Test Plan vs Test Strategy

Difference Between Test Plan vs Test Strategy

Test Plan is the first step in testing process documentation that contains information about the product’s functional scope, detailed requirement specification, test strategies, types of testing planned to be applied, software development team, and their respective roles. On the other hand, Test Strategy is a section in the Test plan document where the testing process start point and testing methods are explained in detail. The test plan and test strategy documentation are created and maintained by the test manager, with input from the test team and project management.

What is Test Plan?

The test plan is a document that describes the scope, objective, method of software testing. An organization has multiple software projects. Each software project team can have its own test plan based on the requirement. Whether the project is a support project or a development project, there has to be some planning for testing its features. Here comes the test plan into the picture. The test plan is prepared before the actual testing starts. The test plan has a brief introduction about the methods and type of testing, which is going to be used during the testing. The test plan also helps people outside the team, such as business managers, developers, customers, to understand the details of testing.

What is Test Strategy?

Test strategy is a document that describes the defined set of the principle of test design and regulates how testing will be done; just like the test plan, software project teams have a test Test strategy act as a guiding document for the test plan. Every project team follows a single test strategy. The test strategy helps in planning the testing phase. It has a brief introduction about how testing needs to be done and what methods to be followed depending upon the type of project/requirement.

Head to Head Comparison between Test Plan vs Test Strategy (Infographics)

Below are the top 6  comparisons between Test Plan vs Test Strategy:

Key differences between Test Plan vs Test Strategy

Let us discuss some key differences between Test Plan vs Test Strategy in the following points:

• The test plan is comprised of the test scope, objective and method of software testing; on the other hand, Test strategy defines how testing will be done.
• Designing a test plan is a project level activity, whereas test strategy comes at the organization level.
• The test plan is designed by the test team manager or the lead, whereas the project manager designs the test strategy.
• As the test plan is project-level, any project team can change it based on their requirement. Whereas in a test, strategies can’t be changed or do not change too often.
• The primary goal of having a test plan is it defines how to test a software product when to test it and who will verify the test results; on the other hand, the goal of the test strategy is what technique to follow.

Basically, the test strategy defines what approach should be followed for testing and the test plan details how those approaches will be executed in a planned way. They both go together hand in hand. As said, test strategies do not change too often, and the reason being the test plan follows the test strategies; hence changing test strategies too frequently may impact the quality of a test plan and the testing. The quality impact would be the last thing anyone wants.

Comparison Table of Test Plan vs Test Strategy

The table below summarizes the comparisons between Test Plan vs Test Strategy:

Test Plan	Test Strategy
Test plan defines the scope, objective and method of software testing.	Test strategy defines how testing will be done.
The test plan has components like test plan id, test environment, features to be tested/not tested, entry/exit criteria, status, types of testing, a brief intro.	The test strategy has components like scope and objective, business issues, testing approach, test deliverables, defect tracking approach, training, automation, risks.
The test plan is carried out by the test team manager or lead.	Test strategy is carried out by the project manager.
Test plan changes frequently.	Test strategies do not change or change less frequently.
The test plan is based on test strategies and defined at the project level.	Test strategy is based on based standards and defined at the organizational level.
The test plan narrates how the defined approach will be followed.	The test strategy defines the approach.

Some organization includes test strategy in the test plan itself as a subsection. But do not get confused. Know the difference, and you are all set to go. There are companies out in the world that do not create test plans or strategies. But being a good test engineer, it’s always a good idea to have a certain level of knowledge. Having a test strategy helps in aligning the test planning process, which eventually helps in the testing process. The end goal is to achieve a quality product.

Conclusion

The above comparison should solve the confusion between the test plan and strategy. Both documents are an important and crucial part of a project. Test strategy helps in test planning, and test plan helps in test execution and the result? The answer is a smooth testing process and a quality product.

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