How do you plan testing effort

Hi,

You can plan testing efforts using various estimation methods like Function Point, Usecase Point, ROM(Rough Order Margin).

The 1st 2 estimation techniques have process and formulas to calculate the efforts for any project. But the last one is done based on the experience or having bulk of projects implemented on same technology and functionalities.

For any of this estimation; requirements should be in place and they should be either in the form of FR's (Functional Requirements) or in UC's (Usecases) format.

If you want to do estimation using Function Points then you need to have FR's in place until these are not available the estimation isn't possible.

The same way for UC estimation usecases should be available from them we can derive FR's and can calculate the UC points. If UC's are not available then from the available FR's also we can extract or combine into usecase and can derive the UC efforts

Apart from these the 3rd and general estimation also can be used based on the experience, that is ROM. Efforts derived from these will be approximate not accurate.

For any of the above estimation techniques you will be adding a some amount of buffer to the final estimation.

[B][I]For ex: If any requirements are not available then how do you estimate test efforts for that project. [/I][/B]

In this case either you have to go with your experience or with rough estimates considering the technology and criticality of the requirements. In this case your efforts planned may be sufficient or may overshoot or may be short to accomplish the testing.

Generally industry standards are ranging from 25 to 30% of efforts from whole project efforts (called as engineering efforts).

If the project is [B]Fixed Cost[/B] then you should be good bargainer in gaining the test efforts, becoz the reason is even after your correct estimation also sometimes dev team will not be ready for accommodating them to you. So in that case you should be efficient in gaining the test efforts by showing the past historical data and results.

If it is [B]Time and Material Project[/B] then you will not have problem in the efforts accommodated. There will be period of duration and efforts planned for that.

Hope i answered your question

Thanks
Narasimha