What are the overall risks to the project with an emphasis on the testing process?
Lack of personnel resources when testing is to begin.
Lack of availability of required hardware, software, data or tools.
Late delivery of the software, hardware or tools.
Delays in training on the application and/or tools.
Changes to the original requirements or designs.
Complexities involved in testing the applications
Specify what will be done for various events, for example:
Requirements definition will be complete by January 1, 20XX, and, if the requirements change after that date, the following actions will be taken:
The test schedule and development schedule will move out an appropriate number of days. This rarely occurs, as most projects tend to have fixed delivery dates.
The number of tests performed will be reduced.
The number of acceptable defects will be increased.
Resources will be added to the test team.
The test team will work overtime (this could affect team morale).
The scope of the plan may be changed.
There may be some optimization of resources. This should be avoided, if possible, for obvious reasons.
Management is usually reluctant to accept scenarios such as the one above even though they have seen it happen in the past.
The important thing to remember is that, if you do nothing at all, the usual result is that testing is cut back or omitted completely, neither of which should be an acceptable option.
