© 2012 wipro ltd | 1 test strategy pattern venkatesh d rao sr. consultant

© 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM1

Test Strategy Pattern

Venkatesh D Rao

Sr. Consultant


Setting Context

Technology Diverse Pattern3

1

4

5

Business Goal Based Pattern

Architecture Driven Pattern

6 Migration Based Pattern

7 Transition Based Pattern

8 Multi Rollout Based Pattern

Process Based Pattern2


Setting Context


Test Strategy

• Strategy: • Longer Term or Lager Scale Plan of Action• Specify Actions to address every Contingency• Ideally should be a well laid out complete plan which can be executed

by anybody

[Reference: Games of Strategy By Avinash Dixit, Susan, David]

• Deriving Test Strategy Patterns – Recurring High Level Requirements

• Why Patterns ?• Quick Reference to Solution


Test Strategy Components


Patterns


Pattern Documentation

Name: A short descriptive pattern name

Context: Description of the context; derived from the Example

Problem: The underlying question

Forces: Why it is a problem?

Solution: The basic idea of the solution

Consequences: Outcome of using the pattern

Known Uses: Know applications of the pattern in practice

Related Patterns: Relationship with other patterns


Name: Process Based PatternContext: One of the US based insurance organization faced challenges in comparing and consistently measuring quality levels across Line Of Business (LOB) as each LOB followed different SDLC model.

Problem: What is the Testing Strategy to address Quality Assurance (QA) requirements while migrating multiple programs to common baselined process?

Test Strategy Levers What To Address? Impacts

Test Methodology Standardization of Methodology across LOB

Effective means to address change management

Standardization of QA metric and report generation

Test Process Process Definition to support BAU without disruptions

Methodical approach to process changes (avoid big bang changes)

Operational Support for ongoing projects

People Skills Training to adopt to new process People enablement to successful rollout of redefined process


Name: Technology Diverse Pattern

Context: One of the US based Insurance Organization had developed applications using different technologies for Life Insurance and Non-Life Insurance.

Problem: How to devise test strategy for disparate technology based solutions?


People Skills Build a map of people with specific technological skills to be put to use at various stages of test execution

Ensuring availability of people with right skillsets

Test Process Process definition to address technological dependencies

Avoidance of dependency that could potentially affect test schedule

Test Environment Well defined test environment requirements

Define a schedule to indicate at what stage of execution it should be made available

Identify required tools and what stage of execution it will be required

Optimal usage of test environment and tools

Test Management Identification of risks and build contingency plans

Well planned execution despite of having multiple dependencies


Name: Business Goal Based PatternContext: A North American Insurance customer initiated a project to re-architect existing applications with the intent of achieving the marketing requirement to rollout the products across states in shortened time cycle.

Problem: How to devise a test strategy to meet business driven goals and objectives wherein meeting ?


Test Process Selection of right process to align to business goal. For example to reduced test life cycle consider agile process

Removal of ineffectiveness due to process misfit. This could enable meeting of more than business objective such as: Reduced cost Speed to market

Scope & Objective Design the test process, methodology focusing on business objectives

Manage the test scope to ensure business objectives are not negatively impacted

Business objective driven execution

Well defined approach to

meet the business goals and objectives

Test Management Identification of Risks and build contingency plans

Build Cost Of Quality Model (COQ) to track and measure cost of quality

Well planned execution despite of having multiple dependencies


Name: Architecture Driven Pattern

Context: An Australian Insurance customer looking for re-architecting existing platform to SOA based architecture

Problem: How to define a Test Strategy to meet the demands of Enterprise wide Re-Architecting of platforms and applications?


Test Process QA activities at early stages of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to ensure design failures are detected much earlier

Well defined quality gates to ensure that critical defects are fixed

Focus on defect prevention rather on defect detection

Test Environment Identify test environment requirements to execute testing both functional and non-functional for the emerging architecture

Define System Integration Test environment, staging environment, production environment

Well defined test environment to test the solution which is being re-architected

Test Methodology Building test methodology to prove the new architecture meet the intended goals and objectives

Effective test coverage and ensuring quality


Name: Migration Based Test Strategy Pattern

Context: One of the American Insurance Organization defined a strategic roadmap to consolidate the existing platform on which solution is built and reduce the number of COTS product used for the existing solution

Problem: What is the best test strategy to support strategic projects and non-strategic projects simultaneously?


Test Management Dynamic management of resources Address fluctuations in resources requirements

Test Environment Test Environment requirements for both non-strategic and strategic projects

Effective management of test environments across project tracks

Test Methodology Identify types of testing required at

for different project tracks

Well defined scope of testing

Optimizes test execution effort


Name: Transition Based Test Strategy Pattern

Context: Europe based Insurance Organization having multiple development partners who are also performing testing of the solution which they own. This resulted in major quality related issues.

Problem: How to ensure successful completion of transition in an effective manner & perform Independent Verification & Validation?


Test Organization QA governance structure to drive Quality requirements to be met across projects owned by different vendors

Effective management of Quality Assurance

Test Methodology To drive quality of products developed by 3rd party vendors

Quality Assurance

Test Execution Fast track test execution by completing the transition at the earliest

Effectiveness of execution

Defect Management Perform defect triages to prioritize defect fixes

Avoids suspensions of test execution due to pending defect fixes

Test Process Focus on aligning the test process to development life cycle adopted by 3rd party vendors

Brings process consistency across development life cycle


Name: Multi Rollout Based Pattern

Context: One of the Insurance Organization which has presence across geographies such as Latin American Countries, Asia Pacific, Europe and North American regions plan to setup centralized QA function to support releases across geographies

Problem: How to address multiple releases across the geographies?


Test Process standardize the process across geographies

Better control Quality Assurance

Test Methodology standardize the test methodology across geographies

Better control over test execution

Test Environment Management of multiple test environment

Standardization of tools usage

Availability of test environment for test execution

Test Organization Define effective operations model Better GovernanceResource Management Ensure availability resources on need

basis including peopleTest execution

Test Management While driving test related activities independently across geographies bring in centralized control over testing

Consistency and effective management of testing


Venkatesh D Rao

[email protected]

© 2012 wipro ltd | 1 test strategy pattern venkatesh d rao sr. consultant

Documents

test strategy strategy

pattern process

test strategy patterns

test strategy levers

test schedule test environment

test strategy components

pattern documentation

solution slide