Lessons Learned in Software Testing: A Context-Driven Approach

Appendix A. The Context-Driven Approach to Software Testing

We belong to a group of people who are sometimes called the context-driven school of software testing. After several years (on and off), we have finally developed a statement of principles that, we believe, captures the community of views among the loose collection of people who provide intellectual leadership to this school.

This book, Lessons Learned in Software Testing, presents a large set of examples of context-driven thinking and interpretation of our experience in software development. Along with the book, we have created a web site, context-driven-testing.com, to further the development of the school.

If you read the principles and illustrations below and decide that you want to identify yourself as part of the school, visit context-driven-testing.com and join the community.

The Seven Basic Principles of the Context-Driven School

1. The value of any practice depends on its context.

2. There are good practices in context, but there are no best practices.

3. People, working together, are the most important part of any project's context.

4. Projects unfold over time in ways that are often not predictable.

5. The product is a solution. If the problem isn't solved, the product doesn't work.

6. Good software testing is a challenging intellectual process.

7. Only through judgment and skill, exercised cooperatively throughout the entire project, are we able to do the right things at the right times to effectively test our products.

Illustrations of the ...