The term succession means act or process of following in order/sequence, In our context of Software testing it is about understanding how the exist feature in the system take shape in every project version, Succession Analysis is a Test Analysis method which can be followed during Analysis Phase of the Project . It primarily involve step by step approach in identifying the base feature impact from new customer requirements. , So it is in other words analyzing the Successive behavior of Exist feature in the project.
This method help in identifying the impact of exist features, deriving the regression suite and regression effort required for the Testing Project.
During the initial estimation and analysis phase of Test Project life cycle, the succession analysis need to be performed with respect to scope of this project, In Agile , this need to be performed in Iteration 0.
Test Succession analysis feature flow comprise of Inputs , and Process (which we can call as Analysis points) and Outputs
Inputs for succession analysis involve Feature Details such as Feature ID, Feature Name, Description and related Test Artifacts , Customer Scenario/Scope , Feature Usage etc .
-> PRIORITY
-> CHANGE MODE ANALYSIS
-> FAILURE IMPACT
-> FEATURE MATURITY
Each analysis points above give different dimension to the successive nature of exist base feature of your system/product.
Description of Analysis Points
Priority -
This parameter denote the priority of the feature for THIS Customer in THIS Project, it means, feature may be critical in nature, but for the given scope of the project, the priority may vary. So based on the scope of the project priority of base feature need to be updated.
Change Mode Analysis-
This parameter need to be checked for following characteristics about whether exist feature is changing for the new requirement,it has 4 modes
Change-Independent - which means this feature is changing, but it is independent feature, not impact other New/Base feature,
Change -impacted - which means this feature is changing and also impacting other feature,
Impacted - means this feature not changing , but impacted because of new /exist feature change,
Independent - means no change, no impact
Failure Impact-
This parameter need to be covered depend on impact of the feature failure to the customer, If this feature fail, how much impact it can cause to the customer or to other successive feature,
Feature Maturity -
This parameter need to be analysed from two factors,
One is what is the usage of this feature,whether is it used by different customers, and whether is it commercial use or mainly in alpha/beta usage. This analysis give detail of usage of this feature,
Second method is what is test history of this feature, whether detail testing happened for this feature or only moderate testing is carried out so far.
Based on the Analysis of above parameters Future test Strategy and Regression Test Suite of which feature need to be covered and how much of testing and its estimation are derived, This we can call as Results of Succession analysis.
Results of Analysis -
Test Succession Analysis Result
This can be primarily determine how much testing required for the base feature in the current version, it can vary from 0-100%, , Consider a case, the test maturity of some base feature is very less, and also failure impact is high and priority is also high, Even this Base feature is independent or no change, It need be considered for 50% of test in the current version.
Subjective comments -
In addition in to identification of how many test case of base feature need to be tested as part of regression, few high level analysis inputs can be added, This is subjective comment which can cover what topology or scenario need to be covered for this feature, or any other special comments can be added as analysis inputs.
After each of the successive base feature, is analysed, the results are taken as input for project test estimation, project test strategy and also input for test design analysis, schema definition.
Template Reference
You can check the template for reference in attachment.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_yKwLxCSPfVUFlyUnBMdDRtQTQ&usp=sharing&tid=0B_yKwLxCSPfVWjAzcE9jOVpxQkU
Conclusion -
Test Succession analysis is important analysis technique which can be followed by test teams .This method give high value addition in terms of impact analysis of base feature coverage and justification of regression estimates of test projects .
This method help in identifying the impact of exist features, deriving the regression suite and regression effort required for the Testing Project.
During the initial estimation and analysis phase of Test Project life cycle, the succession analysis need to be performed with respect to scope of this project, In Agile , this need to be performed in Iteration 0.
Test Succession analysis feature flow comprise of Inputs , and Process (which we can call as Analysis points) and Outputs
Inputs for succession analysis involve Feature Details such as Feature ID, Feature Name, Description and related Test Artifacts , Customer Scenario/Scope , Feature Usage etc .
After consolidating the input requirements, following Points need to be considered for the Succession Analysis of Base feature
-> CHANGE MODE ANALYSIS
-> FAILURE IMPACT
-> FEATURE MATURITY
Each analysis points above give different dimension to the successive nature of exist base feature of your system/product.
Description of Analysis Points
Priority -
This parameter denote the priority of the feature for THIS Customer in THIS Project, it means, feature may be critical in nature, but for the given scope of the project, the priority may vary. So based on the scope of the project priority of base feature need to be updated.
Change Mode Analysis-
This parameter need to be checked for following characteristics about whether exist feature is changing for the new requirement,it has 4 modes
Change-Independent - which means this feature is changing, but it is independent feature, not impact other New/Base feature,
Change -impacted - which means this feature is changing and also impacting other feature,
Impacted - means this feature not changing , but impacted because of new /exist feature change,
Independent - means no change, no impact
Failure Impact-
This parameter need to be covered depend on impact of the feature failure to the customer, If this feature fail, how much impact it can cause to the customer or to other successive feature,
Feature Maturity -
This parameter need to be analysed from two factors,
One is what is the usage of this feature,whether is it used by different customers, and whether is it commercial use or mainly in alpha/beta usage. This analysis give detail of usage of this feature,
Second method is what is test history of this feature, whether detail testing happened for this feature or only moderate testing is carried out so far.
Based on the Analysis of above parameters Future test Strategy and Regression Test Suite of which feature need to be covered and how much of testing and its estimation are derived, This we can call as Results of Succession analysis.
Results of Analysis -
Test Succession Analysis Result
This can be primarily determine how much testing required for the base feature in the current version, it can vary from 0-100%, , Consider a case, the test maturity of some base feature is very less, and also failure impact is high and priority is also high, Even this Base feature is independent or no change, It need be considered for 50% of test in the current version.
Subjective comments -
In addition in to identification of how many test case of base feature need to be tested as part of regression, few high level analysis inputs can be added, This is subjective comment which can cover what topology or scenario need to be covered for this feature, or any other special comments can be added as analysis inputs.
After each of the successive base feature, is analysed, the results are taken as input for project test estimation, project test strategy and also input for test design analysis, schema definition.
Template Reference
You can check the template for reference in attachment.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_yKwLxCSPfVUFlyUnBMdDRtQTQ&usp=sharing&tid=0B_yKwLxCSPfVWjAzcE9jOVpxQkU
Test Succession analysis is important analysis technique which can be followed by test teams .This method give high value addition in terms of impact analysis of base feature coverage and justification of regression estimates of test projects .
