What is Test Strategy?

According to the online Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, strategy means a detailed plan for achieving success in situations such as war, politics, business, industry or sport, or the skill of planning for such situations. Therefore, test strategy could be interpreted as a detailed plan for achieving success in testing something. For software development, the something is usually a software or system or any related work products.

Types of Test Strategy
In Rex Black's article "Surveying Test Strategies: A Guide to Smart Selection and Blending" which was published in the Testing Experience Issue 2-2008, he has summarized test strategies into 7 categories:

1. Analytical Approaches;
2. Model Based Approaches;
3. Methodical Approaches;
4. Process Oriented Approaches;
5. Dynamic Approaches;
6. Philosophical Approaches;
7. Regression Tests.

Although Regression Tests is more of a type of testing, it is so important and different that it deserves its own set of strategies. Please refer to the other postings for more information on these strategies.