Managing the Testing Process: Practical Tools and Techniques for Managing Hardware and Software Testing

Chapter 4. An Exciting Career in Entomology Awaits You: A Bug Tracking Database

You now have a thorough test program put together. Time to relax, exchange the quadruple espressos for a few nice cold Warsteiners, and coast, right? After all, the only work that remains is executing the test plan, and surely your test technicians, with a little guidance from the test engineers, can handle that.

Definitely not. Your job as test manager remains as important as ever when you move into the stage of implementing the test plan and gathering data related to that plan.

Once test execution begins, even the most organized approach will not save you from the excitement of the project going on around you. A test plan, test cases, test tools, test architecture, measures of test coverage, and all the other program components you've developed are proactive and, when completed, relatively static objects.^[] Welcome now to the world of the reactive and the dynamic. Following a test plan diligently and using a test system properly but flexibly require continual adjustments in your priorities, meticulous attention to details both clear and subtle, and adaptation to the endless changes in the project.

^[] This is not to say that a test system should not change. But major improvement of a test system is a matter of incorporating the lessons of a project into the system deliberately, generally at the end of the project.

You will soon find yourself awash in the data generated by your shiny new test system. ...