Using "testing" || Abusing "testing"

As you have started to read this post, before you continue further, I'd like you to listen to a podcast - The Word Test . If you are skipping the podcast, it's OK but it might be a good idea to not skip.

Also, don't read this post while you are mid way listening to the podcast, it's more bad than not listening to it.

One of my student who works for a leading IT services provider from India, asked a question to testers in the organization he works for - "Is it good to stop testing after a couple of years of experience or after promoted to a lead or a manager?" [ My intention of this post is not to answer this question that my student asked but ... ]

There were responses like:

One need not do hands-on testing all through his/her career. When you test all by yourself, you are adding a value of say 'X' to your project. When you manage say 5 Testers, you are letting your skills, knowledge and experience on Testing percolate to 5 other members and you would be adding a value of 5 times X to your project.

and

Whatever you have said is ok for a resource working in a team which uses tools for testing. For someone who is into manual testing where is the career growth? For those wouldn't management be a blessing to be grabbed with both hands?

and

You cant be a tester for all your life. Same is the case with development. You need to manage things at one point in time. But when and where, you need to decide yourself......

and

more such.

All of these people ( including my student ) and maybe testers who are sitting nearby your cubicles while you read this mean "testing" as test execution. [ You wouldn't be surprised at this, had you listened to the podcast ]

Here is my question to those people: If testing means test execution, under what category does - test planning, test data collection, finding bugs, reporting bugs, triaging bugs, test set up, test bed creation, test documentation, thinking of test techniques, exploring, investigating bugs, reviewing test results, test reporting, modeling, diversifying test approaches, etc... fit in?

Well, when the word testing could mean so many things, why are most of us thinking only about test execution when someone uses the word "testing". This makes me question, how many people who claim to be testers really know little about testing that is enough to communicate with people without such ambiguity?

A lot of testers' only thinking is -- every thing in this field is defined pretty well and no need to think beyond it. A definition, in my opinion, should be viewed as a help for a human to think further on it and not in stopping to think beyond what it states.

In another context, if you ask them what "testing" means, they'd love to share their own impractical definitions like:

"Testing is a process of making a product bug free" OR "Testing is a systematic approach towards delivering a quality product" OR "Testing is about following quality processes to ensure bugs don't leak to customer"
and more such stupid stuff !

That's an evidence that the word "testing" itself is context sensitively used by the whole world out of which most of them might disagree with the context driven testing community about their approach. Funny world!

Ben Simo, in a recent conversation, helped me become conscious of the fact that the word "test" is both a noun and a verb; and that one feeds the other.


If one doesn't know what "testing" means, how will they ever know when they are stopping to do it?

If you think you have benefited by this post, here is a "test" you might want to take:

• What would you say, when you want to communicate that you are doing test execution?
• What would you say, when you want to communicate that you are stopping to execute tests?
• What word would you use instead of "testing" to communicate any specific activity that you do as a part of testing?
• When someone uses the word "testing", what would you want to ask them?
• When someone says "test", would you be curious to know if it is a verb or a noun?
• What would you want to know if someone said, "I want to do testing"?
  
• Would you be interested to pass this learning to someone with whom you have been communicating on "testing"?

If you think you haven't been benefited by this post, here are things you could do:

• Read it once again ;-)
• Listen to the podcast, if you have missed it ;-)
• And then exit. It's just not worth one more glance, for today.
  

As testers we use the word "testing" so many times in our life without ever (knowing) wanting to know if we abused it, too. I have done it, too. There is nothing wrong in abusing the word "testing" as long as you don't know that it means a lot by itself and in different contexts.

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

"The test doesn't find the bug. A human finds the bug, and the test plays a role in helping the human find it." --

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