Network Commissioning Test Plan Template

Network cabling systems are the backbone of most modern industries. Many companies & businesses, if not all, rely on network performance, uptime, safety & security to do business. Regulatory bodies like the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and other equivalent national-level organizations, have set several stringent instructions to ensure quality during the planning, designing, installation, testing and commissioning of these systems.

In order to keep up with all the necessary tests for these systems, many contractors and firms have adapted by using plans to standardize their commissioning process. Typical contents of a Network Commissioning Test Plan include:

• General information on the project & system
• Description of commissioning scope
• Specific test procedures (depending on the cable system installed)
• Notes on pass/fail parameters or acceptance criteria
• Documentation & reporting for turn-over

By creating a network test plan, potential issues can be identified early on and before commissioning even begins. This saves your team precious time and resources by avoiding losses due to faulty installation or sanctions due to non-compliance of regulations.

For example, when installing hardware for a new data centre, your company can include a recommendation for an end-to-end fiber certification and redundancy fail-over test. Your team may catch a redundant fiber path that terminated in the patch panel - something that could cause critical failure of the system & significantly long downtimes if the primary link failed. By having a procedural plan in place for your testing & commissioning process, your team can catch errors in installation before they lead to losses.