Mind Maps. Upgrading checklists

I think that every tester (even the rookie) knows such testing artifact as checklist. In bare outlines this artifact is a list of items that need to be checked in scope of certain functionality. In my current company it is generally used for ‘testing’ functionality that is not covered with tests and requires checking of a large amount of objects.


Some testers consider checklist to be good as is – in most cases it’s a rich text file with or without hierarchy that lists all items that are mandatory to be checked in scope of the functionality.

Others are always looking for an opportunity to improve some activities in their work processes. Using Mind Maps as an upgrade for checklist can be considered as such improvement. When using a mind map you represent the items to check in the form of diagram built around the main idea (which is your functionality to be tested) that shows the connections between objects (your check items).


By using a mind map you can make the checking process more transparent, vivid and descriptive. You can focus on a specific part of functionality by collapsing the map branches you are not working on at the moment. The diagram makes the checking progress/status obvious (e.g., using accent colors for: pass, fail, not ran, blocked, etc).


When it comes to choosing tools for mind mapping I advise the following two: 1. Mind Manager (imo, the best one) and 2. Free Mind (well, that one is free)


Also available in russian.