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EuroSTAR Conference

Europe's Largest Quality Engineering Conference

Tutorial K

Risk Analysis for Testers and Teams

Michael Bolton

*Booked Out*
13:30 - 17:00 BST, Tuesday 3rd June

We build products and develop services to solve problems for people. As we do so, we must deal with at least two kinds of risk. One is that the solution doesn’t solve the problem at hand. Another is that the solution introduces new problems of its own. In both cases, people may suffer loss, harm, bad feelings, or diminished value.

Successful product development depends on analysis and testing that reveals risk so that those in charge can manage it. A risk focus means organizing development and test strategies around actual and potential trouble.

Doing that well requires us to consider and investigate business, project, and product risk all the way through design, development, and the lifetime of the product or service, with a particular focus on the motivating question “might there be a problem here?”

This half-day workshop focuses on risk analysis through the lens of the Rapid Software Testing methodology. We use critical thinking and heuristics to focus on assessment rather than measurement of risks, since most kinds of software risk cannot be measured. Risk assessments are socially constructed, but we show how that process can and should be done systematically, with grounding in stories and evidence.

Although bringing a computer is optional, you may find one useful for some of the exercises.

What you will learn

  1. Risk — the possibility that bad things will happen, or good things won’t — is the primary motivation for testing.
  2. Like all good analysis, good risk analysis requires us to look at systems from a requisite variety of perspectives.
  3. Risk cannot be calculated, but by applying rich and evolving models and skills we can assess, describe, and evaluate it effectively.

Session Details

  • Intermediate
  • Half day
  • Interactive Tutorial
  • Analytical thinking to dissect complex systems
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Check out this video from Michael Bolton to hear more about her talk, ‘Risk Analysis for Testers and Teams.’

We look forward to welcoming you to EuroSTAR 2025.

Session Speaker

Michael Bolton

Michael Bolton

DevelopSense, Canada

Michael Bolton is a consulting software tester and testing teacher who helps people to solve testing problems that they didn’t realize they could solve.

He is co-author (with James Bach) of Rapid Software Testing (RST), a methodology and mindset for testing software expertly and credibly in uncertain conditions and under extreme time pressure.

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