Pruning the Decision Tree in Test - Pruning the Decision Tree in Test
Great testing is more about deciding what not to test than deciding what to test.
- Breadth of coverage – Often times it is best to try everything a little rather than some things very deep and others not at all.
- Scenario coverage – Look for test cases which will intersect the primary use patterns of the users.
- Risk analysis – What areas of the product would be most problematic if they went wrong?
- Cost of servicing – If forced to choose, spend more time on the portions that will be more difficult or costly to service if a bug shows up in the field.
- Testing cost – While not a good criteria to use by itself, if a test is too expensive to carry out or to automate, perhaps it should be skipped in favor of writing many more tests that are much cheaper.
- Incremental gains – How much does this test case add to existing coverage? It is better to try something wholly new than another slight variation on an existing case.
Pruning the Decision Tree in Test - original
Jan 05, 2012
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