Context Driven testing(CDT)

Imrul KayesQA EngineerSoftwarePeople

People, methods, tools, aims, objectives, dreams, ideas, prejudices, beliefs, actions, documents, roles, time scale, money, etc.

A system of relationships between the above.

We never work with the context – we work with our perception of the context – expect change.

What is Context?

Context ?

• The term Context-driven software testing is coined by Cem Kaner, James Bach, Brian Marick and Bret Pettichord in 1999.

• Context-driven software testing is a set of values about test methodology. It is a paradigm for developing.

• Context-driven testers choose their testing objectives, techniques, and deliverables (including test documentation) by looking first to the details of the specific situation, including the desires of the stakeholders who commissioned the testing.

What is Context Driven Testing(CDT)

• The essence of context-driven testing is project-appropriate application of skill and judgment.

• Context-driven testing is an approach, not a technique.

• The task is to do the best testing we can under the circumstances–the more techniques we know, the more options we have available when considering how to cope with a new situation.

What is Context Driven Testing(CDT)…

1. The value of any practice depends on its context. 2. There are good practices in context, but there are no

best practices. 3. People, working together, are the most important

part of any project's context. 4. Projects unfold over time in ways that are often not

predictable. 5. The product is a solution. If the problem isn't solved,

the product doesn't work. 6. Good software testing is a challenging intellectual

process. 7. Only through judgment and skill, exercised

cooperatively throughout the entire project, are we able to do the right things at the right times to effectively test our products.

Seven Basic Principles of CDT

Two cases where context-driven methodology is not worth pursuing might be:

if you are under the direct supervision and control of someone else who takes responsibility for the quality of your work.

if you are in a context so well understood and so stable that it would be silly to continually question context and re-relate that to practice.

Where to Find it Difficult

"It is tempting to call context-driven testing "agile testing" because the principles it recommends are in some ways analogous to those suggested in the AgileManifesto. However, agile development is a particular set of values that belong to one kind of context. Context-driven testing is broader than that.”

James Bach

For example, Agile development generally advocates for extensive use of unit tests. Context-driven testers will modify how they test if they know that unit testing was done well. However, if the development team doesn't create reusable test suites, the context-driven tester will suggest testing approaches that don't expect or rely on successful unit tests.

Similarly, Agile developers often recommend minimal documentation that is developed as needed. Context-driven testers would be particularly comfortable working within this life cycle, but it is no less context-driven to create extensively-documented tests within a waterfall project that creates big documentation up front.

Contrasting context-driven with agile testing

Taking contextual factors into account is not just the way to say “context driven”.

When someone looks to best practices first and to project-specific factors second, that may be context-aware, but not context-driven. Context-driven testers reject the notion of best practices.

Some people create standards, like IEEE Standard 829 for test documentation. This is not unusual, nor disreputable, but it is not context-driven. Standard 829 starts with a vision of good documentation and encourages the tester to modify what is created based on the needs of the stakeholders. To the context-driven tester, the standard provides implementation-level suggestions rather than prescriptions.

If you think about a practice first, then tailor/modify that practice to the context – you would be a "context aware".

Contrasting context-driven with context-aware testing

Acknowledgements[1] The Seven Basic Principles of the Context-Driven School, Cem Kaner, James Bach

[2] Context Driven Testing -What does it mean to have no “best practices”?, Alan Richardson

[3] What is context-driven testing?, Cem Kaner

[4] Context Driven Testing gets a boost – to grow stronger…, Shrini Kulkarni

Thank you