The Contents of the Test Strategy

 

• Test specification techniques. This material should discuss the process by which the test basis is analyzed and documented and then decomposed into specific tests. In other words, how does the test team gather information about the project and product, generate a set of test conditions to be covered, generate sufficient tests from those conditions, maintain traceability, and assure the quality of those work products (e.g., with reviews)? It can also include links to various templates used for documenting tests, guidelines on the level of detail required in tests, rules for documenting references to the test basis and test oracle, and procedures for updating tests when the test basis or test oracle change or a defect is detected in a test.
• Scope and independence of testing. This material can describe how to coordinate across the different levels of testing, which are typically carried out by different participants who have different degrees of independence. For example, the test strategy may specify that unit testing is performed by developers, integration testing by developers and technical test analysts, system testing by business-oriented test analysts and technical test analysts, and user acceptance testing by senior users of the application being developed. It may further specify how these different groups coordinate their efforts to eliminate any gaps or overlap that might occur.
• Test environments. This material should describe the hardware, software, infrastructure, facilities, networking capabilities, and other equipment needed for testing. To the extent that the test environments differ from the production or customer environments, the test strategy should describe the impact of those differences on the testing results. If, for unavoidable reasons, test environments must be shared across test levels or production hardware used for testing, the test strategy should describe how to coordinate that sharing and how to manage the attendant risks.
• Test data. This material should include information on how test data is to be obtained, created, maintained, and managed during testing. If production or actual customer data is to be used, the security of sensitive information should be considered and procedures around both access and use of such data should be put in place.
• Test automation. This material should describe the use of automation in the various test levels. In organizations where extensive test automation is used-for example, to automate functional regression tests or unit tests-this section could consist of links to other documents that describe the tools to be used, their acceptable usage, documentation requirements, and so on.