Good Testing Improves Product Development

A good testing process identifies the types and causes of errors originating during development. Understanding the root cause of these errors can reduce errors in future projects. Here’s what to look for to improve future performance through reduced errors:  

• Patterns. Development process weaknesses lead to repeated errors across projects. Look for trends in the types of errors found in testing. With that info, identify root causes in the development process to correct through process improvement.
• The why, not just the what. Understanding what caused an error is the first step. But genuine learning and improvement come from understanding why an error slipped through the development team’s preliminary testing. (It could also indicate the development team did not do proper preliminary testing at all!) Dig deeper into the why to find ways to improve the development process.
• The value business analysts can bring when involved in testing. Good BAs can note the type and causes of errors and use that information to improve requirements definitions. For example, if trends in errors related to a device’s data output are identified, future requirements can be written to avoid those output errors.
• Root cause thinking, so you can reward it! When teams know that root cause analysis will be conducted alongside the testing process, it motivates them to improve. Nobody likes to get called out or have their approach create errors. Recognizing and encouraging root-cause thinking can improve not only the development process but also other processes that produce project deliverables.

Does your testing process identify these points? If not, think about how to add them to your testing processes.

Coming Up

I finished recording voiceovers for most videos in the new Project Management Foundations course. Recording live action is coming up. In the meantime, I’m working on video storyboards. A few weeks away from LinkedIn Learning taking over production work!

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