What is our competition on?

There is a trend that is picking up in the software testing industry. To be more precise, I am talking about a trend of competitions, prizes and rewards. This is good. I love the idea of being able to compete globally and with testers whom I may not have known otherwise.

When someone wins a testing challenge and the report is published to those who participated, it influences others to ape some of the good practices and end up creating their own styles out of it. The flip side, what the winner does becomes best practice for wannabe winners of the next competition. For instance, having been practicing video recording as a part of my bug reporting style, I posted videos of bugs in Utest bug battle last year. When I coach testers, I also help them understand what kind of bugs need video recording and help them practice it. Santhosh Tuppad who is a regular bug battle winner in Utest told me that many testers have started to upload videos instead of screenshots and he published an experience report where he mentioned that point.

At this point of my post, I'd like to appreciate all companies putting up competitions that is helping to bring out new, fresh and different kind of talent to the public view. I like to support you in as many ways I can. I have been a participant, creator, winner and loser of such competitions. Its all fine.


However, I am starting to have some concerns about the competitions that are coming up which demands voting by public to decide who wins. Now, I need to clarify something. I am not talking against those companies who are doing it. As a matter of fact, I am not talking against "anything". The company wants a way to get more people to know about them and such voting based competitions help in doing that. If I start an organization, I'd like to do things that helps in getting a lot more people to know about the services my organization offers. 

The problem with the voting to decide a winner, could be hurting, to those who have put in lot of efforts but couldn't gather enough votes. For instance, Eurostar conferences organized a Videostar competition. By looking at the marketing flyer of the competition which said something like, "Put on your Holywood director hat" and about creativity, I assumed the video with the Holywood movie type creativity will probably get me to be the Videostar and did the Joker act. Anne Marie did a video that I personally liked. Nothing less of all that was from Rob Lambert who had a different way of putting things that he wanted to talk. Maybe all that was driven by seeing how creative were Eurostar folks who put up this video. Finally, the video that won, by that I mean, the one that got the most number of votes, was not so exciting as others in the list. We are independent consultants who don't have a mailer list to whom we can send and help generate a lot of votes for ourselves. Being an employee of a large company and gathering votes is much easier, especially if the Head of Testing is the one asking for votes. I guess that's what happened. Now, I am not questioning about anyone's ability but I am talking about the system.

I could have still won. I could have got a 99% lead over all others if I wished to. The Videostar page recorded a vote from a browser-computer and registers it or probably sets a cookie as well so that I cant vote twice. However, I could clear the cookies, refresh the page and vote for me again. How long would it take to automate this and leave it running overnight to wake up in the morning to declare myself as a winner?

I didn't win the Videostar. That is a testimonial that I didn't try winning with the "hacked way" I discovered. Oh, if you think there would have been an assessment of votes coming in from the same IP, I could have gone a step ahead and used the cloud to make it up or use tools that helps me mask my IP and hence not reveal where the votes came in from.

In that case, should winning be decided by a panel of judges who may not understand my skills? For instance if I take up the ISTQB Foundation Level exam, I will fail. I did fail in a mock test that I took online. Does that mean, I don't know how to test or I don't know the foundation of software testing? 

A competition has a set of rules. I am just asking if the rules can be made in such a way that the skill factor plays a vital role in winning and not the votes or my ability to memorize answers and vomit it out on an exam.

Let me repeat this: I am fine with companies organizing competitions to increase their visibility but I want to know if there can be a better way to do it than the voting system. I am dreaming of testing competitions where the winner is judged based on the skill demonstrated. A report is published by the panel as to why the winning entry amongst others were eligible for the top prize. Every step we put must help us move forward. Movement is important but there is a vector in it. What direction are we moving in and by what magnitude?

Bug battles are one kind of a competition that I like. There are more kinds of skills that companies can try to focus on. When I organized a testing challenge for Test Republic, I did a Bug Advocacy Challenge. I think there needs to Bug Investigation Challenges, Rapid Test Planning Challenges, Test of agility challenges, Test Management Challenges, Interviewing Tester Challenges, Collaborating with Developers Challenge, Understanding Requirements Challenge that can help in bringing out winners with skills of different kinds. 

So, there was a competition announced from Eurostar on blogging. I was about to pounce on it because I wanted to go to Eurostar and I have been one of the earliest Eurostar blogger. I skimmed through to see if there was anything related to voting and there it was. I decided to not enter the competition. 

I would be highly stupid if I was trying to write this post to create a negative impression of Eurostar or any other organization. That is not my intention. I'd like to say that Eurostar is a great conference I want to go but not because I got a lot of votes than someone else. I want to go if my skills get me there. I understand why Eurostar or companies that are running a voting based competition might be doing these competitions but I'd like them to think if there can be a better way to do things. I have respect for organizations like Utest and Eurostar because they are trying to do some work that is helping people change things the way they do. That is the reason I want them to be able to cause a much higher and better influence on the community, to take it forward. 

A tip to the winner

If you, a tester, happen to win any testing competition, here is something that I hope you think about from what I say to myself from my experience of winning several testing competitions; I won because the mightiest chose not to compete. This thought helps you a lot when you work with people. They shall embrace you not see you as a person they should stand away or just merely stare at.

Competitions could remain but what is our competition on? 

• Choice A.  Number of votes
• Choice B. the breadth and depth of skills? 

To add a little humor to this serious post; what is your vote for? A or B?

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!

Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar : Free Download Limited Period

About a couple of years back, I had an opportunity to read "How I learn stuff" from James Bach and was excited about it. I had a concern about it that it was not complete and kept asking James for his plan on it.

Little did I know then that it would turn out to be a great book for the community and not one that was accessible to those who work with James. When I learnt from James that Simon & Schuster have agreed to publish it, I was excited about it and my urge to read the complete stuff skyrocketed. I must say that I had reviewed its initial draft and reading the book today is a fascinating experience.

I also thought I had enough money to gift it to all those people whom I care about. I certainly do care about those who read my blog and here is a gift that Simon & Shuster, James Bach has provided - It's free download till July 24th. The hard copy is going to be released on my birthday. ( Just a coincidence )


Why is this book one of the most important one's for software testers?


Learning

I recognize that learning and unlearning are skills that are absolutely important for any profession anyone is in. Today, I see a lot of testers struggling to learn the latest version of a tool when it is released, although they are aware of its earlier version. Learning requires mental modeling. If you have a model of learning then no tool or none of its version can intimidate you. Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar can be of help to you.


Scouting

We witness so many tools everyday that we didn't know earlier. When we discover a tool that could have solved our problems in our last project, we are worried about what tools we are missing to solve today's problem. If you learn how to scout, you wouldn't find it tough to find the tool you want for today's need. We are in the Google age and we don't get to know the right link although we search for it because Google is not kind to everyone. It is kind only to those who know how to scout. Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar can be of help to you.


Competitiveness

All of us want to be the most competitive in our field but honestly, how many of us are putting in the work that requires to do so or how many of us know what to do to be able to get competitive. Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar can be of help to you.


Writing

I see that some testing bloggers mostly ape the way other successful bloggers write their posts. Doing that for sometime they are lost of what their original ways are and get into the rut of aping. While aping could be a way to start, it ain't the way to proceed. Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar can be of help to you.


Fear of unknown

When you ask someone why aren't they self employed, most often you would find that they fear the unknown. The unknown is always bad according to most of us. I meet credible testers in India and ask them, "Why do you think you can't be an independent consultant?" and they say, "Currently my job is secure". Recession times guys - there ain't anything called "secured job". Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar can be of help to you.


Value of reading

Most testers don't read books. What a great advantage they offer to people like me. Good for me but so bad for them. I am concerned about them. I wish they read just this book ( which is for free till July 24th ). I wish they read because I think after reading this, it might be influential enough to them to be able not offer me the advantage that I had.

To all those testers who don't have the practice of reading books: In case you come across this post or the book and you choose not to read the book, no one can stop you from remaining in your most stable state - ignorance.

Why good software testers should come out of the well?

One problem that I constantly spot whenever I meet a good tester in India - they don't blog and publicly write or speak. That''s why some people continue to think about me as a good tester.

The recognition that an organization gives could be fine as long as you stay in the organization or as long as the organization is doing fine. That's why many people stick on to an organization for quite sometime because they start hating fresh water. They accept to be in a well. With growing infrastructure needs and changing economy, some wells have to be wiped out and all frogs in it have to hop to a different destination.

I was once surrounded by bad frogs who made me feel that I was a great tester. I would never want to be there again because that hampers my learning although it pleases my ego as long as I am with them. A couple of months back I interviewed a tester who had been awarded as the best among 1100 testers of his organization. He was pathetic and I think the right one in the organization didn't get the award.

A tester from Mumbai who claimed to be superior to me in knowledge and skills wrote to me and said, "You are misguiding the community by giving wrong ideas" and my reply to him is this, "Well, if you are so concerned about the community then you should write a blog and say to the world that Pradeep Soundararajan is giving wrong ideas and the reasons of why his ideas are wrong" for which he never got back to me with his blog link.

There are several testers whom I helped to start a blog and only some of them are doing fine with it. Some people started a blog and sent me a link with a note that - you inspired me. If I revisit their blogs, most of them ended up not continuing it because they realized its hard to keep blogging. The other dimension is - it is easy to blog if you are just doing a cut copy paste plagiarize, not owe credits to original authors and expose yourselves as a fool.

2 months back, I interviewed Harish, who had lost his job from a reputed organization which decided to shut down its operations in Bangalore as they faced the worst part of recession at their US office.

Harish is the kind of tester whom I'd want to work with for the way he challenged my arguments, sharp eyes that observes little things going around the screen and has good reporting skills, good communication skills, but then, my client had to postpone their recruitment plans. I couldn't get an opportunity to work with him. If you are looking for one, I'd suggest you talk to Harish.

I wish I could have linked to his blog to get you curious about him and that's what is missing. I asked him:

PS: You don't blog?
Harish: Why should I?
PS: For the world to know about a good tester.
Harish: Why should the world know about me?
PS: Consider asking yourselves as to why shouldn't the world know about you?
Harish: Let me think about it.

After a month, Harish calls up, "Hey Pradeep, I haven't found a job yet. I realize this wouldn't have happened if the world knew about my testing skills. The interviews test something different than my skills"

So here is a post on my blog for all those Harish of the world to wake up and start blogging. A blog of your own serves a core purpose that surrounds all of us - to learn - things, ways, people, testing, ideas, challenges, and more...

Myths that surround wannabe-tester-bloggers

If I should blog, I should have good writing skills: Ha! You should read Pradeep's first post and then you would realize that he was more pathetic in writing than what he is today (or what you might have been a couple of years back). However, as you peruse through the blog you would realize that I have improved a thousand leaps. It comes from practice and a blog helps you to practice writing. Two things never happen to people with this myth - better writing skills and blog.


If I should blog, I should be an expert: I must admit that I thought of myself as the world's best tester till I met James and then more people like you. My blog has helped me meet thousands of people who helped me understand that I am not the world's best tester. That's important to learn because it gives me learning opportunity to try to get as close to what I think I was. You don't need to be an expert to blog but people commenting on your posts can help you to be an expert of the field. They might surprise you with a question that you think over for the next 2 years to find answers for it and in search of an answer to that question you discover a whole new world of testing.

If I should blog, I should have thousands of readers and comments: I am my first blog reader. I primarily write to practice writing and thinking. I have been writing this post over 2 days and I test my writing. It helps me writing some good documents at work that influences decisions. If my writing can be of help to others then I am glad. I do not write to get thousands of readers or commentors. No matter the world stops reading my blog, I would continue to write for one regular and serious reader - that's me.

If I should blog, I should write in a way that fetches appreciation: Saurav Ganguly, a cricket player from India was axed out of the team for poor performance a couple of years ago. The internet in India was full of jokes about his poor performance but then he made a great comeback to the worldcup squad. He was interviewed in NDTV for his comeback and a journalist asked him, "How did you make this great comeback when most parts of India, including Kolkata, your hometown was against your performance?" to which he replied, "I didn't spend time bothering things that are not under my control ( people making fun and jokes about his performance) and focussed on spending more time for things that are under my control ( practice, improving performance, consistent results in league matches) and I think that's what helped me". I took this as a great lesson to myself and focussed on doing things under my control and not bothering things that are not under my control.


If I should blog, I should have more time than what I have: Actually, we spend time on lot of useless things everyday. If you cut that out of one day in a week that provides you time to blog. I usually laugh at people who say they have no time to blog. I woke up a little early today to complete this post. I think I wouldn't die if I get up early. As James Bach said on Twitter: "I don't teach my son the value of discipline and hard work, because that *can't* be taught-- only learned."

If I should blog, I should be a good tester: A real good tester would want to get tested to see if he is really good and would be glad to know he is not good since that helps in improving him. A blog is probably one of the ways in which you get to know about the holes in your education as a tester. Once you know that, start plugging them. You could aim to be a good tester and start blogging than wait for you to become a good tester and then start blogging.

There are number of other ways you can demonstrate to the world about your testing skills and I think you should do that. Ah! No, not by saying you are proud to be ISTQB certified, that would drive away people.

PhilK recently interviewed many tester bloggers and I was one of them. Read my interview here and do not forget to read other interviews as well.

If you are good, the world should know about you. If you are hesitant to let the world know about you - you aren't good enough, maybe. Good tester doesn't mean you offer advice to the world, it means you present your work and be open to learning from others if they happen to argue. You may be a good tester and choose not to write a blog, I still respect that but I think you can get better by writing one.

So, time for you to get back to your work, ignoring all things in this post and continue to say, "If I should blog,". If you are already doing it get more people to be like you or do more with that.

Update: There is a test challenge at Test Republic that might be of your interest

Attractive professions and software testing

When I was a child I never dreamed to be a software tester and always wanted to be a fighter pilot, a naval commander, a cricket player, an astronaut, a doctor, aeronautical engineer, an actor, an army commando, a scientist.

Why didn't I think of being a software tester? Ah! Maybe because there wasn't anything I heard about software in 1980's but what about children today? They still say, "I want to be a pilot, a naval commander, a ramp model, a cricket player, a tennis player, an actor, a Formula1 driver, a Software Programmer, a Scientist"

I was investigating the history of how certain professions and sport are more popular and aspiring to many young people and discovered a few things about it.


Visibility: The idea of what a human does in a specific profession must be visible or made visible to a larger group of people who might not be in that field. For instance, my brother decided he'd want to be in army after he watched a movie "Border" and wanted to fight for the nation. In 1990, I watched "E.T." ( no, not Exploratory Testing but Extra Terrestrial ) and wanted to be an astronaut to be able to talk to aliens. A friend of mine watched Jurrasic Park and wanted to be a software programmer and a hacker. In parallel, I watched Kapil Dev's cricketing skills and wanted to be like him. Today my favorite sport is Table Tennis. Table Tennis has undergone a huge change in last few years to make the game more visible to the general public. Can you believe the ball size has been increased?

If you look at the Bolywood, you would see that one person inspired another to get into acting, music or direction. It was finally a movie ( Edison - The Man ) that changed my whole life downside up where I witnessed Thomas Edison's invention, hardship, work, experiments, challenges. I wanted to be an inventor and so am I, today, an inventor of tests.

Money & Richness: As a child, I didn't know the money behind each of these profession that I wanted to be in. When I discovered that cricketers are some of the richest people in India, I did dream a little bit about it and then the dream changed to movies, and then to something else that interested me at that time - complex electronic circuits. So, I did my Bachelors in Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering to help myself earn money being an Electronics Engineer. I am so close to electronics always, you see. When I am typing this, I realize a thin slice of key board separates me from a complex circuit. Being an independent consultant in software testing in India, I must admit I make more money than 98% of testers of my age or years of experience. Forget money, I feel, I am rich with testing knowledge and skills. I admit I am greedy to be more rich this way.

Parents: are a huge influencing factor. My father always talked about science to me. I used to ask him questions about science and engineering and he kept encouraging me in many ways by getting books on science or taking me to a science fiction movie. My mother was interested in Biology but I wasn't. I think my parents helped in fostering my curiosity. For a birthday gift at my age of 11, I got an Electronics - Make it Yourself kit from my parents that I assume as another key factor. So, testing suits me since it demands curiosity. In many countries, I do see the influence of parents on their children. The Bach Brothers ( James & Jon ) despite being software testers are also writers, like their father Richard Bach.

Community Respect & Relatives: plays an influential role for some people. I have heard during my relatives marriage and other social meeting about people boasting that their son or daugther got a job in IBM as a software programmer or a job with Microsoft at Redmond. So, hearing such words inspire other people to think of it so that they could boast about a similar thing later. They go back home and ask their children to aim for being a software programmer in IBM or Microsoft. Today my parents communicate proudly to their friends, "My son is a tester who is quite reputed for his work around the world." ( Ah! They do know about some of you who hate me and would not agree to that statement. )

Friends: often influence each other by introducing them to new professions that one might not have heard about. I still remember, a friend of mine who influenced me to be more serious about Electronics by showing a pocket radio that he had assembled. I wanted to do something like that and maybe even more. I quenched the thirst during my 3rd year at college by making the first telephone controlled gas stove knob with a circuit a size of Nokia Pocket communicator.

Mentors: During my first year at work, I worked with a tester who was trying to get on to the development team of the same project as he didnt like running test cases. I was influenced by him to learn programming and try my hands on programming. Although the organization who had hired me as a tester didn't want to take me as a programmer because they felt I was being useful to them as a tester, it helped me learn some bit of useful programming. I tried learning programming with the help of a System Architect and a Senior Programmer of the team, they helped me learn how equally challenging was testing activity by testing every program I wrote.

Professional Gurus: Oh! You know this. James Bach and Michael Bolton are my gurus. I have witnessed their testing online and have been constantly tested by them. They helped me clear the darkness I used to see in software testing and become a constant learner and practitioner.

Challenges & Fun: are something that everyone look forward to in any profession they want to be in. What most of the testers and people kept hearing about testing so far is - There is a process, we simply follow it. There is a test case, we simply follow it. There are those two things, we simply follow it. There is a tool we record and play everyday. There ain't any fun there ain't any challenge in following and merely recording and playing.

Exploratory Testing and Rapid Testing is gaining huge ground in places like India, ( ask me how many people are booked for my upcoming Exploratory Testing workshop and from where all they are coming and who are they ) software testing is becoming more fun, more challenging, and testers are constantly exploring lots of new things and discovering and inventing and more...


My analysis of Why Software Testing hasn't been that much of an attractive field so far?

• It lacked (past tense) visibility
• It lacked information about testers making money
  
• It lacked community respect
• It lacked parents awareness of the profession
  
• It lacked friends awareness of the profession
• It lacked good mentors
• It lacked enough professional gurus
• It lacked enough freedom being given to testers and hence wasnt challenging
  

My strong conviction of why the situation would drastically change:

Videos like this one which aids more visibility into our profession



and like this one which aids the curiosity of existing testers



and like this one that demonstrates the financial gain



and like this one that demonstrates the fun in being a /thinking/ tester as opposed to being a certified tester



And like this one that demonstrates the challenges

And like this one that demonstrates the exploration of new ideas to find bugs



While you are reading this, a child somewhere in the world might have opened Youtube and searched for E.T and hit this video and might be dreaming of becoming a software tester. I bet this is happening. I realize we haven't seen a father son tester combination but we have heard of Bach brothers.

Today is the foundation for tomorrow. What are we doing today?

Progress Report 2008 :: Pradeep Soundararajan

Click on the image below to download the full verison.



Alternatively, you may right click on this link and save the file to your desktop.

Graphology, Music, Chess, Cooking, Drawing and becoming a better tester

I am observing that every passionate learning tester have tried doing things that are not testing and try to bring in some learnings to testing from doing them, to test better. For instance, Michael Bolton has tried cooking and theater and has benefited by it in testing, you could read his interview in which he mentions that. Michael Hunter (a.k.a The Braidy Tester) has recently blogged about Drawing and how it has been helping him to test and think about testing. Jonathon Kohl's Exploratory Testing-Music of Investigation is no exception. Bach brothers ( James Bach and Jon Bach) are active in Chess.com and you could read how playing Chess helps to test better by reading Jon Bach's post.

CAST 08 has its theme "Beyond the Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Software Testing". Interdisciplinary approaches drawn from diversified branches of learning or practice, such that insights can be drawn upon and synthesized to influence a particular craft.

Anuj Magazine, an experienced tester from India has been working for quite sometime on Graphology and Software Testing.

I wanted aid his research and agreed to share my handwriting because his research is to identify the traits in successful testers. You can read the analysis of my handwriting by clicking on this link. I hope you'd enjoy reading the analysis and might be of help to Anuj if he approaches you.

I am sure there a lot of untold stories of what else other than testing has helped them to test better. I hope a lot of other testers come out with those stories that might benefit the community.

--
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." --

Test Case Passed! Who cares?

This will take away at least 8 minutes and 24 seconds of your time, so please be careful if you'd like to spend your time on a thing that potentially has a risk of not yielding any good thing for you as a tester. Maybe you might want to continue executing test cases instead of going through this. Click on the image to waste 8 minutes and 24 seconds. You are lucky if you don't have a MS Powerpoint or Open Office suite or anything of that sort because without that you can't waste 8 minute and 24 seconds that I am repeatedly mentioning.





-- 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

How does Testing look from the eyes of Tester Tested?

Michael Bolton, gave me a writing exercise a month back ( to rewrite an article that I wrote without changing the meaning but changing the examples ) when I showed him a piece of my work that was published by Mahantesh Ashok Pattan, a fundoo test professional from Microsoft. Mahantesh currently heads a testing excellence team in Microsoft's Hyderabad campus. Mahantesh honored me when he asked if I could write an article for his upcoming software testing website. So here goes my exercise result ...

How does Testing look from the eyes of Tester Tested? Version 2.0

Testing - from my eyes looks different, each day. Everyday, I ensure that I learn something new, observe something more carefully, listen to something more carefully, think deep on a topic that I choose to think, ask questions, read what others write about testing, teach testing to someone, learn a skill from someone, test, self critique my own testing, use Wikipedia/Google, practice the skills that I have developed yesterday, day before yesterday and what you might call as “past” and think about the future.

That doesn’t mean I am a workaholic! How can that be?

3 years back, I went to meet a friend in Jayanagar 4th block, Bangalore. While we we were having a walk the talk session, I noticed 2 child rag pickers running towards a food packet that was lying in a dust bin. A dog was running from the opposite direction, trying to grab the food packet before the 2 rag pickers could get it. The dog lost battle and the 2 rag pickers put their hands into the food packet. I was shocked witnessing this scene (without knowing that a bigger shock was waiting for me)

Today I can say, "The two rag pickers taught me a wonderful lesson that I can apply to testing, to better my testing"

Here is what happened: While the two rag pickers put their hands on the food packet, I shouted, "Drop that, I shall get you good food in a hotel" and their body language suggested to me that they would come with me to the hotel.

I started walking towards a hotel nearby to get them good hot food. Minutes before we reached the hotel, I turned back to see if the 2 guys are following and I noticed that one guy still held the food that he could hold picked from the food packet while the dog had a thankful look at me as the guys had dropped the food packet.

I turned to him and said, "Hey, I told I would get you good food but why aren't you throwing that junk food?"

He replied, "Well, what if the hotel is closed? what if you change your mind? what if you played a prank on us? I still have something to eat as compared to the other guy who doesn't have anything."

Poverty might have made him say that but I was shocked by his thinking capabilities. I am sure he has not had any formal education and everything that he learned is through his experiences in life and is also having the same challenge that we face, "survival of the fittest".

When this incident happened, I must admit that I didn't think of a testing lesson that I could learn from it but an year later when I sat relaxed in my chair after a good heavy meal and I thought about the rag picker incident, something that is related to testing struck me.

We testers lose control of things many times that might have been of great help to do a better testing. For instance, I have worked with testers who waited for the requirement documents to arrive although the product ( in some shape ) was in hand.

The boy who had a little food in his hand still had control of the situation and thought of possible situations in which he might have lost everything ( the food packet and the good hot food that I promised ) had he not done that act. Taking control of the situations ( no matter how hard it is ) is a skill that testers need to conciously practice.

An oracle ( not the database ) is a principle or mechanism in which we identify problems. If you learn and start using oracles consciously, I guess you might be in a position to take control of a situation which demands you to test without specifications or with less or poorly documented specifications.

Case 1: I hand over you my mobile phone and ask you to send an SMS and you see the application crashing for that operation; would you call it a bug/issue? (Although you don’t know what the requirement document for the mobile phone that I possess say)

Case 2: I hand over my mobile phone to you and ask you to open each application and exit it. In all applications you use the Right Soft Key to exit whereas one application demands you to exit using the Left Soft Key. Would you have something to say or ask?

In Case 1 and 2, we are using “oracles” of consistency and heuristics (fallible method of solving a problem) to find or discuss about an issue. Doesn’t that mean having diversified set of oracles, heuristics, and test design techniques can fetch great value for the testing you do?

We have a control over the software, platforms, our thoughts, ideas, questions we can ask, skills that we can put to practice or use when such a demanding situation arises, knowledge that we can bring in, use different heuristics and oracles and try reaching closer to the solution than to stay far away by saying, “Where is the spec, I can’t test without it”. You might want to make a note or mention a risk that a specific document that wasn’t available to you could have helped you go more close to what others might call as “great testing”.

Thats how I learned an important lesson from a rag picker!

Now, you could observe that I was actually supposed to have fun while being with my friend and not think about testing. I did have fun and at the same time I was conscious to see if I have missed an important learning that helped me better my testing. I usually don’t miss the fun nor the learning and hence I hardly get tired.

Here is another story, which I shall connect to the above one, in an interesting way.

A tester reporting to me introduced me to her husband by saying, “This is Pradeep, a passionate tester.” I love to be introduced that way since I am aware that I am one such.

Her husband immediately shot a question: “My friends who are into testing say that bringing testing to their life has caused some serious damages to their relationships, how has it been with you?”

Read my reply to that question, as careful as possible: “Thanks for asking me this question. I am probably one of the most passionate testers and I am sure that those who really know, what testing is, wouldn’t mess up his/her life with it. It appears to me that your friends who claim to know testing, don’t know that because had they known, they wouldn’t have got it into their personal lives”

I have enjoyed some great relationships with people. If you claim to be a good tester, it means testing has taught you not to get testing into relationships although testing happens between relationships and lives in a sub conscious level.

“Testing is questioning a product in order to evaluate it” – James Bach

Now the time for connecting two stories: The first story says, “There is always a thread about testing that I run in my mind while or after having fun or watching TV or chatting with friends” and the second story says, “If you really know what testing means, you wouldn’t bring it into your personal life”.

Connecting both of them I want to mean, I try to look for opportunities to learn from things that are happening around that I can apply for my testing activity for which I am paid and *not* to use testing as an approach to build/spoil relationships or systems that others are wanting to use after my usage. For instance, after withdrawing cash from an ATM, I do not intend to perform some quick tests, because it might stop the system and someone in emergency might have to go looking for another ATM.

You have been seeing testing from my eyes, time for you to see it from your own eyes, and I hope you see it in a better way than mine, teach me something and help me to see something different from your eyes. E-mail me at pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

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If you have liked this article, you might want to read a different version of the same and here is the link. If you haven't liked this article, maybe you want to read it again :)

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