7 Steps to Develop Good Test Strategy Document

by TestFortExpert on 09/3/2018

WHAT IS A TESTING STRATEGY DOCUMENT?

Test Strategy document (Test Approach document) is a static document that specifies how QA process is carried out in the company. It defines the main goals that need to be achieved and measures used to implement them. Clearly written testing strategy determines the scale of the project and helps the team take into account all the activities related to the testing process. Unfortunately, not all software development and testing companies ask their Project Managers and testers to build such documents. Even if they do, QA experts sometimes ignore strategic documentation while working on some project. Today we will dive into the concept of Test Approach document so that it’s clearly understandable why it’s so important for testing engineers to use it as an everyday guidance.

The key components of the Test Strategy document are as follows:

Scope and objectives
Business industry standards to follow
Key business issues to pay attention to
Roles and responsibilities
Status reporting
Testing tools
Possible risks and ways to leverage them
Configuration or changes management
Issues tracking and reporting
Test deliverables

Now, let’s proceed to the preparation process itself. We will break it down into several steps and define what is needed to create a Testing Strategy document.

How to prepare Test Strategy: scope

This stage is fundamental as it shapes testing company’s vision. It includes:

dividing roles and responsibilities, deciding who should approve, review and use this document;
defining phases of each project according to the timelines that are specified in the test plan.

How to prepare Test Strategy: approach

This step should be well-thought to avoid further mess in case something goes wrong. The main points to be considered at this stage are:

testing process and life cycle;
distribution of responsibilities among the team of QA engineers;
defining all testing types that company can provide the client with;
establishing testing approaches.

How to prepare Test Strategy: environment

This stage of Test Strategy document has to cover the next aspects regarding test data:

requirements – the clear instruction on how to create test data;
environments and all required setups for each of them;
backup and restore strategy to make sure you won’t lose any data due to some unexpected code issues.

How to write a Test Strategy: tools

At this point you need to choose all the tools that will be used for test execution. All commercial, open source, automation and management tools have to be listed here.

How to write a Test Strategy: release

To ensure successful test execution, make sure your release management plan is created thoughtfully. Thus, set a build management process to know where new build should be available, when it’s going to be deployed, who should deploy it, how to stop release in case of issues, etc.

How to prepare Test Strategy: risks

Try to foresee all possible risks related to your project. Write a clear plan to avoid such risks and a contingency plan in case these risks become a reality.

How to write a Test Strategy: review and approval

The ready plan must be reviewed and approved by managers, technical team leaders, business development, and software development teams. Also Test Strategy document can be updated in case some important changes occur in the course of the testing process.

Development of a Testing Strategy document is a crucial step on the way to the rapid and effective testing process which then will make a solid background for a powerful and bug-free application. To make sure it brings results, testing should be fully documented to provide efficient resource control, monitoring, and allocation.

At Testfort, we make sure that every test case and its outcomes are noted down in QA documentation, while all detected bugs are classified for easy management and fixing. Contact us, our team is ready to test your applications on all stages of development, thus guaranteeing its smooth performance after an app goes to the production.

We Work With

Having one outside team deal with every aspect of quality assurance on your software project saves you time and money on creating an in-house QA department. We have dedicated testing engineers with years of experience, and here is what they can help you with.

Software is everywhere around us, and it’s essential for your testing team to be familiar with all the various types and platforms software can come with. In 21+ years, our QA team has tested every type of software there is, and here are some of their specialties.

There are dozens of different types of testing, but it takes a team of experts to know which ones are relevant to your software project and how to include them in the testing strategy the right way. These are just some of the testing types our QA engineers excel in.

The success of a software project depends, among other things, on whether it’s the right fit for the industry it’s in. And that is true not just for the development stage, but also for QA. Different industry have different software requirements, and our team knows all about them.

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