Section 6.7. Checklist

6.7. Checklist

This section contains a short list of questions that you should feel comfortable answering about your existing test environment:

• Can you use your test environment to run just one test?

• How do you decide when to automate a test?

• Do you ever discard tests? If so, how do you decide when? If not, do all of your tests actually help you to test the product?

• When are automated tests run? Is someone automatically informed about failed tests?

• Can your test environment detect when a test has become deadlocked? Can you kill it, and can the other tests still be executed?

• How do you know who to contact about a particular test when it stops working?

• How do you know which parts of your product are the least tested?

• When was each aspect of the product last tested, and where are the results?

• What resources do each of your tests require?

• How could you change your product to make it easier to test?

• How much work would it be to test your product on a new platform? Does your test environment help you with this?

• When a bug is fixed, do you know which precise test will confirm that it is fixed?

• Which versions of the tests and test environment tools were used with which release?

• If your product uses color anywhere in it at all, have you had a color-blind person test those parts?

• Most importantly, does your test environment make testing your product easier?