Pacific Beach Drive

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My QA Playbook

QA done right.

Milestone 1 - Initiate Project

At kickoff the tester will learn details about the project that is about to launch.  (QAs must be offered consistent, comprehensive, traceable requirements and clearly marked. ) This information should be sufficient to understand the very basic asks of the project.  It is at this point I will be able to assess what’s important, more directly, why does this project matter? 

Main idea:

  • Analyze & Understand the Requirements
    • People
    • Questions
    • knowledge transfer
    • Agile Testing, Manual Testing, Automation Testing
    • Research tooling
    • Define a quality strategy

People

  • Identify the people who possess project knowledge
  • Identify the people who possess power to influence change (stakeholders, PM)

Asking questions to gather relevant information.

* When is the release date?
* What does success look like?
* What is the overall ask that this project is answering

Knowledge Transfer

  • New project
    • it is essential to make sure you have all the access to relevant docs and tools.
  • Continued project
    • make sure you have all the access to relevant docs
    • make sure to set up a meeting (recorded) that explains all relevant workflows and procedures.

Agile Testing, Manual Testing, Automation Testing

  • Make QA result-oriented:
    • Agile development methods prioritize smaller goals and targets to be handled in smaller increments with greater speed (focused on specific objectives.)
  • Make something else (in progress)

Research tooling

Every step has its tool. QA professionals should be involved in analyzing and defining software requirements, both functional and non-functional.

Define a quality strategy

If you are working with existing software try to determine what knowledge the overall team possesses  to understand the pain points of building a new system in tandem with the old. 

If you’re building a new piece of software consider what knowledge and understanding can be gathered before the team begins to build. 

Milestone 1 summary: Agile QA Foundations

Learning Agile Jargon (with a pinch of salt):

  • Familiarize yourself with Agile terms like “user stories,” “velocity,” and “sprints.”
  • Soon you’ll be speaking in tongues and pretending it’s making a difference.

Learning Adaptability, or the Art of Dancing on Quicksand:

  • Agile is all about adapting to change, even when the changes arrive at the speed of light.
  • Get ready to rewrite test cases, shift priorities, and question your existence on a daily basis.

Learning Collaborating with Developers (Deep breaths, deep breaths):

  • Developers are our partners in crime, whether they like it or not.
  • Collaborate, communicate, and silently judge their coding skills while maintaining an illusion of diplomacy.

Additional Note:

  • Preventing bugs during the requirements design stage is more cost-effective than detecting and fixing them during testing.
    Therefore, 
>> cost (fixing bug in prod) > cost (fixing bug in test)

>> cost (fixing bug in test) > cost (fixing bug in requirement design)
Milestone 1   Milestone 2   Milestone 3   Milestone 4   Milestone 5
Milestone 6   Milestone 7   Milestone 8   Milestone 9   back