Risk Based Testing

1
Risk Based Testing

• Sreeram Kishore Chavali
• April 2001

2
Agenda

• Definition of Quality of Software
• Risk Examples
• Industry Trends
• Practical Approach and Templates
• Discussion and QA

3
Quality

• Variations in Definition of Quality
• Business Definition of Quality
• Product that generates more revenue for company
  and reduces cost is a Quality Product
• More people buy the product -gt More Revenue.
  Product is the best in the market
• Less Support Calls -gt less cost to the company

4
Threats to Quality

• Software alienates user instead of winning him
  over
• User is not thrilled to use software. How do
  you expect more users if they cannot be thrilled?
• User loses his productivity in making support
  calls
• Company recalls product because of wrong design
• Company spends money and resources in Support
• Losing business or spending money in support are
  RISKS to BUSINESS

5
Risk Examples

• Translate these higher risks to lower risks at
  test case level
• Risk 1 System forces user to spend more time
  than he feels appropriate
• Risk 2 System Crashes resulting in loss of
  business
• Risk 3 Corrupts data
• Risk 4 Delivers slow performance
• Risk 5 Incorrect Documentation
• Consider User Expectations while testing and
  reporting Defects

6
Industry Trends

• The critical the software the higher the risks
• Risk Management at Project Management Level is a
  recommended strategy
• Risk Management at critical quality stage is
  one of the best practices

7
Practical Approach

• Make list of test cases
• Assign risk to each test case
• Filter test cases and execute them in decreasing
  order of risk
• While reporting think about user feelings
• Report user impact than your feeling
• Motivate developer to fix the defects

8
Look at Implementation

• Export Test Cases to Excel
• Use Auto Filter to view required data
• Create Pivot Tables
• On Daily Basis look at the risk status while
  reporting test progress
• Keep doing it project after after
• Effectiveness of Testing will improve

9
Action Plan

• Always write detailed test cases before starting
  testing
• Once approved, export the data to Excel
• Assign Risks
• Monitor risk status as the project progresses
• Change to new scenario Do it slowly. Dont
  expect sudden change. Realize benefits in pilot
  approach and do a large change

10
Recommended Reading

• "The best tester isn't the one who finds most
  bugs or who embarrasses the most programmers. The
  best tester is one who gets most bugs fixed.
  Bug Advocacy, Cem Kaner
• Heuristic Risk Based Testing James Bach
• Approach to Implementing Risk Based Testing -
  Kishore

11
Thank You