Besides finding bugs and other issues with games, a tester also provides the key information to stakeholders through information artefacts. It is an important process where the results are presented in the form of test reports, verbal accounts or bug reports. To achieve the maximum accuracy and output from these artefacts, a tester needs to keep a few things in mind. A comprehensive information artefact should have some common traits, which can be mutually beneficial for both testers and stakeholders and should yield the maximum output.
Important Attributes Of An Information Artifact:
An information artefact should have accurate and valuable information, which should be complemented by every important detail. At the same time, this information should be easily understandable and presented in the right format to avoid any confusion. In the end, the most important thing is that the methods and means detailed in the artefact to iron out a bug should be cost effective, which make game testing services viable and implementable.
Effective Information:
The process begins by finding the right information, which ultimately makes an artefact valuable. Any trivial information should not be filed in the bug repository, as it would waste a lot of time and would not yield any results.
The bedrock of any information artefact is accuracy. Thus, stakeholders should get all the accurate information from these artefacts including events, environments, outcomes and states among other factors. Any uncertainty in detailing will cause a lot of harm in the overall process of testing. The information provided in these artefacts should be easily understandable. So, they should be written with the right/proper language, abbreviations and terminology. The stakeholders should understand all the provided information in these artefacts and make complete use of the information mined.
Formatting And Cost:
It does happen almost every time that stakeholders get multiple information artefacts regarding the same bugs or test reports. To make the process of information filtration easy for them, these artefacts should come in specific formats so that they can be used correctly. Besides offering the right information, these artefacts would also save a lot of additional handling cost.
Before dispersing the information, tester and stakeholders should agree upon a format for future exchange of information. An information artefact has to be valuable, accurate and should come with credible information, but ultimately it has to be bound by cost-effective steps/measures. Much of all depends upon the testers engaged in the process. Stakeholders cannot deduce the expected cost of these artefacts. At best, regular stakeholders of a game title would want all the relevant information at one place to effect a deduction. But it’s the tester whose role is defined by the effort to find irregularities and facilitate the list of artefacts.
Thus, it becomes imperative for the testers to take the responsibility to make it a cost effective endeavour and let the artefacts comprise of only the important information to save the money and time of the entire game development and delivery process.
Article by,
Laxmikant B. Thipse
Founder & CEO
GameCloud Technologies Pvt Ltd
