Creating a test strategy using questions
🏆 This post was featured in Software Testing Weekly, issue 49
The test strategy is defined at the start of the project and it can be revisited and reviewed during the duration of that project. The strategy is usually driven by the testers, yet it should always include feedback from all team members.
This strategy reveals the way tests will be designed and executed to foster quality. To do so, it needs to answer several questions like what parts of the product will be tested, what test techniques will be used, who will be involved, and how long it will take.
The number of questions and the detail of the answers depends on your project’s requirements, so you will have to choose between a formal and detailed document versus a simple and abridged alternative.
Mnemonic SADDEST PPIRATEE
Erik Brickarp suggests these first five questions before you start testing:
What (product) are we testing?
What should be the main focus of our testing?
How much resources (time/people) do we have?
How should we document our test strategy and results? To who?
Where can we get information about the product?
Those questions cover the most critical aspects of any strategy to test your product. You can use them to generate more questions and detail your strategy even more. As the number of questions increases, we should group them into categories.
I took Jared Quinert’s GRATEDD SCRIPTS mnemonic and further expanded it with more questions from Erik Brickarp and Michael Bolton.
The result was this mind map, and a new mnemonic called SADDEST PPIRATEE:
Download: overview mind map / detailed mind map
Questions
Scope
- How would you describe the success of this project?
- What is expected that we deliver?
- What is expected that we achieve?
Product
- What problem are we solving? For who?
- What should our solution do? Scenarios?
Stakeholders
- Who has a stake on our success? And failure?
- Who is our client? (e.g. who pays the product)
- Who is our user? (e.g. who uses the product)
Risks
- What would threaten our success?
- What is likely to change?
- What is still unknown?
Dependencies
- Is our delivery influenced by someone/thing outside our team?
- Do we need to cooperate with other teams? When, how and why?
Approach
- How will we work together? (e.g: scrum, kanban)
- How will we develop our product? (e.g. pairing, TDD)
- What would a typical day look like?
Prioritisation
- Who will set priorities?
- Who reviews/approves our delivery?
- Who perceives the quality of our delivery?
Time
- Any important dates?
- Any recurring events or ceremonies?
Architecture
- Can you draw the main components of our system?
- How do they interact
Technologies
- Are we expected to use any specific tools/languages?
- Which tools do we want to use to develop? And test? And deliver? And communicate?
Environments
- How many do we need? For what?
- Who will manage them? Who has access?
Data
- Which metrics are relevant to us?
Information
- What is meaningful to test?
- What questions should our testing answer?
- How should those answers be reported? To who?
Experience
- Have we ever worked in a similar context?
- What skills/experience can be found in the team?
Emotions
- How do you feel about our product?
- What do users feel and say about it?
References
I hope these questions help you create your own test strategy. If you want to learn more about this subject (or testing in general), check my free testing course.
Originally published at https://www.diogonunes.com on December 7, 2020.
