TPS report


A TPS report is a document used by a quality assurance group or individual, particularly in software engineering, that describes the testing procedures and the testing process.

Definition

The official definition and creation is provided by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers as follows:

In popular culture

After its use in the comedic 1999 film Office Space, "TPS report" has come to connote pointless, mindless paperwork, and an example of "literacy practices" in the work environment that are "meaningless exercises imposed upon employees by an inept and uncaring management" and "relentlessly mundane and enervating". According to the film's writer and director Mike Judge, the abbreviation stood for "Test Program Set" in the movie. In the movie, multiple managers and coworkers inquire about an error that Peter Gibbons makes in omitting a cover sheet to send with his TPS reports. It is used by Gibbons as an example that he has eight different persons he directly reports to.
In King of the Hill Kahn is being chewed out, then remarks to his boss "No sir, I filed my TPS report yesterday."
The 2015 puzzle video game Please, Don't Touch Anything featured the question 'What is a TPS Report?' as one of many hidden clues that lead to a unique ending.
In Lost season 1, episode 4, John Locke's boss says "Locke, I told you I need those TPS reports done by noon today."
In Ralph Breaks the Internet, a TPS report is visibly hanging in one of the cubicles seen during Ralph's viral video montage. However, it was incorrectly placed in a cubicle in the accounting department, where TPS reports are not functionally relevant.