The contributions in the field of electrical and electronics engineering by the IEEE or the institute of electrical and electronics engineers are not hidden from the world. The institute has its official head quarters situated in the city of New York.
It emerged as a non profit organization and since then is comprised of professionals from the fields of electrical and electronics engineering. The main aim of the association has always been to continually make excellent technological advancements in the field of electrical and electronics engineering.
ABOUT IEEE & IEEE 829
- IEEE currently has been reported to have around 40,00,00 members world wide and across 160 plus countries.
- Around 45 percent of the member population is from other countries besides United States.
- The history of the IEEE dates back to the 19s. IEEE was started as a non profit association in the New York City in the year of 1963.
- It was formed as a resultant the merging of 2 great individual non- profit institutes of that time namely the American Institute of electrical engineers (AIEE) and the institute of radio engineers (IRE).
- AIEE and IRE were formed in 1884 and 1912 respectively and in 1963 they merged together to give rise a new association i.e., institute of electrical and electronics engineers.
- Since then, IEEE has given so many standards for many fields like electrical, electronics and software testing etc.
- One such standard given in the field of software testing is “IEEE 829 – 1998” often called as “829 standard for software test documentation”.
- This standard has been designed especially for the documentation of the whole software testing process.
- It specifies what all documents are to be included in the currently defined 8 stages of the software testing cycle.
- Each stage has been stated with its individual document specifications.
- The IEEE 829 – 1998 standard just not specifies the documents to be produced but also lays down their formats.
But, it does not give any clear answer for whether or not all of the specified documents should be produced? Not only this, it also does not states what all content is to be included in these documents.
WHAT DOCUMENTS ARE PRODUCED?
As per the standard, the below mentioned documents are to be produced:
1. Test plan
The document that gives the management features of the testing cycle and includes:
(a) How the testing will be carried out?
(b) System under test or SUT configurations
(c) Who will carry out the testing?
(d) Estimated time
(e) Test coverage and quality level of the testing
2. Test design specification
The document listing all the detailed conditions as well as results and passing criteria.
3. Test case specification
The document specifying the input data for test cases.
4. Test procedure specification
The document having detailed description on how to run each and every specified test case and also describes the set up conditions and the steps to follow.
5. Test item transmittal report
The document giving the reports of one stage of the testing cycle after its completion.
6. Test log
The document maintaining the records of the test cases i.e., their title, executor, and final status i.e., pass or fail.
7. Test incident report
The document detailing the observations of the test cases that didn’t pass. It gives the causes of the failures of the test case and the expectations. The failure of a test case is often treated as an incident rather than a fault.
8. Test summary
The document providing a brief report of the whole testing cycle and also covers up the aspects that were not covered up in any of the above listed documents like software quality, quality of the testing efforts etc.
