Risk Management
An essential part of proper planning includes dealing with project risks. When project risks are identified, they are communicated to and acted upon by our project manager. Such risks are not always within the power of the testing organization to reduce.
However, some project risks can and should be mitigated successfully by our Test Manager, such as:
- Test environment and tools readiness
- Test staff availability and qualification
- Lack of standards, rules, and techniques for the testing effort
Approaches to project risk management include preparing the testware earlier, pre-testing test environments, pre-testing of early versions of the product, applying more demanding entry criteria to testing, enforcing requirements for testability, participating in reviews of early project work products, participating in change management, and monitoring the project progress and quality.
After identifying and analyzing a project risk, there are four main options for conducting risk management:
- Mitigate the risk through preventive measures to reduce the likelihood and/or impact
- Make contingency plans to minimize the impact if the risk becomes an actuality
- Transfer the risk to some other party to handle
- Ignore or accept the risk
Selecting the best option depends on the benefits and opportunities created by the option, as well as the cost and, potentially, any additional risks associated with the option. When a contingency plan is identified for project risk, the best practice is to identify a trigger (which will determine when and how the contingency plan is invoked) and an owner (who will carry out the contingency plan).
