Planning Activities in Software Testing Process: A Literature Review and Suggestions for Future Research

Software testing process consists of activities that implemented after it is planned and including to document related testing activities. Test processes must be applied necessarily for able to clearly see the quality of software, the degree of reliability, whether it is ready for delivery, the degree of effectiveness and remains of how much testing. One of the most important phase of these processes is test planning activities. Test planning activities directly affects the project's success in software projects. In this study, software testing process, and test planning activities carried out in this process was first clearly demonstrated by the literature review. Later, a basic software testing process and test planning process were determined and explained step by step. In this way, it was aimed to give a different and deep perspective to the test planning activities and to raise awareness on the topic. As a result of the research, it was seen that the test planning activities are not applied adequately at present, software testers, experts or researchers do not have enough knowledge about the details of the method, and this situation causes very serious negative results in the delivery and cost in software projects. Finally, the topic was discussed in detail, and some conclusions and recommendations were given for the personnel in the field of software testing. In this point, the study is expected to contribute the literature.