Assessing Risk for a QA Mobile Project

Sauce AI for Test Authoring: Move from aim to performance in moment.|xBack to ResourcesBlogPosted October 22, 2015

Assessing Risk for a QA Mobile Project

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My niece and her kids were visiting from out of townspeople last week. Somehow I ended up in complaint of the two son, six and eight years old. It all started nice and restrained, everyone playing on their devices. Future thing I know they are wrestling. Heads are just miss table corners and I ’ m freaking out! Don ’ t they know the risks? As a Pb on a QA team germinate wandering apps, I am constantly evaluating jeopardy. What is the jeopardy to the schedule? To the end users? While nobody (hopefully) will be bloody like two boys playing, danger need to be accounted for.

Identify the Risks

Risks are evaluated otherwise by different citizenry, and one person can not identify all of the endangerment. So, how do hazard designation happen?

One full way is during your sprint planning. Hopefully you are using a planning tool such as Fibonacci poker. This allows developers, designers, and QA to convey about the stories. If someone has a higher number for their estimate this is emphatically a fleur-de-lis that someone sees a danger that others are not see. The good way to trigger the mentation process is to ask the enquiry of the radical: “ Does anyone see any risk imply with this narration? ” Developers can identify areas of functionality that are expected to be difficult. Designers might discuss the important features for users and what the wallop are if the feature isn ’ t working correctly. QA should direct this feedback and emphasize these area during prove. Creating a checklist of questions for the QA squad to consider is perpetually a help. If you ’ ve had past experience with surprises that impacted your testing, it should be included in your plan. For example, if you are relying on DevOps to stage some servers and you know they get a reserve, mark this as a risk. Finally, platter all of the risks and their extenuation strategies on a wiki or somewhere the team can easy review. While it should also be notice in the related story ticket, this allows for those direction types to get easy visibleness.

Give Me an Idea of the Risks

You asked for it, you ’ ve got it. Based on my experience in screen our companionship ’ s apps I ’ ve compiled a leaning of areas that get my risk sentience tingling.

Risk Types

Risks

User Focused

Data Security - Will the app use sensible data? You might need additional expertise from someone to test this.

Performance - Is there a lot of information being legislate? Should the squad account for testing different levels of network latency? This might entail that extra trial base and knowledge is postulate.

Usability - When critique the design, does it seem like someone would actually use this app? Is it simple to use? QA will most likely be using the app more than anyone during evolution, and if it ’ s not easy for them to use, it ’ s not simply a risk that users won ’ t like it, but it may still impact the team ’ s use.

Quality - What is the risk if we release the app with X number of bugs? Will customers abandon it? You should agree to the QA exit criteria, or there can be a risk to the schedule for proceed bug pickle.

Team Capacity Focused

Team Skills - Does my team have the expertness to try this app? Have they done mobile try before? Are they ware SMEs?

PTO - Is anyone planning to occupy off during the sprint? Are they critical to the team? Can someone cover for them?

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Test Automation Focused

Supported Devices - How many device case and operating systems must be supported? Do we have device in stock or should we use a mobile device cloud solution? Every supported platform/OS combination adds not only to the agenda, but the mechanisation script support.

Reusable Components - Can we reuse code from previous tests?

New Technology - Are the developers invent some crazy new animations that might be tough to automate against?

Interaction with the Device - Will we need to do thing like file upload/download, or interact with the camera? Using natively supported apps to interact with our app can add to the complexity of the tests, along with having to make certain each device has the correct apps and versions installed.

Special Setup - Will some exam have especial data needs? Any special setup, such as authentication methods or network latency?

Manual Testing Focused

Ocular Inspection - Will the app necessitate a lot of manual testing for things that require “ eye on, ” such as usability or live video? This will increase the risk to the schedule.

Infrastructure Focused

Dependent on Other Systems - Will the app rely on other systems to work? Do we hold that in place? If not, and if you don ’ t have control of them, expect delays and topic with interactivities.

Versioning - Do you have to worry about the app working with different versions of the connected substructure? Do you have access to each of these versions? Each component in the base has its own variant which can easily impact the schedule when trying to coordinate testing.

Painful Tests Focused

Dates - Dates are ever a pain to examine. If you see any engagement in the app design, expect aggravation. Do you experience tools in place to assist with date use for try, or do you need to establish them?

Time - Did I say dates be a pain? If you see time being used in a designing, ask yourself if your app needs to take into account thing like time zone.

Authentication Methods - For our app, which grant users to log in and interact with their own system on their waiter, we have to calculate for different assay-mark methods. If the tryout require peculiar setup, anticipate trouble.

Schedule Focused

Deadline - If you have a deadline and are being mash, you can wait not to be capable to do the thorough QA you ’ d like. At this point you postulate to name the high-risk areas of the app and prioritize.

Dependencies

On Other People or Groups - If your project is dependent on others that you have no control of, your schedule could be at risk. This is one of the big risks I ’ ve experienced.

This is just a starting point. As you can see, risk can come at you from many different slant. The better prepared you are up front, the easier to extenuate.

Ouch!

Just remember, you are not slight boys merrily oblivious to risks. If you choose to ignore them, someone might end up with a bump on his head!

Joe Nolan is the Mobile QA team lead at Blackboard. He has over 10 years experience result multinationally located QA teams, and is the founder of the DC Software QA and Testing Meetup.

Published:
Oct 22, 2015
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