5 Schools of Testing

Bret Pettichord's presentation on the topic, http://www.io.com/~wazmo/papers/four_schools.pdf

5 Schools

• Analytic: Testing is about mathematical proof
  • academic, formal methods
• Standard: Testing is about standards and best practices
  • commercial, corporate IT, predictable, planned, certification, economical
• Quality: Quality Assurance professionals assure quality
  • gatekeeper, safety net
• Context-Driven: Testing is about people and context
  • no best way to test, based on context, adaptable, exploratory
• Agile: Automated testing tells you when the story is done
  • test driven, test before, automation

Distinction between Context-Driven and Agile Testing

• Context-Driven testing is about providing information quickly; Agile testing is about providing information early
• Context-Driven testing is about providing information; Agile testing is about providing direction

Other notes

• Developers spend more time writing tests in the Agile context
• There are trade-offs in the Agile testing school as well
• Start with baseline story acceptance tests, do exploratory testing after
• The people who came up with this categorisation come from the context driven school.
• Functional testing only works well with shared ownership of tests by the whole team (developers, testers and the customer/business analyst).
• Use the 5 schools to encourage change.