Release Testing and Verification – Release Management Release Testing
Release Testing
Release testing and validation contribute to quality control and assurance of a new release that is Fit-for-Purpose and Fit-for-Use.
Release Testing & Verification provides objective evidence that a release of a new or changed service and its service components will support both the customer’s business and the stakeholders’ requirements, including agreed-to service levels. This activity assesses and addresses issues, errors, and risks identified throughout the release life cycle.
Release testing and verification
Release testing and verification is an important activity in release and deployment management, which can be explained through the <> phases as:
- Defining the release test strategy
- Defining release test models
- Selecting the type of testing
- Test execution
Defining the release test strategy:
Test strategy should define the methodology to test and allocate testing resources, which needs to be developed with appropriate stakeholders concerning the release. To do effective testing, release management should understand the precise requirements on availability, capacity, performance, security, etc., to plan and design the test approach using information from the service package, SLPs, and SDP.
Defining release test models:
Test models should define the test plans for different types of releases, describing what is to be tested, how it is to be tested, and the test scripts defining how each feature and aspect of a waiver will be tested. A test model describes some predefined and repeatable steps for a release effectively and efficiently.
Selecting the type of testing:
The type of testing will vary depending on the scope, requirements, risks, constraints, etc. hence there can be different approaches.
Some common release test types are service requirements testing, service level testing, service testing, operations testing, deployment release testing, deployment installation testing, and deployment verification testing.
Service requirements testing will verify and validate if the service provider has delivered the service as per the customer requirements.
Service-level testing will verify & validate if the service provider can deliver the defined SLA requirements.
Service testing will verify and validate if the service provider can manage the new or changed service.
Operations testing will verify and validate if the operations teams like service desk, application management, technical management, etc., can support new or changed service.
Deployment release testing will verify and validate if the deployment team can deploy the release into the defined SLA environment.
Deployment installation testing will verify and validate if the deployment team can install the release components into the environment in the defined SLA’s.
Deployment verification testing will verify and validate if the deployment team has completed the deployment and meets the business requirements and customer acceptance criteria.
Some of the typical test types in a release’s functionality would be component and assembly testing, release package testing, operational readiness testing, and acceptance testing.
Some of the standard test types in the non-functionality of a release would be usability, accessibility, availability, security testing, etc.
Test execution
Test execution on releases involves prime activities like:
- Defining the test plan, schedule of milestones, delivery dates, hardware, and software resources needed.
- Preparation of test environment
- Performing tests and documenting the findings
- Evaluation of the results concerning expected results
- Clean-up and closure of the test environment
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