1. Reminding the team to stop and think about planning in a structured way, versus banging out the default document set. Eisenhower had a good quote: “Plans are nothing; planning is everything.”

2. Cem’s question of: is the plan a tool versus a product has to be answered early in the project. That answer will set the context for prioritizing the qualities of the project’s technical documentation.

3. Planning works best if the whole technical team engages in the conversation. My technical black-holes as the test lead are sometimes solved easily by developers. And vice versa. Somethings we all need to recalibrate on the goals and priorities.

4. Many testers claim to use the heuristics you’ve listed. But do they have an organized method (that they can easily explain) to apply the heuristics? There is value in having a method, practicing it, and consistently applying it – increases testing skill level.