What does your organization put in Test Plan field (Planning tab) within the Change Request record?

[alisonh]

This seems like a simple question but I'd like your input.  

Historically we have used change requests to initiate development work.  In that case, the Test Plan field on the Planning tab would direct the change manager to an attachment with the completed test set results. 

Going forward we want to more closely align with the ITIL framework.  We will use change records to initiate/integrate with Release Management.  In other words, the sequence would be:  1)demand/enhancement is approved, and 2)development is complete, and 3)change request is submitted and becomes the vehicle for forward schedules and release management approvals.  

One of the newer members of our Change Management team thinks the Test Plan field should be more of a validation plan.  Meaning, how will the deployment team kick the tires and confirm that 1)the deployment was successful and 2)we didn't break anything in the process.

What are your thoughts?  How does your organization use this field?

Thanks much!

[Jay81]

You can say 'test plan' as 'post implementation testing' meaning development team should mention detailed steps to(test case) validate the change implemented. We used to mention the attachment name because usually test case contains before/after screenshots in case of service now change request.

[Cheyenne1]

Our test plan is used as a section that outlines the steps that are required to validate the success of the change. 

Example: 

Change : Upgrade ServiceNow to Kingston release

Test Plan: 1. Navigate to Upgrade monitor and confirm upgrade has completed etc. etc. 

[alisonh]

Cheyenne,

Validation that the change was successfully completed would be a good standard.  Do you also include validation steps to confirm key functionality wasn't negatively impacted (regression validation, of sorts)?   In a prod environment records shouldn't actually be generated, of course, but do the teams have a set that they take to the farthest point possible before writing to a db?

Thanks.