Test Report

A Test Report is a document that is prepared once the testing of a software product is complete and the delivery is to be made to the customer. This document would contain a summary of the entire project and would have to be presented in a way that any person who has not worked on the project would also get a good overview of the testing effort.

Contents of a Test Report
The contents of a test report are as follows:

Executive Summary
Overview
Application Overview
Testing Scope
Test Details
Test Approach
Types of testing conducted
Test Environment
Tools Used
Metrics
Test Results
Test Deliverables
Recommendations

These sections are explained as follows:

Executive Summary

This section would comprise of general information regarding the project, the client, the application, tools and people involved in such a way that it can be taken as a summary of the Test Report itself (i.e.) all the topics mentioned here would be elaborated in the various sections of the report.

1. Overview

This comprises of 2 sections – Application Overview and Testing Scope.

Application Overview – This would include detailed information on the application under test, the end users and a brief outline of the functionality as well.

Testing Scope – This would clearly outline the areas of the application that would / would not be tested by the QA team. This is done so that there would not be any misunderstandings between customer and QA as regards what needs to be tested and what does not need to be tested.
This section would also contain information of Operating System / Browser combinations if Compatibility testing is included in the testing effort.

2.Test Details

This section would contain the Test Approach, Types of Testing conducted, Test Environment and Tools Used.

Test Approach – This would discuss the strategy followed for executing the project. This could include information on how coordination was achieved between Onsite and Offshore teams, any innovative methods used for automation or for reducing repetitive workload on the testers, how information and daily / weekly deliverables were delivered to the client etc.

Types of testing conducted – This section would mention any specific types of testing performed (i.e.) Functional, Compatibility, Performance, Usability etc along with related specifications.

Test Environment – This would contain information on the Hardware and Software requirements for the project (i.e.) server configuration, client machine configuration, specific software installations required etc.

Tools used – This section would include information on any tools that were used for testing the project. They could be functional or performance testing automation tools, defect management tools, project tracking tools or any other tools which made the testing work easier.


3.Metrics

This section would include details on total number of test cases executed in the course of the project, number of defects found etc. Calculations like defects found per test case or number of test cases executed per day per person etc would also be entered in this section. This can be used in calculating the efficiency of the testing effort.

4.Test Results

This section is similar to the Metrics section, but is more for showcasing the salient features of the testing effort. Incase many defects have been logged for the project, graphs can be generated accordingly and depicted in this section. The graphs can be for Defects per build, Defects based on severity, Defects based on Status (i.e.) how many were fixed and how many rejected etc.



5.Test Deliverables

This section would include links to the various documents prepared in the course of the testing project (i.e.) Test Plan, Test Procedures, Test Logs, Release Report etc.

6.Recommendations
This section would include any recommendations from the QA team to the client on the product tested. It could also mention the list of known defects which have been logged by QA but not yet fixed by the development team so that they can be taken care of in the next release of the application.