Patterns have proved to be a great tool for communication of domain specific knowledge across people and continuous skill enhancement. Designs, specifications, Architecture, Analysis patterns etc. are being widely used for this.
‘Questioning Patterns’ (Q-Patterns in short) are sets of patterns in questionnaire form that facilitate gathering and application of application or domain knowledge across wide variety of domains. These patterns are applicable at various phases of SDLC like specifications, design, testing etc.
These patterns are different from GOF (Gang of Four) design patterns and have been captured in a slightly different format.
Q-Patterns provide a light-weight mechanism for sharing and documenting testing experience and test cases. Q-Patterns allow generic application of experience across projects, promote reuse of test cases and provide an easy method for review of specifications.
Using Q-Patterns one can drastically reduce the test case creation time by promoting reuse of test cases across organizations, projects, technologies and domains. Software projects generally yield a web of interrelated Q-Patterns. An integrated and broad adoption of Q-Patterns framework in an organization can yield a rich harvest of test cases with very little effort