Test Strategy Document: What is it and why is it useful?

A Test strategy is one of the high-level documents which is similar to a test plan, but it has some differences. It defines the "Software Testing Approach" to achieve testing objectives. In a nutshell, this document derived from the Business Requirement Specification document. The document is based on many criteria such as project features, purpose and use of a project, project risks, available resources, specificities of methodologies, and execution teams. All of it should be diligently analyzed and structured, but should not be described because our test strategy would become a test plan.

In general, the "Test Strategy" answers questions "When" and "How" we are testing. Those answers allow us to avoid the situation of turning a balanced and precise process of testing into a process when everyone thinks that they are doing everything right. Still, eventually, everyone is doing everything wrong in the wrong place and in the wrong way.

Construction procedure:

Collection:

Any strategy begins with the collection of information. We should have a clear understanding of the following: what stage are we at, what are we dealing with, what do we have and not and what is required of us. We need to understand what to expect and what we may not even hope for. Also, it's a must-have to know risks we can face. Information is priceless and its lack may cause heavy losses at the final stages of project development.

Analysis and structuring:

Analysis begins at the moment of collecting information. However, it's very important to structure available data after getting every possible information and to look at the whole situation in general. Just because solutions used in one type of situation could be useless in others due to any insignificant at first sight aspects and circumstances.

Strategy creation:

When the picture is clear and a lot of questions are answered, we can begin a test strategy developing. In this phase according to everything we found in phases 1 and 2 we decide which tasks will get the highest priority and which will get the lowest. We decide what type of testing will be used on each level and why. We define the automation percent.

Test strategy document:

In general, the document consists of many parts that cover the required parts of the project. Each part is responsible for its own segment and contains:

Conclusion:

Rarely does a project succeed without a well-designed Test Strategy? The possibility of missing any test activity is very low when there is a proper Test Strategy in place. The key to a Test Strategy is to maintain flexibility in the complete process and, at the same time, not changing the dynamics of the testing activity. This helps to achieve the highest possible quality, especially with rapidly evolving and changing environments.