Three times in the last week, I’ve gotten the following question, in various forms: “How do I start?” Seems a simple enough question, but after some probing, the basic issue seems to be “blinking cursor syndrome”. Blinking cursor is the disease that sets in, right after install, when the tool is up and running, but the user doesn’t know how or where to begin.
Frankly, in a large testing project, I can easily see this happening. There’s so much to be done, and at scale, little mistakes can evolve into big problems. The problem of course, is that every environment is different, and a couple of blog posts are not really going to suffice.
My recommendation is this. Head over to ibm.com/developerworks and start with the Mike Kelly series on “Managing your first project with IBM Rational Quality Manager“. Mike is an experienced test project consultant and leader, and has written a series of 6 articles on getting started with IBM Rational Quality Manager. They’re an excellent resource, and a good generic, widely applicable answer to “How Do I Start?”
