26 Questions Testers Can Ask to Learn About a Feature

Testers can learn about a software’s features, old or new, through exploration and experimentation. But a feature is much more than what you see and observe as part of the software. There is information outside the software that can help you to think about your testing.

This is a structured list of questions to help you learn about a feature outside the software to prepare for testing.

• Who can give you a business point of view?

• Who can give you a technical point of view?

• What is the problem we are trying to solve?

• What are the important use cases and scenarios?

• Which personas are involved?

• How often will this feature be used?

• How many people will use it?

• Do we know what the real data look like?

• What is the user’s and business’ impact if the feature does not work?

• Are there any existing features this feature may have an impact on?

• Are there any existing features that may have an impact on this feature?

• Do we have internal or customer-facing documentation?

• Is this feature a precondition for any upcoming features in the near future?

• Was anything out-scoped and if so, why?

• Does the feature depend on existing code?

• Are the developers familiar with the technology and domain?

• Are 2nd- or 3rd-party services involved?

• Is 3rd-party code (libraries, SDKs) involved?

• What unknowns were discovered during the development?

• What automated tests are in place and what do they focus on?

• Is the technical solution documented?

• What test data do you need and is it already in place?

• What test setup do you need and is it already in place?

• Do you have the tools to test the feature?

• Has the feature an impact on the deployment process?

• Are there any new metrics or alerts in place?

Feel free to choose the questions that best suit your project. I hope this list inspires you to ask even more questions.

This is another tool in the toolkit. Post by post it comes together.

What questions have you found valuable when starting to learn about a feature?

Happy learning,
Florian