Test Management
Core concepts
Test management covers planning, monitoring and control, and completion. A test plan defines scope, objectives, approach, resources, schedule, risks, and entry/exit criteria. Risk-based testing prioritizes product risks (likelihood × impact) and project risks (schedule, budget, skills). Monitoring compares actual progress with the plan using metrics such as test execution, pass/fail, defect counts, coverage, and defect density; control takes corrective action. Defect management records incidents with reproducible steps, expected and actual results, environment, severity, and priority. Configuration management keeps versions of testware and test items consistent, and traceability links requirements, risks, tests, and defects.
Roles vary: test manager plans and controls; testers analyze, design, and execute; developers fix. Independence can increase objectivity but does not replace developer testing. Entry criteria control when testing starts; exit criteria control when it is complete.
Traps
Risk level is not the same as defect severity. Exit criteria are not the same as a release date. A defect report should be objective and reproducible, not a blame statement. High priority may not mean high severity. Configuration management failures cause wrong-version testing.
Worked example
A payment feature has high likelihood of failure and high business impact, so risk is high. It gets early, broad testing and a strict exit criterion. A cosmetic label has low impact, so fewer tests are proportionate. If a high-risk item is untested, the exit criterion is not met even if the schedule says release.
Rule of thumb: prioritize testing by risk, and prove exit criteria with evidence.