What Does “Context-Driven Testing” Mean?
“Context-driven Testing” focuses on context in order to carry out testing effectively.
Things that are called “Context-Driven”
- A process by which one understands, experience, value, explains, and categorizes testing.
- Any community that gets influenced by me or influences me.
- The method you apply in your test projects.
The seven principles that relate all these things are mentioned below.
- Context is something that gives value to any practice.
- Context has only good practices and no best practices.
- The key to any project’s context lies in its people working together.
- The unpredictable nature of the projects over a time.
- The product won’t work without solving the problem. The product is a solution.
- A good software testing requires intellectual skills, which is quite challenging.
- We can do the right things at the right time only through judgment and skill throughout the project.
Implicit Principles of the Context-Driven School of Testing
- Context Primacy: Context has life. It includes key information, resources, and other factors that should inform all competent work.
- Scientific Aspiration: The basis of the work should lie in evidence and vigorous debate. Baseless and exaggerated claims must be avoided.
- Systems Non-Linearity: It is not practically possible to reduce our systems linearly or statistically.
- Testing as Investigation: Testing is not quality improvement or just checking the facts. It focuses on discovering the problems through open-ended investigation and learning process.
- Humanist Sensibility: The technical resources are not interchangeable. It requires uniqueness and reliability, and we must develop such qualities within ourselves.
- Tester Autonomy: Unlike robots, we value our time and manage it accordingly. We must also develop the courage to take ethical responsibilities.
- Tester Responsibility: We must develop the value and share the responsibilities at a project, corporate, professional, and societal levels.
- Methodology Authorship: We will not be competent till we ignore and mimic. To be competent we must design and test our own practices and heuristics.
- Skill Development: It is required to have methodology skill to fulfill our mission, and development of such skill is an ongoing obligation.
How Do I Know I am Context-Driven?
- I adhere to the Context-Driven principles and categorize good testing based on the principles of the Context-Driven School of software testing.
- I get influenced by those who follow the principles of the Context-Driven School of software testing and influence them too.
- While working on a test project, I use the Context-Driven approach through Rapid Software Testing methodology.
Important Key of Context Based
People:
- For any project’s context, people, working together, constitute the key part.
- Good software testing is a challenging intellectual Process.
Practices:
- The value of any practice depends on its context.
- There are no best practices, there are only good practices.
Possible Motives for Key Players:
- Find errors
- Find maximize bugs
- Support unit testing effort
- Block releases that are premature
- Help managers make decisions
- Minimize the cost of technical support
- Conform to regulations
- Minimize risks related to safety
- Find scenarios that are safe for the product
- Verify the product effectiveness
- Assess quality
