Risk-Based Test Management

(CSTP #3) or (CTM Elective) or (CSTAS Elective)

This course covers area 3 of theTest Professional Body of Knowledge requirements. This course also covers the Elective area for the Certified Test Manager (CTM) and the CSTAS certification.

For costs and cities where this course might be offered, please see the right border of this page or to bring this course to your test team at your location, contact our Education and Professionals Services Group.

Concepts

Risk management is a key component of doing business in any industry. If a business manager neglects risk management when running an amusement park, the results could be catastrophic. Similarly, financial managers must be keenly aware of the risks to financial assets and must take steps to minimize the downside.  But what about testing managers?  What risks are associated with managing the test portion of a software development project, and how can they be minimized?
As a software tester, it can appear that the fate of the product’s readiness rests with you.  Ensuring that software is production-ready is the goal of testing. However, most software is not simple. It is complex, the demands placed upon it are immense, and the breadth of the environments into which it is deployed is extensive. Effective risk management techniques can help test mangers address the challenges that they face in planning and executing testing in today’s environment.

This course addresses a risk management approach tailored for testing managers and test leads.  It provides the necessary approaches, techniques and tools for to manage the testing project in such a way  that risks with the potential to derail the project are known and effective mitigation strategies are in place to address the harmful events.

Participants will learn:

• Standard definition and approaches for risk
• Common risks and issues in software testing
• Identification and analysis approaches for risks
• Methods for taking the output of a test project risk assessment and utilizing an effective approach to manage the testing project
• Effective measurement and reporting techniques to provide relevant test project status
• Potential solutions that can be used by Test Management to mitigate common software test management risks

Students will be provided with:

• Checklists for Risk Identification
• Risk Identification and Tracking Tool

Outline

• Module 1:  Risk and Software Management
  • Common Software Risks
  • Risk Definition and Perception
  • Risk and Software Projects
• Module 2 Risk Management Process:  Identification
  • Risk identification Approaches
  • Categorizing Risks
  • Elements of Risk Statement
• Module 3 Risk Management Process:  Getting Risk Analysis Right
  • Risk Analysis Approach
  • Analyzing Identified Risks
  • Hazard analysis
• Module 4 Risk Management Process:  Response Planning
  • Risk Mitigation
  • Common Test Risks/Issues: Potential Mitigation Solutions
• Module 5 Risk Based Test Management
  • Managing to Risk Plan
  • Risk Reporting and Measurement
  • Implementing Risk Paradigm
  • Risk Monitoring and Control
• Module 6 Risk Based Test Management
  • Managing to Risk Plan
  • Reporting and Measurement