Software testing is not just limited to testing the application, it also includes documentation. Testing documentation is used for a variety of reasons:

• Explains the purpose & goal of testing
• Explains will be tested & how
• Provide testing results to the project team
• Provide testing recommendations to the project team
• Ability to go back and determine what was done

So what types of documents are needed for software testing? I have been asked this question by a variety of different clients, projects team members, as well as other testers. To help answer this question I thought I’d list the documents that I have used on projects. Not all documents are required, you should check with your organization if there are pre-made templates for these documents. In some cases there are documents that can be combined.

• Testing Methodology
• Test Strategy
• Testing Effort Estimation
• Testing Glossary
• QA Roles & Responsibilities
• Test Plan
• Testing Checklist
• Requirements Traceability Matrix
• Test Cases
• Test Scripts (Automated/Performance)
• Performance Questionnaire
• Testing Progress Report
• Defect Log
• Testing Completion Report (aka Findings Report)
• Lessons Learned

Are there any other documents that you use? What are your thoughts on the need for documentation?

Stay tuned for upcoming posts on what should be included in each of the documents and when in the project lifecycle they should be created/updated.

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