Ard is a software tester from the Netherlands and is working for OrangeCrest. He calls himself a Qualisopher which stands for someone “who loves truth and wisdom and at the same time is decisive to improve man and his environment” . This means he is interested in the world around us, to see what he can learn and subsequently apply in software testing. That is one of the reason why Ard tells stories in books and at (test) conferences such as EuroStar, Expo:QA, TestWarez, TestingCup, Romanian Testing Conference. Besides working in IT he is also active as a sport (volleyball) coach and chair of the music school in his town.
Testing is a craft, but it is also and for many foremost a job. A job you do day in day out, evolving with all the rituals every employee develops over time. These rituals, together with all sorts of other external factors (deadlines, pressure, etc.) often means that we don’t have a test strategy or that we are no longer reconsidering the strategies we set out from the start. Having the right strategy in testing is important to stay as efficient and effective as you can be. The RiskStorming session format is a wonderful way of generating a visible Test Strategy as a team that automatically focuses your plan to answer the important questions. It leverages the diversity of people around the table, their ideas and experiences, to share and learn from each other, in order to come up with a strategy that answers the following question: How do we test -> the risks that impact -> the aspects of our Product that matter? Essentially, the format makes you go through 3 phases – Which Quality Aspects matter most for your product? Which risks endanger those Quality Aspects? How do we test to make sure those risks don’t happen? When we have the answers, we try to condense those into a one-page-test-strategy format that is readable and actionable.
- Key takeaways:
- Learn to work as a team to discuss and describe a strategy to tackle a real life case and problem
- Work out a proposal to convince your manager which forces you to focus on business value and risk
- You will use TestSphere as a tool to uncover unknown-unknowns and strengthen your strategy