Functionality is just one 'ility we can test
28 May 2026
In this moment:
Jesper Ottosen
Space Seagull
On a recent online meetup we discussed how testers often get stuck on testing Functionality.
If you look around just a little bit there are at least 100 other system quality attributes to consider.
accessability, scaleability... (aka the ilities)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_system_quality_attributes
When we try to step up and out of this functional bias, we need to find something that is important for our stakeholder to support, yet currently less prioritized. Perhaps there's already a security team or operations team that handle some of the ilities.
Resilience and recoverability is a favorite example of mine. But read the room. It does require to listen and analyze stakeholder needs and wants: What are they trying to achieve - and how do we help them do it.
Sync with all the others in your company that handle 'ilities, I'm sure you will find common ground. It has to reveal other avenues to lead the testing beyond functionality.
If you look around just a little bit there are at least 100 other system quality attributes to consider.
accessability, scaleability... (aka the ilities)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_system_quality_attributes
When we try to step up and out of this functional bias, we need to find something that is important for our stakeholder to support, yet currently less prioritized. Perhaps there's already a security team or operations team that handle some of the ilities.
Resilience and recoverability is a favorite example of mine. But read the room. It does require to listen and analyze stakeholder needs and wants: What are they trying to achieve - and how do we help them do it.
Sync with all the others in your company that handle 'ilities, I'm sure you will find common ground. It has to reveal other avenues to lead the testing beyond functionality.
Jesper Ottosen
Principal Consultant
him/his
Jesper has been around the MoT community from the start, frequently passing by the Club and Slack. For more than 10 years he has provided 300+ blogposts on all things testing. 🌻
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Ady Stokes
I created a lesson on ’ilities’ when creating a software tester apprenticeship. Felt a fun way to talk about a serious subject
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