Test Management
We believe testing is inherently unpredictable and our collective experience backs that up. As a counter-measure we like to spent as little time on planning as possible and instead put most of our efforts into navigating and enabling testing. We do make plans. We do make strategies. But we refrain from burying our heads in them and staying with our knowledge and beliefs as they were at the beginning of the test project. We know that we all get smarter, wiser and better. Not all checks stay valuable. Not all areas stay at the same risk level.
Our toolbox is highly valuable, low-tech and customizable and is generally non-intrusive and complimentary to what tools and methods you may already have in your organisation: we use mindmaps and white board dashboards for overviews. It helps visualising status and goals, while not restricting us in getting new ideas. Whenever possible we like to use either session-based or thread-based testing, as that utilizes the power and freedom of the testers to do amazingly good testing, while still keeping everything in control and to the point.
A large part of test management is logistics in getting people and their skills, software, data, environments and everything else ready at the required time. We tend to focus on the testers, their skills, their professional growth. We prefer to manage people rather than test cases. We use coaching and mentoring, because we do not just settle for average. We think that testers who are confident, skillful and generally shines with pride of their work also performs the best. Who wants to be a commodity, doing average work?
We encourage several ways of reporting test results to you, as different decisions and needs shouldn’t be met with the standard one-size-fits-all form that the local tool can generate. We aim at always being able to report results on time, to the point, on purpose and including the accuracy and insecurities of the testing done. How else can you use our results?
Ultimately it is all about getting trustworthy and understandable information to the right people at the right time.