
Test teams can perform their own surveys to inquire about the potential value of process and tool changes. A survey form can be used to solicit feedback on the potential use of requirement-management tools, design tools, and development tools. Surveys are helpful to identify potential misconceptions and gather positive feedback.