Software keeps changing, so our testing approach needs to evolve too. I’ve learned that yesterday’s critical tests might not matter much today.
Do you guys take time to reassess your test priorities? I’m curious how others handle this - in my team, we do quarterly reviews where we look at recent bugs and customer issues to figure out if we’re testing the right things. Sometimes we realize we’re wasting time on areas that rarely cause problems while missing newer risks.
What’s your process like? Do you have a systematic way to update your tests, or is it more on-the-fly?
Great question!
This is something i have been learning the hard way over time, testing strategies have to stay flexible because the product landscape changes so quickly. What felt like a critical test case last sprint might not even be relevant in the next one.
In my experience, especially in a fast-paced environment i have found it useful to treat testing priorities like a living document, while we don’t always have the luxury of formal quarterly reviews, I try to stay in sync with dev & product leads during sprint planning and daily scrums.
Also, I keep a habit of reflecting after each PROD release that what kind of bugs slipped through, or what user will think, and that feedback loop has been invaluable in helping me fine-tune what to focus on next.
Sometimes, yes, it’s a bit on-the-fly, but having that awareness helps guide better decisions even when time is right.
Thanks for bringing this up, liked your team approach too!
Brilliantly put @ansha_batra. Its an area we need to get better at and we are, but not as habitual as I’d like yet.
The one thing I’d caution with quarterly reviews is that you’re not architecting this kind of maintenance to be a big job. Its exactly what I did do, I’d have metrics every month to look at our maintenance burden and it was big…so we didn’t have time to clear it.
However, we made a concerted effort recently to break that backlog so we can turn it into a quality re-evaluation we do all the time - while its fresh in our minds and not put it off.
I look on it now as less of a process, more of a habit.
. Its an area we need to get better at and we are, but not as habitual as I’d like yet.