Test Evaluation Team

Definition

Test Evaluation Team

the team that evaluates the deliverable system and launch test work products and the process used to produce them

Classification

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

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

Responsibilities

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

• Evaluate the deliverable testing work products.
• Notify the testing team of any defects found.
• Recommend improvements to the process regarding:
  • The testing activity and tasks.
  • The standards, templates, and evaluation checklists for the deliverable testing work products.

A test evaluation team typically inherits the common team responsibilities from the team process component.

Roles

A testing evaluation team typically consists of persons playing one or more of the following roles:

• Technical Leader, who facilitates the evaluation meeting and evaluates the strategy work products for technical quality.
• Requirements Engineer, who evaluates the testing work products for adequacy and comprehensiveness.
• System Architect, who evaluates the testing work products for adequacy and comprehensiveness.
• Quality Engineer, who evaluates the work products for quality and conformance to the relevant conventions.
• Technical Writer, who acts as scribe at the evaluation meeting, summarizes the evaluation team’s findings in the evaluation summary report, and delivers the report to the independent test and user experience teams.

Tasks

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

• Quality Control – Test Evaluation:
  Evaluate the:
  • Documents:
    • Project Test Plan
    • Master Test List
    • Test Procedure
    • Test Report
    • Test Summary Report
    • Usability Test Screening Questionnaire
    • Usability Test Orientation Script
    • Usability Test Observations Form
    • Usability Pretest Questionnaire
    • Usability Posttest Questionnaire
  • Software and Data:
    • Test Harness
    • Test Script
    • Test Suite
    • Test Case
    • Test Data

A test evaluation team typically inherits the common team tasks from the team process component.

Work Products

A testing evaluation team typically produces the following work products:

• Evaluation Report, which documents an individual evaluator’s findings.
• Evaluation Summary Report, which summarizes the finding of the entire requirements evaluation team.

Guidelines

• Evaluations should not devolve into walkthroughs. The work products should stand on their own.
• To the extent practical, the developers of a work product should:
  • Not be the only evaluators of it.
  • Also informally evaluate it prior to the evaluation.
• A test evaluation team typically inherits the common team guidelines from the team process component.