How do you identify and prioritize the test improvement areas and action items in the test closure phase?

1 Test Closure Checklist

A test closure checklist is a valuable tool to review and verify the completion and quality of testing activities, deliverables, and artifacts. It can also be used to assess test metrics such as defect density, test coverage, test effectiveness, and test efficiency. The checklist should include items such as the test plan and strategy, test cases and scripts, test data and environment, test results and reports, defects and issues, tools and automation, documents and artifacts, feedback and satisfaction. Using the checklist will ensure that all testing requirements have been met, tasks fulfilled, and resources released or archived.

4 Test Prioritization Criteria

Test prioritization criteria are the factors or parameters used to rank or order test improvement areas and action items according to their importance, urgency, or impact. These criteria can be different depending on the project context, scope, and objectives, but some common ones include business value and customer satisfaction, quality risk and defect severity, cost benefit and return on investment, resource availability and dependency, time constraint and deadline, and complexity and feasibility. Utilizing these criteria can help you evaluate and compare the test improvement areas and action items, so that you can determine which ones should be addressed first, next, or later.

6 Test Closure Best Practices

Test closure best practices provide guidance to help you conduct the test closure phase in an efficient and effective way, as well as avoid common challenges or pitfalls. It is important to start the test closure phase as soon as possible after completion or acceptance, use a checklist to ensure completeness and quality, collect and analyze metrics to measure testing performance/outcomes, conduct root cause analysis of defects/issues, solicit feedback from stakeholders/customers, identify/prioritize test improvement areas and action items, document/communicate a plan to stakeholders/customers, monitor/control improvement actions, and evaluate/review actions using criteria/indicators. Using these best practices will ensure that the test closure phase is done systematically and leads to continuous improvement of the testing process.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?