Note: These are 4 resolutions I have chosen for myself.  I am not presenting them as any kind of mandate. 

Teamwork: Whether you think the world has gotten more or less polarized, we can all play our own parts in cutting through the “us vs. them” mentality that builds silos between departments or even within teams.  Whether you’re QA, Development, or Operations, we all want to get a quality next release out the door on or ahead of schedule, and for better or worse that means working together and sharing knowledge and skills to achieve it, while heeding each other’s responsibilities.  Be an “us”, not an “us vs. Them”.  The goal?  Making friends, learning new things, working better, being happier.

Documentation: To test beyond the expected (as well as the expected), one must determine what is expected.  And if no one has clearly written it out, it might as well be you who states it clearly.  An idea map, a spreadsheet, a chart, a formal document, a wiki page – all are valid forms for communicating details for easy human parsing.  They can all make it easier the next time someone needs to know how something works, or needs to know structure, or how database fields tie together, all of which can become a basis of test planning and test case design.  The goal?  Finding common ground, saving time.

Education: Keep the humility to realize you don’t know it all, and the eagerness to absorb new knowledge, be it an application, testing tool, methodology, industry, sub-industry, shortcut, automation command, management tool, or anything else.  It is easy to learn more about what you already know because you are comfortable there, and easy to learn something new because it presents a new opportunity.  I must learn at least one new area that is totally new to me.  The goal?  Working better.

Efficiency: The words “This may help you do your job better” should make your ears perk up.  In this shift-left world, a little extra upfront learning and upfront work can help minimize later efforts, or provide structure to a more ad-hoc, haphazard process.  The goal?  Working better.

OK, those are my resolutions.  What testing-related resolutions are you making for yourself?