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jobsformannu's avatar
jobsformannu
New Contributor
10 years ago

RBT(Risk Based Testing) in Agile Context

Hi, 
I would like to have a small discussion related to RBT in Agile context. 
Few thoughts: 
1. In Agile, what we are following is proper estimation(Refinement followed by planning) for the whole activities. 
a. RBT will mainly come into picture where there is lot many test cases to execute and there is lack of time/resource. (To optimize test scenarios)
i. Though we had identified the test cases which has to be executed by making use of RBT, we were having estimated time to finish the task. 
ii. If we were running short of time/resource then can say for execution had made use of RBT. RBT was utilized to identify the test cases; The ones which has to be executed. 
Here I am having the doubt. If proper estimation is been carried out, what is the role of RBT in Agile and why we require. 
 
As per my understanding; 
1. RBT in agile context will come into picture with large agile teams where there is a separate team which is meant only for performing regression. That too separate team who will handle only regression testing which involves integration followed(Many teams developing(Test driven development)) deploying 
a. Dev will start development; The same time tester will start writing scripts for automation. So if a small part has to be tested the same can be easily achieved by script execution. 
2. More than in agile, in SAFE RBT is of more use. 
a. Dedicated separate team to perform regression where dev ops / continuous integration and deployment is happening (Eg. Amazon) 
 
I came to the following conclusion upon this. 
Primarily in agile testing the context of RBT is to FOCUS on test scenarios which has to be executed in order to achieve/ensure the quality of the deliverable. 
 
Please let me know your views/thoughts. 
 
Thanks & Regards 
Mannu

1 Reply

  • jobsformannu's avatar
    jobsformannu
    New Contributor
    10 years ago

    Risk Based Testing comes into the picture when you have lot of test cases to prepare/execute and the time for the same is very limited. Hence the need to prioritize the tests you conduct based on various dimensions of risk like business, operational, external etc. Yes you are right when it comes to individual agile teams they plan every task and since the stories teams commit are small enough to be completed within a sprint, so the functional testing also should be completed within a sprint. Here the scope of using RBT for functional testing is very limited. However if you have multiple agile teams for a single product usually you will have a separate team which takes care of integration, end-to-end system testing and performance testing. Here in such teams typically they use RBT for prioritizing the features for which tests should be performed

     

    In SAFe context there is a system team at a Program level which is a special ART( Agile release train) team that typically provides assistance in building and using agile development environment infrastructure. This includes continous integration, test automation framework and end-to-end system testing. Here typically since the quantum of test cases to be executed is huge and time again is limited one can think of using RBT to prioritze test case execution/automation here. 

    The need for RBT is derived from the type of testing one needs to perform and the scale at which it is to be performed