Selecting and Executing the Most Critical Tests

(CSTP #4) or (CTM Elective) or (CSTAS Elective)

This course covers area 4 of the Test Professional Body of Knowledge requirements. This course also covers the Elective area for the Certified Test Manager (CTM) and the CSTAS certification.

For costs and cities where this course might be offered, please see the right border of this page or to bring this course to your test team at your location, contact our Education and Professionals Services Group.

Concepts

Testers today face many challenges from schedule pressures to constantly changing definition of the product. Currently, getting the product to market as quickly as possible with the right features is more important than it working reliably.  In this type of environment, testing efforts that just find defects isn’t enough to satisfy what is needed.  Testers are challenged to achieve a good balance between helping to get the product out of the door and ensuring quality and reliable software.  How are they to achieve that balance?   Selecting an approach to testing that is effective and efficient is critical to achieving that balance.   An efficient and effective test strategy must be based on executing the most critical tests that provide a clear status as to the product’s quality and reliability and readiness for production.    How are testers to know if they have devised an “adequate” testing effort?  How can you tell if the most important aspects of the product were actually tested and whether they were tested well?  Answers to this questions come from creating a  strategy  based upon the most critical and important tests to run. This course provides techniques for looks identifying the areas of the product that are critical to the testing effort  This results in a “testing focus’ based on the risks and product criticality.

Outline

• Module 1:  Software Testing:  Why Most Important Test Focus?
  • Testing Today
  • Divergent quality experiences
  • Most Important Test Method
• Module 2 Initiating Most Important Test Focus Strategy
  • What Do You Need For Successful Test Effort
  • What Are Critical Components
  • What Objectives Are We Striving For
  • Establishing Strategy Foundation
• Module 3: Coverage and Most Important Tests Areas
  • Identifying Risks
  • Which Are Most Important Areas
  • Calculating Coverage Requirements
• Module 4 Identifying MIT Paths and Data
  • Path Analysis Principles
  • Testing Implications
  • Basic Concepts Data And Boundary Analysis
  • Decision Tables
  • Implementation For Test Strategy
• Module 5: Executing and Managing the Strategy
  • Managing for Most Important Test Focus
  • Measuring and Reporting MIT focus