Over the years, the single most requested feature was to add more interactivity to RiskStormingOnline.com.
Rightfully so, since the workshop’s strenght lies in collaboration, creativity and knowledge sharing.
Shuffling the cards around, being drawn in by a card and suddenly connect it to a challenge,…
With the new features, we give more power and freedom to the participants, while still pulling the strings as a moderator.

The Basics

In the Quality Coach version of RiskStormingOnline you’ll find some extra features!

Moderators can now share a newly created session by copy-pasting a unique link.
This enables people with no access, nor account to RiskStorming to join a session anyway and explore on their own.

Added perks for participants are:

• Prepare in their own time
• Interact with the application
  • Phase 1: Vote on Quality Aspect Cards
  • Phase 2: Add their own Risks to Selected Quality Aspects
  • Phase 3: Drag and drop Solution to and from Risks
  • Phase 4: Add Action Items to Risks

 The Flow

There are many ways to apply these new features and we’re excited to find out all the creative ways you will use them to add value to your products and projects.
However, just to get you started, here’s a simple example you can follow to dip your toes in the water.

Monday morning:

1. As a moderator, create a new session
2. Make it a shared session by clicking the slider
3. Copy the link
4. Send the link to your team members
5. Ask your team members to vote for 6 blue cards each by the end of the day
6. Tell them that you’ll discuss the outcomes with them the day after and it will take 15-20 minutes.

This gives them time to read the cards, process the problem space and already form ideas, opinions and questions.
Make sure you schedule those 15-20 minutes at a convenient time: Before or after the Daily, lunch,…

Tuesday:

1. Get your team members into a call and have them open up the session again. Preferably on a second monitor, so you can still see each other.
2. Sort the blue cards on the number of votes and go over them one by one.
3. The first couple of cards will probably go quickly, as most people seem to agree on them. However, make sure you ask a few questions to challenge assumptions. You could prepare these questions in advance.
4. When the votes become more similar, discussion should either happen naturally, or triggered by you, the moderator. Which cards make the cut and which don’t?
5. At the end, have room for cards to be championed by anyone in the room. It could be that someone feels strongly about something that was neglected by the rest and that voice should always be heard.
6. Next Assignment: By the next meeting, think about big risks that could negatively impact the Quality Aspects that were chosen. Give them the assignment to come up with at least one risk for each Quality Aspect.
7. Just like the day before, tell them that you’ll discuss the outcomes with them the day after and it will take 15-20 minutes.

Don’t let the meeting drag out, be rigorous with your time limit. If anything is important enough to be said, you’ll hear about it after the meeting and you can follow up if necessary.
Show people how to navigate around Phase 2 before letting them go.
Book the meeting.

Wednesday:

1. Get your team members into a call and have them open up the session again.
2. Work through the risks by discussing their relevance, clarifying them and ask important questions.
   1. Question Likelihood and Impact
   2. Question what could trigger them
   3. Question what the outcome would be
   4. Question what could underlying causes
3. Remove duplicates & irrelevant risks
4. Explain that these risks are important in that they are the opposite of what Quality is. They determine possible failure.

The risks you select and their perceived relevance will largely determine how people will estimate the success of the RiskStorming workshop. Make sure you frame the risks in such a way that they are understood and felt.
Your ending words will have a similar effect. Be sure to mention how important it is to define Quality and its possible risks, not only for testers to know what to look for, but also to shape the general awareness around what failure could look like and how this will influence decisions being made for weeks to come.

Have a look at these Looms

Participant View

Moderator View

the moderator view