Ask Me Anything: Test Strategies

I am not sure what you mean by the words “adhered to all levels”. Level could point to test level or level in the organisation. I assume that you mean: How do I make sure that everybody in the organisation is on the same page".

By talking to people about the testing! By talking to them about stuff they care about. By showing that you are helping them by delivering the information they care about (which is probably not details of the testing you do, but is a story about risks and quality). It is hard to satisfy different stakeholders, so talk to them about what they really need from you. Also see question 7.

I prefer to talk to people over sending documents, that is an interactive way of learning if my thoughts match the other persons thoughts. It may sound strange, but I meet a lot of people who think talking to others costs too much time or is hard to organise. They prefer to write stuff down. Which is okay too, but at one point we need to talk about it to gain deeper insight. Also: don’t wait too long to talk with others. Don’t try to be complete or perfect, build in fast feedback loops in building your test strategy.

I like to use models/visualisations of my thoughts to make conversation easier. I created workshops on thinking and working visualy with Jean-Paul Varwijk and later with Ruud Cox. Later I learned about storytelling and how to deal with complexity. I think the complexity of what we have to deal with (complexity of the products we are building but also the complexity of working with people: communication and understanding each other is hard!).