Where test progress monitoring is about gathering detailed test data, there reporting test status is about effectively communicating our findings to other project stakeholders.

Test status reporting is often about enlightening and influencing stakeholders about test results. This involves analyzing the information and metrics available to support conclusions, recommendations, and decisions about how to guide the project forward.

For example, if you are doing risk-based testing, the main test objective is to subject the important product risks to the appropriate extent of testing. Table 5.1 given below shows an example of a chart that would allow you to report your test coverage and unresolved defects against the main product risk areas you identified during risk analysis. If you are doing requirements-based testing, you could measure coverage in terms of requirements or functional areas instead of risks. On some projects, the test team must create a test summary report. Such a report, created either at a key milestone or at the end of a test level, describes the results of a given level or phase of testing.

The IEEE 829 Standard Test Summary Report Template provides a useful guideline about such report. You might also discuss about the important events (especially difficult ones) that occurred during testing, the objectives of testing and whether they were achieved, the test strategy followed and how well it worked, and the overall effectiveness of the test effort.

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