As I look back on the year that has been and ponder the year ahead I have a smug little smile on my face, and not just from the Christmas cheer that I've over dosed on!
The project that I am currently working on is like any other, multiple systems, tight deadlines, thorw in the mad rush to get all the loose ends tied up before the Christmas break and its pretty much situation normal.
So for several months now I've been telling anyone that will listen, that "the sooner they realise this project is all about testing and that my needs are the most important the better off they will be!" Self centred I know, however I see a large part of my role is keeping testing at the front of every ones minds. Some days I feel like a little kid saying "don't forget about me" but if that's what it takes to ensure that testing is not left out of the information/communication loop then I'm ok with that.
Well in the lead up to Christmas I received a couple of most welcome, and unexpected Christmas presents partly due to my nagging. Both the project manager, and the software engineering manager commented separately to me "This project is all about testing" and without too much of a "I told you so" look on my face I replied with "indeed it is". It's amazing how the acknowledgement of the importance of testing to the projects success lifted the spirits in the run to up Christmas break.
I've been able to establish several reasons for the realisation of the importance of testing to the project. Firstly, the sign off of several key testing areas (performance & SOE) are absolutely critical and not negotiable if we want to release our software into the production network. Secondly, acceptance of the software by the stakeholders is largley based on the results of the final acceptance testing; and sign off of the Acceptance Test Report is therefore a key milestone. Finally, because I said so, and will continue too remind them.
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