Test Strategies A.K.A Test Approaches are used during the planning phase of testing along with Test plans and Estimation techniques. This factor of testing is under the control of testers and test leaders, and is one of the powerful factors in test effort and in the accuracy of the test plans and estimates. (ISTQB, pg 142). There are several major types of strategies some are more preventive some are more reactive:
Analytical: Test strategies that use some formal or informal analytical technique usually during the requirements and design stage of the project.
Model Based: These strategies tend to use the creation or selection of some formal or informal model for critical system behaviors, usually during the requirements and design stages of the project.
Methodical: These tend to rely on the adherence to a pre-planned, systematized approach that has been developed in-house, assembled from various concepts developed in- house and gathered from outside, or adapted significantly from outside ideas and may have an early or late point of involvement for testing.
Process: These strategies share a reliance upon an externally developed approach to testing, often with little or no customization and may have an early or late point of involvement for testing.
Dynamic: These strategies focus on finding as many defects as possible during test execution and adapting to the realities of the system under test as it is when delivered, and they typically emphasize the later stages of testing.
Consultative Or directed: These rely on a group of non-testers to guide or perform the testing effort and typically emphasize the later stages of testing simply due to the lack of recognition of the value of early testing.
Regression-Averse: These strategy types use a set of procedures (usually automated) that allow them to detect regression defects. A regression-averse strategy may involve automating functional tests prior to release of the function, in which case it requires early testing, but sometimes the testing is almost entirely focused on testing functions that already have been released, which is in some sense a form of post- release test involvement.
