Category Archives: Test Planning & Strategy

Addressing topics around designing test approaches, incorporating test techniques, setting up testing, and communicating the strategies for implementation

Shorter Interval Projects Are Trending, But What Does That Mean For Testers?

I find it interesting that software development projects are generally being planned and executed with shorter time frames than before. Software development projects that were once taken on as a single large project are now being broken down into smaller … Continue reading

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To Test or Not to Test?

What is COTS? Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software is pre-built software usually provided by a 3rd party vendor. COTS applications typically require configurations and / or customizations that are tailored to specific requirements of the customer for their software solution. The … Continue reading

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Write a Test Strategy – What Choice(s) Do I Have?

Project Manager: “Your test strategy looks good.”         Test Lead: “Great. I will get started on the next steps. Do you have the finalized delivery schedule?” Project Manager: “I will send it to you shortly.”     … Continue reading

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UAT as a Gateway to Enterprise Agile

Let’s admit it. Projects that deliver enterprise solutions have barriers to being agile, especially those that are based on purchased packages (commercial off-the-shelf packages, or COTS). In my experience I’ve wrestled with at least two of those – the technical … Continue reading

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The Science of Testing

The best way to approach a problem is typically to look at it from different angles, to turn it over and to discuss it until a solution can be found.  Similarly, it is important to try to bring different perspectives … Continue reading

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When To Get Serious About Testing

Some years back, I taught a course on software configuration management. In that course, we discussed the benefits and drawbacks to integrating change control within the software development process considering that the software is being actively developed or matured during … Continue reading

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Exploratory Testing on Agile Projects

Exploratory testing provides both flexibility and speed, characteristics that have become increasingly important with the quick pace of short agile iterations. But, how do you retain traceability without losing your creativity? The answer is xBTM – a combination of session-based … Continue reading

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xBTM: Harnessing the Power of Exploratory Testing

Exploratory testing provides both flexibility and speed, characteristics that have become increasingly important, especially with the quick pace of short agile iterations.  But, how do you retain traceability in exploratory testing without losing your creativity? How do you, as a … Continue reading

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Release Criteria – What Is Your ‘Quality Bar’?

In a previous article, I discussed managing risk with quality gates (“None Shall Pass…unless? Managing Risk with Quality Gates”). Such gates and their expectations facilitate tracing issue root cause and examining which preventative measures failed or need to be enhanced … Continue reading

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Model-Based Testing – Learning Experience

As a software tester, I find that using models is very helpful. Models allow us to understand a business process or how a system should behave in a given situation. In my practice of software testing, I keep sketches of … Continue reading

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