Independent Test Team

Definition

Independent Test Team

a team that performs most of system and launch testing independently from the teams that developed the system or application

Classification

As illustrated in the preceding figure, Independent Test Team is part of the following inheritance hierarchy:

• Type: Concrete
• Superclass: Engineering Team
• Subclasses:
  • None

Responsibilities

The typical team-specific responsibilities of a Independent Test Team are to:

• Independently perform the majority of system testing.
• Independently perform launch testing.

The independent test team typically inherits the general team responsibilities from the team method component.

Roles

The independent test team typically consists of persons playing the following roles:

• Test Engineer, who develops, performs, and reports the results of the independent tests.
• Technical Writer, who documents and maintains the testing documentation.

Tasks

The independent test team typically performs the following team-specific tasks in an iterative, incremental, parallel, and time-boxed manner:

• Testing:
  • Test Planning
  • Test Reuse
  • Test Design
  • Test Implementation
  • Test Execution
  • Test Reporting

The independent test team typically inherits the common team tasks from the team method component.

Work Products

The independent test team typically produces the following work products:

• Project Test Plan
• Master Test List
• Test Procedure
• Test Report
• Test Summary Report

Guidelines

• To maintain its independence, the independent test team should not contain any members who directly developed the application.
• The independent test team may also perform integration testing.