We have spent the last couple of months asking what should be reported from testing and to whom it should be reported. Assuming that has all been decided, what do you do with the information? Unfortunately in the volume of information reported from many projects, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that this information needs to be acted on.
One of the items that is often missed is calculation of a Risk Threshold or Trigger based on the testing. While some organisations are very good at dealing with results of testing, some ignore it. Calculation of a Risk Threshold or Trigger avoids that problem.
A few of examples follow:
- Once the number of Critical or High Severity defects passes a pre-defined number, development resources must be re-deployed from new development to defect remediation.
- If the count of Critical or High Severity defects is not shrinking as the project approaches its completion date, a Project Meeting has to decide if the date can be met with the current scope and resources. This is trend analyis.
- If the time to execute the High and Medium Priority testcases exceeds the remaining time, then either the testing resources must be augmented, the testcases must be re-classified, or the scope reduced.
Please note that all of these items are going to be preset in this case and as soon as the trigger or threshold is passed, then the listed actions are taken. No one has to consider whether or not they need to be done and the decision is not subjective.