All about “The Nightmare Headlines Game”

Ohh, what fun we had today!

So, today Bhavesh Sukhdeve, Akshatha, and I played “The Nightmare Headline Game” from the book Explore It! – by Elisabeth Hendrickson

Here’s how it went:

Step 1: Setting the stage 😎
Since the three of us worked on different modules in the project, we all considered a common app ‘X’ (e-commerce application) for this game. We imagined ourselves waking up to some alarming news headlines about our product.
Now we had to think what could be those possible headlines and list them.

Step 2: Gather the Headlines🤯🙉
When everyone had their headlines listed down, we discussed all of them. It was super fun reading each other’s headlines. Some of them were:

– Customer receives Mysorepak (sweetbox) instead of iPhone by ordering through X website.
– iPhone 14 pro max sold out for only Re. 1 on X application for 1 min due to a technical glitch.
– X application was fined heftily for not following RBI and NPCI guidelines.
– X application’s algorithm malfunction. Shows irrelevant products to customers.
– X app’s checkout page experiences performance issues. Customers abandon carts due to the delay.
– X application’s customers panic as user accounts are compromised in a cyber attack. 
– X application crashed during the MegaSale.
– iPhone users are unable to log in to X app.
– Customers of the X app receive incorrect and defective products.
– X app’s inventory management system fails, and orders cannot be fulfilled.

Step 3: Choose a risk💣🚒🧯
We reviewed and discussed the risks based on their severity. We picked up a risk “X application’s customers panic as user accounts compromised in cyber attack”

Step 4: Brainstorm contributing causes🧠🚀
Next, we tried to think on what could be the possible causes of that risk. 
– Weak user authentication system
– Inadequate network security measures
– Insufficient data encryption and protection
– Due to third-party integrations
– No proper monitoring system in place

Step 5: Refine causes into Charters📝📌
Once we had the causes listed we tried to frame the charters:

– Explore the App’s user authentication mechanisms to find vulnerabilities.
– Explore the App’s network security measures to protect against external threats and unauthorized access
– Explore the App’s data encryption and protection techniques for sensitive data such as user info, card details, payment info, transaction details, etc.
– Explore the security of third-party integrations to mitigate the risk of any vulnerability.
– Explore the App’s monitoring capabilities and incident responses to detect any breaches.

Some takeaways from this session today
– What are charters? Why do we need them?
– Think and brainstorm ideas
– How to identify risks?
– How to shift perspectives?
– How to prepare charters and drive your testing?

Also, we’ve figured out,
– How to turn boring afternoons to fun learning. Learning through games excites people more than following slides 🙂 (Expressions say it all) 😊