Every objective has certain elements that are fundamental to its success. These include the supporting tasks or systems that we take for granted but without which our “real” work could not get done. In order for any organization or team to meet its primary objectives, these fundamentals need to be functioning properly.

There's a simple rule for the minimum values testers should explore: “none, one, some”—or, how the software behaves if you send it nothing, one thing, or some set greater than one. It's not comprehensive, but it gives a good feel for how the feature works at the moment. Developers can also use this in unit testing.

When you test medical device software, you must be very careful. But when development wants to push a cadence of two weeks per sprint, every sprint, you’ve just got to keep up! Interpret the regulatory requirements not as a set of disabling constraints, but as a challenge to find the optimal route to navigate through.