- Acceptance criteria
- Acceptance criteria are the observable outcomes a piece of work must produce before the person who asked for it will accept it.
- API smoke check
- An API smoke check is a small request-and-assert script that confirms the services behind a user journey respond correctly on a given build.
- Change-based regression
- Change-based regression scopes re-testing from what a release actually touched: code, configuration and integrations, mapped to the journeys they can affect.
- Code freeze
- A code freeze is a period in which changes to production, or to a release branch, are restricted in order to reduce risk.
- Contract testing
- Contract testing checks that two services agree on the shape of the messages they exchange, without running the whole system.
- Cross-browser testing
- Cross-browser testing confirms that the journeys that matter work on the browsers and devices real users have, not only on the one the team develops in.
- Defect backlog
- The defect backlog is the list of known, unresolved defects. Its value depends on whether people trust what is in it.
- Defect report
- A defect report is a request for someone’s time: it has to say who is affected, what they could not do and what happens if it ships.
- Defect severity and priority
- Severity is how badly a defect hurts the user’s journey. Priority is how soon the team will fix it. They are set by different people.
- Defect triage
- Defect triage is the regular decision about each new defect: is it real, who owns it, how soon, and is more evidence needed.
- Deferred risk
- Deferred risk is a known gap or defect that the business has chosen to ship with, recorded with its impact, workaround, owner and review date.
- Definition of done
- The definition of done is the team’s shared list of what must be true before any piece of work counts as finished.
- Definition of ready
- The definition of ready is the agreed list of conditions a story must meet before the team starts work on it.
- Device farm
- A device farm is a service that provides remote access to many real phones, tablets and browsers for testing, without owning the hardware.
- Embedded QA
- Embedded QA is a tester or QA consultant who works inside a product team, in its tools and ceremonies, instead of in a separate test department or vendor team.
- End-to-end testing
- End-to-end testing follows a journey through every system it touches, from the user’s first action to the final effect in the back office or a partner system.
- Environment parity
- Environment parity is how closely a test environment matches production in the things that affect user journeys: configuration, integrations, data and versions.
- Exploratory testing
- Exploratory testing is testing where design and execution happen together: the tester learns the product and decides the next check from what the last one showed.
- Functional testing
- Functional testing checks that a product does what it is supposed to do for its users, judged from the outside, by behaviour.
- Go/no-go meeting
- A go/no-go meeting is where the people accountable for a release decide, from the evidence in front of them, whether it ships or waits.
- Hotfix verification
- Hotfix verification is the testing done on an urgent production fix: confirm the fault is gone, confirm nothing nearby broke, and record what was checked.
- Pair testing
- Pair testing is two people testing the same thing together at one screen, usually a tester with a developer, a designer or a newer tester.
- Performance smoke test
- A performance smoke test runs a few virtual users for a short time against key journeys, to catch a build that has become noticeably slower.
- PI planning
- PI planning is the event in the Scaled Agile Framework where the teams on a release train plan the next increment of work together.
- Product validation
- Product validation asks whether what was built serves the user and the business case. Verification asks only whether it matches the specification.
- QA handover
- A QA handover passes on what a tester knows and maintains, so the practice keeps working after they leave the team.
- Quality Maturity Matrix
- A Quality Maturity Matrix is a small grid that shows where a team’s quality practice is fragile, workable or dependable, so leadership can decide where to invest.
- Regression testing
- Regression testing re-checks behaviour that already worked, to confirm a change has not broken it.
- Release readiness
- Release readiness is the evidence-backed judgement that a build can ship, usually written up as a short readiness note with a recommendation.
- Shift-left testing
- Shift-left testing means bringing testing questions forward, into refinement, design and development, instead of waiting for a finished build.
- Smoke testing
- Smoke testing is a short set of checks that tells you whether a build is worth testing further, or worth handing to anyone else.
- Test data management
- Test data management is keeping a known, refreshable set of accounts and records that lets the journeys in scope be tested the same way each time.
- Test oracle
- A test oracle is the source that tells you what the correct result is: the thing a test compares actual behaviour against.
- Test plan
- A test plan says what will be tested for a specific release or project, by whom, where and when. A test strategy is the standing approach behind it.
- Test Practice Manager
- A Test Practice Manager is responsible for how testing is done across teams: strategy, standards, hiring, mentoring and the evidence leadership sees.
- Test strategy
- A test strategy states what must stay true for users, how the team learns what changed, what evidence a release needs and what is knowingly left out.
- User acceptance testing (UAT)
- User acceptance testing is the step where the people who asked for a change decide whether to accept it as built, knowing what is known about it.
- User journey
- A user journey is the full path a person takes to get something done with a product, across every screen, system and device it touches.
- Wearable testing
- Wearable testing verifies journeys that cross a phone app, a watch or band and the connection between them, including pairing, permissions and background sync.
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