Overcoming "obsessive checking if being mentioned disorder"

Happy New Year to all my dear readers, followers, fans, bulbs & CFL Lamps. I wish you become a better tester and respect other (good) testers much better than what you did in 2010. I also wish to be what I wished you to be :-)

The support for the company I launched Moolya Software Testing Private Limited - Brainual Software Testing Services Company, from you all has been fantastic. We hope to keep the momentum and continue adding great value to our customers. I have had a real busy time answering lots of questions about the company from testers all over. Without being able to mention the names, we have had two outsourcing request for quote, two special testing requirement requests, one recovery-before-it-goes-down testing requests from top organizations ever since we launched this company. Added to that is the support from the testers all over. Great start for us and we wish to make Moolya a dream company for good testers and hence be the most preferred testing vendor of the world.


Now, what's the Obsessive Checking If Being Mentioned Disorder?

On this new year, I want to tell you some true stories that you have never heard before. I could have simply kept it with me but I want to be honest to you because you spend your time here. Its you who have made this a successful blog and not just me. I don't know if someone else is facing the same problem but I just hope they are not.

• 5 years ago when I entered into blogging, I also picked up the habit of reading blogs. The first time I was mentioned on someone's blog, I felt as though the world was under my feet. I guess its natural for a human being to feel so, for that moment. After a day, I returned to realizing the place I stand is the actual world under my feet. I am no special. Recognized I was a "normal" human being.

• When my name was mentioned again on another blog, I felt great. Some kind of juice flowed all over my body and I loved the way it tickled when it flowed. I was hoping that a lot more people would mention my name and my blog on their blogs so that I could keep experiencing the flow of that magical juice.

• When I was mentioned on James Bach's blog and followed by Michael Bolton's blog, I felt an extra dose of high concentration juice was flowing in me. It didn't just tickle me but had soothing effects on some painful areas of my life. I still feel, it is normal.

• I used to write blog posts and anxiously wait for a couple of days to see if someone mentioned or appreciated my recent post somewhere along with my name. At this point I was on the boundary of "normal". Fortunate for you, my dear readers, I haven't written a single post because it may likely be mentioned by someone but wrote my heart out and hoped it gets popular by other bloggers mentioning it.

• After sometime, I realized that some people had mentioned about me and my blog posts but I didn't come to know when they did it. I added a sitemeter to my blog to track where the hits are coming from. I became way too obsessive with sitemeter. I used to hit the Sitemeter refresh about 200 times a day. At least twice more than the hits I used to get. I was desperate. I worked way too hard to do good work and anxiously wait for an opportunity to blog about it. At this point, I was definitely thrown out from the "normal" category of human beings. I was addicted to the flow of the magical juice. Lucky for my readers, I enjoyed the "being ethical" juice which prevented me from using stupid tactics to attract readership and hence driving the opportunity of being mentioned. 

• Then people started just mentioning my name without the link, so I got a little nervous about it. Not that they didn't link to my blog but because I discovered them too late. So, I set up a Google Alert with my name. Later I found, many people don't get my second name right. Its "Pradeep Soundararajan" and not "Pradeep Soundarajan" as most people appear to write. So, I ended up setting up a Google Alert for all possible permutations of my name. I was obsessed to check reports of Google Alerts. I went crazy about it. Sitemeter and Google Alert made me go crazy. At this point, I assume, I threw myself very far from belonging to the "normal" category. The worst is yet to come.

• After a few months from being thrown far away from "normalcy", I was very excited when other bloggers post new entries. It gave me a hope that they would have mentioned my name. I used to pretend being surprised of being mentioned although I would have hoped for it. I guess its fair to call this phase as "starting to get worse".

• Here comes the beauty. Months later, I started replacing every word by my name till I saw my name on others post. So, I may have read a few posts without actually learning anything from it because all I saw is "Pradeep" & "Tester Tested" on those posts. I think you'd agree one hundred percent, if I call this phase as "Obsessive Checking If Being Mentioned Disorder", which of course is too fucking bad thing to happen. It is important for me to say that all these were subconscious driven stuff. I didn't plan for it, couldn't control it.

• The magical juice that tickled me and made me feel great was also making me uncontrollable to my own mind.

• Added to that is the Twitter era. When I got addicted to twitter, all I had to say was, "Oh no! Not again". I saw a few people showing traces of the symptoms of the disorder or maybe I started feeling so.

Then a small light showed up

At some point, the obsessive checking if being mentioned disorder showed itself up in front of my face when it interfered my learning. That's when I decided to knock it off completely. 

I could start ignoring the urge to do things that may bring back the magical flow of the invisible juice only because I feared if my learning will slip. You may think that I deleted the Sitemeter Account, Unsubscribed from Google Alerts and blah blah but I didn't do any of them. Having it there and not yielding to it is a way I tried coming out of it.

I tried reducing the frequency of me visiting sitemeter stats. Some days I get busy learning, testing or working that I forget to login or forget that I logged in and the tab is lying somewhere. I still do visit Sitemeter and Google Alerts because I don't want to go to the other extreme. Call it post traumatic stuff :)

I reduced the number of blogs and posts I read. I don't go to Google Reader anymore. I just go to the URL of the blog I want to read and avoid clicking blog post links on twitter. 

I have reduced the frequency of writing in forums, groups, LinkedIn,  Test Republic, STC...

Most important of all I said to myself, "Now that you know you are not good, why care if people mention you?" and ignored to going to places where I was mentioned in the past.

Then comes practice over time. I wanted to give myself at least an year of practice. Today, I have reached a stage where I don't care who mentions me or my blog posts, for my own good. That doesn't mean I don't respect them. Moreover, others mentioning me or my post is not in my control. 

Bothering about things that are not in my control is foolishness. Not bothering about things that are in my control is much more foolish.

Sometimes the community elevates me to the "guru" & "expert" status (OK, American, UK & European folks, not you, I am talking about Indians here) and I have learnt to treat myself as a student despite what others call me as. I have declined being interviewed for a testing magazine with the interview title, "Know your testing guru".

Its not been easy but its getting easier. I am in the "normal" ring now, making me eligible to post this. I don't care if people tweet this, don't tweet it or not. It is for my reference. When I look back after a couple of years, I will have some things to smile upon saying, "Look at how I was". Just in case, you can see some symptoms of the same disorder in you, trust me, we will have lots to talk about when we meet.

I am just out of a danger en route to success as a good student of this craft. I hope I can wade away other dangers that might be on the way, much faster.

Once again, a new year is not happy because you call it that way, you make it that way. I am having a happy new year and hope you have it too. I met Chandru today. The smile and confidence he had in his face is inspiring enough for me to push hard for good things.

BPO / Support / Call Center / Homemaker to Software Testing

Over the last few years, I have received at least about 40 emails and a couple of phone calls from people working in tech support, BPO, call center, homemakers asking for my advice to get a job in software testing or to make a career in it. I am tired responding to the same set of queries from different people. Now, that doesn't mean I wouldn't be interested to talk to people. I just hope they read this and have a different question or a situation they'd like me to address. 


However, this post is not just for those who want to change their career from BPO or Tech support to software testing but also to those who are hiring managers, interviewing testers and to all those who are aware that they are a part of the future of software testing.

1: Chasing dream versus chasing a day job

A friend of mine gave my number to his friend who works in a Technical Support job at a reputed organization and wants to move into software testing. So he called me to seek my help. I asked him, "Why software testing and not something else?" and he didn't have an answer. That is perfectly fine. He then said he wanted a day job and found software testing as an easy possibility.

I started to probe his dream of what he wanted to be before he landed up in Tech Support. His dream was to be something else. I then explained that moving to software testing might not help him feel any better than starting to chase the dream. He agreed and is now chasing his dream of photography.

2: Turning lemon to lemonade than faking it as orange

Some people have asked me if it would help to fake their experience of a tester of the product they were providing technical support just to get interview calls. I have helped them understand that there is a lot of value in presenting the truth than trying to show it as something else, get caught someday and be blacklisted by NASSCOM and a whole lot of companies spoiling future growth chances.

Having worked in several product organizations, I realize the importance of interacting and collaborating with support teams. If I were to hire a few testers for my team, I would definitely be interested to talk to a support team member. We did that in one of the product organizations I worked. I have talked to hiring managers of large and small product organizations who have done that. I think most of them are internal hiring and some rare cases of external hiring.


To all those who are considering to hire testers, stop doing what you have been doing all this while - hiring those who have been in testing only. Where were you before you started to do testing?


3: Learning software testing in 10 days OR Crash course about how to crash


With many folks wanting to learn software testing, lots of people are making money out of it. For all those in the world of software testing, do you know how many institutes are there per square inch of Ameerpet in Hyderabad who can teach testing in 5 hours if you'd like so and have enough cash? 


Not just Ameerpet, there are lots of chota Ameerpets that I have come across. These kind of training centers are a huge contribution factor for spoiling young minds in India. If God makes me rich, I shall wipe out each one of them.  These training centers run weekend batches for Tech Support folks and spoil their ability to learn testing. 


So, when folks who work in Tech Support and have attended such draining programs (yes, that was intentional) get in touch with me for seeking advice on job search, I have helped them to pick up two books: Testing Computer Software & Lessons Learned in Software Testing. For the most recent ones, I have also suggested Perfect Software & Other Illusions about Testing.


I also have suggested them to hook up with a tester every weekend and try some hands on testing or participate in open source projects for a while. For just one I have helped by doing a paired exploratory testing. One of my student in the Hands on Software Testing Training - India's first true hands on only testing training I delivered for Edista in 2008 & 2009 was in Support and he demonstrated his testing skills to his employer to be moved to testing.


4: Test Report instead of Resume / Profile


When my father started his first job after his Diploma in Electrical Engineering, he applied to the job with a CV / Resume. So, using a CV / Resume is that old an approach which hasn't changed much, except that he used a typewriter and we use MS Word and a Laserjet Printer. Lets try to change.


In the last 3 months, I have 4 emails from hiring managers in Bangalore, Chennai and a country outside India seeking help to hire skilled testers. One of the things I have suggested to them is to not ask people to send their resume unless it is accompanied with a test report. For hiring managers, it would be easy to see what kind of tester they want by looking at the test report. If the person says, "I am skilled at automating checks", so be it, demonstrate it and attach the scripts along with the resume. Needless to say without violating any Non Disclosure Agreement. Open Source software testing suits best. The interviews are actually discussion around the test report rather than "What is the difference between this and that?"


I am writing a whole big book on software testing interviews. A publisher just rejected the book but that's OK.


BTW, don't send me your resume and ask me to refer to those hiring managers.


5: Why some developer guys from India suck big time?


Nothing about their programming skills. I have done career counselling almost all through my career for others and myself. Hey, its a skill with which we are born, at least that's how we behave when someone approaches us for advice :)


So, having worked with some testing institutes, I volunteered to take up any work I could that would let me to speak with testers and potential testers for my own learning purpose. My blog, as you know, has brought me a lot of people with varied kinds of queries. So, I have some experience dealing with those developer guys who walk in months after their marriage, looking for a job for their wife.


These great developer guys come and ask, "I want my wife to take up a software testing job, do you offer job guarantee courses?". So, to the question, "Why software testing?", they'd without any bit of shame, answer, "I want her to earn and come home on time so that she takes care of office work and home work in a balanced way". 


One guy tried interviewing me to see if I know enough testing to teach his wife and help her learn testing. Not just me, one of my student, Arindam, was inspired to coach testers and works for an institute in Bangalore part time. That institute runs a special batch for home makers. Arindam shared his experience with me about the batch. He too said what I had already experienced. My advice to all housewife / homemakers whoever you want to call yourselves as is to read Parimala Shankaraiah's blog & Meeta's blog. Hey wait, there are quite a few others in India. Read their blogs to understand how passionate they are, how difficult it actually is to be good in testing and how they manage home and office work.


6: A break / sabbatical in career is just fine


Some women testers who take a break or sabbatical, try getting back to the industry but the industry treats them bad. Most hiring managers are blind in noticing people with break. They think they would be at loss of value if they hire them. 


I think stopping someone who is passionate in testing but had no other option than to take a sabbatical or break not getting a job is a big hindrance to the entire software testing industry. If I were Parimala Shankaraiah's employer and she needed a sabbatical, I would welcome her anytime she wants to come back. Not hiring her is like fooling myself and my company HR policies.


7. The actual meaning of "Our company is an equal opportunity employer"


There is a VERY BIG company who has an office even close to my home who has this statement, "We are an equal opportunity employer" in their website but didnt allow me to even apply to an opening just because I didn't have an ISEB/ISTQB certification. Let me tell this to you: I felt blessed by God to be not eligible to even apply to such companies because such company environments wouldn't have made my career strong.


The company which actually is an equal opportunity provider is one that selects its employees based on skills and not if they purchased a certificate. So, if you dont get jobs in such places, feel blessed, you really are. Keep demonstrating your skills and jobs will come to you. 


Santhosh Tuppad, my student with just one year of testing experience (and tons of experience in finding and reporting bugs) got an offer to be a Test Lead for one of the top companies in Asia. Although he couldn't take it up then but I just wonder if he had to be a Test Lead at some of those fake equal opportunity providers, how many white hair he should have had.


So, here are some points to ponder:

• If you choose to be misguided by what others say then you deserve it.
• If you have some other passion and want to be a software tester because you think its an easy job, you are spoiling an opportunity to help your children see you as their inspiration to pursue what they want to be.
• If you are OK to live others dream, don't question, just follow. Never crib / complain in life.
• If you want to test out testing, do so with open source projects and by collaborating with some good testers around you.
• No job is easy but all jobs can be done in an easy way.
• Fakers will get caught.
• Build your testing skills and demonstrate them.
• Attract employers don't always get attracted.
• Build your own brand. Get organizations proud about hiring you and not the other way.
• Many services companies count heads - not brains. Target tech start ups.
• If nothing works out and still you dream to be a tester, start your own testing services.
• Its OK to fail.
• Its important you succeed chasing your dream irrespective of whether your chase was successful or not.
• Chasing your dream is the only way you can know if you can really be successful

As and when I encounter more points or more different questions, I shall update this post.

Saving your job versus speaking truth

Some of us have a designation such as “Software Tester”, or “Software Test Lead” or “Software Test Manager” but observing what we do at work makes me think our actual designation is “Job Saver”.

For every action to be performed we ask ourselves a question, “Would this take away my job?” and then do what we consider appropriate to get an answer “No” for the question. So, we never get to say what we want to say. Well, sometimes projects suffer a great deal because some of us hide the truth from the management.

Being in testing, which is a profession of providing information to business decision takers, hiding the truth is a disservice to them. Aren’t we crazy? We offer a disservice and expect our salaries to be hiked at regular intervals.

For instance, we know, functional coverage alone won’t be sufficient; especially when we are the only team testing that product. Yet, we don’t say, “Hey, look, we would be in a problem if we continue the same way. While you have others focus on functionality, I shall try covering non functional aspects”. Instead we listen to what the developers say or do what we have been asked to do because we are in a profession of saving our jobs.

I don’t know why only the test team is given instructions from other teams as to what to do and how to do. I also don’t know why such testers are hired? One thing I know is why such testers are paid less.

I know that a paying job is very important. I am an independent consultant and I have been without a paid work for a couple of months with a home loan EMI as much as 30,000 INR. For some of us not being in a paid work doesn’t necessarily mean without work. Sometimes non paid work generates paid work. Look at this blog, it has generated enough paid jobs for me. However, I dont blog necessarily to get paid. I would have been exposed as a fool if I did so. I don't run Google Ads. I love writing and I like to record things for my own purpose, if you get benefited by it, I am very happy. I like you to help me learn a few things. There is lot of learning in the comments section on my blog than in some of the posts. I am providing myself an opportunity to learn from you or maybe unlearn, too.

One of my responses in LinkedIn Software Testing & Quality Assurance generated a paid work of $1000. Another response helped me get a work as a Chief Tester of Beta Testing Skype based Dating application Skyecandy for 8 months and I hired some of my students to beta test them. Those who come to my public workshops are also those who might have read or heard about what I said somewhere to get convince to pay for the workshop. I hope they are gaining value for money.

To my fellow Indian testers, I am not so different from you. Wait, I am. As a matter of fact I lack some skills that you have. So, you can survive without being an employee and yet get paid work like how I do. However, you might want to lay a foundation to be able to survive without being an employee of an organization, right from today. If you won’t run out of money and work, you’d speak different than what you are doing today.

Please, I am not asking you to be arrogant. I am suggesting you to think about speaking your heart when it requires to.  If you are fired for sharing the truth then staying there won’t help your career growth either. So, you are liberating yourselves from a place where your career would stagnate.

Please, I am not asking you to get yourself fired but I am suggesting that, stagnating your career isn’t what you should be doing to yourself.

Firing you isn’t as easy as you may think it is. Having been a Test Manager, I know it’s not easy to say, “You are fired”. If it was so easy, you and I should have been fired multiple times in our career for the mistakes we did. That’s the proof in the pudding.

So be truthful, to yourselves and the organization that is paying you. When you do so, you gain a satisfaction that is not matched by any other rewards. When you speak truth, the organization benefits and when they benefit, they want to benefit you, too.

Are you afraid? Afraid of what?

Skill takes away fear. Unskilled people can be easily bullied. Be skilled or be bullied, the choice is yours.

Black Viper Testing Technique

Image credits

The following conversation is a copy paste from LinkedIn's Software Testing & Quality Assurance group in which I write a lot.

Quality Leader at org_1 asks :What is Robust testing?

Senior Software Engineer - Quality Assurance from somewhere responds:

Never heard about it?I googled the term and found one helpful link. http://www.phadkeassociates.com/index_files/robusttesting.htm but Wiki doesn't have any results for it, as per me its not as concrete as other testing techniques.


and then XXX, PMP, Associate QA Manager from some_organization

Robust testing means the degree to which a software system or component can function correctly in the presence of invalid inputs or stressful environmental conditions

Sr Software QA Engg from elsehwere responds

Is it something like the stability Testing? I never heard of this terminology.


Pradeep Soundararajan : Independent Software Tester with an experience of 7 million and 4 hundred mistakes in testing responds

Same as Black Viper testing.

Approaches for interviewing in software testing - Book Kickoff & Launch of Interviews & Jobs portal

On September 1st, 2009, I decided to move away from my paying job to write this book - Approaches for interviewing in software testing. Before my bank sends an SMS "Lost your job?", I am hoping that I will finish this book and find a publisher. ( Also means: If you have any short assignments you can hire me or sponsor me for the book ). So, there you go. Now you know what I have been doing over the last 25 days.

A funny thing you should know - I had been writing another book over the last two years and then realized - writing a book is different from writing a blog or making a technical presentation at a conference. The kind of a book I was writing actually demanded a better writing skill from me that I dont possess right now. So, I have applied to be a participant at a workshop of how to write that kind of a book so that I better at least a little bit. ( let that remain a secret for a while )

Coming over to this book - you must first understand that this isn't just a book but something beyond the book. www.interviewsandjobs.com will serve as a platform to address all queries of testers related to jobs and interviews henceforth and also act as a flag bearer for the book I am writing. Santhosh Tuppad, my student at Practical Hands on Software Testing Training and a cool tester has been helping me a lot in the project.

I hope some of you will be willing to help in writing this book by contributing stories of your interview experience or other ways you will discover if you browse through www.interviewsandjobs.com

When you go to www.interviewsandjobs.com , don't miss out the teaser for the book. The teaser has the first 14 pages of the book and I hope it builds enough curiosity in you and your friends to ask for more and end up buying the book or sending the teaser to your friends through twitter, facebook, orkut or anywhere as you may like.

That's all, here. Go there and enjoy!

Change in hiring and interviewing process in India for software testing and software testers

I claim to be one of the most experienced and most affected tester in the context of interview in India and here ( in this link ) is more information about it. After going through that link or this video you would know that I have been struggling to not see another Pradeep Soundararajan in the job market who is frustrated with this industry's idea of interviewing. Edista Testing Institute ( my client and partner ) is constantly pushing towards seeing a better testing community and that's why I chose to work with them.

I consider the following as one of my biggest contribution to the change the industry needs. Most training institutes in India (even the so called highly reputed ones) have people who dont know to test, teaching testing by running a thousand slides. I think they have so many slides that if you run 25 slides a second to watch it like a movie, it still runs for about 2 hours. Such slides have always caused an avalanche slide of many victims career, knowledge and skills.

Edista started to redefine things by hiring me and then allowing me to hire Manoj and then Sharath and then now more people. The last I heard from Manoj is that testers who were interacting with him are now excited about what Manoj is doing and are enquiring what it takes to be able to get skilled in testing.

You might also discover that Manoj has started to publish his practice sessions on testing in his blog.

We sit to gether, test, learn from each other, create exercises, practice pair testing, discover new tools, debate on ideas, think about more heuristics, brainstorm test ideas, discuss about bugs, run a test club ( like the movie Fight Club ), teach people how to learn and then how to test. We are never away from testing and we are never away from anything about testing.

We aren't skeptical about the fact that there could be more people like us and who knows they might be interested to join us. So here goes the job posting for the same: ( and I have posted this in LinkedIn and other communities - please feel free to share this job posting to all other Indian testers )

Consultants in Software Testing and Software Test Education :: Bangalore

Profile:

Edista Testing Institute ( www.edistatesting.com ) has a couple of openings for Consultants in Software Testing and Test Education.

It wouldn't be wrong if I say, they are looking for people who have the urge to be heroes in software testing. This role demands you to train ( yourself and others ), collaborate with the on going research activities, test products, learn and innovate.

This role also demands you to grow to an extent to be able to contribute valuable things to the testing community and work for its betterment.

About your co-workers:

You would work with skilled testers and brains who constantly engage in learning activities, blogging, discussions, teaching, mentoring, challenge and argue online in testing forums ( like www.testrepublic.com ), offline and reinvent the art of reinventing things in testing.

If you think you wanted to be a hero ( or hero-in ) in software testing and never got the opportunity, here it is.

Eligibility:

We'd be glad if you have worked as a tester for a while ( at least 2 - 5 years ) and also be glad if you are willing to travel within India (or abroad ) on short term assignments.

We would prefer you have a degree in Engineering or Science however if you dont have them but have a demonstrated ability of good thinking, we'd be fine.

Interview Process:

Our interview process is cut above all other organizations that neighbor us. We put you in the testers seat, give you time to test a product and have a discussion of your testing based on the report you produce.

We aren't too bothered if you dont know the difference between Sanity testing and Smoke testing because we believe, knowing the difference ( even if it exists ) doesn't make a huge difference.

We aren't bothered if you have a certification in Software Testing or not as long as you are passionate, skilled in testing, and have the fire and fuel to take you a long way. In simpler words, it *doesn't matter* if you dont have ISTQB, ISEB or CSTE certifications.

About Edista:

www.edistatesting.com

Time to join:

Immediate is preferred. A little delay is fine if you are stuck somewhere.

Contact:

Send your profile to : resume@edistatesting.com

If you can crunch your profile in one page, we'd silently thank you for that.

The results so far:

• We invited about 7 candidates so far who claimed to have energy, passion and demonstrable testing skills.
  
• We are seeing great benefits of this approach.
  
• It makes us spend 3 minutes ( after a person has finished the test and generated a report ) to know about the claims a tester has made in his profile are fale and a little bit about the organization that said, "Yeah, he can test".
• We spoke only to one person in depth as his report was quite interesting.
• We know that we can filter more candidates with lesser time we have and get better ones to work with.
• It would be dangerous to get a person who cant test and report credibly into any organization that wants to hire testers.
• Those who fake testing experience fear to even apply or even if they do and by our overlooking we invite them for the testing session, we dont need to spend time beyond 3 minutes post their test.
  

Testers have to be tested on their testing skills and not on memorization skill. The best test ( based on the current situation ) you could give a tester during an interview is to make him sit on a computer and asking him to test a piece of software by giving a meaningful mission and time to do it.

Side note: Are you planning to be in the supporters list?

The (bad) state of software testing interviews in India

Alternatively, you can click on this link

The most challenging software testing quiz online

This quiz created by me challenges a tester to answer several common and uncommon questions. At the end those who finish the quiz get to know what prize they win. ( which means, there are a lot of prizes to be won)

Last time I announced I would give free books - Lessons Learned in Software Testing and I did give it to those testers who proved to me that they deserved it by working on an exercise I gave them. This time I am keeping it as a secret because those who finish the quiz will get to know their prize when they see their performance and results. I have some questions that are easy, some which are moderate and some that only experts can crack - so whoever you are - you have a challenge.

Update me your score because if your score is more than other testers who have taken this quiz then you have a chance to win the many hundred dollars that I plan to give as a bumper prize. So here is the link to The Most Challenging Software Testing Quiz (I could ever think of creating)

Good luck!

Update: 12th October 1300 IST: The quiz is updated with HTML formatting and looks more great to my eyes. Thanks to Adam Goucher for his suggestions. 3 more very challenging questions are added. So you might want to re-take and check your score. If there is any betterment of your score update me so that you dont miss the grand prize.

Update: 12th October 2345 IST: If you dont see your comment for this post it is because I felt your comment contained some clue about the answers which might distract new people taking the quiz. In case you want to blog about this quiz please make sure you don't give the answers or let the people know the answers or experience as they might lose the excitement and opportunity to learn.


-- Pradeep Soundararajan - http://testertested.blogspot.com - +91-98451-76817 - pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

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

Curiosity (,s)kills (and) bad testers

Jon Bach ( brother of James Bach ) said, "It's easy to teach technology than to make the students curious" addressing students of a reputed university in United States.

I addressed Masters and PhD students who made into India's premier institute - Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai because they were more curious than others who prepared for the entrance examinations. The people to whom I spoke were also a part of incubatee company Feast Software in IIT, Mumbai. While returning to Bangalore from Mumbai, I had to spend a night in the airport waiting for the early morning flight.

Michael Bolton, had gifted me a Moleskine Note Book during our first meet and in fact Moleskine notes is something that pulled me and Michael together, more close, even before we had met.

I use the Moleskine Notes - to take notes while I test, to use my time wisely in writing something that can help me do a better testing, to capture all learning that nature has bestowed, to note down points, rants, musings, tips and tricks from testers and testing business guru's I meet.

I offered an Indian version of Moleskine to my student Sathish Kumar, who is a top blogger on testing in Cognizant Technology Solutions internal blogs.

The Moleskine notes had a busy time at airport while I kept thinking and writing a lot of stuff. One such topic that I thought, wondered and wrote is:

What has made me curious about things I hear, I see, I touch and things that I want to see, I want to hear and want to touch?

1. In my childhood, my parents couldn't afford to get me things I wanted and it made me curious to know more about those things when I saw others using it or the ad's associated with it flashed on Television.
2. I was forced to feel ashamed of not knowing certain things by my primary and high school teachers. I could have learned it as the information passed me.
3. Some men appeared to be happy of knowing certain things. I wondered what kind of happiness do such men get when they gain the knowledge on something that interested them.
4. Some people ate a food that appeared to be attractive to my tongue and brains, which I could not afford.
5. A friend of mine claimed to enjoy something ( a toy, an experience at a theme park, a game that he played, a place to which he had been) which I could not because I could not afford it or I was not willing to go for it.
6. Every time when I look back at my own actions, behavior, decisions, foolish stuff that I did... I wonder "why did I do that?".
7. I couldn't be in all professions and hence learning from people in other professions interested me.
8. I was a kid 2 decades ago. ( virtue of being curious )
9. Sometimes I didn't have anything to do and became curious about 'what happens next?'.
10. Knowing people, like Sir Thomas Alva Edison, my father - Soundararajan Govinda Rao, James Bach, Jerry Weinberg, Michael Bolton, Sridhar Krishnamurthy, Ravi Joshi, Sudhindra Haldodedri inspired me to think, "how could I become one such?"
11. I was fooled, several times.
12. I was christened "dumbo" in my teenage by my friends and high school teachers.
    
13. My happiness was directly proportional to the things I knew.
14. I enjoyed breaking rules. ( at home, school and at work - when I am testing )
    
15. I always wanted to be the best (but didn't believe in getting 1st rank in school and college as the way to achieve it)
16. I enjoyed failures and started enjoying more of it when people wondered and asked me "what makes you smile when you fail?"
    
17. Since childhood, I was in love with questions.
18. I enjoyed others curiosity.
    
19. My father made me wait for over 20 years to appreciate any work that I did. ( although I could sense that he felt happy every time I shared a little achievement ). I was curious to get it out from him and the only way is to do something great that he volunteers an appreciation. I wasn't aware of what he might consider as a great work.
    
20. My uncle N. Radhakrishnan, with whom I spent most of my childhood, kept inspiring me with the ways he solved problems that appeared in front of him. Today I realize, where I started off to learn "lateral thinking" .
    
21. James Bach and Michael Bolton tested me against their exercises.
    
22. I am curious to know what points I might have missed while listing this for you.

I doubt if you can show me a great tester who isn't curious about things but I can take a bet - "show me a bad tester, I shall help you discover a lack of curiosity in him". [ he might be curious on something else that doesn't help in testing]

Curiosity makes people to ask questions. Those who question, have more chances to become a better tester or be great problems solvers in the professions they chose.

Ben Simo, a senior tester from United States is one among the most curious people I have recently come across. You could see him write, think and comment on different and wide variety of topics in testing.

"If you are curious, you attract other curious people and hence both of your curiosity grows further". Ben and I have been attracted towards each other's work, blogs, ideas and thought process. Aren't you curious to know more about Ben Simo?

Curiosity helps in curing all diseases that stop you in becoming a good tester. Be curious, get cured!

-- Pradeep Soundararajan - http://testertested.blogspot.com - +91-98451-76817 - pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

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

Braidy Tester interviews Tester Tested

Before I started to write Tester Tested, I spent a lot of time researching on existing blogs on testing and software testing. I still remember that Braidy Tester blog topped the search and I did have a look at it.

I am sure there were lot of factors that made me addicted to read Braidy Tester's blog and I kept going through it frequently. "Making developers cry since 1995" - That's amazing, that's Braidy Tester.

You now know Tester Tested! is me ( Pradeep Soundararajan ) and I want to make sure, you are aware that Braidy Tester is Michael J Hunter of Microsoft.

Michael J Hunter, interviewed me for Dr Dobb's Portal and here is your chance to read it. I also strongly recommend you to read other interviews in the same list.

James Bach had to say this after reading the interview : "hey, that's a great story", " ..a fabulous bug story!".

I think you shouldn't miss reading it. The feeling of "First Indian on the list" is sensational!

Equally sensational moment was to know that Braidy Tester said: "I find Pradeep's blog Tester Tested a fascinating read".

All this has left me so happy because I now have turbo power fuel to push myself to work more hard and contribute to the testing community, and Indian testing community in particular.

If you are reading this line without reading the interview, you shouldn't be reading further :-)

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

Test your interviewer

Hi Reader,

I need motivation to keep giving good articles in Tester Tested! Blog and recently there was a big push for me from someone in Finland. I would love to share that with you here.

Well, hopefully you have come back from that link and now get ready for something interesting and a very controversial topic.

"Now Pradeep what is that controversial topic and what do you mean by *Test your interviewer*?"

Hmm ! is it that interesting for you to read this post?

_ Test your interviewer _

Before I proceed further, I want to ask you a question and it is ..."How many interviews have you attended till date?" 10 or 20 or 40 or 50 ?

Is 50 a huge number for you to digest?. Well if 50 is a huge number, what would you call an experience of attending 200+ interviews?

Would you want to know who is that person who have attended 200+ interviews till date?

No guesses at all... Its me, Tester Tested!

"Now Pradeep, why did you have to attend 200 interviews in this short span of 3 years?"

That's an interesting question but there is a better time I explain why I did have to attend so many interviews but I am just sharing something with you that I noticed very frequently in interviews.

Based on the interviewers I have come across, I am classifying the interviewers in the following categories -

Interviewers who do not know what they are asking -

Every technical question in an interview is good if it reveals information about the candidate and his/her fit to the job opening but perhaps there are some interviewers who ask those questions based on their past experience of attending interviews and expect the same answer as what they gave in their interviews.

Interviewers who run out of questions -

There are some interviewers who run out of questions and start asking irrelevant questions or ask questions which does not contribute towards the objective of interviewing.

Interviewers who are unaware of the domain, the candidate has worked -

Unfortunately, this is something that irritates me the most and I am more happy to have got rejected by those. In an interview an interviewer asked me "Pradeep, what is the Load testing tool you use for testing multimedia?"
I replied "Sir, I guess there is nothing called load testing tool commercially available for multimedia product testing". He then surprised me ... "What, haven't you come across Load Runner?"

He could have asked me a better question instead of that which could have made me to continue respect him.

Keeping myself cool and with an intention of not disappointing him, I said "Oh, I have not come across Loadrunner for Multimedia Sir, I might check about that when I go back after this interview".

I would never join if I know well in advance that I cant learn anything from a supervisor, who interviewed me irrespective of the .

Interviewers who think they are interviewing a candidate because they are better than the candidate -

The most common class of people I have met. As an interviewer you should be looking for opportunities to learn from the candidate knowledge, else you are not a good tester.

... Well there are many such classifications I would want to take. I would say out of the 200+ interviews I have attended I would rate only 10 people as the ones who are eligible to interview testers.

Now it is time to thank all the interviewers I have met since each of them gave me a new learning and experience and if you dont want someone like me to classify you in any of the above, you should be ...

Simple steps to become an effective testing interviewer -

1. When you get a resume for interview from your HR/Manager, go through the resume and check with yourself whether you can interview such a profile you have recieved and also do let your manager know your comfort level to interview the candidate based on your/candidate's technical skills.
2. Every question you ask, should be towards the objective of revealing how fit the candidate's skill is towards the opening you have.
3. Do not ask too much about theory on testing, no two people know the same definition.
4. Have a discussion ( not rapid fire questions) and or try to test something with the candidate and see how his/her approach and thought process is towards the testing.
5. Do not ask questions that do not have a standard answer in this world, like "What is the difference between Sanity and Smoke testing?" rather it would be challenging for the candidate, if you ask "If you know what Sanity testing is, could you tell me its significance or let me know what impact would a project have if Sanity testing is not done?"
6. Appreciate the candidate if he/she is better than you and let him/her know that someone else would interview them to take a decision of hiring. If you say so, you are a non egoistic, humble and bold person.
7. If you could learn from the candidate, make a note of the learnings during and or after the interview.
8. Ask for interview feedback from the candidate and try to better yourself through the feedback. Not all candidates would give a proper feedback but there are many people like me.
9. The most important of all, read Dr Cem Kaner's - Interviewing Software Testing Candidates .

_ End of _ Test your interviewer _

"A good tester, tests the interviewer"

Thanks and Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan
pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

Are Experienced Software Testers Testing their own CV / Profile / Resume?

Re-written the article on April 20, 2009 & Previous version also available at the bottom

For the question : Are Software Testers Testing their own CV / Profile / Resume?, my answer would be - most of them don't.

What would you think about a tester who hasn't tested whatever he has developed? I think the same way you think about them - they don't know testing or its value.

Over these years, I must have looked into about thousand three hundred testers profiles and only very few of them caught my attention. One of them was my own :)

Need and value of testing your own resume

I have been practicing writing and this blog is an evidence of the same. I think our public writing demonstrates how effectively we can work. For instance, if my resume looks bad then would anyone believe me that I write good bug reports? If they believe that I'd write good bug reports when my resume sucks then what do you think about their communication skills?

I got coached by Mr Ravi Joshi of Bangalore on the aspects of writing a good resume. I probably practiced it enough to match his own writing and then trying to surpass it. All he did was to help me learn how to test my own resume.

I discovered that testing a resume was so similar to testing a software. For instance, our resume is full of claims that we have made. If we dont test for the claims we have made and what we can actually deliver, it costs us an opportunity to get an offer letter.

An example from my life experience is: There was a person who mentioned about Apache Web Server as one of the technologies he had worked on. On questioning him about it, he said, "Sir, it was running in the back end and I used to turn it off and on whenever a crash occurs". Now, is that sufficient to say, "I know Apache Web Server"?

I want you to let me know about it.

Career Objective

Also, most of them steal the Career Objective section and that indicates the person does not have his own great ambitions in life or a vision statement. It is important for anyone to write their own career objective. If you have a typical career objective, "I am looking forward to work in an organization that challenges my abilities and potential", no one would be interested at that.

Here is another interesting thing: A career objective is a long term vision but what most people end up writing is - I need a job to show my potential - which is not a career objective but your immediate objective in life.

At some point of my career, I have even removed that section and yet people kept calling me for interviews. Doesn't it help you understand that people are not calling you based on it because they are already bored reading more or less same stuff?


Projects

This is a very interesting part. Recently, I was interviewing a tester who had a 7 page resume for a 2 year experience. He had detailed out his project on his resume and that's a bad idea. I helped him understand that it was a bad idea and he went ahead arguing with me that he had to mention all details. A question that I asked him was, "How many pages should Hon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have?"

I hope you understand why I asked him that question and also hope you won't make the mistake. You must note that people who might be looking into your profile might already know about the product or project and don't need super fine details of your project. You can make it to one or two sentences. This gives you a tactical advantage in interviews if you were to explain your project.

Your contribution

It is another common bias to show whatever little stuff you did in the organization as a great one. Again, people are tired of listening to such stuff. You might want to consider elaborating an experience or the challenges you faced and how you fared in it.

For example: When I was a rookie Test Manager, people reporting to me found it hard to digest the fact that I was much younger than them. I had to fight through their ego battle and yet get work done from them. I learnt a lot about managing people, especially when they dont want to listen to you.

Lessons learnt

You could consider jotting down some very quick points of the lessons you learnt from each of the project you worked and that could be an attractive thing for the interviewer. You may consider listing your failures as well although you think listing your failure could cause you lose an opportunity to get an offer. Come on, the whole world understands that every human is fallible and everyone has failed in their life more than a dozen times.

Documentation Guidelines & Crispness

You wont be given a job because your profile looks amazing and it is a booklet of 30 pages of your achievements. So, it means you have to work in an interview to crack the puzzle of getting a job offer from them.

I received one of the worst resume from a software tester who mentioned that he has excellent documentation skills and the word documentation spelling was incorrect. Are you dumb to call him for an interview?

You do not need to search for resume template and fill in because that is a clerical work and I hope you don't want to be a clerk. Clerical type software testers get clerical pay and they are happy with it as well.

Extras and tactical advantage

You could impress the interviewers by testing a web application or an open source project and attaching your test report with it. This gives you a tactical advantage over all other people attending interviews as the interviewers get to see how you can actually test, how you report problems, how you investigate problems, how you can prepare a test report, how good is your writing skills and all that.

Peer Review of your Resume

You might be knowing the value of peer reviews in software engineering. How about bringing that to resume writing? Ask any of your friend's or peers to review your profile and spot problems. As you are the developer, it is likely that you will make mistakes and you might be blind at spotting them.

Progress Report Reference:

I have been compiling my Progress Reports over the last two years and I want you to have a look at it. Search for Progress Report of Pradeep Soundararajan and you will find the PDF files.

Interview skills

This one is quite famous : Yeah this one : The (bad) state of software testing interviews in India

If you are interested in watching my presentation of the same, here is the link to the video

Old version of the same article
( and there are some good points there as well )

So think about these points and also read what I wrote long back when my own English wasn't as good as how it might be now:

Old version of the same article:


Hi Reader,

I would have spent at least 300 hours by now, in this life time, helping out my friends, modifying their CV/Resume. It was interesting initially, especially when I had learnt the art of writing a good CV for myself. Thanks to Ravi Joshi, who spent his valuable time with me, teaching me "The art of writing a wonderful CV" .

I dare to share my learning and would want to provide a template to those sending me CV's to modify. Become an expert by experimenting with your own CV .. after reading this.

__ Are you testing your CV ? __

Trust me, I have modified CV's for developers too but a majority of the CV's I have touched is of a Tester.

Some common stupid mistake I and you make in the CV V/s How better can things be -

Junk Objective - To secure a challenging position in a well established firm and want to develop further as a tester OR Looking for an opportunity that can extract my potential in terms of technical and management OR Seeking a position in your valuable organization to grow in my career.

Clear Objective - Being a passionate Tester for x years and having won ... credits ... , I am looking for an opportunity to augment my career further, since I feel a new environment could make me learn things better and can work towards contributing at higher levels OR Having proved the ability to learn and a developed interest towards Test Engineering, I want to take my career to a stage of delivering high customer satisfaction by joining the services industry yet bringing in the product based company's expertise OR I am a self proclaimed passionate Tester. I want to put myslef to test by taking up challenges that your organization is currently offering and feel satisfied when the work quality meets the claim.

Gyaan -

1. Never copy someone's objective, which is the most stupid thing any person can do.
2. Frame your own objective, what it costs is 100 MIPS for your brain.
3. Your objective should say a) Who you are ? b) What are your skills c) Why are you looking for a job d) What can you bring to their table OR e) What is the value addition if a company hires you ?
4. If you have prepared for GRE_TOEFL like exams but could not get through and the by product is - you become a Indo-US English guy. What it means is, your english is neither as bad as most of the Indian's english nor as good as the true American English. Such people tend to use complicated words. If you do so, the person reading your objective may not even understand it. ( It is truth, if you want to say "No Pradeep, you are wrong" , you better say "Hey Dude, you suck and your english is wrotten kinda stuff", I shall understand the by product you posses.)
Junk Project Explanation -
Bluetooth Audio Product Testing - Bluetooth is a wireless standard given by SIG. It operates in 2.4 GHz ISM band. Bluetooth audio product is to listen audio or music over bleutooth wireless product. Testing is a major phase in Bluetooth Audio products and invlves audio testing abd bluetooth testing.
1. What the hell ? Why should I write about bluetooth technology in describing about the product ?.. ( 10 % of the resumes I have modified, explained the technology of the product ).
2. Although Mircrosoft has given a spell check, most of them do not use it. When you open today's Indian Tester resume, you will see a lot of Red and Green colours. Simple, they think Microsoft is recognizing their resume and by default underlining it to make it colourful.
3. Indents and Formatting.. This was the toughest thing I ever handled. I wonder how people write word documents wherein I try to modify its format but returns to the same when I press and Enter or Backspace at some points.
4. Bold is not beautiful - Janta does not know what to make Bold and what to not. They feel every one word out of 20 should be bold. Italics, at their own will. They draft the CV and see they have not italicised some words and they start doing it.
Let me try to re frame the above project explanation -
Bluetooth Audio Product Testing - A wireless audio solution for people who would want to listen music on the move without getting entangled with the headphone wires. This project was intended to achieve CD quality music while streaming audio over Bluetooth. A broad classification of the testing challenges would be in measuring the scientific quality parameters of the audio, loss of quality in comparision to wired headphones and testing the user friendliness of the whole product apart from testing the product for battery life and other MMI based testing.
Isn't that giving a fantastic view to the person looking at your CV of what project it is and what you could have done in it ?
Client/Customer Name - Everyone of us are happy to mention that we worked for Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Adobe, Cisco ... not directly but they being the client/customer of the product you were working for.
Ethically, it isnt good. You think a company would hire you just because you worked for the above companies ? What you do not know is you are revealing your customer info to the person looking at your CV.
What if your CV reaches the competitor of your current place of work ?The person interviewing you would be happy and hire you if you say him "Sorry, I cant tell the customer info" , if he asks such a question.
Unwanted Info -What we all should learn is CV/Resume has no standard format and if you can form your resume. You would be amazed to hear that one guy prepared a CV in flash and song a sang ... for it. Can you believe there were companies in queue to hire him ? Want to know who is he ?
Right click and open to CHECK THIS OUT !
Common sense questions you should ask yourself -
When you cannot draft a good CV without spelling mistakes, formatting mistakes, meaningful sentences... Why should I hire you ?
1. You proved you dont have good documentation skills.
2. You proved you will be unable to report a bug you find with non meaningful sentences writing being your flair.Complicated english words, Will the customer understand ? ( All customers are not smart )
3. Client/Customer name... so will you let know my customer details when you look for a job outside my company if I hire you ?Overall, all your claims look false if your CV negates your claims of being a good tester.
4. Does anyone mention Microsoft Excel as a tool they know ? Trust me if a tester knows the full features of MS Excel he can create more wonders. Some secrets better reamin closed unless it reaches people like me who dare to share.
5. False info - We Indians like mentioning lots of tools in our resume to get job. We are least bothered to check with ourselves whether we really know those tools in depth to take up an interview.
6. Did you know that the time required to hire someone will come down by 50% if good , true CV's are prepared by you all ?

"The art of writing good CV should come from the heart"

Tester tested in interview(s) !

Hi Reader,

"I appreciate you for the respect you show to other's time" was one of the compliments from an acquaintance I received and keeping this in mind I am sharing some of my interesting interview experiences as a tester !

I was lucky to have attended 60+ interviews in this short span of 3 years in this industry... you would be amazed if I give you the list of companies that has interviewed me !

Here are a few interesting experiences -

Microsoft

"Pradeep , How would you test a pencil" Mr Satyan from Microsoft asked me on a face to face session..
"Could you give me a couple of minutes to think ?" my usual way to take time to answer any question ( tricky or simple )

After 5 minutes or so I shooted out some interesting test cases...

"Hmm ! all these are fine but could you tell me one case where only you could have thought but not other testers"Satyan ( an attempt to test the tester ) !
That was tough but I told the most foolish answer yet it made huge sense in context of testing[marketing].

"Sir , I would eat a few pencils" of course I did reply.
Satyan " what ? and why ?"

I cooked up "Sir, Pencils are targetted to children and they have the habit of chewing the back , by myself eating a few pencils would later ensure , it is not toxic and if it happens to have a good aroma and taste well then no wonder the pencil sales would increase as children would more often have it as a breakfast item or apetizer before their lunch session"

"Impressive" ( I expected it and with no hesitation , thankfully that was the reply)
I have actually been reading and inculcating a lot of marketing and sales technique which helped me to give such an answer.

While the interview was on a fire alarm started making sounds as if it was programmed to... and I watched above and nearby to see whether it was really a fire alarm " No , its false , dont worry" Satyan removed my anxiety to leave the place by telling so.

"Sir , looks like it hasnt been tested properly?" my brain send this information to my mouth and mouth responded to it.
"Pradeep, it can be a case where they are testing it" Satyan countered.
"Sir , Then we both are the giuena pigs :-D"...

Satyan laughed for a few minutes before he gave his verdict "You are good at testing , I would like to have you in , it may take time , do you mind waiting"
"Please take your own time Sir" actually this is not what my brain told me but the bloody mouth is unwise sometimes.

Hmmm ! am still waiting for the Redmond call , I hate taking up interviews and telephonic calls at odd times cos I am bored at it.

___ end of microsoft interview experience ___

The list of companies that have interviewed me are Cisco , McAfee , Aztec , Emuzed , SCT , Huawei , Celstream , Impulsesoft , Cisc , Sling media , nVidia , Qualcomm , Mindtree , WebtekLabs , Wipro , Infosys , efi , Socrates , L&T Infotech , Motorola , Zazu , Harita Infoserve , Mistral , Sasken ... ( wait i am searching my gmail for the companies that have interviewed me ) ... Tavant , Cassina ... hmm more ...more .... ( each company averaging 2-3 rounds )

To be frank and surprize you ... in all the above and beyond companies .... i wasnt disqualified in tech interviews ..... that is something i hate about HR ...

I would tell i learnt most of the theory of testing in the interviews and i would recommend young testers to attend interviews for the sake of improvement , it shows what are your voids and gives an opportunity to fill those voids.

I have never hesitated to ask what are the answers for the ones which i did not know and also have made a good homework too...

Edison says "A genius is a person who has done his/her homework well"... i hear this daily cos he talks to me ! ( just an illusion , could not be fasle too )

Best Wishes

Pradeep Soundararajan
pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

Note : If there happens to be a typo or spelling mistake you notice , ignore ...i too have seen it :-D