QWE2002 Paper 9M Mr. Rob Baarda (IQUIP Informatica BV) Risk Based Test Strategy

Key Points

• Well defined steps from business risks to test coverage.
• Early and stronger test involvement of all parties concerned.
• Useful for all tests.

Presentation Abstract

Testing of an information system should be based on the business risks for the organisation in using that information system. In practice, the test manager often takes the steps to go from risks to test coverage in an intuitive way. In this presentation, the steps to define a testing strategy are made explicit.

The risk assessment requires the involvement of users and managers of the client organisation and of project members like developers, testers, QA personnel and project manager. Discussing risks and testing in the above way proves in practice to be real eye-openers for all parties concerned. This also enables negotiating about testing depth by letting the customer choose what should be tested how thoroughly. The stepwise defining of the test strategy can be used for any test and also for an overall strategy, including even inspections.

About the Author

After a technical study Rob is working more than 20 years in the IT-industry. He works in the field of testing since 1986 where he started developing test automation. Later Rob changed to the methodology of testing. He is now working on test subjects in the R&D department of IQUIP, working as an (inter)national test consultant and teaching TMap® in the Netherlands and in Belgium. He presents about Risk Based Test Strategy at (inter)national conferences.