Do you conduct a "Test Please"?

Test, test, test! Testing is the most critical part of any project. You should get another set of eyes to check the work (aka conduct a "Test Please") before delivering the feature. This ensures the client has a great experience when receiving a quality application with confidence that it performs as expected.

Figure: Do you want users to have a good first impression?

Coding

If you are writing code, the Pull Request (PR) review is your "Test Please".

Tips:

• You should do an over the shoulder PR review
• Embrace proactive testing – If you anticipate potential feedback on the User Experience (UX) after your code is merged and deployed, ensure it is tested by a team member in the development environment. This will save tears when it reaches production

Emails

If you are writing an email, a "checked by" is your "Test Please".

Videos

If you created a video, you should conduct a "Test Please" for videos. After launch you may want to keep an eye on likes and comments for further feedback.

Anything else

If you are doing anything else (e.g. creating a new blog post, updating a Word document, or preparing a PowerPoint presentation), you should still get a 2nd set of eyes to check the work and document it somewhere. You can do that via a PBI (ideally) or email (if there is no backlog).

Replying to a "Test Please"

The reply is the official sign-off that lets the developer deploy. There are 3 possible outcomes:

✅ Figure: Good example - Good example - A clean pass gives the developer the green light to deploy

✅ Figure: Good example - Good example - A conditional pass - small bugs are tracked as PBIs and must be fixed before deploy

✅ Figure: Good example - Good example - Sometimes it's good to soften the blow with some humour when you have to fail a "test please" email

Note: If the test to be performed is quick and the tester is available on the spot, consider using a "checked by" style instead to save some time.