I heard many testers, including me, complaining most of the
time: “So many Tests and They expect us to do in so less time. That’s
Unfair!!!!”. This is the most common problem, faced in our software industry,
that management expects 100 percent testing in less time.
You must have heard a phrase “TimeBox the testing”. This is a time management technique in which you can complete the most important tests in a given time and deliver a high quality product.
Always prioritize your
tests to achieve time-boxing in testing. One major task before prioritizing your tests is to work out
plans addressing these two concepts:
- Identify necessary features that are a MUST.
- Identify the risks associated with the features which will not be tested.
Low: Allocated to the tests, which if not executed, will not
cause big upsets.
High: Allocated to all tests that MUST be executed in any
case.
Medium: Allocated to the tests which can be executed, only
when time permits.
However, this categorization scheme is not mandatory; you
can customize it according to your company’s requirement. While setting
priority, always keep in mind that you have to set the priority according to
criteria which suits your company’s needs. I was going through a research in
which analysis was done for prioritized and non-prioritized case with the help
of Average percentage fault detection metric.
The research, proved
that the number of bugs found per minute are greater in case of non-prioritized
test cases as compared to prioritized test cases. Before prioritizing test cases, always consider these
things:
· Criteria which
suits your company’s needs.
· Where a
failure would be most severe Test
· Where a
failure would be most visible
· Always ask
customer what is most important to him.
· Areas which
are more complex and where changes are more frequent.
· Areas which
have created most problems in the past.
Adeeba Aatif : A freelance writer and a software Analyst
