The Test Process in Context
Our environment influences most things we do. Testing is no different. What we do can be influenced by:
- Our stakeholders – their needs, wants, and desire to contribute both in funding and business insights
- Our team members – their skills, knowledge, experience, motivation, etc.
- Business domain – the importance of the system to the business, external and internal risks, market needs, regulatory constraints etc.
- Technical factors – the type of software (such as web-based, security), product architecture (such as client-server, use of APIs, database structure), technology used (programming language, database, web server, cloud platform)
- Project constraints – scope (what will and will not be tested), time, budget, resources etc
- Organizational factors – how the team is organized, existing policies and practices etc
- Software development lifecycle – engineering practices and development methods, etc.
- Tools – availability, usability, suitability to the task, compliance with regulatory standards, etc.
These factors will need to be considered when creating a test strategy, deciding on the most appropriate techniques to use, deciding when automation would be appropriate, determining the required levels of test coverage, and how much documentation would be needed for the successful completion of the project.