Risk-Based Testing: When Time is Tight, Test Smart

Introduction:

As a QA engineer, one of the questions I hear most often is: how can we test all of this in such a short time? Time pressure, changing priorities, and go-live anxiety… sound familiar?

In those moments, there’s one approach that always helps me find clarity: Risk-Based Testing.

In this post, I’d love to share what this strategy means to me and walk you through a real example where I applied it under tight deadlines.

What is Risk-Based Testing?

Risk-Based Testing (RBT) is a strategy that helps you prioritize what to test based on risk. It all starts with two simple questions:

• What’s the likelihood of a failure in this area?
• If it fails, how big is the business impact?

By multiplying these two, you calculate a risk score that shows you where to focus your testing. This makes RBT especially helpful in fast-paced projects with limited time or resources.

Real Example: My RBT Approach for a User Journey Rule Feature

In one of our recent releases, we launched a new rule engine that decides whether users can enter a specific journey based on certain conditions. It directly affected user experience and business logic — but we had only a few days to test it.

I chose to apply Risk-Based Testing to make the most of the short time we had.

What Was the Goal?

The system needed to:

• Keep existing users untouched
• Allow new qualified users in
• Exclude users who no longer meet the updated criteria

My Risk Analysis:

• Existing users being negatively affected — Medium likelihood × High impact → Risk Score: 6 (Priority 1)
• New qualified users not entering the flow — High likelihood × Medium impact → Risk Score: 6 (Priority 1)
• Disqualified users still in the system — Medium × Medium → Risk Score: 4 (Priority 2)
• Mismatched or misleading UI messages — Low × Medium → Risk Score: 2 (Priority 3)

How I Tested It:

• First, I verified that existing users were not impacted.
• Then, I made sure new, eligible users were successfully allowed in.
• I tested that ineligible users were blocked and saw the correct error messages.
• Finally, I checked the consistency between the backend logic and the messages shown in the UI.

All scenarios were tested manually on both the UI and backend. I shared my findings transparently with the team and double-checked all high-risk paths.

Final Thoughts

When time is limited, you need to test smart — not everything. Risk-Based Testing gives you the focus to cover what truly matters first.

It’s not just a technique, it’s a mindset shift.

That’s all I’m going to talk about for now. See you in my next post!

Until then,
#HappyTesting ❤️