"Some birds aren't meant to be caged, their feathers are just too bright"- Morgan Freeman, Shawshank Redemption. This blog is from one such bird who couldn't be caged by organizations who mandate scripted software testing. Pradeep Soundararajan welcomes you to this blog and wishes you a good time here and even otherwise.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Time for Indian testers to be very proud

Hi Reader,

I have a happy news for you all and can you all guess what it is ?

No, you cannot, I am sure.

Well, let me break the news for you "In a poll conducted about the quality of Indian Testing Services with around 150 managers in US, whose company outsourced testing to Indian companies - all managers had to unanimously say about Indian testers... “Those people need their tests fed to them through a straw” and “They say ‘yes’ even when they don’t understand what we are asking for.”

"Pradeep, why is it a happy news, isn't it dissapointing" if you by mistake utter this..
I would say ...
"Come on, we have achieved of getting the name we deserve as we do not want to think, want to be spoon fed always, want to remain lazy..."

Ah guys .. let me walk you through some more interesting stuff ...

__ Time for Indian testers to be very proud __

What have we done to ourselves ?
  1. We, feared our career growth and did not escalate issues that were affecting the quality of a product. Sometimes sick minded colleague, co-worker, lead and managers contribute to a larger extent to the downfall of a product quality.
  2. We, as organizations, as management of a company are bothered on the head count and not on the quality of head count hired.
  3. We, as testers, used testing as an entry point to join software industry and later used faked or other stupid gimmicks to make it into development.
  4. We, as testers, when we found something going wrong with the whole process feared to complain and we know people are not receptive to ideas. If we further put up our views in a gentle way, the egoistic seniors snub and fire us. ( I have done this and can you guess the outcome?)
  5. We, as test leads and test managers have spent time expressing the powers of our position than on improving the efficiency of tester and mentoring them.
  6. We, as the Indian testing community, are worried whether automation tools will get us job or manual testing will spoil our lives.
  7. We, as the Indian testing community, want to compare our salaries with developers or with other testers or with testers in different organizations than comparing our skills and trying to better it.
  8. We, as Indian testing community, have specialized ourselves in confusing the fresh and young minds by pressing the need for certification in testing and tools.
  9. We, as Indian testing community, do not even know, whom to ask, where to ask, when to ask, what to ask and why to ask some of our doubts.
  10. We, as Indian testing community, do not even know that, we are spoiling our country's name just by sitting in our cubicles.

__ Time for Indian testers to be very proud __

"Pradeep, you have hyped this issue" - Are you one among who will ask this to me?

Not at all, Not a single bit of hype but plain truth!

"Pradeep, did you want to rename the title to ' Time for Indian testers to be ashamed ' ?"

Not at all, Let me tell you who among us have saved our name from sinking ...

Testers in MphasiS company, Bangalore have excelled and have satisfied their US customers with good results through ad-hoc testing.

I appreciate and am proud of still being in Bangalore, the software capital of India because of the testers at MphasiS who were able to get satisfy the customers with quality work.

Points to note before you extend your bad tounge -

  1. I am not against all other company testers but I have heard/seen and experienced that the quality of a tester even in some BIG BIG companies are worse and there are no signs of improving things.
  2. I have seen/experienced some testers being sent back from US to India by the customers for their poor quality of work and being replaced by another poor quality guy- Customer feels "If I send this guy too, I may have to meet another guy with same quality, so let this guy stay". (Leads and managers are no exception)
  3. I am sure, there are more companies that do good or even better testing than what MphasiS has done but I am sorry that I am unaware and cannot list it here.
  4. If you are one good tester and you are getting offended by this post, good, start thinking of making your colleagues as good testers too since you alone being a good tester did not bring a good name to the country.
  5. If you are in management, take the risk of getting just few customers rather than overloading your testers and help your organization to get such a good name.
  6. Say to yourself "Yes, I will prove and improve the country's name and then shout at Pradeep".

That's all I need from you !

"A small pat from the customer is a giant leap to your country"

Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan

pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

Disclaimer: This post was to hurt those testers who have been spoiling themselves without being aware that they are contributing to their country's name being spoilt internationally. I would be deeply hurt if they are not hurt after reading this post. The above data of 150 Test Managers at US commenting about the quality of Indian testers and the fact of MphasiS testers getting a great pat from their customers was taken from THIS ! I should admit that not all testers at Mphasis would be good, there may be someone like us sitting there too.

Note: Pass this to the testers you may know at MphasiS, I would want to get in touch with them as I do not know any one there.

12 comments:

Mallik said...

I think the entire problem is because of organizations perspective of hiring second grade candidates or those who fail as developers for testing. The reasons may be cost savings (low salaries) or anyother thing. Atleast now organizations should hire good candidates as testers and pay them equally as their developer counterparts to retain them in testing.

My Blog

Anonymous said...

Hai pradeep,
wonderful job you have done,
keep it up!,I will do and prove my level best to my organization.

Anonymous said...

Stupendous piece of work!!! I do not think tester and Developers matters when Pay comes it realy depends on your skills and ability to negotiate...If you have skills then why an Organisation will not give you what you deserve..

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

Well Tarik, Although you are my friend, excuse me for highlighting something from what comment you have posted.

"The discussion above is not on pay but on improving our qualities as testers and moreover, you are right that a deserving candidate gets more"

I have seen some organizations who say "We do not need super testers for the petty job we have, we need not hire such a guy for double pay of ordinary testers"

All over India, testers should realize it and not just me and you alone.

Anonymous said...

Hi Pradeep,

This is a very good topic.I and some friends are facing the same situation.We are not allowed to put our views for the improvement of the quality of the deliverables/testing.And the person who shakes his/her head like a donkey in accordance with the manager gets a promotion.And soon that person will sit on our head and will dictate the terms.It's a scary situation but we are help less.Can you suggest some solution? :)

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

Hi Anon...

It is good to note that you and your friends want to raise a question or suggest an improvement but all of you people are doing the same mistake as I did sometime back ... "worrying about my suggestions not being deemed".

Do not worry, document everything and ensure when you become a manager you encourage people to come up with new ideas and last but not least, keep putting up suggestions, give time for people who are not open to comments.

Currently, one thing I like the most about my manager is he is open to any ideas and takes care in replying if one of the idea did not make sense for the organization.It is tough to find one such but I am sure you too would find it.

Keep in mind, let us leave the next generation in peace rather than making them fight the same issues again and again.

Further discussion over mail !

Anonymous said...

Pradeep, very well said.

>>>We, as organizations, as management of a company are bothered on the head count and not on the quality of head count hired.

I'm in one such organization which follows above policy. There is rampant recruitment in my organization, without bothering about quality of head count. One good tester is kept in the team and overburdened with the task of making his/her colleagues good testers and also carry out testing activities. All this good testers are forced to hang up their boots, as there is not enough time for them to devote to self growth. I'm also one among them and worried if this same situation will be there in the other organization which I plan join.

Future of indian testers looks bleak, just because of these organizations, which are thinking of short term gains, rather then making a strong foundation.
I consider myself as a good tester and very much worried for the future of my field in India. I'm being forced to change my priorities in professional life and think only on short term basis.

I'm very much thankful to you, out of many steps that I've taken to make my colleagues good testers is, told them to read your blogs on a regular basis and implement your suggestions.

You are a Genius!
Your blogs will surely create many more Pradeeps!

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

@Anon...

Thanks for your support and encouragement.

I am pretty sure, in this life time, I would want to make a try to make things better and I know it is no simple job. My blog is one such tool I am using for it amidst other ways.

I kindly request you not to give up and continue contributing towards betterment of tester's quality.

If not we (Indians) rule the world in testing, at least let us make it highly competitive.

By any chance, if we could meet around, it would be wonderful.

you said "Your blogs will surely create many more Pradeeps!"

Oh! that is a bug :P

To be frank, there are still people who say "your blogs are hard to understand", I just cannot imagine how to write easier than this.

Let us see, time will answer our questions.

Repeat - Don't give up !

Anonymous said...

Hi Pradeep,

As everyone has said you are a genius to make us think of our mistakes and also many thanks for your efforts to help us correct our mistakes.

I have been greatly benefites by this blog of yours and I would want to keep reading this whole lifetime.

When I forwarded your blog link to my friends we have started to discuss a lot on testing and of course you would have got a mail regarding our queries.

On behalf of all my friends Thanks and Thanks ans Thanks.

As the previous commented person said We are also trying to become like you Mr Pradeep Soundararajan.

No bugs but ;P

Joy Forever said...

Sorry for being absent for so long Pradeep, have been busy with... system testing. This blog post of yours was amazing.
You said, "Sometimes sick minded colleague, co-worker, lead and managers contribute to a larger extent to the downfall of a product quality." Beautifully put. In my team, not only are suggestions from testers discouraged, often when we find some bug the developers try to convince us that it is not a bug, and we should not raise the issue as it will affect their reputation. The most ridiculous thing I've heard being said is "That's not a bug, it's a browser script error". Why should a tester be bothered what error it is? This kind of treatment obviously lowers the morale of the testers.

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

@JoyForever -

Welcome to the party !

I, you, other testers, in India, or maybe elsehwere, are not spared from facing such people, having such experiences.

Without you getting bogged down on this, hold on, ensure when you are a manager, such things do not happen to your juniors.

Never be a puppet !

If I were you, when asked the next time for not raising a bug which customer reported, I would say "I love my developers, so didnt want to dissapoint them" !

:D , take it cool, have fun ! Gear Up dude ... Tester Tested Inc ! is in making. Welcome, to an ideal world of testing and research !

Anonymous said...

this is a great post. I must thank you for opening my eyes since I read all your posts now. I will personally inform you the change I will be making to my work after this blog of yours. I will become a very good tester and I dream to write a blog like this praderep.

thanks for wonderful blog for testing.