Improve Testing Effectiveness Training

Testers' ability to identify, assess and prioritize risk is critical to having the right test focus. Objective, quantitative methods for risk assessment generally do not work well. And s ubjective, intuitive methods for risk assessment are derived as much or more from emotion and psychology rather than "logic".

A possible new breakthrough is "prospect theory", which won the Nobel Prize in 2004 in Economics. This theory identifies the circumstances under which people are likely to overestimate or underestimate probabilities. It also shows how attitudes about risk affect behavior.