Software testing’s fundamental components are data management and storage. It’s crucial to track bugs, maintain records of test cases and user journeys, and understand best practices. The quantity of repeated work will be reduced if the team maintains thorough documentation of each testing activity.
The short- and long-term success of the testing process depends on test documentation, which has this obligation.
1. Test Documentation
All files that give details about the testing team’s approach, development, metrics, and results attained are considered to be part of the test documentation. It is possible to gauge testing effort, manage test coverage, and monitor upcoming project requirements by combining all the data that is now available.
Test Plan, Test Scenario, Test Case, Test Step, and Traceability Matrix are the artefacts that are produced at the end of each stage of the software application testing process. To keep track of the provided requirements, these documentations are produced during the corresponding phases of requirement analysis, design, and test execution. Software applications are created in accordance with the client’s specifications, which may include things like the software’s quality, the amount of time and effort invested not going over budget, etc.
In order to estimate the test coverage, requirement tracking, traceability matrix, and overall work necessary, a document is developed before the testing process is started. It is possible to create test documentation both before and during the software testing process. It is a set of documents that includes all the essential information regarding the testing process, test cycle, test coverage, and test execution, among other things.
2. What is the Purpose of Software Testing Documentation?
QA documentation gathers details on test planning, execution, accountable team members, KPIs, and outcomes. It delivers a nuanced picture of the project and has several useful advantages.
Following are the objectives of Testing Documentation:
2.1 Eliminates any testing activity’s uncertainty
It is simple for team members and product owners to keep track of the products since testing documentation contains complete descriptions of all planned tests.
2.2 Assists in creating the testing environment
Testing documentation maintains information on the hardware that was used, the automated tools, frameworks, and thoroughly explains how the product functions. This knowledge can be applied to incoming text situations or given to a member who has just joined the team.
2.3 Increases stakeholders’ understanding of the testing process
Thorough real-time data makes it possible to check the results of tangible testing at any time. A product owner, business founder, or CTO gets a behind-the-scenes look at the team’s development and can offer advice.
2.4 Documentation facilitates the analysis of testing effectiveness.
The team can optimise the procedure after reviewing the testing’s outcomes and development. If the team didn’t fulfil its KPIs, testing procedures can be reviewed right away to identify the issue.
The most significant benefit of software test documentation is that it enables product owners and business managers to save time and money by repurposing tried-and-true methods and avoiding those that didn’t satisfy KPIs. It’s a long-term investment that enhances both the results of the current testing and can be applied to other testing assignments in the future.
3. The Significance of Testing Documentation in Software Development
Documenting quality assurance improves management effectiveness and lowers potential hazards. Let’s examine some additional rewards of this kind of documentation for software development.
3.1 Possibilities to develop uniform approaches to apply to other projects
The process of software testing is ongoing and never totally complete. Testers examine each new version to look for any interface or functionality problems. The update’s quality is ensured by a routine evaluation.
3.2 Ensuring that testing is clear to all project participants
The following collaboration problems are all resolved by software documentation:
3.2.1 Split teams
There is a risk that a QA documentation expert would experience communication issues, possibly skip updates, and even grow to despise each other when software development and testers collaborate remotely or as a specialised team. Team documentation, with its emphasis on the finished product, supports team members in recognizing that they collaborate to create a better product, which is their shared aim.
3.2.2 Unaddressed unfavorable inputs
Absence of a clear report can cause a development team losing track of some important product concerns. Developers often become overwhelmed and unsure of where to begin if the product contains several issues. Developers can step away and revise their plans as needed in light of latest input owing to real-time QA process documentation.
3.2.3 Obstructed accessibility
Especially if there is no thorough overview, development and testing teams frequently struggle to grasp what the other team is working on. By giving clear overviews of the present task scope and goals for each member, documentation swiftly resolves this problem.
Testers, developers, and product owners all benefit from testing documentation. Stakeholders and contributors can refer back to the records if there is even the slightest chance of a misunderstanding and resolve these issues.
3.3 Describing all system requirements in detail
All essential business procedures are listed in documentation testing files, together with information on how they are carried out.
Let’s examine the information that document testing often includes.
3.3.1 Business goals
KPIs and business goals are listed in this section. The project’s business model and the technology that are employed to provide the intended results are both covered in the driver section.
3.3.2 Business strategy
This part provides a customer’s perspective on the product, outlining the intended performance, requirements, objectives, and advantages of utilizing the software. Such documentation typically includes charts, tables, and flow diagrams.
3.3.3 Technical circumstances
Here, testers monitor the operation of the project’s technical environment, including devices, operating systems, hardware requirements, and more, and they evaluate whether the functionality of the product is effective in these circumstances. By doing this, the product can maximize the use of the consumers’ hardware and provide the best experience.
3.3.4 Features of the system
These reports outline the product’s cross-platform compatibility, usability, and security. On the basis of these criteria, testers evaluate the current functionality and user interface and come up with solutions to the problem.
System Requirements Specification makes project upkeep easier because it frees business owners from being tied to a single team and allows them to bring in new personnel or transfer to a different service provider. For a new team to comprehend the situation of the product, it is simply necessary to offer recorded requirements.
4. Benefits of Software Testing Documentation
4.1 Enhances teamwork within the team
Business owners ought to be able to assess the quality of the code at any moment, as well as the team’s compliance with anticipated workload and timeline expectations.
4.2 Boosts the project’s recognition
During the initial stages of the process, team members specify the specifications for the final product version; once these specifications are met, the team and stakeholders are informed that the product has successfully “passed” assessment.
4.3 Enhances the ability of team members to swap roles
The software testing crew would need to become comfortable with the surroundings and re-learn the functionality if there were no recordings. The team may easily go to old files and recap the important details of the project if they preserved documentation after their initial testing round.
4.4 Accelerates employee onboarding
Since all the information is contained in a single database, there is no need to appoint a particular mentor who would discuss project specifics with a new tester.
4.5 Offers Feedback on the Planning Process
To prevent misunderstandings during the latter testing phases, the team approves defined plans early on.
4.6 A guideline for upcoming projects
When a feature doesn’t function as planned, testers can refer to previously recorded issues and increase client satisfaction by providing a simple and rapid fix.
Documentation plays a critical role in software testing management success. If the team doesn’t have a highly defined goal that is grounded in concrete data, maintaining clean code is practically impossible.
5. Types of Test Documentation
There are two main functions for test documentation. It gives testers trustworthy data to plan and execute tests. In addition, it informs the product owners and other stakeholders associated with the project development team, designers, and marketing—about its status. Test documentation is composed of both internal and external files to fulfil these two primary goals.
5.1 Internal software testing documentation
Test reports, plans, and guidelines are the three types of testing documentation that are most frequently used. These records are utilized to chart the team’s workload and monitor the procedure. In order to understand how these files, contribute to the process, let’s look at the main criteria for each.
5.1.1 Test Strategy
An overview of the entire method for product testing as the project progresses, developers, designers, and product owners can examine the document to determine whether the actual performance matches the anticipated activities.
5.1.2 Test Data
The data that testers input into the program to confirm specific features and their results. Examples of this type of data include fictitious user profiles, analytics, and media files that resemble those that an end-user might upload to a ready solution.
Click here to read article about obtaining test data
5.1.3 Test Plan
A document outlining the plan, tools, setting, constraints, and timetable for the testing process. The most comprehensive testing document, it is crucial for well-informed planning. Each team member receives a copy of this document, which is then shared with all stakeholders.
5.1.4 Test Scenario
It consists of the different test scenarios or the product’s functionality for which test cases must be written and tested.
5.1.5 Test Case
It contains all the information necessary to execute the test cases, including the preconditions, postconditions, anticipated outcomes, and test case outcomes.
5.1.6 Traceability Matrix
The requirements of the test cases are mapped in this software testing documentation. Each entry has a unique ID, which team members and stakeholders may use to search for any entry and see its progress.
5.2 External software testing documentation
While gathering information from internal documentation, external documentation places a strong emphasis on presenting visual data representations, such as graphs and diagrams.
5.2.1 Third-Party reports
These documents gather data on test findings and can outline a full project or a specific feature.
5.2.2 Detailed test summary report
The document contains the stakeholder-presented final test results and conclusions.
5.2.3 Bug reports
These files record newly discovered bugs and how they were fixed. In order to make it simpler to refer to specific bugs in other documentation, we prefer to keep our bug documentation organised by number. Reports are brief and emphasize providing practical answers. If the team hasn’t yet determined the best course of action for solving the issue, bug reports may occasionally simply contain issue descriptions.
6. Conclusion
In this way, the article explains test documentation’s purpose and value in actual projects. Since it depends on a number of variables, including the type of application and corporate policy, not every project requires test documentation. Small projects typically have no or very little test documentation because it takes days to create, which has an adverse effect on the project budget. Every project and organisation that uses test documentation has a different layout, but they all generally discuss every little aspect of testing a product.
We discovered at TestDel that automation is the most effective method for producing effective software testing documentation. Clients and team members can quickly access project documentation digitally from any location at any time by developing a platform that includes all the files, reports, and plans. We offer our clients automated documentation solutions so that their testers, developers, and stakeholders can access it.
We foster effective testing to our clients and tech partners as skilled DevOps professionals, ensuring long-term success instead of quick solutions. Since a single project can generate hundreds of test cases, accurate reports and data structure are essential for this continuous approach.