Abstract—Many software developments projects fail due to quali- ty problems. Software testing enables the creation of high quality software products. Since it is a cumbersome and expensive task, and often hard to manage, both its technical background and its organizational implementation have to be well founded. We worked with regional companies that develop software in order to learn about their distinct weaknesses and strengths with re- gard to testing. Analyzing and comparing the strengths, we de- rived best practices. In this paper we explain the project’s back- ground and sketch the design science research methodology used. We then introduce a graphical categorization framework that helps companies in judging the applicability of recommendations. Eventually, we present details on five recommendations for tech- nical aspects of testing. For each recommendation we give im- plementation advice based on the categorization framework.