We always talk about testing methods and testing tools but in this blog, we are going to talk about Testing Quadrants. This is very important in Agile because this ensures that all testing types are covered in whole SDLC. It is for dynamic testing rather than static testing. Testing can be manual or automated or a combination of both. In Agile this is more useful because this helps to explain various test cases to all stakeholders be it a team member or higher management. This also helps in deciding what type of testing is needed at what time; i.e. WHAT-TESTING-WHEN.
- Quadrant 1
This quadrant contains unit tests written while developing (or coding) applications. These tests must be included as part of Continuous Integration testing and must be manual.
- Quadrant 2
This quadrant contains tests that are written while testing user stories. These can be manual or automated. These tests help to create an automated regression suite.
- Quadrant 3
This quadrant contains exploratory tests which are mainly about real scenarios, process flows, usability. These are purely manual tests.
- Quadrant 4
This quadrant contains performance tests, load tests, security tests, recovery tests. These tests are based on the tools used.
If you observe these quadrants
- Q1+Q4 - these contain the technology-based test cases
- Q2+Q3 - these contain the test cases Business facing test cases
- Q3+Q4 - these contain the test cases that are critical to product means differentiator in the market
- Q1+Q2 - These contain test cases that are important but supported test cases.
Combinations of these quadrants help to decide what test cases to execute or compare when delivering a product to market. Let’s say if you want to check how the product is competitive in the market , the user would check (or execute) results of Q3+ Q4.
Happy Testing!!