Consulting & Strategy Jargon · Vice President level

"Stress test"

"Stress test" means to deliberately push a system, plan, or assumption to its limits to find out where it will fail before it fails in real conditions.

Say this instead: test under pressure

How "Stress test" shows up at work

Borrowed from engineering and finance, where it has a precise meaning. In strategy sessions it means 'what if we challenge this plan a little,' which is useful but rarely as rigorous as the term implies.

Buzzword

We should stress test these assumptions before presenting to the board.

Plain English

We should test these assumptions under pressure before presenting to the board.

Corporate Rank: Vice President · Category: Consulting & Strategy Jargon

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