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Procedure documentationOptimizing the Test Scope

 

The greater a change in your system is, the more solution documentation nodes are affected. For example, when you import a support package, it often affects the entire solution documentation, which means the change impact analysis does not initially reduce the test scope.

A lot of affected objects are assigned to several solution documentation nodes, and are tested repeatedly. This function optimizes the test scope, so that each object is tested at least once, but repeated tests are avoided. This can significantly reduce the test effort.

Note Note

The system optimizes the test scope, under the assumption that an object has been completely tested when it has been tested at least once. So even if an object is used in several business processes, testing one node in the solution documentation is sufficient for the optimization strategy “test each object once only”. If you want to test some objects in their node contexts, you must exclude them from the optimization strategy.

End of the note.

To optimize, the system sorts all nodes in the solution documentation into an optimization sequence. They are sorted by test effectiveness. The test effectiveness is calculated from the relationship between the number of objects and the time required. The system uses either the total time required or only the time required for manual tests, depending on the optimization options.

You can override the optimization sequence in various ways. The nodes are classified into the following areas, depending on the type of override:

1

Manually-selected nodes

2

Must include area: Nodes that must definitely be included in the test scope.

3

Preferred include area: Nodes that are marked as to be treated preferentially, in the solution documentation options

4

Not-overridden nodes (i.e. all nodes which are not in another area)

5

Must exclude area: Nodes that are excluded from the test scope

Areas 3-4 are also known as optimization areas.

The nodes are sorted by their test effectiveness, within the areas. If you specify a test scope, or the time available, nodes are put into the test scope or removed from it, by optimization sequence. The test scope always contains at least all nodes in areas 1 and 2, and at most all nodes in areas 1-4.

If not all nodes have test cases assigned, you can calculate the effort to create and execute manual or automated test cases.

Procedure

  1. Select an analysis results data record from the Business Process Change Analyzer results list.

    The analysis result description is displayed.

  2. Choose Optimize Test Scope.

    The coverage of the tested objects, and the time required, are shown in a separate window. The following information is displayed on the tab pages:

    • Result Overview: The expected effect, in terms of test effort, of the test scope optimization, compared to the total number of test cases to be executed, and the number of test cases remaining after the business process impact analysis.

    • Test Scope Optimization Ranking: Overview of nodes which are affected by changes. The nodes are sorted by test effectivity.

      To display an overview of all nodes, the systems aggregates them automatically. To display single nodes, under Graphics Settings, you can specify the nodes (from 1 to 20, for example, or according to their test coverage, from 80% to 100%) and set the granularity to 1.

    • Solution Documentation: The expected test effort, by solution documentation node and display objects which are not in test scope.

    • Test Case Recommendations: To increase the percentage of objects covered by test cases, and decrease the long-term effort to execute test cases, Test Case Optimization calculates the effort to create manual or automated test cases. For more information, see Generating Recommendations for Test Cases.

  3. Specify the test scope according to your requirements. You can:

    Note Note

    The system takes your specification into account in the following sequence:

    1. Manually overridden nodes

      Nodes which you added manually are in the test scope.

      Nodes that you removed from the test scope manually are not in the test scope (must exclude area).

    2. Solution Documentation Options

      Nodes that were added to the must include area by a structure attribute, are included in the test scope.

      Nodes that were added to the preferred include area by a structure attribute, are only included in the test scope if this is permitted by the test scope and time resource values.

      Nodes that were added to the must include area by a structure attribute, are included in the test scope.

    3. Criticality Options

      You can move modes to the must exclude area by deselecting the checkboxes for certain criticality options. A node is moved to the must exclude area if it contains objects up to a specific criticality only, and is not already in the must exclude area as a result of a manual override or the solution documentation options.

    4. Test scope

      Once the manual override and the solution documentation options have been taken into account, your test coverage and time resource specifications determine the test scope.

    End of the note.

  4. You can use Start of the navigation path Test Plan Next navigation step Create Test Plan End of the navigation path to create a test plan for all test cases for the affected executable entities. For more information, see Creating and Editing Test Plans.

  5. You can use Start of the navigation path Test Plan Next navigation step Extend Test Plan End of the navigation path to add test cases from the affected executable entities to a test plan. The system allows you to extend all test plans for the selected project or solution.