What is the risk-based test cycle?

The risk-based test cycle is a testing approach that prioritises testing activities based on the identified risks associated with the software under test. It involves analysing potential risks, such as critical functionalities, dependencies, and environmental factors, and allocating testing efforts accordingly. The cycle typically includes identifying high-risk areas, designing test cases to target those areas, executing tests to verify risk mitigation measures, and reassessing risks throughout the testing process. The risk-based test cycle aims to maximise test coverage and effectiveness within limited time and resources by focusing testing efforts on high-risk areas first.

What is the risk testing process?

The risk testing process involves identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks associated with software projects through testing activities. It includes identifying potential risks that may impact the software’s quality, functionality, or success, assessing each risk’s likelihood and impact, prioritising risks based on severity, and developing test strategies and plans to mitigate identified risks. The process also involves executing tests designed to verify the effectiveness of risk mitigation measures and continuously monitoring and reassessing risks throughout the software development lifecycle.

What are the types of risk-based testing?

Types of risk-based testing can be distinguished by the types of risks. There are functional, technical, performance, security, process, and business types of risk-based testing.

What is a risk-based test strategy?

A risk-based test strategy is driven by mitigating risks identified in earlier stages of risk-based testing. Such strategy prioritises high-priority risks and spends less time on software areas that are less likely or less problematic to fail.

What is the best risk-based testing technique?

There is no definitive answer, but brainstorming is paramount for risk identification and can be used for risk analysis too. You should use it, especially when other techniques are not available due to time or monetary constraints.

Risk-Based Testing: Complete Guide With Best Practices & Tips

Definition of risk-based testing

Risk-based testing definition is self-contained: it is the approach of basing your QA prioritisation on risks posed by insufficient testing. It is especially relevant for large projects where the number of QA personnel doesn’t scale with the number of features that need to be tested. In many cases, software complexity rises exponentially, so just hiring more testers is not a solution anyway.

In this context, risk can be defined as odds that an undetected (=unresolved) bug negatively affects the software. The reality is a little more complicated, as not every bug has the same negative impact. A text stretching past the text box may be a frequent issue in the German version of your software but cause little functional trouble. On the other hand, rare instances of duplicate payment will always be a major headache, especially when payment providers keep the flat transaction fee even after a refund.

Key risk-based testing features

Risk-based testing has a number of key characteristics that it set it apart from traditional testing:

Test what matters, don’t test everything is the main principle of risk-based testing. Traditional testing always has edge cases that happen so rarely that even testers may not always think of them. RBT takes this a step further: even when you already have the test cases, don’t dwell on executing them all when you don’t have the time.

Risk assessment becomes a major part of QA when using RBT. Risks with low odds but high impact demand more resources than high-frequency, low-impact problems. This sounds hard in theory, but there are practical ways to categorise risks that we will cover later in the article.

Synergy with company-wide risk management policy extends the value of risk-based testing beyond software development. Banks make a good chunk of money on transaction fees, so transactions not happening is a critical risk. Consequently, a failure in 3DS verification for online payments is a critical risk for the bank’s web application.

Benefits of risk-based testing

Here are some advantages of risk-based testing.

Resource utilisation is the core reason for applying risk-based testing. Realistically, your QA planning is about how many hours the team has, not how many features and code additions they need to validate. Testing only components that are the most likely or painful to fail is a great way to maximise the value of your testers.

Automation optimisation is a major benefit, too. It may seem that test automation circumvents the man-hours limitations, but somebody still needs to write, maintain, and keep up with automated tests. There are also server costs that make 100% 24/7 test automation unfeasible for SMBs and often even large companies. The knowledge of what to target with scripts will be a great companion to a list of priorities from manual testing.

Demonstrable increase in quality is great for both user and stakeholder confidence in the product. Risk-based approach in testing is not just about reducing resources on trivial issues — it also means spending more time on what matters. If a user sees that an app stopped crashing every few hours, they will note an improvement. If you use RBT to release an app that never crashes, you will provide more value compared to fixing cosmetic defects.

Early issue detection is great in general, but it works even better when applying risk-based testing in Agile teams. Testing critical components first means that you are likely to discover significant issues early. This allows everyone on the team to adjust their schedules and prioritise making these components work alongside the most significant additions from the new build. Alternatively, the devs would have proceeded to work on nice-to-have features and would not have had the time for bug fixes.

Simplified regulatory compliance is a major benefit for any company working in a sensitive industry. Regulators often expect you to have sound reasoning behind your approach to software testing. RBT (=testing for risks) is a very reasonable approach that will keep you out of trouble in case something does fail.

When to use the risk-based testing approach?

Below are some situations when you would prefer to use risk-based testing. It may seem like these situations basically cover every software testing project in existence. This is true to an extent: you are not obligated to RBT, but most teams face negative factors that this approach mitigates well.

Limited resources is a problem anywhere but in startups, but only because they often don’t have any dedicated QA. If you don’t have the time to run and maintain all tests to follow up on your high test coverage, risk-based testing solves that.

Complex projects mean that manual regression testing will take too much time to check for other issues as well. While test automation can largely reduce the burden, risk-based testing is a great way to cut down on repeatedly testing for the same minor issues.

Mission-critical applications can’t afford to fail, which and risk-based testing is arguably the best way to allocate more resources to critical issues. You will also have a factual justification to share with internal stakeholders and regulators.

Legacy systems are by design too much to properly cover with tests. You are likely to face not only poor optimisation, but the lack of documentation and compatibility issues as well. Focusing on the components that matter the most will make integrating and maintaining a legacy solution both easier and more efficient.

Time pressure may be the biggest factor for relying on risk-based testing metrics to go over the finish line. Some product niches surface so fast it may be too late if you go through the proper QA cycle. Then there are investor milestones like getting something that works well enough before a Seed investment negotiation. Whenever you have to work faster than anticipated, RBT is the way to minimise the negative impact.

Who performs risk-based testing?

Risk-based testing involves the same technical specialists that traditional testing does.

QA specialists perform the majority of risk-based testing. They prioritise risks, create and maintain tests to safeguard against these risks, then execute tests and file bug reports to developers. Much like with traditional testing, developers and non-tech stakeholders are involved to improve collaboration and stay consistent with business goals.

Developers are nowadays expected to write and run unit tests. These tests cover short code snippets to spot basic errors. These errors are then promptly fixed by the developer. Code is sent to the QA only after unit tests stop returning errors. This fits risk-based testing really well, as QA specialists get more time to focus on complex issues.

End-users performing user acceptance testing are technically part of risk-based testing too. They run through the most likely use cases and spot issues so that they don’t ruin the experience when the software is signed off.

What are the types of risks during the software development process?

Risks in software development are usually categorised by their area of impact. The main types include:

Functional risks pose a direct threat to the software’s (and potentially company’s) operations. Individual components and the entire software can work incorrectly or outright break down. . Risks associated with critical functionality or the app’s complete failure have the highest impact.

Technical risks refer to the infrastructure risks for your software. Even Amazon Web Services technically may crash, let alone cheaper Cloud solutions. Tech debt may one day start a major spike in churn rate and ruin not only your app, but your business model as well.

Security risks are associated negligence toward protecting your solution. Data leaks are a prime example, as breaches both stain company reputation and result in financial loss. Fines are getting more and more costly, especially in the EU.

Performance risks reflect potential service degradation for both existing users and potential customers. Your solution should be ready for peak usage hours and not crumble under a wave of new signups.

Process risks cover potential problems that you face when working on the product. A new testing or development methodology may decrease or worsen the output, both short-term and long-term. A new release may go wrong, making you scramble for a rollback. Simpy failing to meet a development schedule may also be a process risk.

Business risks are introduced by the market reality that the company operates in. The product may go out of fashion or fall behind very fast. Regulators may come down on you for failing to meet the latest requirements. A software failure will cast a shadow over the entire company, even if it is just one isolated unit bearing the same name.

How to define and determine risks in software testing?

Risks are usually defined early in the risk-based testing. The process involves past data and input from all parties. Company-wide risk management strategy can be a great source of inspiration, as you know which events are the most crucial to mitigate.

Stages of risk-based testing

1
Product analysis is the earliest part of setting up risk-based testing. Tech people need to identify key functionality and study the project infrastructure. It is also important to consider external factors like business environment, regulator requirements, and non-tech limitations of the project
2
Risk identification is when stakeholders, devs, and testers come together to discuss potential risks. They use their knowledge of the project, historical information for similar projects, and industry expertise to identify potential issues. Generally, you would like to use creativity-friendly methods like brainstorming. The goal of this stage is to come up with risks, not immediately agree or dismiss what others came up with
3
Risk analysis is the most crucial stage. As risk-based testing uses the principle of 100% focus on highest risks, you need to define them properly. This includes assessing the likelihood and impact of individual risks. Once you have both, calculate risk exposure by multiplying the values. This result will be your primary way to rank risks to cover in testing
4
Test planning stage in risk-based testing is similar to traditional QA. You still need to create a testing strategy, but it should include the risks that you identified and prioritised. In early cycles, you would usually move fast and create tests for high-priority risks. This is especially relevant if you’re introducing risk-based testing to an existing project — there are plenty of existing tests that cover smaller things
5
Test execution is where you execute test cases, file bug reports, and work with developers to fix issues. While doing that, you may identify risk patterns that should be addressed by mitigation measured at team-wide, project-wide, or even company-wide scale
6
Review & learning is crucial to be a dedicated stage on your timeline. This is where all stakeholders come together once again to discuss how the testing cycle went. The validity of risk prioritisation, discovered patterns, potential mitigation measured, and other improvement suggestions are all discussed. Key stakeholders then make action items for every party
7
Monitoring & adjustment makes you continuously watch the amended testing strategy play out and make corrections if needed. You add new test cases, update or remove less relevant tests, and also add new risks and prioritise them relative to initial risks

Examples of risk-based testing

To better illustrate the outcome, here are a few examples of risks that companies from several industries could identify:

Banking RBT example

High-priority risks: transactions failure, incorrect transactions fee, currency exchange algorithm malfunction

Medium-priority risks: lifestyle functionality failure, delayed transaction notifications, malfunctioning spendings dashboards

Low-priority risks: typos, rare app crashes that do not affect transactions, temporary inability to access transaction history for 1+ year

E-commerce RBT example

High-priority risks: items can’t be added to the cart, pricing errors, shipping calculation faults, checkout errors, fraudulent payment

Medium-priority risks: UI failures, website outage during high-demand exclusive releases, faults with algorithm to block sales above available volume

Low-priority risks: minor filters malfunction, slightly abnormal load times when displaying 100 goods

Automotive RBT example

High-priority risks: failure of hardware-software car functionality, zero-day software vulnerability, circumvention of subscription requirements for car features

Medium risks: failure to connect with a phone, media playback errors:

Minor risks: poor fonts in translation for individual markets, convoluted menu navigation

Metrics of risk-based testing

The metrics for risk-based testing overlap with traditional testing, but there are a few unique metrics that you should consider as well.

Risks identified

Severe & critical risks share

Critical risks open

Risk missed during testing (by severity)

Risk missed to risks identified (proportion)

Test coverage

Test coverage by app area (should be bigger for high risk)

Defect density

Defect density by app area (to validate risk assessment)

Best risk-based testing techniques

Since the actual testing is quite similar, risk-based testing techniques mostly concern the preliminary work on the project’s risks. Find some techniques below.

Risk identification techniques

Brainstorms are arguably the most suitable way to identify risks. Every stakeholder voices their opinion freely without the fear of nominating too many issues.

Additional risk identification techniques mostly rely on past data to help you with extra ideas. Checklists with risks for similar projects are an immediate source of inspiration. Historical data could be useful too, especially if this is a similar project and/or you are working with the same engineering team(s).

Risk analysis techniques

Risk matrix is the visualised version of how you ranked risks. There are several approaches, but a very common one is colour coding. Softer colours (e.g. green or yellow) denote less frequent and less impactful risks. Harsher colors (e.g. brown or red) point to high-frequency, high-impact risks.

Similarly, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) dwells on pessimistic scenarios and suits mission-critical software really well. You can also hold a rigid brainstorming session based on Structured What if Technique (SWIFT) to grade risks in sensitive industries faster than you could with FMEA.

Risk mitigation techniques

Automated testing for known risks is the most prominent risk mitigation technique. The more you can automate, the more time you have to cover lower-priority risks. You can also use that time for exploratory testing that will potentially reveal more risks in a very practical manner.

Risk monitoring techniques

KPIs are the best solution to monitor risks. If you see that any QA metric is abnormal, then you should look at either your test suite, your testing strategy, or your risk assessment.

The modern way to handle KPIs is to set up KPI Alerts. This functionality will automatically notify when there is an anomaly in your metrics. This feature is offered in aqua, a 100% traceability AI-powered test management solution for any scale.

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How to use risk-based techniques to prioritise test cases and plans?

All these techniques will result in better assessed risks. Here is how you could use that as part of risk-based testing:

Create tests for high-risk areas first
Prioritise test execution by risk level
Use test automation to further reduce manual effort spent on lower-risk areas
Use AI-ready test management solutions (aqua can help here) to create test for edge cases
Apply analytics to reallocate resources as you see critical areas fail more or less often

Mistakes to avoid in risk-based testing

While risk-based testing sounds exciting, doing it the wrong way will lower the QA output and at times even introduce more issues.

Rushing through risk identification will make the picture incomplete. Even if you manage to assess and mitigate all other risks, issues of varying severity will pop up later. Make sure to allocate ample time and wait for stakeholders if unavailable

Neglecting low-priority risks means a compounding debt that will eventually backfire. It could also be an increasing sort of frustration for both developers and end-users. While you can’t fix everything, keep low-priority risks on your radar

Static risk management means that risk-based testing is only good for a few months if not weeks. You need to keep prioritising, analysing, and adding new risks as identified by business people, project stakeholders, and engineering teams

Inadequate resource allocation may negate the gains of risk-based testing or even bring more trouble. If you are not aggressive enough, you are still wasting too much time on lower-priority risks. If you are too enthusiastic, some medium-priority risks ruin your day. Analysis and experience are the answers.

Best risk-based testing tools

In this section, we will look at test management solutions that are good fits for risk-based testing. While you may separately employ a risk tracker, the findings will still need to be used with a TMS to mitigate the risks.

aqua is the most feature-rich and risk-conscious tool on the list. Regulatory compliance is proven by dozens of government, insurance, and banking clients. AI test generation to cover edge cases is the most advanced solution on the market. The tool comes with a neat test coverage section on the Requirements screen, showing whether a requirement is covered and offering previews for tests that cover the requirement. KPI Alerts are automatically issued as well.

The Jira plugin for QA Xray alongside yet another Jira plugin called Risk Management can work together. Alas, Xray has extremely lacking analytics, lags behind competitors in advanced QA functionality, and no longer accepts clients that run Jira On-Premise (Atlassian sunsets it in January 2024).

Kualitee is a decent option for risk-based testing due to decent dashboards and solid QA functionality. Alas, it has subpar suite of native integrations, does not offer KPI Alerts, and lacks workspace-wide logging for 100% traceability.

aqua beats the other options on another aspect: reporting. Risk-based testing requires a lot of visualisation, and this is where aqua’s custom reporting wizard shines. You can use any data from your workspace and even bring in external text & imagery. Auto-collecting data, transforming it with scripts, and making it digestible will keep risk-based testing a transparent and efficient effort at all times.

AI-powered, analytics-charged tool for risk-based testing