Sometimes many teams in a project get confusion on the test cycles process and the importance of the testing teams, and support to them. This situation might create ambiguities within them.

In this blog I would like to elaborate different operational roles during the test cycles planning/performance [Since the offline requests were received].

In any project, apart from the development [SDLC] teams there are testing teams and the user groups. Sometimes the user groups can have Business Analysts [BAs] also. Now, let us go through the typical process required for test planning and the execution.

Assuming the environment is a mini project, having an independent tester and the BA along with the developer and all are reporting to the one single Project Manager.

The following points can be useful for the healthy testing environment:

1. The BA collects the user requirements and transfers the requirements to the technical teams. The BA also needs to make sure the relevant tester is in the review meeting to be aware of the latest release requirements.
2. Once the developers complete the GAP analysis on the new requirements with the existing applications, they can come up with the feasible or allowed requirements for the iteration or the current project.
3. Then the BA needs to seek user approval to go-ahead with the new release.
4. Once the approval is given, the Development team needs to share the GAP analysis information along with the approved new requirements to the tester for their clear understanding.
5. The testers need to understand the requirements and also conduct the presentation on the test scenarios to the BA. If development team attends this session it can benefit them to understand the future defects faster and fixes them ontime.
6. Once the test scenarios are agreed by the BA, the tester need to keep working on the test planning, test strategy and the approach of the testing. This information need to be shared to the BA and the development team. Once the development team and the testing team agrees on the reviewed contents, the tester need to plan for writing the test cases, data, test cycles and the environment planning.
7. The test cases and the data need to be reviewed by the BA and the development team needs to be aware on the test coverage.
8. Once the test execution schedule is arrived, the tester needs to execute the test cases as per their sequence and the schedule. If they find the defect, it needs to be simulated number of times to the developers [as needed]. This way it can give clarity to the developers on the raised defect to understand and fix faster to save the project cycle time or to meet the schedule. The BA need to monitor the defects and their status.
9. By following the above series of steps the ambiguities can be nullified among the teams for smooth functioning of the project delivery on time.

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