Test Process in Context

1. Stakeholders

It’s very important to develop good relationships and lines of communication with them so they can be supportive of QA’s efforts.

2. Team Members
   Look at their skills, values, and aptitudes. Do they need tools? What’s blocking them from being as effective as they can be? How can we enable people to do their best work?

3. Business Domain
   Identified risks, market expectations, legal regulations—anything specific to the business domain that may impact testing activities.

4. Technical Factors
   The nature of the software, architecture, frameworks, and environment can all guide the best approach for testing.

5. Project Constraints
   What if the timelines, budget, etc., change?
   Revisit slides.

6. Organizational Factors
   Adhering to organizational and team-defined standards and procedures for consistency.

7. SDLC
   Dictates when you’re testing, e.g., with Scrum, hopefully, you’re testing by day one.

8. Tools
   Availability, usability, and capability of testing tools, e.g. automation framework.

Review Questions

How do you engage stakeholders who don't see the value in testing?

Think about what they’re interested in. Tailor information based on what they want to know. We’re here to reduce risk, reduce development costs, and ensure product quality. Put a one-pager together that gives them the key details.

How do you handle it when project constraints change?

Always deliver high-quality, so it’s better to de-scope lower priority user stories instead of de-scoping testing.