Test strategy
Also called: QA strategy, quality strategy
A test strategy states what must stay true for users, how the team learns what changed, what evidence a release needs and what is knowingly left out.
A test strategy is the standing agreement about how quality is judged on a product. It is not a list of test types. It says which journeys must keep working, how changes are discovered, what evidence is needed before release, how defects get decided and what is deferred with whose agreement.
The fifty-slide version is written once and never opened. A strategy that fits on one page gets read, argued with and updated, which is the point.
I write it with Engineering and Product, and I treat disagreement during that conversation as the most valuable part. As Test Practice Manager I rebuilt a programme’s test strategy from scratch on this basis.
Template: One-page test strategy template