Manuals / Test Planning & Strategy / Ch 2

A · StrategyBeginner40 min read

2. Risk-based testing

Test Planning & Strategy · 36 pages source format

You never have enough time. Spend it where failure hurts most: likelihood × impact, informed by change and history.

What you'll learn

  • Risk catalog
  • Scoring lite
  • Coverage vs confidence

Build a risk list

Product risks (user harm, money, trust) and project risks (env, data, skills).

Do this now

List 10 risks. Score impact and likelihood 1–5. Sort.

Pro tip. Talk to support and on-call — they know the real dragons.

Clear?

Map tests to risks

Each top risk needs a mitigation: test idea, monitoring, feature flag, etc.

Do this now

For top 5 risks, write the test approach in one line each.

Clear?

Checklist