TL;DR

Risk analysis, and later software testing coverage for those risks, is a vital project metric. Here is one real case of risk analysis from my daily activities.

I live on the first floor in a five-floor building. I use the stairs 99% of my time, using them as daily exercise. To use them safely for other neighbor’s children, I had to do a risk analysis.

I did it in my head during my walk as another type of exercise. From the picture above, you can see that ground floor doors from the stairway are on the right side of the elevator door. This is the case for all floors. My building has a lot of families with small children age 1 to 5. Risk is that children are at that age, the most unpredictable creatures. The learning opportunity is on every corner, and they are not aware of those doors. While waiting for the elevator with their parents, they could be in front of stairway doors. Those doors are opening from stairways to the ground floor. As being the anti-fire door, they are very heavy. I must be cautious while I am opening the doors.

My risk heuristic is that there is always a child in front of those doors. I first listen, then I open them slowly by lurking through the available space.

Another example was during my long walk around Jarun lake. In front of me was a father with his boy. I was walking using the minimal path, opposite this boy’s path. He was investigating stuff along the path. The dead bird, a pile of land or leaves. Everything was exploring opportunity. Weather was wet, so the boy’s shoes were in the mud. And his shoe cleaning approach with available grass along the path was my learning opportunity.