How do you align Waterfall testing with customer expectations and feedback?

由人工智能和领英社区提供技术支持

Waterfall testing is a traditional approach to software quality assurance, where testing activities are planned and executed in sequential phases after the development is completed. However, this can pose some challenges when it comes to aligning testing with customer expectations and feedback, especially in dynamic and complex projects. How do you ensure that your Waterfall testing delivers value to your customers and meets their requirements, while avoiding rework, delays, and defects? Here are some tips to help you achieve this goal.

本文章的要点总结

Involve stakeholders early:

By actively including customers and stakeholders in the requirement gathering phase, you ensure their expectations are baked into the project from the get-go. This preemptive move can save you heaps of time later on by reducing the need for revisions.
Incorporate diverse test cases:

Broaden your test suite to include edge cases and negative scenarios. By expecting the unexpected, you're less likely to be caught off guard, and more likely to meet customer needs on the first try.

本摘要由 AI 和以下专家提供支持

Amol Jadhav

Technical Project Manager @ Persistent…
Ashawali Singh

Agile practitioner, Scrum Master…

1 Define clear and testable requirements

One of the key success factors for Waterfall testing is to have clear and testable requirements from the start of the project. This means that you need to involve your customers and stakeholders in the requirements elicitation and analysis process, and document them in a detailed and unambiguous way. You also need to verify and validate the requirements with your customers and stakeholders, and get their approval and sign-off before moving to the next phase. Having clear and testable requirements will help you avoid ambiguity, scope creep, and misunderstandings during testing.

添加您的观点

Amol Jadhav

Technical Project Manager @ Persistent Systems | Program and Project Management Specialist
举报内容
Ensuring alignment with project goals and objectives in the maintenance phase means making sure that any changes or updates to the software still meet the project's original goals.

已翻译

赞
Ashawali Singh

Agile practitioner, Scrum Master, Program Management, PSM1, CSM,PMP
举报内容
Some ways to achieve it: The test team can go through the given requirements and have their questions and doubts listed. This makes the team prepared for their meeting with stakeholders. Discussing with the development team increases collaboration between both the teams and they can share their understanding of requirements.

已翻译

赞

2 Plan and design your testing strategy

Another important aspect of Waterfall testing is to plan and design your testing strategy in advance, and align it with the project scope, schedule, budget, and quality standards. This means that you need to define the testing objectives, scope, levels, types, techniques, tools, resources, roles, and responsibilities for each testing phase. You also need to design your test cases, scenarios, data, and scripts based on the requirements and specifications, and review them with your customers and stakeholders. Planning and designing your testing strategy will help you ensure that your testing covers all the relevant aspects of the software, and that you have the necessary resources and tools to execute it.

添加您的观点

Ashawali Singh

Agile practitioner, Scrum Master, Program Management, PSM1, CSM,PMP
(已编辑)
举报内容
-Covering all the edge cases in Test Scenario -Negative testing test cases should be part of the test suite. -Can also cover Non-functional requirements(NFRs) in the test suite. -Identify the need of what testing technique will be most suitable. -Discussing and aligning on the testing tool which will be used. -Identify the team members and their responsibilities listed clearly.

已翻译

赞

3 Communicate and collaborate with your customers and stakeholders

Even though Waterfall testing follows a linear and structured process, it does not mean that you should isolate yourself from your customers and stakeholders during testing. On the contrary, you need to communicate and collaborate with them regularly and effectively, and keep them informed and engaged throughout the testing phases. This means that you need to establish clear and frequent communication channels, methods, and protocols with your customers and stakeholders, and share with them the testing progress, results, issues, and risks. You also need to solicit and incorporate their feedback, suggestions, and changes in a timely and controlled manner, and manage their expectations and satisfaction. Communicating and collaborating with your customers and stakeholders will help you build trust, rapport, and transparency during testing.

添加您的观点

Ashawali Singh

Agile practitioner, Scrum Master, Program Management, PSM1, CSM,PMP
举报内容
-Creating reports with data to showcase the progress of the project is a very useful way to keep the stakeholders involved and informed of the project. -Highlighting the issues which are blocking or can be a risk and seeking for stakeholders help,makes them engaged in the project.

已翻译

赞

4 Conduct thorough and rigorous testing

The main purpose of Waterfall testing is to ensure that the software meets the customer requirements and quality standards, and that it is free of defects and errors. Therefore, you need to conduct thorough and rigorous testing in each testing phase, and follow the predefined testing strategy, plan, and design. This means that you need to execute your test cases, scenarios, data, and scripts according to the testing schedule, scope, and level, and document and report your testing results, outcomes, and metrics. You also need to identify, log, track, and resolve any defects, issues, or deviations that arise during testing, and ensure that they are fixed and verified before moving to the next phase. Conducting thorough and rigorous testing will help you ensure that your software is reliable, functional, and usable.

添加您的观点

5 Perform user acceptance testing

The final and most crucial phase of Waterfall testing is user acceptance testing (UAT), where you verify that the software meets the customer expectations and needs, and that it is ready for deployment and use. Therefore, you need to perform user acceptance testing with your customers and stakeholders, and involve them in the testing process. This means that you need to prepare and execute your UAT plan, criteria, cases, scenarios, data, and scripts based on the customer requirements and feedback, and facilitate and support the UAT sessions with your customers and stakeholders. You also need to collect and evaluate their UAT results, feedback, and approval, and address any issues, changes, or enhancements that they request or suggest. Performing user acceptance testing will help you ensure that your software delivers value to your customers and meets their satisfaction.

添加您的观点

Ashawali Singh

Agile practitioner, Scrum Master, Program Management, PSM1, CSM,PMP
举报内容
UAT is an important step and should not be skipped,even for the smallest requirement. This ensures that no defects are missed and quality is ensured before reaching the customers

已翻译

赞

6 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?

添加您的观点

Ashawali Singh

Agile practitioner, Scrum Master, Program Management, PSM1, CSM,PMP
举报内容
Requirement Traceability Matrix is an efficient way to ensure that all the requirements have been covered in the Test suite. This also gives stakeholders the confidence in the quality of the product as they have visibility on what's being tested.

已翻译

赞

Waterfall Project Management

+ 关注

给文章评分

我们借助人工智能创建了此文章。您认为这篇文章怎么样？

很棒不太好

举报此文章

查看全部

How do you align Waterfall testing with customer expectations and feedback?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Define clear and testable requirements

2 Plan and design your testing strategy

3 Communicate and collaborate with your customers and stakeholders

4 Conduct thorough and rigorous testing

5 Perform user acceptance testing

6 Here’s what else to consider

Waterfall Project Management

给文章评分

感谢您的反馈

更多Waterfall Project Management相关文章

更多相关阅读内容