The level of uncertainty and potential for failure that an organisation is willing to accept when making decisions about what to ship, when to ship it, and how thoroughly to test it. In testing, understanding a team's risk appetite is essential for making good prioritisation decisions: it determines how much exploratory testing to do, when it is acceptable to ship with known issues, and which areas of the product must never fail.
Risk appetite tends to be higher in early-stage startups (where speed matters more than stability) and lower in regulated industries or at scale.
For example: a startup accepting the risk of a rough onboarding flow to get to their first paying customers faster; or a fintech team requiring full regression on every payment path regardless of time pressure.
Risk appetite tends to be higher in early-stage startups (where speed matters more than stability) and lower in regulated industries or at scale.
For example: a startup accepting the risk of a rough onboarding flow to get to their first paying customers faster; or a fintech team requiring full regression on every payment path regardless of time pressure.
