4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

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Test Strategy and Test Plan

November 9, 2008 by Amir Ghahrai — 37 Comments

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Test Strategy
A Test Strategy document is a high level document and normally developed by project
manager. This document defines “Software Testing Approach” to achieve testing objectives.
The Test Strategy is normally derived from the Business Requirement Specification
document.

The Test Strategy document is a static document meaning that it is not updated too often. It
sets the standards for testing processes and activities and other documents such as the Test
Plan draws its contents from those standards set in the Test Strategy Document.

Some companies include the “Test Approach” or “Strategy” inside the Test Plan, which is
fine and it is usually the case for small projects. However, for larger projects, there is one
Test Strategy document and different number of Test Plans for each phase or level of

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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

testing.

Recent Articles
Components of the Test Strategy document
Test
Scope and Objectives Automation
Business issues Tips and Best
Roles and responsibilities Practices
Testing Tutorial ISTQB Quiz Agile Testing Test Automation
Communication and status reporting
Test deliverability Rethinking
Selenium Tutorials Testing Tools
Industry standards to follow Software
Test automation and tools
Testing
Experts
Testing measurements and metrices
Risks and mitigation
Defect reporting and tracking WebDriver
Change and configuration management
Wait for AJAX
Call to
Training plan
Complete
Test Plan
Lessons
The Test Plan document on the other hand, is derived from the Product Description,
Learned From
Software Requirement Specification SRS, or Use Case Documents.
QA
The Test Plan document is usually prepared by the Test Lead or Test Manager and the focus
Automation
of the document is to describe what to test, how to test, when to test and who will do what
test.
How to Click
a Link by href
It is not uncommon to have one Master Test Plan which is a common document for the test value in
phases and each test phase have their own Test Plan documents. WebDriver

There is much debate, as to whether the Test Plan document should also be a static

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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

document like the Test Strategy document mentioned above or should it be updated every

Test Case
often to reflect changes according to the direction of the project and activities.
My own personal view is that when a testing phase starts and the Test Manager is
“controlling” the activities, the test plan should be updated to reflect any deviation from the Management App
original plan. After all, Planning and Control are continuous activities in the formal test gurock.com/TestRail/Free_T…
process.
Painless web-based test
Test Plan id case management
Introduction software for your team!
Test items
Features to be tested
Features not to be tested
Test techniques
Testing tasks
Suspension criteria
Features pass or fail criteria
Test environment (Entry criteria, Exit criteria)
Test delivarables
Staff and training needs
Responsibilities
Schedule

This is a standard approach to prepare test plan and test strategy documents, but things
can vary company-to-company

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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

Comments
By shubhangee on July 13, 2011 at 11:44 am
I have completed my s/w testing course, bt I was confused in test
strategy and test plan. Now after reading this Answer I am clear and
confident to talk about these topics.
Thaks for this answer.

Reply

By Rahul Upadhyay on July 14, 2011 at 3:09 pm

Thanks for the answer….

Reply

By RaHul Tiwari on July 18, 2011 at 12:16 pm

doubts cleared !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply

By suresh on July 19, 2011 at 10:06 am

Nice stuff ………….

Reply

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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

By Joseph on August 2, 2011 at 6:16 am

Thanks a ton. The explanation on Test Strategy and Test Plan is quite
clear. Good Job.

Reply

By Ramesh Reddy on August 8, 2011 at 3:10 am

Easily understandable. Thank you so much for the nice answer on
test strategy and plan.

Reply

By Leo on September 6, 2011 at 3:58 pm

Your discussion clearly defines and differentiates between test
strategy and test plan. Thanks for a good job.

Reply

By arun on October 11, 2011 at 12:23 pm

nice…. even my doubts are cleared
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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

Reply

By vipin on October 17, 2011 at 4:14 pm

nice explanation
http://soft-engineering.blogspot.com/

Reply

By venkat on November 27, 2011 at 7:17 am

am clear about this topics .. am very confidently talk about this
topics..

Reply

By Porush on January 27, 2012 at 11:35 am

Nice explanation

Reply

By sampsos on February 6, 2012 at 11:18 am

A good description. However have the following comments.
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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

I am of the opinion that the Test Strategy should be created as a one

off document and not for evey project.

I have been using the Test Strategy to communicate to those

interested (upper management, project managers, test managers,
testers and other interested parties) the strategic direction of our
Test Organization.

As a Test Manager I refer back to this document while defining my

Test Plan and take out of the strategy the things (building blocks)
that I need (particular phases, techniques, tools, roles etc. ) for my
particular project.

Doing it this way I can reduce the test planning effort by eliminating
the Test Strategy as a project document and refer to it only. This
way I speed up the process of creating the Test Plan as the thought
process is “do I need this building block” as opposed to “which
building blocks do I need”.

When you realise there is a building block missing then the Strategy
can be updated and it becomes available for other Test Managers in
your organization alike.

Reply

By nagaswathi on March 2, 2012 at 4:27 am

very nice explanation, everything explained in detail

Reply

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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

By Raghavendra N.K. on March 11, 2012 at 1:25 pm

I believe the clear distinction between test strategy and test plan is
appropriately represented in this article. This is the practice, which I
have been following for years in the testing world.

I recommend this article to all in the testing community.

Warm regards
Raghavendra N.K.
Founder & CEO at Sumadhva Technologies

Reply

By siddu on March 28, 2012 at 3:59 am

Very nice..

Reply

By lokesh on March 28, 2012 at 4:51 am

Hi

Nice Document though.. few comments

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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

“I am of the opinion that the Test Strategy should be created as a

one off document and not for evey project.”
this is not true always, as every other project is unique: For Ex: our
cricket team members, all the top 6 batsman cannot bat as the
same, and all the top 4 bowlers cannot bowl the same, but our
strategy should be winning the games,which the success goal for the
project, which is very important.

Reply

By thenmozhi on April 3, 2012 at 6:49 am

Hi very nice………….,

Reply

By Prateek on April 12, 2012 at 12:29 pm

Really easy to understand.
Thanks

Reply

By Ravi` on July 30, 2012 at 10:48 am

Still confusing? not much cleared

Reply

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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

By syed on September 13, 2012 at 12:09 pm

very nice information!

Reply

By saketha on October 5, 2012 at 10:11 am

nice stuff!!!!!!!!!!

Reply

By Sam on October 5, 2012 at 10:43 am

Nice.

Reply

By data center colocation on October 9, 2012 at 10:14 am

This is really helps to understand the concept of Test Strategy & Test
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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

Plan…….. Thanks a lot….

Reply

By shaik nagulmeera on January 2, 2013 at 6:25 am

suppose we have to go to from one place to another place this is test
strategy and how we are going to the destination this is testplan
means test plan is derived from test strategy thankyou.

Reply

By Ravi Suvvari on January 10, 2013 at 6:27 am

Well expalined diff between plan and strategy

Reply

By Nisha on February 21, 2013 at 5:55 am

Easily understandable to freshers like me in testing.Nice explanation.

Reply

By Shri on March 12, 2013 at 1:32 pm

I think, TS & TP both are Company/Org type
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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

If it’s Product based, above article is useful while if we are working

on Service based company & testing project, Test Plan is core
baslined doc and test strategy (which is test Approch) is part of Test
Plan.
In service based company, For testing projects, Test Plan is the
combination of Test Strategy/Approch and Test Logistics.

Another major diff I understood that under such projects, Test

Strategy will not have any Risks / Issues. Thats is part of Test Plan.
Strategy is mainly about the testing Approch to achive the objective
as in Test Plan.

Let’s have simple example: Test Plan is like Planning done by Cricket
team before the match, Ofcourse it’ll have Strategy included in
overall game plan.
After 1st half, there might be change in Test Plan But Strategy will be
surely revised Depends on situation of match.
Now if match goes very tough, at the last over, captain decide any
changes in filders allotment, Or may be change the bastman order in
last few overs then This is Test Strategy.
Test Strategy gets changes as per the phases in the testing projects
eventually achieving the core objective of Test plan.

More comments / suggestions are most welcome…

Reply

By Max on June 10, 2013 at 4:15 pm

Nice and comprehensive article.

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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

Thanks!

Reply

By Anju on July 3, 2013 at 12:25 pm

Thanks a lot . I was preparing for an interview. This helped me a lot.

Reply

By Sultana on July 27, 2013 at 4:53 am

A very good way of expressing things.

Reply

By Pradeep on August 5, 2013 at 11:10 am

I completely agreed with Shri. Test Strategy always comes under
Test Plan.

Reply

By hussain on August 5, 2013 at 12:29 pm

pls add some more differences
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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

Reply

By komal on October 7, 2013 at 5:08 pm

Cleared all doubt………… Thanks thanks a lot

Reply

By SHussain on January 3, 2014 at 11:49 pm

No doubt that the explanations provided about Test Strategy and
Test Plan are clear and Lucid. I just want to add a very basic
difference between Test Strategy and Test Plan

Suppose a new change has come up within an organization that has

got impacts in multiple systems and thus a number of testing
activities like System Testing, Regression Testing, Integration
Testing, Performance Testing, UAT etc. are required to be completed
before the change goes live. In this scenario the Test Strategy and
Test Plan should be written as below

Test Strategy –> A single Test Strategy document should be written

for the entire change. This document should be having summary of
what all testing types will be required to be run for this change. The
Test Strategy should also be having brief explanations on how these

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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

testing should be done. Please note that the Test Strategy should be
very high level as far as what testing will be required to be
performed.

Test Plan – Separate Test Plan documents should be written for each
testing types having low level details on how that test will be
performed. Examples of Test Plan in this case are
1. System and Test Plan – You can combine System with regression
2. Integration Test Plan
3. Performance Test Plan
4. UAT Test Plan

In summary a Test Plan document should be specific to a particular

test stream

I hope the above information helps.

FYI – I am a Test Manager having 7+ years of experience testing and

managing tests in major investment banks and I follow what I have
written above

Reply

By Yagna on February 12, 2014 at 9:26 am

This is a great explanation!!!

Reply

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4/3/2014 Test Strategy and Test Plan - What is the difference?

By pravash on February 15, 2014 at 7:56 pm

HI SHussain
Thanks…..thanks .i cleared all doubt

Reply

By Sherine on March 25, 2014 at 7:37 am

Very clear

Reply

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