---
title: Create an advanced experiment plan and QA checklist
slug: experimentation-strategy/docs/create-an-advanced-experiment-plan-and-qa-checklist
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-08-05T20:33:26.471Z
---

- Optimizely Web Experimentation
- Optimizely Personalization
- Optimizely Performance Edge
- Optimizely Feature Experimentation
- Optimizely Full Stack (Legacy)

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**

This article is part of [The Optimization Methodology](docId:6m2Nd3SMdxtmzcj5doLCg) series.
:::

A full experiment plan gathers decisions from stakeholders into a single, collaborative document. It provides a detailed summary of the motivations and mechanics of your experiment or campaign. When shared, it helps build visibility across the organization and scale your experimentation strategy by establishing a standardized process.

A QA checklist builds efficiency around your QA process to ensure your experiments and campaigns work as intended.

**Materials to prepare**

- [Experiment hypothesis](docId\:A8ewMTwBn94nWlQwot7BY)
- [Business goals](docId\:k_80tqMJv2Kdh1yU1jjyX)
- Variation descriptions (wireframes or screenshots)
- Summary of all technical and design assets needed for the experiment
- Parameters for significance and lift that indicate that the change will be implemented permanently

**People and resources**

- Program manager
- Developer
- QA team
- Designer
- [Sample size calculator](https://www.optimizely.com/sample-size-calculator/?conversion=3\&effect=20\&significance=95)

**Actions to perform **

- Create a test plan document.
- Create a rigorous QA checklist.
- Review and update plan with stakeholders.
- Confirm scope of test.
- Define [primary, secondary, and monitoring goals](docId\:oWMQ0BWo1DoM2WWKINZSP).
- Confirm stakeholders who will create required resources.
- Document responsibilities and deadlines (in Kanban, Gantt chart, or another internal method).
- Finalize test plan.

**Deliverables**

- Test plan document containing:
  - Details for building an experiment
  - Technical requirements
  - Scope of the experiment
  - Creative assets or wireframes
  - Screenshots of variations
- [QA checklist (.xlsx)](https://world.optimizely.com/globalassets/documentation/downloaded-files/qa-checklist-template.xlsx)

**Watch out for:**

- Ill-defined scope
- Lack of true hypothesis or goals
- Lack of executive buy-in
- Missing screenshots
- Poor understanding of resource needs
- Inaccurate effort estimates
- Inadequate documentation for QA
- Plan not being shared with the proper stakeholders
- Lack of adherence to plan when building the test

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**

If your team is starting to run its first tests, see the [basic experiment plan](docId:633l-GI1gMp7usUqyhFJR).
:::

## Experiment design document template

Your experiment design document should include:

- The actual code used for implementation
- Alignment with sprint planning
- Experiment ID
- Roles/responsibilities
- [Primary, secondary, and monitoring goals](docId\:oWMQ0BWo1DoM2WWKINZSP) for the experiment
- Correlating goals to business value

You may also want to [use minimum detectable effect to choose what type of test to run](docId:0NHL0ppkIJjpuipng99bL).

## QA checklist template

When you plan an experiment, include the QA team so they can create a checklist. This helps build a rigorous, efficient process for cases that need to be checked and eliminates those that do not.

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/7ZxEWNQiRdcD-3Ct1ZUzO-20260720-144815.png)

Your QA checklist should include:

- Goals or events in the experiment and how each is triggered
- Added functionality
- Common use cases including expected user flows to and from the page
- Included or excluded audiences
- URLs where the experiment should run
- Sample workflow to fire a goal (especially for custom events)

Your QA team should grade each use case as pass or fail. Push the experiment live once everything on the list has passed the test.

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