Test effort
Encyclopedia
In software development
, test effort refers to the expenses for (still to come) tests. There is a relation with test costs and failure costs (direct, indirect, costs for fault correction). Some factors which influence test effort are: maturity of the software development process
, quality and testability
of the testobject, test infrastructure, skills of staff members, quality goals and test strategy
.
and Wide Band Delphi
(WBD).
We can also use the following techniques for estimating the test effort:
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
, test effort refers to the expenses for (still to come) tests. There is a relation with test costs and failure costs (direct, indirect, costs for fault correction). Some factors which influence test effort are: maturity of the software development process
Software development process
A software development process, also known as a software development life cycle , is a structure imposed on the development of a software product. Similar terms include software life cycle and software process. It is often considered a subset of systems development life cycle...
, quality and testability
Software testability
Software testability is the degree to which a software artifact supports testing in a given test context....
of the testobject, test infrastructure, skills of staff members, quality goals and test strategy
Test strategy
A test strategy is an outline that describes the testing portion of the software development cycle. It is created to inform project managers, testers, and developers about some key issues of the testing process...
.
Methods for estimation of the test effort
To analyse all factors is difficult, because most of the factors influence each other. Following approaches can be used for the estimation: top-down estimation and bottom-up estimation. The top-down techniques are formula based and they are relative to the expenses for development: Function Point Analysis (FPA) and Test Point Analysis (TPA) amongst others. Bottom-up techniques are based on detailed information and involve often experts. The following techniques belong here: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)Work breakdown structure
A work breakdown structure , in project management and systems engineering, is a deliverable oriented decomposition of a project into smaller components. It defines and groups a project's discrete work elements in a way that helps organize and define the total work scope of the project.A work...
and Wide Band Delphi
Wideband delphi
The Wideband Delphi estimation method is a consensus-based technique for estimating effort. It derives from the Delphi Method which was developed in the 1940s at the RAND Corporation as a forecasting tool...
(WBD).
We can also use the following techniques for estimating the test effort:
- Conversion of software size into person hours of effort directly using a conversion factor. For example, we assign 2 person hours of testing effort per one Function Point of software size or 4 person hours of testing effort per one use case point or 3 person hours of testing effort per one Software Size Unit
- Conversion of software size into testing project size such as Test Points or Software Test Units using a conversion factor and then convert testing project size into effort
- Compute testing project size using Test Points of Software Test Units. Methodology for deriving the testing project size in Test Points is not well documented. However, methodology for deriving Software Test Units is defined in a paper by Murali Chemuturi
- We can also derive software testing project size and effort using Delphi Technique or Analogy Based Estimation technique.