Last week I was reading the Computable newsletter and saw this article. The article is about the municipal government of Rotterdam and their problems with IT management. One of the things stated is that Rotterdam says it’s working with PRINCE2 but in reality they aren’t. After this the thought came to my mind how does PRINCE2 interact with testing. PRINCE2 is a project management method and testing should be part of IT projects.

At first I started looking for information about testing and Prince2. I found a chapter in TMap Test Topics about TMap® and Prince2. But as TMap evolved into TMap NEXT® PRINCE2 had a 2009 refreshment (PRINCE2:2009) there is no other information about how testing should be interacted with PRINCE2:2009.

So I asked myself the question: How does PRINCE2 affect software testing?

When I was looking into PRINCE2:2009 I came to a conclusion. PRINCE2 supports testing! Why do I come to the conclusion that there is support?

“PRINCE2:2009 is build up out of 7 processes, 7 themes and 4 techniques”

Most important to know about PRINCE2 is that it is build up out of 8 processes, 8 components en 4 techniques. On Wikipedia the overview of PRINCE2 can be read.

But how does testing interact with PRINCE2? There are a number of PRINCE2 concepts that involve testers. These concepts are:

• * Business Case (theme)
• * Quality Review (technique)
• * Quality (theme)
• * Risk (theme)

From these I think the Quality Review is the most important to testers.

“A Quality Review is the same as evaluations”

PRINCE2 uses a full quality system based on establishing the requirements at an early stage and good quality control. In PRINCE2 quality control is done through the technique Quality Review. This technique may suffice for many types of products that can be developed with PRINCE2. Typically, the development work already needs to be tested. The quality review technique ensures a project’s products are of the required standard (i.e. meet defined quality criteria). The Quality Review can be seen as the evaluation of different documents. But it is no software testing!

“Software testing is integrated in the theme Quality”

In the Quality theme most of the different testing principles, tasks and products are. I shall try to explain them for some testing principles.

“The master test plan is part of the project quality plan”

A master test plan (MTP) can be prepared as part of the Project Quality Plan (PQP). The PQP determines what the quality approach of the product is. The result is that the MTP is part of the Project Initiation Document (PID). In the PID also the business case is stated from the Business Case theme. This business case is needed as the justification of the testing process. In the test strategy there should be what kind of tests which should be tested. This all can lead to the following approach:

• * how development testing are executed is stated in the Work Packages and are conducted by specialist team for realisation;
• * System Test (ST) as a separate Work Package in the stage that should deliver the product;
• * Acceptance Test (AT) as a separate Work Package in the stage that accepts and/or implements;
• * ST and AT are performed by specialist team for testing.

The Work Package is determined in the process Controlling a Stage (CS).

“PRINCE2 doesn’t recognize infrastructure as a testing activity”

Infrastructure is not recognized in PRINCE2 as a testing activity. However, this is desperately needed for testing. It is recommended to create a separate Work Package for the test infrastructure.

“The different test phases should be integrated in the product breakdown structure”

The preparation, specification, executing and closing are linked to the testing of a product from the Product Breakdown Structure. Depending on the composition of the Work Package there will be one or more types of activity performed. The Work Package is determined in the process Controlling a Stage (CS).

“Defects can become an issue”

Testing (often) leads to defects. A defect should be handled; it should first be determined what the cause is of the findings. If the defect is an error of which the recovery is covered within the Work Package is, the fault is repaired and a retest performed. In other cases the defects should be recorded as an error (Off-Specification) or as a change of the Product Specification (Request for Change). These then are further treated as a Project Issue.

“The project manager relates the release advice to the business case”

The release advice is the opinion of the test management to the project manager after the testing process has finished. The project manager should hold this opinion against the Business Case and can then take it into consideration to end the management stage.

1. Andy Murray Says:
   October 23rd, 2009 at 12:07

   Hi

   A great article, but some of the analysis is mixing the 2005 version of PRINCE2 and the 2009 version.

   PRINCE2 does not prescribe how products are assessed – the quality review technique is just one of many techniques that can be applied. As your article states, quality review is an evaluation that is principally based on reviewing documents. In the case of s/w testing the quality review would initially be of the Test Strategy, then the Test Plan and finally the Test Results (a report of).

   The overarching approach to testing would be defined in the Quality Management Strategy when initiating the project. This is how PRINCE2 remains a universal method that can be applied to any project – as the approach to testing would be different in a construction project, compared to a s/w development project compared to a business change project etc.

   Best regards
   Andy Murray
   PRINCE2 2009 Lead Author

2. Ewald Roodenrijs Says:
   October 26th, 2009 at 09:41

   Andy,

   Thank you for your comment. I understand how the QMS stated how testing should be done.

   I agree that the evaluation (review) should be in the test strategy, test plan and results.

   -Ewald