Piloting Phase for tool evaluation in Software Testing

Novemver 18, 2016

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Introduction to Pilot Phase For Tool Evaluation

Piloting process/phase is the screening phase prior selecting a tool for the purpose of software testing. Selection of a tool comprises of so many factors such as - nature of the project, requirements to be met, budget allocation for the project, skill or domain expertise for the tool, size of the project, size of team and so on. The decision to choose a specific tool should be aligned with the ongoing tasks in the organisation.

Important factors for tool selection:

• The foremost point in tool selection is to assess the readiness for acceptability of change by the organisation.
• Determine which areas of the project need improvement and also identifying to what extent the new tool can really make an impact in the testing process.
• Analyse and assess requirement specifications and the goals to be achieved.
• Evaluation of the various aspects like training, technical support for the tool, which are related to vendor.
• Plan internal implementation of the tool and training that needs to be imparted to the team of people supposed to work with the tool.

The objective behind tool evaluation for a pilot project is to uncover the various issues that are usually related with any pilot or new project. A pilot project emphasises on experimenting with different ways by which we can use a tool. Therefore the motive behind adopting a new testing tool for a pilot project are:

• To enhance knowledge about the new tool
• To understand and evaluate how a tool would align with the processes and documentation in order to streamline the new tool with the current work culture.
• To establish a standard to be adopted while working on the tool. These standards could be a consensus on naming conventions, creating libraries, modularity definition, storage location for the different elements, maintenance criteria for the tool.