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Try for freeAs a software project ends, every tester must check the effectiveness of the testing process to gain insights into the areas of improvement. So, QAs create a Test Closure Report. It includes all the test data, such as test cases, test plans, test suites, and other testing-related information for future reference. With this report, the test insights are recovered, making reviewing the testing process easier and identifying improvement areas in future projects. In this blog, we’ll discuss the importance of a Test Closure report in the testing development life cycle and detailed steps involved in creating a Test Closure report.
Table Of Contents
What is Test Closure?
Test Closure is a crucial step in the TDLC that formally concludes and completes testing activities for a software release. It comprehensively summarizes the testing activities and results, including any issues and bugs found and resolved during the testing phase. Test Closure can also be considered as documentation of the testing process, and its purpose is to inform stakeholders about the quality and readiness of the software for release.
A good Test Closure has details such as the testing scope, test environment, testing methodologies, test cases, and any issues and defects identified and resolved during testing. In addition to providing an overview of the testing results, the report should also contain a detailed analysis, highlighting any areas of concern and potential improvements.
Need for Test Closure
- Official Announcement for End of Testing Phase: Test Closure lets other team members know that testing has concluded and the software is ready for the next phase. This announcement helps team members to prepare for the next phase, such as deployment or release.
- Detailed Analysis: The Test Closure gives a clear picture of the issues found and resolved during the testing process. It will help the team to analyze the source of errors and resolve them quickly in future.
- Assessment of Risk Factor: Test Closure assesses the risk factor of the software. This helps clients decide whether or not to go ahead with the release of the software. If the risk factor is too high, the software needs further modification before the release.
- Present Test Metrics To Client: Test metrics are documented in the Test Closure, along with a detailed description of the testing process. This document provides an overview of the testing efforts and serves as a reference for future projects. Presenting test metrics to clients not only helps them understand the effectiveness of the testing process but also builds their confidence in the software.
Stages
Test closure is an important phase in the software development life cycle, which has six distinct stages, to ensure the quality and effectiveness of the software before we release it to the end users.
- Checking planned deliverables: The first stage is to check the planned deliverables, which includes reviewing the test case documents, test plan, test scripts, test data, traceability matrix, test results, and reports. Here, the team ensures that all the planned deliverables are met and delivered to the stakeholders.
- Closing Incident Reports: Incidents are any variations or deviations observed during the testing phase. These incidents are logged as a report in the earlier stages and resolved before the process ends.
- Handover to Maintenance: After resolving incidents, the testware (all the info regarding test plans, test cases, test scripts, and other things needed to design and execute a test) is handed over to the maintenance team. They provide support to the software during its release.
- Archiving Environment: Here, the software, including test scripts, test environment, and test infrastructure, are finalized and archived for later use.
- Documenting System Acceptance: System acceptance testing is an important step in software testing since it validates that the system is ready for deployment and satisfies user expectations. By performing system acceptance testing, you can minimize the risks of deploying software lacking the desired criteria/quality. So, documenting this includes every aspect of the developed software and application and its supporting data and information. The customer representatives then accept it before the implementation of the software system.
- Analyzing Best Practices: The last stage involves exploring best practices. This stage is important as it helps to identify lessons learned from the project for future reference. It also helps to determine the changes required for similar projects in the future.
What is a Test Closure Report?
A test closure report is a document with a summary of a project’s entire testing process and its results. The report gives insights into test executions and software performance in the tests. Anyone from the team can use this report to evaluate the quality of the software and make an informed decision on its release.
Once the testing is complete, the testing team prepares the test closure report. The report consists of various metrics collected during the testing process. The test closure report is prepared to include all the necessary information that can support the completion of the test execution cycle. The report must contain screenshots, query results, recordings, and log files that provide a detailed account of the testing process. The test closure report template typically includes the following sections:
- Test Summary Report: A complete document overviews the testing process, activities, and results.
- Identifier: A unique reference number set to the test closure report for easy tracking.
- Test Summary: A summary highlighting the key results, accomplishments, and challenges faced during testing.
- Variances: Any variations during testing activities and their impact on the project.
- Comprehensive Assessment: A detailed evaluation (strengths/weaknesses) of the quality of the software.
- Summary of Results: A brief of the test results, along with the test cases executed, passed, failed, and any outstanding issues.
- Evaluation: A review of the overall efficiency of the testing process.
- Summary of Activities: A short summary of testing activities completed, such as test planning, test design, and execution.
- Approval: Confirmation of completion of test closure report and approval by stakeholders, such as PMs, dev teams, and QAs.
Importance of Test Closure Report in Test Automation
The Test Closure Report is an important document in agile software development. We should prioritize this document as it helps find problems and understand the quality and status of the product before it is released, considers diverse opinions, and gives a transparent view of the testing process. This report helps make data-driven decisions and improve future projects. Automation tools like Testsigma have revolutionized the process of preparing test closure reports. These tools enable the QA team to generate custom reports effortlessly with just a click. Testsigma’s amazing features offer flexibility, accuracy, and rich insights, helping teams to make data-driven decisions. Here’s a quick test closure report example demonstrating how to export your run results, as a test report, in Testsigma.
Testsigma generates an Executive report summarizing the testing process and results so stakeholders can make wise decisions. This report contains a plan report, test case list, test step list, and screenshots which are very helpful for a Test Closure Report. The Plan report shows the changes made and helps to assess the execution of the testing plan. The test case list ensures complete test coverage by analyzing the software’s functional and non-functional aspects. The Test step list gives a thorough overview of the testing steps. Screenshots provide clear evidence of the issues found and resolved.
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Test Closure Activities: When to Perform them and Why?
Test Closure Activities play a crucial role in concluding the testing phase of the software. Collecting and analyzing results in test reports, ensuring their accuracy, and facilitating their handover contribute to the overall quality of the software. These activities below provide crucial insights into the software’s performance.
Checking for Completion of Tests
In this activity, the team lead or manager ensures that all test work, including test cases, plans, and strategies, has been completed without any deletions. They also cross-check the documents to address all known bugs or errors appropriately.
Handing Over Test Objects
After checking the test work, the relevant test objects and documentation are handed over to the individuals or teams needing them in the future. This transfer of information ensures future maintenance, troubleshooting, or further development.
Learning Experience
The learning experience focuses on gathering insights from the testing process. Here, the QA team analyzes their practices, methodologies, tools, and results to identify best practices for future releases and stop poor practices that lead to unfavorable results.
Archiving
The testing team should organize and store test data, documents, reports, logs, and configurations generated during the testing phase. This ensures the information is appropriately documented, preserved, and accessible for future reference, enabling traceability, compliance, auditing, and troubleshooting.
Benefits of Test Closure Activities
- Test closure activities ensure that planned deliverables are successfully delivered to clients or end users, confirming the completeness and accuracy of the software.
- These activities assess the software’s compliance with end-user requirements, ensuring a user-friendly product that satisfies their experience.
- Test closure activities resolve bugs and errors, stopping their recurrence and enhancing the reliability of the software.
- By assessing the development and testing process, test closure activities give valuable insights for future projects, enabling continuous improvement.
- Managers can efficiently transfer necessary test cases and data to relevant stakeholders, enabling data-driven decisions.
- Test closure activities evaluate the testing process, allowing the identification of areas for improvement.
Evaluating Exit Criteria and Reporting
The exit criteria for test closure are the conditions to be fulfilled before concluding the testing phase. This includes providing a Test Closure Report, a complete document summarizing testing activities, results, and observations, and getting official approval from the client.
Additional exit criteria may involve:
- Completing all planned test activities.
- Fixing critical errors.
- Adhering to schedules.
- Achieving test coverage goals.
- Fulfilling any needed test documentation.
Conclusion
The Test Closure Report plays an important role in ensuring the success of testing projects. It documents the testing process and gives valuable insights into the test executions and performance of the software. The report also helps evaluate the software’s quality, make data-driven decisions, and identify areas of improvement for future projects.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the contents of test closure report?
Ans: The test closure report includes all the necessary details that can support the completion of the testing process. The report also has screenshots, query results, recordings, and log files that gives a detailed account of the testing process. The contents of test closure report are as follows:
- Test Summary Report
- Identifier
- Test Summary
- Variances
- Comprehensive Assessment
- Summary of Results
- Evaluation
- Summary of Activities
- Approval
2. Who will prepare the Test Closure Report?
Ans: A QA engineer will prepare the Test Closure Report and is reviewed by all stakeholders. This report offers a detailed analysis of the testing activities, the methodologies used, the current status of specified bugs, and detailed info regarding any remaining open defects.