2. What is Context? People, methods, tools, aims, objectives, dreams, ideas, prejudices, beliefs, actions, documents, roles, time scale, money, etc. A system of relationships between the above. We never work with the context – we work with our perception of the context – expect change.
10. Two cases where context-driven methodology is not worth pursuing might be: if you are under the direct supervision and control of someone else who takes responsibility for the quality of your work. if you are in a context so well understood and so stable that it would be silly to continually question context and re-relate that to practice. Where to Find it Difficult
11. Contrasting context-driven with agile testing "It is tempting to call context-driven testing "agile testing" because the principles it recommends are in some ways analogous to those suggested in the AgileManifesto. However, agile development is a particular set of values that belong to one kind of context. Context-driven testing is broader than that.” James Bach For example, Agile development generally advocates for extensive use of unit tests. Context-driven testers will modify how they test if they know that unit testing was done well. However, if the development team doesn't create reusable test suites, the context-driven tester will suggest testing approaches that don't expect or rely on successful unit tests. Similarly, Agile developers often recommend minimal documentation that is developed as needed. Context-driven testers would be particularly comfortable working within this life cycle, but it is no less context-driven to create extensively-documented tests within a waterfall project that creates big documentation up front.
12. Contrasting context-driven with context-aware testing Taking contextual factors into account is not just the way to say “context driven”. When someone looks to best practices first and to project-specific factors second, that may be context-aware, but not context-driven. Context-driven testers reject the notion of best practices. Some people create standards, like IEEE Standard 829 for test documentation. This is not unusual, nor disreputable, but it is not context-driven. Standard 829 starts with a vision of good documentation and encourages the tester to modify what is created based on the needs of the stakeholders. To the context-driven tester, the standard provides implementation-level suggestions rather than prescriptions. If you think about a practice first, then tailor/modify that practice to the context – you would be a "context aware".
13. Acknowledgements [1] The Seven Basic Principles of the Context-Driven School, Cem Kaner, James Bach [2] Context Driven Testing -What does it mean to have no “best practices”?, Alan Richardson [3] What is context-driven testing?, Cem Kaner [4] Context Driven Testing gets a boost – to grow stronger…, Shrini Kulkarni Thank you
