“How Do You Really Know?” – 19 Questions Every Healthcare IT Leader Should Ask About Software Validation

Validation is a non-negotiable part of deploying critical lab, clinical, and integration software. But for too many organizations, it’s also a black box—filled with spreadsheets, email chains, status silos, and late-night scrambling to compile documentation for inspectors.

If your team is managing dozens of concurrent projects—from LIS upgrades to new instrument rollouts to EHR optimizations—how do you really know what’s been tested, what’s been missed, and whether you’re ready for a quality audit?

Here are 19 tough but essential questions to ask yourself—and your team—about your current validation process:

✅ Are You Confident in What You’ve Tested?

1. How will you be sure you tested everything you should?
   Manual spreadsheets make it easy to overlook critical functionality.

2. Has every issue been fully resolved and re-tested?
   It’s all too common for defects to get lost in email or never make it back into the retest queue.

3. Are all your testers executing at the same quality level?
   Or are some cutting corners unintentionally due to lack of tools or experience?

4. Are your testing results backed by reliable, traceable evidence?

📊 Do You Know Where You Stand?

5. How do you really know how far along your testing is?
   Is your status based on actual data—or someone’s optimistic guess?

6. If you don’t know how many test scripts are left, how can you commit to go-live?

7. Are your project managers spending half their time chasing updates?

8. When a project falls behind, how long does it take to diagnose the cause?

9. Would real-time dashboards showing test and defect status change how you manage timelines?

📥 Is Your Issue and Approval Workflow Broken?

10. How are testers logging defects—do they have to stop and switch tools?

11. Are issues ever lost in inboxes or forgotten in spreadsheets?

12. Are your teams (lab, IT, approvers) working in the same system—or in silos?

13. How easy is it for approvers to review and sign off—especially remotely or under time pressure?

📄 Can You Prove Compliance—Anytime?

14. Who’s ensuring your validation documentation is audit-ready for UKAS, MHRA, or CAP inspections?

15. How confident are you that every step, approval, and screenshot can be traced and defended?

16. How much time does your team spend compiling final validation reports?

17. Would one-click, inspection-ready reports change how you prepare for audits?

⚡ Are You Working Smarter—or Just Harder?

18. How much of your validation process is still manual, email-based, or copy-paste driven?

19. What would it mean to your team if validation wasn’t a bottleneck—but a streamlined part of your go-live process?

👀 What to Do If You’re Asking These Questions

If these questions hit a little too close to home, you’re not alone. Validation has long been a necessary but burdensome part of healthcare IT delivery. But it doesn’t have to be.

Modern tools like Cymetryc help teams:

• Automate test execution and documentation
• Track progress in real-time
• Streamline issue management and approvals
• Generate audit-ready reports in a single click

You can work smarter and prove it.

🔗 Let’s Talk

If you’re ready to take the guesswork, grunt work, and risk out of validation, let’s have a conversation.