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Daily rhythm

A tester's day​

  1. First fifteen minutes. Open My Work. Check the Smoke-left counter; if it is above zero, those steps come first. Look at anything left In Progress yesterday and finish it.
  2. Check the retest list. The lead will tell you which of your defects are Fixed – Pending Verify. Re-run those steps on the new build first, and set the defect to Verified or Reopened.
  3. Work through your steps suite by suite. Setup steps (tester2) before Label steps (tester3) before Review steps (tester4); coordinate in the group chat so nobody waits.
  4. Record as you go. Never batch results in your head for later. If you must stop mid-step, set it In Progress.
  5. Write defects the same day and paste the Defect ID back into the step.
  6. Last five minutes. Nothing should be left In Progress without a note. Post one line in the group chat: steps done, fails found, anything blocking you.

A good end-of-day line looks like:

tester3 — 18 done (AN-NER, AN-REL), 2 fails (DEF-004, DEF-005), blocked on AN-POS setup until tester2 publishes.

The lead's day​

Your routine

Morning, before the testers start. Copy the app matrix into Test Runs if you are using both. Open the Dashboard with the round selected. Read the three hygiene counters first: Fails without a Defect ID, unassigned steps, touched steps with no environment. Each should be zero; if not, the red and amber cells in Test Runs show which rows, and you chase them before they multiply.

Triage. Filter Defects to Status = New. For each: is it reproducible from the description? If not, send it back for detail. Confirm or adjust Severity, set Priority, assign a developer, mark duplicates, set Status to Triaged. Blockers and P0s go to the developers immediately, not at the end of triage.

Retest queue. Filter Defects to Fixed – Pending Verify and tell each reporter which of theirs to re-run, and on which build. Add the new build to Environments first.

The four numbers. Post Execution %, Pass rate %, Blockers open and Retest queue to the team every day at the same time. Consistency is what makes the trend visible.

Balance. Glance at the BY TESTER table. If someone is far behind or has many Blocked rows, find out why before the end of the day. Blocked usually means one upstream defect is quietly stalling a whole suite.

Judgement calls you will face​

  • A tester marks Pass on something you suspect is wrong. Ask them to show you. Do not change their result without talking to them; the result is theirs.
  • Severity arguments. Severity is the reporter's honest view of user impact; Priority is your decision about order. Change Priority freely; change Severity only with a reason in Notes.
  • A new build lands mid-round. Add it to Environments, set the old one to Retired, and announce it. Results already recorded keep their old build ID; that is correct, not a problem. Decide explicitly which suites re-run on the new build.
  • The app and the sheet disagree. The app wins for the tick; the sheet wins for everything else. Fix the sheet.
  • A tester is stuck on a step for twenty minutes. That is a signal, not a failing. Either they are blocked and should mark it so, or the step's wording needs fixing upstream. Ask which.