Translating Business Risks into a Risk-Based Test Plan

We all know that testing should be based on business risks. In practice, test managers often go from those risks to test coverage in an ad-hoc, intuitive way. Instead, by taking a step-by-step approach, you can improve coverage and better prioritize your tests. After translating business risks into product risks and establishing the required test coverage, you select the appropriate techniques and estimate test effort. Ruud Teunissen explains that the right test design technique is based on the required coverage, type of functionality, test level, quality characteristics to be tested, available documentation, available resources, and resource skill sets. This risk-based test planning approach enables the test manager to report progress and defects found in terms of the business risks so that stakeholders can make informed decisions about releasing the software into production.

• The well-defined steps from business risks to test design and execution
• Monitor, control, and report test progress in line with business risks
• Achieve the right test coverage by selecting appropriate test design techniques