Countless thousands of people create test cases and perform testing on products in the software industry. Yet few of us, when challenged, can concisely and compellingly explain why we chose to do these tests instead of those tests. This leads to testing that is wasteful, unagile, and disrespected. Good test strategy solves that problem.
Test strategy is the set of ideas that guide our choices about what testing to do. Knowing how to construct, explain, and critique a test strategy is the gateway to credibility as a tester. This seminar focuses on strategy as it relates to testing and fits within the Rapid Software Testing methodology. So, we approach strategy as a heuristic, not just a document. We look at it from a social and general systems perspective. Although we won’t focus on risk analysis, we will look at how risk maps to test activities.
This is a one-day seminar that is taught online or onsite.
Goals of RSTF-Strategy
- The primary goal of this seminar is show you how to confidently apply strategic thinking to testing; and to design, explain, and defend a test strategy.
- A secondary goal is to extend your understanding of Rapid Software Testing methodology.
Who Should Take This Training
This Rapid Software Testing Focused class is for you if:
- You are responsible for test strategy in your project.
- You lead people who are responsible for test strategy in your project.
- You want to learn how to be responsible for test strategy in your project.
- You are struggling to explain and defend the focus of your software testing.
- You are concerned that your testing may not be oriented on finding the bugs that really matter.
Main Topics Covered
During the class you will perform a risk analysis on at least one product; and during the seminar we strive to accommodate students’ specific needs and questions in class discussions and lectures. The general topics we’ll cover include:
- Testing as experimentation.
- Why testing needs strategy.
- What sort of ideas comprise test strategy.
- How to think about testability and why it matters for test strategy.
- Risk-based strategy vs. coverage-based strategy.
- The role of automation in a good test strategy.
- How to invent test techniques.
- Families of test techniques that feature in test strategy.
- General strategy heuristics, such as alternation, focusing, and defocusing.
- Simple ways to document test strategy.
How RSTF Compares To RSTE
- Rapid Software Testing Explored (RSTE) presents the methodology of Rapid Software Testing with brief practical exercises and Socratic discussion. It is a foundational class that is good to take before RSTF. Although RSTE does cover test strategy in general, this class focuses entirely on strategy.
What you need to bring
Bring a laptop that connects to the Internet. You will be testing.
Download a two-page PDF of the RST Focused: Strategy course description