thoughts from the test eye

I have been doing lots on test strategy the last year. Some talks, a EuroSTAR tutorial, blog entries, a small book in Swedish, teaching at higher vocational studies, and of course test strategies in real projects.

The definition I use is more concrete than many others. I want a strategy for a project, not for a department or the future. And I must say it works. It gets more clear to people what we are up to, and discussions get better. The conversations about it might be most important, but I like to also write a test strategy document, it clears up my thinking and is a document to go back to for other reviewers.

Yesterday in the EuroSTAR TestLab I created a test strategy together with other attendants, using James Bach’s Heuristic Test Strategy Model as a mental tool. The documented strategy can be downloaded here, and the content might be less interesting than the format. In this case, I used explicit chapters for Testing Missions, Information Sources and Quality Objectives because I felt those would be easiest to comment on for the product manager and developer.

I have also put my EuroSTAR Test Strategy slides on the Publications page.

Happy strategizing!