Dividing a Test Plan into a Master Plan and Sub-Plans

If several engineers in your QA department will be working on a test plan, it makes sense to break up the plan into a master plan and sub-plans. This approach allows multi-user access, while at the same time maintaining a single point of control for the entire project.

The master plan contains only the top few levels of group descriptions, and the sub-plans contain the remaining levels of group descriptions and test descriptions. Statements, attributes, symbols, and test data defined in the master plan are accessible within each of the sub-plans.

Sub-plans are specified with an include statement. To expand the sub-plan files so that they are visible within the master plan, double-click in the left margin next to the include statement. Once a sub-plan is expanded inline, the sub-plan statement changes from red (the default color for statements) to magenta, indicating that the line is now read-only and that the sub-plan is expanded inline. At the end of the expanded sub-plan is the <eof> marker, which indicates the end of the sub-plan file.