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More and More Software Companies nowadays are implementing the agile model to deliver projects on schedule. This article is on reducing the impact of the risk in a project which we are doing which can be IT or any other project as long as the project management processes is applicable to it. Risk are given priority in IEEE 829 Test plan itself where a section is mentioned on planning risks and contingencies. Risk based testing approaches varies if you are testing a ERP application and from application to application while you are doing manual testing. In automation testing the approach will be to create a Proof of Concept Document whereby the complex business workflows of the application has to be validated. Risk based testing is systematic it takes a logical orderly and consistent approach to prioritizing requirements based on business and technical risk.
The First step in risk based testing is to eliminate any ambiguities or inconsistencies and to make the requirements as clear as possible, the entire project team has to get involved to do a collaborative analysis during the requirements determination stage of the project.
In the second step risk analysis is done where systematic examination of the business and technical risk that provide the basis for application design and development and the testing strategy of the project. When the risks priorities and the testing strategy are properly aligned the testing team can perform the right tests and find the defects.
The Third Step is Systematic Test Design where high priority risks and high risk requirements are focussed while determining the testing effort.
In step 4 after the initial design is complete the testing team can update the requirements traceability matrix , the resulting matrix can reveal gaps that the testing team needs to fill.
Step 5 Contains of test metrics collection whereby monitoring the progress of test preparation and execution and the status of defects , collecting and reporting testing metrics which will provide vital information to all project stakeholders and step 5 contains the testing close down activity.
We also have to have a risk management plan in place where we have to identify risks based on cost , schedule and technical and also by doing a work break down structure analysis , subject matter expert interviews, design specifications.
We also can evaluate , categorize and prioritize risks based on time, cost , quality and scope. We can also have an impact scale on a rating from 1 to 10 and impact level which can be rated as very low, moderate , high.
Implementing ISO 9126-Functionality, reliability, usability, efficiency, maintainability, portability of the application , all these properties if properly weighed using a proper weighing mechanism can also be used to control risks.
In the end I conclude with risk responses whereby strategies for risks can be devised using various metrics , scaling methods and expert judgement can be used.
For Comments and Queries the Author can be contacted at suresh@digitalstream.in
