Test Support and Escalation Fundamentals
I.
Closing the Requirements Loop
- A.Testing confirms that what was built actually matches what was required - closing the loop that began with the requirements work in Module 4.
- B.An OFA who understands the original requirement is often better positioned to notice a subtle mismatch than someone testing purely from a script.
- C.This is part of why this work is assigned to OFAs, not treated as purely mechanical.
II.
Core Test Support Activities
A.
An OFA 1 executes assigned test steps precisely as written:
- 1.This means following the steps in the order given, not substituting a shortcut that seems equivalent, since a skipped or reordered step can mask the exact condition the test was designed to catch.
- 2.If a step's instructions are unclear, the OFA asks for clarification before proceeding, rather than guessing at what was intended.
An OFA 1 records the result honestly, even when it does not match the expected result:
- 3.This includes results that are inconvenient or embarrassing to report, such as a test failing on a feature the OFA personally worked on.
- 4."Close enough" is not the same as "matches" - a result that is subtly different from what was expected should be recorded as a discrepancy, not rounded up to a pass.
- 5.An OFA 1 reports discrepancies rather than deciding on their own whether a discrepancy "counts:"
- 6.A new OFA is not yet expected to judge whether a discrepancy is significant enough to matter - that judgment, described in the Escalation sections below, belongs to a more experienced teammate at this stage.
- 7.Reporting every discrepancy, even a minor-seeming one, is the safer default until that judgment is developed.
III.
OFA 2 Triage Responsibility
At OFA 2, an OFA takes a first pass at a reported issue independently.
A.
What OFA 2 Triage Involves
- 1.Gathering facts
- 2.Forming an initial severity judgment
- 3.Deciding whether it needs escalation
- 4.That triage responsibility builds directly on the careful, honest test recording this module teaches, but is not yet an OFA 1 expectation.
- 5.An OFA 1's role in a reported issue is limited to what is described below.
IV.
Escalation Balance
Escalating too little - sitting on a real problem - and escalating too much - forwarding everything without any assessment - are both weaknesses.
A.
What a Good Escalation Includes
- 1.What was found.
- 2.What was already checked.
- 3.A specific ask - not just "this seems broken."
Module 9 develops this etiquette in full, applied specifically to the guidance-seeking relationship with a supervisor or mentor.
B.
Two Quick Illustrations
- 1.Escalating too little looks like·Noticing a small, unexplained discrepancy and deciding privately it is probably nothing, without mentioning it to anyone
- 2.Escalating too much looks like·Forwarding every test result with even a one-pixel visual difference to a senior OFA without first checking whether it is a known, accepted variation