What is the first thing you think about when someone mentions a Test Strategy? A big document of 40+ pages with a ton of theory, no one reads and is not up to date. Usually, it represents those big Waterfall projects. We are living in Agile for quite a while now but does it fit Test Strategy or shall we ditch it?
After 13 years of testing a variety of projects, I can firmly say that each project needs a Test Strategy that guides testing. It provides a common understanding of testing processes, deliverables, and expectations. During the past few years, I helped many clients improve their testing by working (together with them) on a tailored based Test Strategy. Each one of them was unique and different, due to the many factors that influence it. Understanding which factors to observe is crucial. The benefits of designing and implementing Test Strategy are quite impressive and life-changing, for the whole team as well as the product they are building (and therefore managers).
Due to everything mentioned, Test Strategies come in different shapes and forms. Some are just a collection of few stickers on the wall and some are represented as quite a long document(s). Having in mind all this and learning about the factors and Test Strategy shapes will help you to understand and decide which Test Strategy definition and representation is best suited for you and your team.
Key-Learning:
- Why do you need a Test Strategy?
- How to define it? What to take into consideration? What drives a good and useful Test Strategy?
- Why can’t you have a template and just fill it in? What are possible variants of Test strategy?
Mirjana Kolarov, Keynote, 2021
