Test status report Test status report is important to track the important project issues, accomplishments of the projects, pending work and milestone analysis( milestone analysis is used to give visibility of progress in terms of predefined milestone goal. Failure to meet a milestone indicates that a project is not proceeding to plan and needs a management corrective action) From this report we prepare future actionable items according to the priorities and make the list of next weeks actionable. This is part of the project Communication plan. The Report shows quantitative information about the project The purpose of a Test Status Report is to provide an ongoing history of the project, which becomes very useful in terms of tracking progress, evaluation and review.

1. Project Name – The project name that you are reporting metrics on. 2. Duration – The reporting period 3. Report by – Owner / Author of the Report. 4. Report to – Target Audience( like Team lead or Managers) 5. Previous weeks Accomplishment – Activities performed after last reporting date. 6. Missed Accomplishment – Not able to work on any planned activity of the previous report. 7. Plans for next week – Future planning for the tasks to be performed during the current reporting period or if there any pending deliverables to take care first. Brief description of the different attributes of test status report

8. Issues: Issues holding the QA team from delivering on schedule: we can mark these issues in red color. These are the issues that requires managements help in resolving them. Issues that management should be aware: These are the issues that not hold the QA team from delivering on time but management should be aware of them. Mark these issues in Yellow color. 9. Cumulative Issues– Issues from previous report, if not addressed should be listed here. 10. Test execution Details for previous week – Test details for the reporting period Total effort spent on test execution Total number of functionality tested during the reporting period. 11. Defect status: Active defects: List all active defects here with Module, Severity, priority, assigned to. Closed Defects: List all closed defects with Module, Severity, priority, assigned to. 12. Test Summary Total number of test cycles, number of defects found, and defect tracking details should be listed in this section. Test Coverage details in terms of functionalities tested and test cases executed should be detailed in this section. 13. Project Milestone – Important project schedule from a testing point of view should be listed here.

The Test Status report should also represent the status through charts and graphs for easy and better understanding. Functionality Coverage vs. Duration Functionalities tested during different releases or during different reporting period can be shown in a graph to give an indication about the progress of test coverage.

Defects reported vs. closed This graph report shows the find and fixes counts for bugs reported against the reporting period. This gives Management an idea of the defect trends.

Defect Location This graph displays the defect occurrence in different modules. This helps the management in assessing the most problematic area in the project.

Defect Classification These details help in conducting a root cause analysis and taking corrective measures to improve product quality. RCA (Root cause analysis) is a mechanism of analyzing the defects, to identify its cause. We brainstorm, read and dig the defect to identify whether the defect was due to “testing miss”, “development miss” or was a “requirement or designs miss”. This helps to prevent defects in the later releases or phases.

Test Case Progression Chart This gives a clear indication of test progress against the test plan over a time.

Severity wise Defect Distribution This gives a indication about the severity wise defect distribution.

Finaly, Test status report involves analyzing the information and metrics available to support conclusions, recommendations, and decisions about how to guide the project forward.