The Test Summary Report (TSR) of Test Sign-off Report provides a test execution summary for the testing phase (e.g. Sys, UAT) and a recommendation of the readiness to progress to the next phase (e.g. Production).
The purpose of the TSR is to share the testing results, outstanding defects & issues, assessment of the risks & conclusion and a recommendation based on the confidence of the testing team.
The Test Summary Report document should state a recommendation from the testing team highlighting the testing experience and reasons for the decision to progress to the next phase or to continue in the current phase. It should also specify the overview of the test conditions tested/not tested and their results, Defects closed & their severity, any outstanding Defects along with the impact, variances from the Test Plan, any Test Cases removed from the planned testing and Change Requests added to the overall testing scope.
Another important section is to mention the status of the Test Entry and Test Exit criteria and any reasons, exceptions taken during the testing phase if the criteria was not met.
The Risk section highlights the risks identified in the Test Plan, their realisation and any impacts.
It should mention the Test Estimation variance in terms of actual and planned test effort.
The last sections cover the builds deployed, any downtime for the testing team.
Test Summary sign-off responsibility lies with all the project stakeholders identified in the Test Plan. e.g. all these or some of them can be involved in the sign-off stage – Project Manager, Development Manager, Business Analyst, Test Manager, Business Manager and few more (if applicable).
So, overall Test Sign-off document provides a clear idea to the stakeholders about the Testing phase and testing team’s viewpoint which helps them to take the next action in the software life cycle.