Estimating and Planning Testing and Data Migration Effort

Keep this: job aid

Test and migration estimating checklist

• Count scope: test cases per solution process, classified simple, medium, complex by a written rule.
• Calibrate rates with a pilot of about ten real test cases.
• Add retest, regression per fix drop, preparation and defect management as explicit lines.
• Plan testing in cycles with retest windows, not as one block.
• Keep a data object inventory: volume, rules, cleansing, validation method, owner.
• Multiply validation hours by every mock, the dress rehearsal and the final load.
• Build a named business demand plan; agree release and backfill with line managers.
• Hold visible contingency with release triggers, including schedule contingency.
• Track drivers, re-forecast at every cycle and mock boundary, report contingency burn.
• Feed actual rates back into the estimation model for the next release.