Difference between Test Strategy and Test Plan

Test Strategy describes about the overall "testing appraoch" of our testing.
Generally prepared by Project Manager or his delegate.
It provides a roadmap that describes the steps to be conducted as part of testing, when these steps are planned and under taken, and how much effort, time and resources will be required. Therefore, any test Strategy must incorporate test planning, test design, test execution, and resultant data collection and evaluation.
This document generally derived from BRD(Business Requirement document)
It is static document, meaning updation of this document is almost minimal.
This document can be organization specific or project specific.


Test plan describes about "how & what we are going to test, who will do what, when to test".
Generally prepared by Test Lead or Test Manager.
It prescibes the scope, appraoch, resources and schedules of our testing activities.
This document is generally derived from Business Requirement Document, Functional Specification Document, Technical Specification Document and any use case document.
It is dynamic document, and needs to be updated as per the needs.
This document is project specific, and based on the project size, some projects have master test plan and individual test plans will be derived from this test plan.
The content of the Test Plan includes:
1. Introduction
a. Overview of the project
b. Purpose of this document
c. Objectives of the testing
2. Scope of testing
a. Features to be tested
b. Out of scope items
3. Test Strategy: Different types of testing
4. Test and System schedules
5. Roles and Responsibilities
6. Environment requirements
7. Resources(H/w,S/w, human)
8. Risks and contingencies
9. Deliverable
10. Approvals