Considerations When Planning & Conducting a Research Study.
1. Choosing the correct formative usability study setup
2. Recruiting effectively
3. Writing good test tasks
4. Remaining unbiased & facilitating ethically
5. Reporting with metrics
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Have you ever tested an application without finding ANY bugs? Have you ever worked on a project that was completely free of bugs? I suspect that your answers to these questions are the same as mine; never ever! Let’s face it, as testers our professional world, like the physical world around us, is full of bugs. Software bugs, just like the species after which they are named, are a fact of life. In their quests for quality, the goal of most organizations is to deploy clean, bug free releases into production, and so they employ test methodologies that are designed to find as many bugs as possible during testing.
But, as we all know, it is impossible to find every possible bug, especially when limited time and resources are limited. When bugs are missed and slip into production, the cost to the organization can range from embarrassment and negative publicity to millions of dollars in lost sales. In many industries such as medical devices or pharmaceuticals, missed bugs may even lead to loss of life. Missed bugs are, and will continue to be, a critical issue in software testing.
And so in most organizations, each time a bug, as tiny and insignificant as it may be, crawls into production, mayhem of magnanimous proportions ensues. And sometimes, the focus on finding out why it happened takes priority over the fix. In the name of continuous improvement, we begin the root cause analysis. Root cause analysis can take many forms. In some organizations, it is used effectively to make process improvements. In other organizations, it amounts to a witch hunt, the sole purpose of which is to assign blame.
I worked in an organization where the art of the witch hunt and assignment of blame was developed to the level of a science. All bugs escaping into user acceptance testing or production were immediately analyzed to determine root cause, i.e., code, requirements, missed test case, etc. If the root cause was determined to be a tester miss, this was also noted in the test management tool. Metrics were developed to track missed bugs and testers were effectively pulverized for missing bugs. Test leads dreaded the root cause analysis process and testers worked in fear of missing bugs.
As a test lead in this environment, I really wanted to help my test teams and reduce our bug misses. I started to think about how we missed bugs. The more I thought about it, I realized that the “how” is probably more important than the “why”. And I began the journey into How Did I Miss That Bug?
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The goal of the Learning Lunch Series for Allied Health Preceptors is to support, engage, and develop our preceptors in the foundational principles of teaching. This workshop introduces participants to basics of delivering effective feedback.
Investigating focus groups as a research alternative, thinking about moderating, or looking for material to teach about focus groups, read on and copy what's valuable!
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Assessment 1 Develop and maintain professional competenceSubmiss.docxdavezstarr61655
Assessment 1: Develop and maintain professional competenceSubmission details
Candidate’s Name
Phone No.
Assessor’s Name
Phone No.
Assessment Site
Assessment Date/s
Time/s
In this assessment you will develop a “Professional Development Plan” to help you maintain and develop the skills and knowledge you require to be successful in your current or future role(s).
Step 1:
In this step you will complete the following tasks. They will help you gather information about your personal and professional skills and attributes.
· Personal and Key Skills - Appendix 1
· Job analysis - Appendix 2
(Obtain a copy of your job description from your employer or locate a job description for a role you are interested in working in the future)
· Learning Style Assessment - Appendix 3
· Indicators of stress - Appendix 4
Step 2
In this step you will gather information about your time management skills as well as examining your ability to establish and maintain work goals and achieve business outcomes.
For one working week (5 days) you need to maintain a,
· Daily Activity Log - Appendix 5
Here, you will record the activities that make up your day and whether you have completed some, or all, of the goals you set out to achieve.
Step 3:
In this step you will summarize your findings and give them a score.
· Competency Summary Feedback Sheet - Appendix 6
You then need to obtain feedback about your self-evaluation from 3 clients or colleagues (eg Manager or Trainer).
Step4:
From the information you have gathered in Step 1 and Step 2 consider the following:
· What new skills do you need to acquire and/or maintain to give you a competitive edge in your role?
· What personal attributes do you need to develop and/or maintain to continue being effective in your work-life.
· Do you manage your daily activities and time effectively?
· Are your stress levels affecting your mental and physical health?
· How will your learning style impact on how you improve/maintain your skills?
You now need to complete the SWOT analysis worksheet - Appendix 7
Step 5:
Considering all the above information you now need to complete your
· Professional Development / Action Plan - Appendix 8
Step 6:
In a journal format;
· Explain the findings for each area of reflection eg Personal SWOT analysis and the reasons why you have chosen to include these in your Personal Development Plan and how they relate to your professional competency.
· Discuss your stress level and how these may be impacting on you work and overall productivity.
· Discuss your daily activity and how efficient you are at managing your time.
· Discuss your Learning Style and how this has influenced you in the way(s) you plan to learn or maintain your skills and knowledge.
You are required to submit the following to your trainer for assessment.
1. Completed Templates - 1 to 8
2. Learning Style Summary - Print out from the internet
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2. 2
CONSIDERATIONS
When Planning & Conducting a Research Study
1.Choosing the correct formative usability study setup
2.Recruiting effectively
3.Writing good test tasks
4.Remaining unbiased & facilitating ethically
5.Reporting with metrics
4. 4
HOW SHOULD THE STUDY BE CONDUCTED?
Moderated Unmoderated
An automated remote test with predefined tasks. No
facilitator is present.
An in person or remote test is when the facilitator and participant
are able to communicate in real time.
Remote testing creates a higher chance for technical issues & more time
needs to be spent filtering for quality. The tradeoff is no scheduling is
needed and no man hours are needed to be spent moderating,
Scheduling is needed and more resourcing. However great moderators
create a comfortable environment where participants can speak freely
without any restraints improving the quality of the session.
5. 5
WHAT ENVIRONMENT SHOULD I TEST IN?
Positives
• Participants are usually more relaxed/authentic
• Able to access assistive tech
Negatives
• Less control over user environment
• Travel time
Positives
• A large pool of participants
• Fast results
Negatives
• Technical challenges
• Interruptions
Positives
• The classic lab allows for full control
• Comfortable viewing
Negatives
• No shows
• Expensive
Remote EnvironmentLab SetupUsers Environment / Portable Setup
7. 7
PARTICIPANT RECRUITMENT
You may want to recruit using an external company or self recruit, either way you
need to consider a couple things when it comes to participant recruitment.
• List demographic facts you know about the user
• List behaviors your users exhibit (What needs does
your product serve)
Are you going to self recruit?
• Utilize networks
• Prepare for no shows (Recruit floaters or over recruit)
• Use social media
What will your recruitment criteria be?
How many participants would you like to recruit?
• Identify any different segments you want to recruit (segments
are different types of user with different goals)
• 5-8 participants per segment for behavior driven studies
Screening Criteria Example
9. 9
HOW DO I WRITE GOOD TEST TASKS?
Rules to follow when writing tasks:
Make sure the tasks are realistic
• Make your tasks goal oriented
• Set the context by writing them as a
scenario
Prioritize testing frequent & critical tasks first
• Identify tasks by gathering analytics around
page visits
• Identify tasks by speaking to support
Make sure tasks have a clear end point
(Success validation)
Be careful not to write tasks in away that leads them
• Avoid being overly instructional
• Do not use navigational labels
• Do not use product specific language
11. 11
HOW CAN I MAKE SURE I AM
FACILITATING ETHICALLY?
Set expectations
• Greet participants
• Tell them how the study will work
• Collect recording consent
• Teach them what thinking aloud means
Adapt to the situation
• The participant is uncomfortable, self doubting or struggles
excessively, it is your responsibility to handle these situations.
• You as a facilitator have an ethical responsibility to the participant and
yourself.
12. 12
HOW DO I REMAIN UNBIASED?
Get Useful Information
• Ask open questions to avoid bias
Watch Body Language
• Mirror your participants, nod along and adjust your moderating style
to accommodate.
• Be aware of what non verbal cues you may be doing
*Facilitation Tips
Answer question with question, wait longer to say something, talk less and be ready for
All sorts of situations. Be careful participants do not get into the mode when they say I
think that people would, have them speak to their experience. Always find out who the
tech guy is before a sessions starts.
14. 14
WHAT METRICS SHOULD I USE?
Metrics that are to be collected and make sense for the study should be
established in your test plan, and clearly communicated to observers before
testing starts.
Completion Rate
• (Use binomial confidence interval - Variation in task completion)
Systems Usability Score (SUS)
Single Ease Question (SEQ)
• Avg experience rating vs expectation rating per task
Microsoft Desirability Toolkit
Track errors found & frequency