Artifact: Test Log

This artifact provides a detailed, typically time-based record that serves both as verification that a set of tests were executed, and provides information relating to the success of those tests. The focus is typically on the provision of an accurate audit trail, enabling post-execution diagnosis of failures to be undertaken. This raw data will subsequently be analyzed to help determine the results of some aspect of the test effort.

Tailoring

Impact of not having

Without this or similar documentation, there is no record of which tests were executed successfully, what variances were discovered, and what action was taken. If this information is not available:

There will be no way to know which tests passed and which failed
There will be no way to assess the status of testing and the quality of the product at that level of testing
It will be difficult to know how many tests remain outstanding
Contractual and legal issues may arise

Reasons for not needing

When executing automated tests, test logs are automatically produced. Usually the issue is not whether to produce the test log, but rather whether to keep a record, and where to keep those records. For manual testing, the issue is whether to keep a separate test log, or whether to summarize the test results in some other form.

Representation Options

Since this is a collection of raw data for subsequent analysis, it can be represented in a number of ways. Some suggestions are:

For manual tests, log the actual results on a copy of the manual Test Script
For automated tests, direct the output to log files that you can trace back to the automated Test Script
Track raw results data in a test management tool

This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
Eclipse Public License v1.0 which accompanies this distribution.