Workshop: The Skill of Framing: How to Think About Test Strategy

Most testers never learn how to be strategic about testing. They lurch from Jira ticket to Jira ticket without considering the big picture of risk, test activities, and business value. This is normal, but it’s not really respectable. To elevate yourself; to be taken seriously as a tester; to be seen as a wise and careful member of the team; you ought to know how to reason about and talk about your strategy. When you design a test, what factors guide you? Why do THIS test but not THAT test? Whose opinions of your work matter and how do you trace your work to their needs? Test framing is the ability to link everything you do in testing back to the purposes of testing and the people whom you serve as a tester.