TABLE OF CONTENTS When an organization has reached TMM level 2 it has accomplished a great deal. Fundamental testing maturity goals have been achieved. There are testing and debugging policies in place, which are available for all project personnel to access. There is management support for these policies. Management ensures they are applied to all projects. Testing for each project is planned. The test plan is prepared in conjunction with the project plan so that project goals can be achieved. The organization has institutionalized basic black and white box methods and applies them to design, and execute tests on software that is being developed, acquired, and maintained. The organization tests its software at several levels (unit, integration, system, etc.) Moving up to TMM level 3 requires further investment of organizational resources in the testing process. One of the maturity goals at TMM level 3 calls for the "Establishment of a test organization." This is an important step for a software organization. It implies a commitment to better testing and higher-quality software. This commitment requires that testing specialists be hired, space be given to house the testing group, resources be allocated to the group, and career paths for testers be established. It also implies that the functional and managerial hierarchy of the organization be redesigned, changes in the reporting structure be made, as well as changes be made to the organizational culture. Although there are many costs to establishing a testing group, there are also many benefits. By supporting...
