Get set go..test!

When I started as a fresher, I honestly didn't know how to start on testing something!Luckily for me the first QA task was more checklist based. All I had to do was follow the checklist, and select the options Yes, No and then complete it. But when it came to regular software testing project, I was totally in a state of confusion. How do I begin my testing,where do I start and more importantly when do I start? Working with a development team as a lone tester, I had no choice but to figure out my own strategy.

This is how I began:

• Prepare a test strategy - Main purpose of testing was to log as much bugs as possible and not just to pass easy tests. Keeping this in mind, based on the requirements, prepared macro level test cases covering all functional scenarios and then prepared test cases at the micro level for individual functionality. In this way, I was able to cover the entire application. 
• Prepare a test plan - The main idea was to figure out the responsibilities, who does what? Since I was the lone tester, I took help of the development team for certain activities. This plan helped us estimate the time, the tasks for each person, the dependencies for each task etc. 
• Test cases- As mentioned in the Test strategy, as soon as the first set of requirements were available, I prepared the macro level test cases. Then based on the software progress, micro level test cases were also written. 
• Test Data- The test data was prepared along with the test cases. 
• Test Environment Set up - A separate QA server similar to the production environment was provided. 

What started as a plan for single QA member continued even when the team grew in size. This simple plan worked for me and my team big time!