Test Design vs. Test Strategy: You can't execute what you haven't defined
I fall victim to loving a checklist. My achievement drive craves the packaged accomplishment, the thing I can point to and say done. Without those moments, I start to feel listless (and useless). Then the things I should do stop getting done because the motivation moves on entirely.
I know this about myself. I've run the analysis. Low hanging fruit tasks fill my need to look busy. They keep me moving even if they never move the needle.
Which is exactly what happens when you have test design without test strategy.
Test strategy is the high level view. It doesn't change day to day. It's what you value, what you're willing to risk, what the long term objectives actually are. Test design is how you validate you're getting there — the execution, the daily living of what you envision. Strategy drives design. Not the other way around.
And I've been doing it backwards in my personal life.
Take “being a good mom.” I'm immediately in test design mode. What should they eat today. How much sleep did they get. What are they wearing. I run tests to run tests without a clear mapping to a defining strategy.
And then I say yes to TV. Which is immediately followed by excuses. I have work. I need to cook. I don't want a power struggle. I need 10 minutes. Why not, I told time by cartoons as a kid and I turned out fine. And I list all these justifications because my daughter's “already watched some today.”
I make excuses to get approval for the tests not passing. Even though I wrote the tests.
The real problem is I wrote tests without a strategy. And when they fail, I honestly don't know if they should have been written in the first place.
Is the goal a kid who doesn't exceed the AAP's two hour recommendation on any given day? Or is the goal a kid who understands how to balance Bluey and outside time because that balance matters, not the number?
Those aren't the same goal. They produce completely different tests. And only one of them is actually mine.
Strategy doesn't come with a checklist. It's not an end goal you hit and move past — it's an expectation you keep returning to. You can't skip execution to get there. But you can't execute well without knowing what you're executing toward.
I enjoy the whys. The big picture. The longer view. But what I keep skipping is the part where I write it down, name it honestly, and let it drive my life design. So I'm left with justifying the design after the fact.
The tests I keep failing aren't poorly designed.
They're mapped to the wrong strategy.
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