Get started with Test Plans

Why you'll love Test Plans

• Mitigate risk. Ensure quality work is being done saving General Contractors and owners time and money.
• Ensure work meets the required standards and evidence is thoroughly documented. Test Plans act as a roadmap for quality control and verification throughout a project. 
• Identify materials and work to be inspected or tested, by whom, and at what stage or frequency.
• Improve communication. Ensure the Owner, Design Team, Consultants and Subcontractors understand the expectations of a piece of work and their responsibilities.
• Monitor progress for a piece of work. See who is holding up progress, and take the necessary corrective action.
• Manage and track inspection and test activities for each piece of construction work. Easily access evidence of a certain inspection activity and ensure proper closeout of the work

Who can use Test Plans?

Permissions in Test Plans are provided to each user by assigning them a role in the Field directory. These permissions apply across all test plans in the user's organization. 

There are four roles in Test Plans:

• Observer: View test plans.
• Contributor: View, create and edit test plans.
• Associate: View, create, edit and activate test plans. Configure templates, categories and reviewer actions.
• Administrator:  Has the same permission as an Associate plus the ability to publish templates.

In addition the above, each test plan has its own set of participant roles. These are configured in the template and allows users to be assigned separate permissions to work on a specific test plan. 

The four participant roles are:

• Assignee:  Start an activity, add records, and mark the activity for review.
• Reviewer: Add records and complete a review such as a hold point.
• Manager:  Override hold points, complete or reopen an activity, add records, submit the test plan to the Approver for closure.
• Approver:  Same as the Manager but can close out the test plan if the work is completed to their satisfaction. Can reopen the test plan if required.

Learn more about permissions in Test Plans

Who can see the Test Plans menu?

You'll find Test Plans under Field on the top main navigation menu. All users can view test plans for their organization, but only users with permission can add and manage them.

How does Test Plans work?

1. The contributor creates a test plan by selecting the appropriate template. They select the manager, approver, and location for the test plan.
2. The contributor updates the activities of the test plan, making sure each activity has the appropriate assignee and reviewers.
3. The associate activates the test plan. 
4. The manager named in the test plan receives a notification and starts their required activities in the test plan.
5. The assignees in each activity also receive a notification. They view any linked documents and complete their work as detailed in the activity. They add inspections and attachments to provide evidence of their completed work. 
6. The assignee marks their activity for review.
7. The reviewers receive a notification and they check the details in the activity. 
8. Each reviewer checks the supporting evidence of the completed work. They may add an inspection or attachments after verifying the completed work.
9. The reviewer selects a review outcome to complete the review of the activity.
10. The manager checks the work done by both the assignee and the reviewer.
11. The manager marks the activity as complete.
12. When all activities in a test plan are complete, the manager receives a notification that the test plan is ready to be submitted.
13. The manager submits the test plan.
14. The approver receives a notification that a test plan is submitted.
15. The approver checks and closes the test plan.

Initial Setup

There's a few things that need to be configured before you can use Test Plans on your project.

1. Add users and assign permissions. A Field Admin adds users for their organization and assigns the required test plan roles. The Field Project Admin or Inspector Admin adds users from organizations they work with and assigns the required test plan roles. 
2. Add areas and sub areas to Field (if not already present).
3. Create Test Plan categories to help you organize your templates.
4. Create Reviewer Actions (other than Hold Point and Witness Point).
5. Upload required documents. If you have documents you need to include as references in your templates, you need to add them to your document register. 
6. Create inspection templates so the assignees can add inspections as evidence in test plans.
7. The user with the Administrator role creates the Test Plan templates that will be used on the project.