Can we cut the timelines for testing? Ask other questions…

There can be a real pressure sometimes to meet delivery dates and the question appears, Can we cut the timelines for testing? In a way it is a valid question (although I don’t like it). We might start cutting corners and scaling the testing back. Delivering software that has not been properly assessed before sending it into the wild.

Ask Other Questions

I’m writing this to say, I believe there is another way. Instead of answering that question — simply ask other questions -

• Why bother testing at all?
• What are the risks with what we’re delivering?
• What happens if we don’t test at all?

It starts to get project team members to think about testing in a different light. From “oh it’s something we must do” to “we really need this testing”.

Once you all have a shared understanding of what you’re testing and most importantly, why? Then you can then start to look at timelines and give estimates of how long things might take.

Articulate the consequences of not testing

If it comes down to it though and the business tells you that you can only have so much time, then you need to articulate what the consequences are of not testing.

We have not tested this, which means…

So for example -

We have not tested the password reset feature, which means that if there’s a problem with it, it may mean that users are not able to login to our system, so users can’t make purchases resulting in losing the business revenue.

If you can tie it back to a business problem, then bingo, you’ve done your job well!