Handling 'Risk' in Testing - [ISTQB - Advanced Level Test Analyst]

Question

The following question appeared in a sample exam question :

Q. 157: According to the ISTQB syllabus, major ways to handle risks are:

• I. Mitigate the risk through preventive measures.
• II. Make contingency plans to reduce impact if risk occurs.
• III. Transfer the risk to someone else to handle.
• IV. Ignore and accept the risk.

A. I, II and III true

B. I, II and IV true

C. II, III, IV true

D. I, II, III, IV true

The answer chosen by the site was D which means that it is OK to choose any of the four options to handle risk.

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My question is : Is it advisable to do the following as a method of handling risk?

• Transfer the risk to someone else to handle.
• Ignore and accept the risk.

Answer 1

Yes, but it depends of course.

Transfer the risk to someone else to handle.

If this someone handles the risk for you adequately this seems perfectly fine. In a company you should be able to trust when you delegate something to someone it gets handled satisfactory.

Ignore and accept the risk.

This is perfectly acceptable for example when the effort of mitigating the risk is higher than the costs when it happens. Sometimes you can take a risk when the business needs focus on something different for a while, mostly this might be another risk like being faster than a competitor.

Still make sure you calculate the risk and make a good decision. Never just ignore it, make sure you also accept it.