Catalog
method#Quality Assurance#Reliability#Software Engineering

Testing Approach

Method framework for planning and executing tests, including automation, responsibilities and quality metrics.

A testing approach defines structured practices, tools and responsibilities for planning, executing and evaluating tests.
Established
Medium

Classification

  • Medium
  • Organizational
  • Organizational
  • Intermediate

Technical context

Continuous integration / delivery (Jenkins, GitLab CI)Test automation frameworks (Selenium, Playwright)Test management tools (TestRail, Zephyr)

Principles & goals

Integrate testing as early as possible (Shift-Left)Automate where repetition provides valueDefine clear responsibilities and quality criteria
Build
Team, Domain

Use cases & scenarios

Compromises

  • Over-automation without maintainability leads to fragile suites
  • Wrong metrics create misleading confidence
  • Insufficient data leads to undetected defects
  • Test pyramid: Unit → Integration → End-to-end
  • Automate and isolate test data management
  • Treat tests as code and version them

I/O & resources

  • Acceptance criteria and user stories
  • Test environments and test data
  • Test tools and CI infrastructure
  • Test reports and metrics
  • Defect lists and prioritizations
  • Release recommendations or rollback decisions

Description

A testing approach defines structured practices, tools and responsibilities for planning, executing and evaluating tests. Its goal is to embed quality assurance into development, detect defects early and reduce release risk. Applicable to manual and automated testing across different domains and system levels.

✔

  • Early defect detection reduces cost
  • Higher release confidence and stability
  • Measurable quality metrics support decisions

✖

  • Not all scenarios are automatable
  • Initial effort to build and maintain tests
  • Test environments can be hard to reproduce

  • Defect detection rate

    Share of defects found per test run relative to executed tests.

  • Mean time to detect (MTTD)

    Average time to detect a defect after commit.

  • Automation ratio

    Percentage of test cases automated and executed in CI.

Automated regression for ecommerce

An ecommerce team automated checkout and payment flows, reduced manual testing by 70% and shortened release windows.

Exploratory testing in backend team

Backend engineers ran exploratory sessions, found incompatibilities and improved API contract checks.

CI-driven integration checks

Integration tests were integrated into CI, enabling earlier defect detection and fewer hotfixes.

1

Perform gap analysis of existing testing practice

2

Define quality criteria and metrics

3

Extend CI pipeline and integrate test automation

4

Provide training for testers and developers

5

Establish continuous review and maintenance processes

⚠️ Technical debt & bottlenecks

  • Outdated test scripts without refactoring
  • Manual workarounds instead of automated checks
  • Missing infrastructure for parallel execution
Infrastructure availabilityTest data managementTest maintenance cost
  • Automating all UI flows without stabilization
  • Measuring number of tests instead of their value
  • Only manual tests for critical releases
  • Expecting immediate automation gains
  • Ignoring test data and environment stability
  • Missing maintenance sprints for test suites
Experience in test automation and CIDomain knowledge and exploratory testingScripting and debugging skills
Fast feedback cyclesRepeatable test environmentsAutomatability of critical paths
  • • Budget for test automation limited
  • • Regulatory requirements for test documentation
  • • Legacy systems hard to automate