Test summary report, Payroll 4.2 release, Quenwick Systems
Test report template with cases by area, a pass rate chart and open defects
A test report has to tell the people who decide on a release what was tested, what passed, what is still broken and whether the agreed exit criteria are met. This four page report for a payroll module release counts 378 cases by area, charts the pass rate, lists every open defect with a decision, and ends with sign off from QA and the product owner.
The document, page by page
Every page as it renders and as it prints, with nothing summarised. Read the wording before you reuse it.
Section by section
What each section is for, so you can keep the ones you need and drop the rest.
- Release details and recommendation
- Build, cycle dates, planned release, author, four figures and the conditional go decision.
- 1. Scope
- What changed, what was in and out of scope, environment, data, methods and testers.
- 2. Test cases by area
- Planned, executed, passed, failed and blocked for seven areas with totals, and the not run and blocked cases explained.
- 3. Pass rate by area
- A bar chart of pass rate by area and the weakest area named.
- 4. Defects
- Raised, fixed, open and deferred by severity, and the eight open defects with a decision each.
- 5. Exit criteria and sign off
- Five criteria with target, actual and met, the conditions, and two signature blocks.
How to adapt this document
First, change the areas in the cases table to the features in your release, and keep the five count columns, because planned against executed is what shows whether testing finished. Second, if you test in sprints rather than a release cycle, make this a one page summary per sprint and keep the open defects table carried forward, so nothing is quietly forgotten between sprints. Third, for a client project, add a short section listing any acceptance tests the client ran themselves and their result, and add the client as a third signatory.
Keep the numbers honest
Test reports lose trust when the numbers are massaged, for example by dropping failed cases from the executed count or quietly lowering a severity before release. Show cases that were not applicable and say why, keep blocked separate from failed, and record each deferral with the person who agreed it. The international software testing standard and the ISTQB glossary give shared definitions for these terms.
What makes this document work
The recommendation comes with its conditions
The first paragraph says release on Thursday 15 October if two fixes, PAY-412 and PAY-417, pass retest by Monday 12 October. The last paragraph says what happens otherwise: the release moves to 22 October and the report is reissued. A go or no go without conditions is rarely honest.
Every count reconciles
Passed, failed and blocked add to executed in every row, and the totals read 361, 13 and 2 of 376. Thirteen failures become eleven defects because three share a cause, and the severity table adds to 11 raised, 3 fixed and 8 open.
The exit criteria show the one miss
Five criteria with target and actual: pass rate 96.0 percent against 95, regression 98.3 against 98, and one open High defect against zero, marked No. An honest exit table lets the product owner sign knowing exactly what is being accepted.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between a test report and a test plan?
A test plan is written before testing and says what will be tested, how, by whom and what counts as done. A test report is written after and says what actually happened against that plan: cases run, results, defects and whether the exit criteria were met. The report should point back to the plan's criteria rather than invent new ones.
What pass rate is good enough to release?
There is no universal number; agree it before testing starts, usually in the test plan. Many teams use 95 percent of executed cases with no open Critical or High defects, plus a higher bar such as 98 percent for regression. The pass rate alone is not enough: one High defect in pay calculation matters more than ten cosmetic ones.
How should defect severity be defined?
By the effect on users and the business, not by how hard the fix is. Critical stops the system or corrupts data with no workaround; High gives wrong results in an important function, such as pay out by cents; Medium has a workaround; Low is cosmetic. Write the definitions in the test plan so they are not argued during triage.
Who should sign off a test report?
The person accountable for testing, here the QA lead, confirming the results are accurate, and the person accountable for the release decision, here the product owner, accepting the remaining risk. For a regulated system or a customer contract, a client representative may also sign. Signing records who accepted which open defects.
What does a blocked test case mean?
A case that could not be run to a result because something outside the software under test got in the way, such as a broken environment or, here, an expired bank simulator certificate. Report blocked cases separately from failures, give the reason, and say when they will be run, because they are untested risk rather than known defects.
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