Methodology Investigation of Computer-Aided Test Planning (CATPLAN).

Increases in test workload and decreases in personnel at USATTC created an urgent need to develop a computerized, systematic approach to test plan writing that would allow fewer people to prepare quality test plans quicker. This was a 2-year investigation. Throughout the first year, each professional who wrote a subtest for each of the Centers Detailed Test Plans DTPs made an extra effort to build a standard approach and structure into his subtest. The regular test plan boarding process at the Center served as a continuing review board for the developing CATPLAN. Throughout the second year, an initial version of the CATPLAN was used by the Center as a starting point for DTPs. The result of this investigation is a computerized format of a typical test plan. In addition to the time save in writing DTPs, about a 40-percent savings overall, CATPLAN serves as a valuable corporate memory mechanism and a welcomed training device. Standard approaches, detailed procedures, specific formats, and exact words eliminate much of the practice of reinventing the ordinary. New personnel have come up to speed on test planning more quickly and easily than in the past. Author