Lesson 5 of 5
Making the recommendation
10 min
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The go/no-go meeting is not where the test lead decides. The business sponsor and steering committee decide. The test lead's job is to give a clear, evidence-based recommendation and to make the residual risk impossible to misunderstand. Hedging ("it depends") forces executives to do your analysis; overselling ("we're fine") spends credibility you will need later.
Three possible recommendations
| Recommendation | When it fits | What must accompany it |
|---|---|---|
| Go | All exit criteria met; residual risks mitigated or formally accepted | Short summary of evidence and accepted risks |
| Go with conditions | Exit criteria met with defined deviations; residual risks have workarounds and owners | Each condition specific, owned, dated and verifiable; what happens if a condition is not met |
| No-go | A critical process is not proven, a critical defect has no workaround, or exit criteria are clearly missed | The gap, the options (more time, reduced scope, accepted risk) and the earliest credible date |
Writing good conditions
Conditions are where weak recommendations hide. "Go, subject to fixing remaining defects" is not a condition; it is a wish. A good condition is specific (which defect or risk), owned (a named person), dated (before go-live, by a day, or within the first close), and verifiable (how will we know it is met?). Each condition also states the consequence if it is not met: delay, fallback or escalation.
- SpecificWhich defect or risk, such as DEF-1201
- OwnedA named person, such as the P2P lead
- DatedBefore go-live, by a day, or within the first close
- VerifiableHow everyone will know it is met
- ConsequenceDelay, fallback or escalation if it is not met
| Weak condition | Decision-ready condition |
|---|---|
| Fix the open high defects | DEF-1201 (payment run proposal excludes Lakeside Components): fix transported and retested by Thursday 18:00; owner: P2P lead; if not met, payments to that supplier are run manually in week 1, approved by Dan |
| Finance to monitor postings | Dan's team reviews export credit memo postings in company code 1710 daily for the first month and reclassifies; reported in hypercare stand-up |
| Complete remaining tests | Two deferred UAT scripts for plan to produce executed in the first week after go-live by the plant 1720 key user; failures handled as priority-1 incidents |
Turning weak conditions into ones a steering committee can track.
Structure of the recommendation
- The recommendation in one sentence. "Testing recommends go with three conditions."
- The basis. Exit criteria status, coverage of critical processes and high risks, trend summary.
- Residual risk. The few risks that remain, with workarounds, owners and acceptances.
- Conditions. Specific, owned, dated, verifiable, with consequences.
- What would change the recommendation. For example, a new critical defect in the cutover rehearsal.
Standing firm and staying useful
Sometimes the evidence supports no-go and the pressure to go is intense. Stay factual: state what is not proven and what could happen, and offer options that would make go possible, such as going live without one process, extending the cycle by a week, or accepting a specific risk at sponsor level. The decision is theirs; the clarity is yours. Equally, do not let perfectionism block a sound go: residual risk is normal, and a release with well-understood, accepted, mitigated risk is ready.
What would you do?
At Contoso's go/no-go, all exit criteria are met except one: a high defect in the payment run for one supplier, Lakeside Components, with a manual payment workaround. Dan has accepted the risk in writing. Grace asks for Priya's recommendation. What should it be?
Before and after the meeting
Never surprise the steering committee. Walk the main process owners and the PMO lead through the recommendation a day ahead, so the meeting confirms a position everyone has seen rather than debating it for the first time. Rehearse the two or three questions you expect, such as "what happens if the payment run fix slips?", and have the answer and the evidence ready.
After a go decision, the conditions become tracked items. Review them daily in the cutover and hypercare stand-ups until each is closed, and report closure to the sponsor. A condition that quietly lapses turns a well-managed go into an unmanaged risk, and it undermines the credibility of the next recommendation you make.
- Day beforeWalk-throughProcess owners and Grace see the recommendation; expected questions rehearsed
- Go/no-go meetingRecommendation and decisionPriya recommends; the sponsor and steering committee decide
- Same dayDecision recordedConditions, owners, dates and accepted risks attached to the evidence pack
- Cutover and hypercareDaily reviewEach condition tracked in the stand-ups
- ClosureReported to sponsorEvery condition closed or escalated, none left to lapse
- The test lead recommends; the sponsor and steering committee decide.
- Choose go, go with conditions or no-go, and support it with exit criteria, coverage, trends and residual risk.
- Conditions are specific, owned, dated, verifiable and state the consequence if not met.
- Record the decision, conditions and acceptances with the evidence pack.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Who makes the go/no-go decision?
2. Which is a decision-ready condition?
3. When does "no-go" fit?
4. What should be recorded after the meeting?