Testing Strategy - Software Testing: Testing Across the Entire Software Development Life Cycle - page 66

Chapter 4

Testing Strategy

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

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to examine the four basic testing approaches for software
to illustrate single platform testing strategies for all involved levels of software across
all development phases
to illustrate multiplatform testing strategies for all involved levels of software across
all development phases

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4.1 INTRODUCTION

As with all technology projects, successful software testing starts with planning. We
examined a number of reasons for doing software testing in Chapter 1. Planning is the
process that we use to turn these reasons into achievable testing goals. SPRAE PRE-
MEDITATION is the lens we will use to focus our attention on the test planning activity.
Test planning can be likened to a chess game. There are a number of pieces on
your side of the board, each available to help you win the game. Your challenge is to
develop a winning strategy and advance the specifi c chess pieces that will support
your strategy. Similarly, you have a number of testing “pieces” on your side that you
can choose to use at different times in the game to “win” the testing game.

4.2 THE CHESS PIECES FOR TESTING STRATEGIES

Over t he last 25 yea rs of sof twa re test i ng, fou r d ifferent test approaches have emerged
as the approaches (chess pieces) of choice for successful testing. These four testing
approaches include

static testing (pencil and paper—documents)
white box testing (you have the source code—logic paths)