Design Evaluation

The earliest form of testing is design evaluation. Testing during this stage of the implementation is often neglected. Development work should not start until requirements are well understood, and the design can fully address the requirements. All stakeholders should be involved in reviewing the design. Both the business analyst and business user, who defined the requirements, should approve the design.

An example design evaluation process is illustrated in the following image and includes the following steps:

1. Review Design for accuracy and completeness.

2. Perform usability review.

3. Prioritize requirement/usability gaps.

4. If there are critical gaps, then scope the design gap and either revise the design (if time) or set up a change management process (to handle later).

5. If there are non-critical gaps, then log defects for same.

For more information, see Reviewing Design and Usability.