Test Strategies

 What is a Test Strategy?

A test strategy is an outline that describes the testing approach of the software development cycle.

• It is NOT just a document- it reflects the ideas around governing the choice of tests.
• CONTEXT driven- dependent on factors such as software/ customer base/ teams previous experiences/ past models used
• What and Why rather than how. 
• Eg- front end web- looking at accessibility/ usabilities, or is it just an API so just needs to work efficiently. 
• Think about the hats!

What to include in a Test Strategy.

• Important to look at Risk Mitigation. (the more risks, the more tests) 
• What risks are we mitigating in the unit tests?
• What risks are we dealing with in system testing?
• What are we trying to achieve
• How deep are we going?

This isn't war and peace!

• If it is hundreds of pages long, no one will read it. 

Who writes/ designs Test Strategies?

• Everyone!
• Devs
• Whole Team
• Stakeholders
• Other teams
• Start with Risk analysis
• Technical Architect

In Agile working, this is a living document, which can be added to/ changed/ modified/ pulled apart as they go through. 

Different to a Test Plan

A Plan, answers How and When questions. 

It is a set of ideas to guide your test project

Examples:-

• How will the functional testing occur?
• Exploratory
• Automation?
• What kind of performance testing will be carried out?
• Plan = Strategy + Logistics

Heuristic Test Strategy Model- James Bach