1.1Documents That Guide Testing, Not Gather Dust

A test plan that nobody reads is worse than no test plan at all -- it creates an illusion of rigor while providing none of the value. The most common failure mode in QA documentation is the 50-page test plan that took a week to write, was reviewed by nobody, and became obsolete before the first test was executed. The goal is not to produce a document. The goal is to align the team on what will be tested, how, and why -- and to create a reference that guides testing decisions throughout the project.