What are the most important considerations when testing software?

1 Testing objectives

Before you start testing, you need to define what you want to achieve with your testing. What are the goals, scope, and criteria of your testing? What are the expected outcomes and deliverables of your testing? How will you measure and report your testing results? By setting clear and realistic testing objectives, you can align your testing activities with your project requirements, expectations, and standards.

4 Testing environment

The testing environment is the set of hardware, software, network, and data that you use to conduct your testing. The testing environment should be as similar as possible to the real or production environment where your software will be deployed and used. This way, you can reduce the risks of errors, failures, and discrepancies that may occur when your software is transferred from the testing environment to the real environment. You should also ensure that your testing environment is stable, secure, and isolated from external influences that may affect your testing results.

5 Testing team

The testing team is the group of people who are responsible for planning, executing, and evaluating your testing activities. The testing team should have the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience to perform your testing effectively and efficiently. The testing team should also have a clear and consistent communication and collaboration system to coordinate their testing tasks, share their testing insights, and resolve their testing issues. You should also define the roles and responsibilities of each member of your testing team and provide them with adequate training, guidance, and feedback.

6 Testing risks

Testing risks are the potential problems or uncertainties that may affect your testing process or outcome. For example, you may face testing risks such as insufficient time, budget, or resources for your testing, changes in the project scope or requirements during your testing, defects or bugs in your software that are difficult to detect or fix, or negative feedback or complaints from your stakeholders or users about your testing results. You should identify, analyze, and prioritize your testing risks and develop contingency plans to mitigate or avoid them.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?