The Software Testing Canvas

I have to confess that I have become a bit of a canvas “junkie” ever since I discovered the Business Model canvas a few years back.  Canvases summarise the wisdom of experts on a single page in a way that is easy for non-experts to understand.  In fact the original Business Model Canvas summarised Alexander Osterwalder’s 172 page Phd Thesis on a single page!

But canvasses are so much more than a convenient way to summarise knowledge.  Canvasses prompt a team to consider fundamental questions about an area they are investigating.  At the same time the canvas provides a visual framework to organise what the they discover.

The Software Testing Canvas is a tool for closing the gap between software testing theory and practice. Teams can use it as a collaborative tool for understanding, exploring and describing software testing strategies. Jointly inspired by The Business Model Canvas and the ISTQB’s principles of software testing, the Software Testing Canvas provides a framework, which can be used by both agile and traditional teams, for developing and communicating test strategies.

The Software Testing Canvas answers the fundamental questions:

• What will be tested?
• Why perform this test?
• How will the test cases be designed?
• Who (or what) will perform the test?
• How will the test be executed?

Canvases encourage team creativity and collaboration.  I usually create my canvasses on the wall using sheets of flip chart paper. I get teams to write their ideas on sticky notes and add them to the canvas.  As a workshop facilitator, I find that a canvas provides a ready made agenda and helps to keep the team focused on the task at hand.

For personal use I use an A4 template to jot down my thoughts and ideas.