Thumb vote for priority

Sometimes, when reviewing charters with the team, I look to them to help provide some insight into what we should be focused on with our testing. One technique is to walk your list of charters (all twenty or them, or all 200) and have each person provide some insight into where they think it falls in priority. To facilitate this, I sometimes use a thumb vote.

When thumb voting, everyone must vote. There is no sideline. Since I usually use three levels of charter priority (A, B, and C), those map as follows:

  • thumb up = A

  • thumb sideways = B

  • thumb down = C


What I find is that for most charters, most people on the team are on the same page (or really close). Every now and then, you have to make a decision on a close tie (but since you're the test lead, you're use to doing that anyway). Sometimes however, you see some odd votes. Like four up and four down. Those votes normally lead to some really great conversations. Often, people misunderstand the charter or have a different understanding of the risk involved. This surfaces those differences.

It's also fun. (In an I'm-a-tester-so-voting-on-charters-is-fun sort of way.)