Communication during a Test Cycle

If you have questions about a particular test cycle, please utilize the Discussion Thread. However, do not use this feature for disputing your bugs or requesting the customer to review your bugs for validity. Furthermore, do not ever mention anything about payout rates and bug approval in the Discussion Thread or Tester Messenger (see below for details about Tester Messenger).

Keep in mind that the customer reviews all of these discussion thread messages, so please keep your communication professional at all times. If you are concerned about privacy or perhaps the nature of your question is complicated, you may email the project manager directly and include the name of the test cycle in the email subject line (the project manager's email address is typically found under the Scope & Instructions tab).

If your questions are more general to uTest, such as how to submit bugs, you may create a new topic on the Forums, or contact testers@utest.com (be sure to review relevant articles in the Help Topics before submitting your question).
Test Team Leads (TTL) may also be present in a Test Cycle. TTLs are select members of the uTest community who contribute in certain test cycle activities that are usually reserved for project managers. Because of their special role, you may interact with them in future test cycles via the Tester Messenger or Discussion Thread. Ultimately, their role is to facilitate the process of approving and rejecting bugs, so please treat TTLs with the same level of respect as you would with customers or project managers.

Below are a few ways in which TTLs facilitate a test cycle activities:

• Send recommendation for bugs and other reports (report status will change from New to Pending Approval)
• Request for more information via the Tester Messenger
• Communicate with the customer via Customer Notes (not visible to testers)

Discussion Thread FAQs:

• What is a Discussion Thread? The Discussion Thread is a method of communication between testers, customers, and uTest project managers. Unlike the Tester Messenger feature, Discussion Thread topics can be initiated and replied to by all testers who participate in the test cycle. Topics should be specific to the test cycle; otherwise, please post general questions to the Forums (however, never post a bug to the discussion thread to request if it is valid or not).

• Who can participate in Discussion Threads? Testers who are invited to a test cycle and accept the Test Cycle Agreement, as well as the customer for that particular project, are able to view and contribute to questions and answers in a Discussion Thread.

• Is the discussion thread visible to everyone? Discussion thread messages are not only for communication amongst testers. They are visible to our customers and uTest project managers. So please remember to keep communication professional at all times

• Does every Test Cycle have its own Discussion Thread? The availability of the Discussion Thread feature is dependent upon the customer (most test cycles have one).

• I am receiving a lot of emails from the Discussion Thread, can I unsubscribe from these? If you have entered into a test cycle and clicked on a discussion thread, you will receive email notification for subsequent new topics and replies to this particular discussion thread. Currently, there is no option to control these email notifications (this feature is planned for the future builds of our platform).

Tester Messenger FAQs:

• What is the Tester Messenger? Tester Messenger is a communication tool that is specific to individual bug reports. The customer can initiate communication with a tester, which triggers an email notification to the tester who reported that specific bug. After signing in to the uTest platform and clicking on the specific bug in question, the tester will be able to read and add new comments relating to the bug. One note of caution: Please communicate professionally with customers. If you wish to dispute an incorrectly rejected bug, you may use the Dispute feature (never use the Tester Messenger to dispute or ask the customer to approve your bug).

Tester Messenger: