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3. Testing strategy – what should it contain?

A testing strategy is a relatively small static document that precedes the test plan. Before you write a lengthy and detailed plan you must first formalize some basic approaches to testing and ensure that all stakeholders understand what will be tested and how they will be tested.

So what is described in the testing strategy?

1. What kind of testing will be carried out? Do you plan to test performance, usability, configuration, and so on? Will there be static types of testing, such as peer review? Are you going to take the time to do exploratory testing, and if so, how much in percentage terms?
2. It is useful to list all types of test activities, which subsequently will be included in your schedule. For example, test design, preparation of the test environment, and so on. What for? So that nothing is forgotten when you are developing the test plan.
3. What will be the basis of tests (test basis)?
4. What techniques are you going to use to create test cases?
5. How detailed should the test cases be? Test cases that are too detailed are difficult to keep up to date. Test cases that aren’t detailed enough can cause problems when trying to reproduce defects. It requires a certain balance, and it is desirable that the test cases are fairly uniform. Make sure you describe how detailed the test cases should be. It is difficult but you can at least give some examples of the desired level of detail, which will help test designers to develop test cases.
6. In the testing strategy it is also useful to mention the criteria for assessing the seriousness and priority of defects. Assessing the severity of the defect is often a matter of controversy, if the criteria are not available. It is best to formalize how we assess the importance of the defect and its priority in terms of correction, and place these criteria in the testing strategies.
7. Will the specificity of the test object affect the testing process? Maybe you need a special test environment.
8. What are the criteria for starting and ending testing? The criteria for the start of testing typically include the necessary environment and the successful completion of the previous level of testing (for example, a successful Smoke testing is a condition for the start of system testing). The criteria for completing the test depends on your metrics - percentage of completed tests, the number of uncorrected defects of varying severity, or any other indicators.
9. What type of documentation do you plan to create? It is important to understand whether these documents are a tool for your own needs, or do you consider them as a product that is supplied.

A sound testing strategy is an excellent basis for the development of other necessary documentation and planning future work. By developing this document and coordinating this process with stakeholders (managers, customers, programmers) in the early stages of the project you can avoid misunderstandings in the future.