Many of the clients I’ve worked with come to ProtoTest looking for some direction for their test documentation to take. Some clients have very little documentation and are looking for standardization in templates and test deliverables. Other clients have a heavy documentation process but the documentation is produced and often not referred to or used again. Even in an Agile environment, documentation is an inevitable part of software testing but one solution cannot be applied to every situation.

When evaluating your documentation needs it is important to remember the end goal of the documents being produced: COMMUNICATION. You need to look at your audience and their needs to determine what is the best method, content and format of the information required. Documentation for the sake of documentation is waste of time for everyone involved, so spend the time upfront to identify the goals for written deliverables. If you are working from templates that are not fostering valuable discussions and actions, it may be a good time to revisit the content of your templates. And don’t forget that words on paper will be of little value if no one reads them, so take the time to hold walkthroughs and collaborative reviews to get your audience involved in the process.

What changes could you make to your documentation to make it more beneficial to its audience?

~Colleen Voelschow