Test Strategy defines the testing approach we are going to follow in the current project and levels of testing. Test Strategy is also known as the Test Approach. Test Strategy document is not updated very often, it is also known as Static Document.
Test Strategy answers the questions Test architecture implemented in the project?
What approach is going to be followed in the project?
Test Strategy can be classified into two types. They are
Company Level.
Project Level.
Company Level : A company level Test Strategy includes the standard template used in the Company for their internal and external(Optional) projects.
Project Level : To specific project the company changes the Test Strategy according to the needs of the customer.
Test Strategy includes the following factors in the IEEE 829 :
Scope and objectives.
Business issues.
Communication and Status reporting.
Roles and Responsibilities.
Test Automation Tools.
Defect Reporting and Tracking.
Testing metrics.
Risks and mitigation.
Training Plan.
Configuration Management.
Scope and Objectives : The scope and objective of the current project is defined in this section. This section also includes the data related to out of scope details as well.
Business Issues : Business issues calculates the project cost. Where the overall project cost is sum of Development and Testing efforts.
Communication and Status Reporting : The type of communication that needs to be carried between two different roles in the same testing team. The status reporting defines the junior level employee reporting the status of daily report to senior level employee.
Roles and Responsibilities : Roles defines the resources with their job roles in the current project and responsibilities carried down under their roles mapping. It also defines the amount of time every resource is planned for this project.
Test Automation Tools : We need to consider which tool satisfies the current project needs and try to find out whether our organization is using this tool. If not find out the way to use the available tools in our organization to the current project.
Defect Reporting and Tracking : Defect Reporting defines the way the tester communicates the defect to the development team. And how both the development team and testing team keeps the track of the defects using a Defect Tracking tools like Jira, BugZila and many others available in the market.
Test Metrics : In order to complete the work in the planned Schedule. The estimates are done by the Test manager in terms of Executing the test cases for the testers.
Risks and Mitigation : Estimation and forecasting of Risks involved in the current project. To overcome the risks, the optimal solution is planned.
Training Plan : To understand the current project, the amount of training required for the testers. Also a training plan for the new automation tool to be implemented.
Configuration Management : Configuration Management is required for maintaining the testing documents and the versioning of builds that come up from the Developers.
Who Prepares the Test Strategy?
Test Strategy is prepared by the Project Manager.
From where does the Test Strategy is derived from?
Test Strategy is derived from the BRS( Business requirement specification).
Will there be multiple Test Strategies when multiple Test Plans are available?
There will be only one Static Test Strategy and however will have multiple Test plans for every phase of testing.