I was reminded of the saying today, “Does the right hand know what the left is doing?” I got a marketing call from a client asking if I was interested in their service. It was a great confirmation that updates I made to their form software worked. It was also a confirmation that we as web developers need to make sure that the recipient knows that testing is happening.

Here are some questions that come to mind that I should ask before running a test:

• Should your customers be involved in this test?
• If not, how can we insure they don’t get the test email notifications, etc.?
• Will people know the difference between a test message and a live message?
• Has everyone been trained on the new processes and changes as a result of the updates?

It is sometimes easy to get caught up in the technical aspects of an application and we forget that they support human processes sometimes. We need to make sure those get tested as well, even if by mistake.

And no, I am not interested in enrolling in your school, but thanks for the call.