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Monday, May 28, 2007

Letter from India


This letter is targeted to managers in North America and Europe who outsource their test execution work to India. If you happen to know such a manager or such a manager is your client, you might want to share this letter with him, after reading it. That doesn't mean, you shouldn't share it with others ! :-)

Without killing your curiosity ( or to build your curiosity ), here is the letter from India that I am talking about.


In the movie - Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne ( Tim Robbins ), wrote one letter every week from jail for years together, to get funding for the prison library and when it happened, the jailors felt a "miracle". I don't know if I want miracles to happen but I am sure, Andy has inspired me to write more letters in future.


-- Pradeep Soundararajan - pradeep.srajan@gmail.com - +91-98451-76817

"Pradeep's first language is not English--his first language appears to be testing." -- Michael Bolton

6 comments:

  1. AnonymousMon Jun 04, 04:22:00 AM GMT+5:30

    Hello Pradeep,

    After reading this post and the letter referenced, I get the impression that you consider this to be a cultural problem.

    I see this as a problem that is not uniquely linked to the Indian culture.

    Maybe I have misinterpreted your post and letter.

    Great reference to the movie. One of my all-time favorites.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pradeep SoundararajanMon Jun 04, 09:32:00 AM GMT+5:30

    @Erwin,

    Thanks for the comment.

    I need you help to understand, what you mean by "this"?

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousFri Jun 08, 03:03:00 AM GMT+5:30

    this = still we are being asked to follow scripts.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Pradeep SoundararajanFri Jun 08, 09:52:00 AM GMT+5:30

    @Erwin,

    Thanks!

    I consider "this" to be a problem beyond culture.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ben SimoSat Jun 16, 06:50:00 AM GMT+5:30

    It appears to me that management often thinks that they can better control quality with scripted testing. If something is scripted, they have good documentation of exactly what happened.

    It would be impossible to count all the times that I've been told that documentation and repeatability is most important. Documented repeatability is no good if we keep repeating the wrong things.

    I believe that Jon and James Bach's session based exploratory test management ideas give management the information they need while allowing smart testers to do what's best. However, it is too different to get the acceptance that I'd like to see it get.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Pradeep SoundararajanSat Jun 16, 08:06:00 AM GMT+5:30

    @Ben Simo,

    Some testers, who are into scripted testing themselves are not aware how they'd perform when there aren't any scripts.

    No test can be repeated 100%. Only some important portions of it might be repeatable and hence the management or some testers tend to call a test "repeatable".

    Educating the management and customer might help. I wish they undergo training on Session Based Test Management and Exploratory Testing.

    ReplyDelete

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