6.1The Framework

Brian Marick's agile test quadrants organize testing activities by two dimensions: business-facing vs technology-facing, and supporting the team vs critiquing the product. The quadrants help teams ensure they invest in all types of testing, not just the ones that are easiest to automate.

                    Business-Facing
                         |
    Q2: Functional    |  Q3: Exploratory
    tests, story      |  testing, usability
    tests, prototypes |  testing, UAT,
    (Supporting       |  alpha/beta testing
     the Team)        |  (Critiquing the
                      |   Product)
    ------------------+------------------
    Q1: Unit tests,   |  Q4: Performance
    component tests,  |  testing, security
    integration tests |  testing, load
    (Supporting       |  testing
     the Team)        |  (Critiquing the
                      |   Product)
                         |
                    Technology-Facing