Test Kickoffs

Kickoffs are known to have a positive impact on software development, leading to better process definition, better problem solving, and cycle time reduction. On a team in which testers have various levels of testing and game project experience, individual needs are not likely to be addressed at the project kickoff. It benefits the team to have kickoffs at the next lowest level: a test kickoff for each “test” that is being created or executed by individual testers. The test kickoff illustrates the principle that increasing an organization’s speed results from an iterative process of identifying obstacles, designing a new process that eliminates them, and ensuring that the new way is implemented.

Test kickoff activities are broken into two parts: tester preparation and the kickoff meeting, which is conducted according to the kickoff agenda. The tester’s preparation steps and the kickoff agenda are documented on a test kickoff checklist, as shown in Figure 7.3.