Like the agile test strategies, dynamic test strategies minimize up front planning and test design, focusing on making the test execution period responsive to change and able to find as many bugs as possible.
Intuitive Strategy
With an intuitive test strategy, system is tested according to the collective experience, wisdom and gut instincts of the test team. Discussions about what to test, anecdotal evidence from past projects, and oral tradition are prime drivers.
Exploratory Strategy
With an exploratory test strategy, tester would simultaneously learn about the system's behaviour and design while tests are run and bugs are found. This approach would continuously refine the tests and adjust the focus of further testing based on the test results.
Bug Hunting Strategy
With a bug hunting strategy, tester uses bug profiles, taxonomies (classifications), and hunches (bug assumptions) to focus testing where he/she thinks the bugs are. The hunting metaphor is a good one for all these strategies, which are more alike than different. A critical success factor to both hunting and fishing: Hunt where the birds are and fish where the fish are. Likewise, this test strategy requires that tester be right about where he/she thinks the bugs are, often under conditions of schedule and personal pressure.
Dynamic test strategies value flexibility and finding bugs highly. They do not usually produce good information about coverage, systematically mitigate risks, or offer the opportunity to detect bugs early in the development lifecycle. They are certainly much better than no testing at all and, serve as an blended with analytical strategies, serve as an excellent check and balance that can catch gaps in the analytically designed tests.
Sourced from Surveying Test Strategies: A Guide to Smart Selection and Blending by Rex Black, Testing Experience Issue 2-2008. Slight modification has been made to the original text.
