AI Prompt for Test Strategy Design
Generate a complete test strategy with the right mix of unit, integration, and end-to-end tests — no redundant coverage.
What it does
Designs a test strategy for a feature or system, deciding what to test at each level of the testing pyramid. The critical value: it identifies where NOT to test, preventing the common problem of redundant integration tests that duplicate unit test coverage and slow down the build.
Example output
A 3–4 line excerpt of what this prompt produces.
Coverage overlap analysis — Payment processing module Current state: 14 integration tests verify amount calculation logic already covered by 23 unit tests. These integration tests add 4.2 minutes to CI but catch zero bugs that unit tests miss — the calculation is pure logic with no I/O dependency. Recommendation: Delete the 14 integration tests. Redirect integration coverage to the Stripe webhook handler, which has no unit tests and has caused 3 of the last 5 production incidents. Net result: CI runs 4 minutes faster, actual risk coverage increases.
Prompt structure
The sections this prompt guides the model through.
- 1. Risk Map
- 2. Test Pyramid Allocation
- 3. Edge Cases Checklist
- 4. Test Data Strategy
- 5. What NOT to Test
- 6. CI Integration
Opening lines
The first lines of the prompt itself.
Design a test strategy for the following feature/system.…
One rule from the prompt
A single rule — the full prompt contains more.
Explicitly list what NOT to test. Over-testing creates slow CI, brittle test suites, and false confidence. The "What NOT to Test" section is as valuable as the testing sections — framework behavior, simple getters/setters, and third-party library internals do not need dedicated tests.
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