If you’re looking to invest your own money, or to jump out of an airplane for the first time there, etc are tons of questions you ask yourself. Can I afford it? What are the reviews of the company? Is it safe? What am I risking? Why do you go through all of these questions, and why is the risk one of them? Because risk is a big ass deal – risk matters.

Now, think of companies and how much risk affects them. They employ people, so if a big enough risk is taken and it goes poorly that can result in layoffs, the product failing, their brands reputation tanking, etc.

A huge part of your job in QA is determining risk, and raising concerns. I spend so many meetings asking a barrage of questions to make sure I understand what we’re doing and have as much information as possible, and that those I’m working with also understand. By doing so, I’m better able to grasp the risk and from there determine the level of testing needed, if I feel like I need to pull in an extra set of eyes or consult with the security team, or if I should bring up any additional concerns.

Most companies have a rating system for bugs/tickets such as low, medium high, P0, P1, P2, and so on to account for risk. And, depending on compliance and things there may be certain rules in place for something of a high or P0 risk as to how it’s tested, who has eyes on it, a rollback plan, etc.

Risk is an everyday part of my job even now. It affects what you manually test, what you automate, how much time you spend testing, etc. I’m a huge advocate for risk based testing, and it’s honestly the way I start all of my testing on any project. Like I said before, risk really fucking matters.