How do personas support quality beyond correctness?

This question is taken from the AMA about quality beyond correctness, and comes from Simon Tomes.

Personas are a great tool, which can be used for testing at any stage of the SDLC.  They key is to use rich personas which go beyond the user's role or permission set in the software.  They should look at other factors too, including any disabilities, their mental state, and the wider context of what prompted them to use the product we're testing.  We can take on the role and mindset of each persona to think about the product, problem space, and bigger picture in different ways.  This often inspires various questions, test scenarios, and test charters.  It can also prompt us to think about how quality is subjective to each individual, and how we might create an experience which serves the needs of more than one group or type of user.

I have a talk on (Mis)Using Personas with the Seven Dwarfs, which you can watch on the MoTaverse.  It goes into more detail about how you can go about creating personas which can be used for testing for quality beyond correctness.

Thanks for your question, Simon!

Find all the questions and answers to this AMA in the AMA About Quality Beyond Correctness collection.