Question

Questions when starting a new testing project

Software testing, Software Quality

What are the basic questions that should be asked when starting a new testing project?

I guess it depends what kind of tests... Do you mean code tests? Functional tests?

For code tests, you usually want to test things such as data access, security (i.e. permissions but also parameters/inputs), interfaces with other systems, the screens (for instance, how do the screens look in different resolution?)... In other words, you want to test the main pieces of your application.
A good practice is to have a test tool such as NUnits / JUnits to test these kind of features.

For functional tests, you usually start to discuss the different test scenario with your customers. It's also good to set up a "lab" and have a few users try the new application before release.

Hope this will get you started! :-)

Joelle

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I will take your question as the basic questions that should be asked when starting a new functional testing project. The basic set of questions will change depending on what test you want to conduct – it could be hardware testing, software testing, performance testing, load testing, volume testing, or functional testing. So I am limiting myself here to functional testing, if you have anything specific in mind – do let me know so that I answer precisely to your question.

For functional testing you need to ask for:
1. The customer requirements document signed by customer and the project manager
2. Project Manager’s notes
3. software specifications (functional) and database design (broadly)
4. Test Server loaded with the software

Based on these you will be preparing your test plan, test cases, test scenarios, run these test cases and prepare your test report (or bugs report)