Focusing with Clear Test Objectives

Frustrated with your team’s testing results-sometimes great, sometimes lacking? Do you consistently over promise and under deliver? If these situations sound familiar, you may be suffering from the ills of UCT (Unclear Test Objectives). Clearly defining test objectives is vital to your project’s success; it’s also seriously hard to get right. Test objectives are often driven by habit-“Let’s copy and paste the last set of objectives”; by lack of understanding-“Let’s use whatever the requirements say”; or by outside forces-“Let’s just do what the user wants.” Sharon Robson shares the structured approach she uses to define test objectives, including key test drivers, approaches, processes, test levels, test types, focus, techniques, teams, environments, and tools. Sharon illustrates how to measure, evaluate, compare, and balance these often conflicting factors to ensure that you have the right objectives for your test project.